Jochem Tryon (bef. 1727 - aft. 1790)

Born before 1727 in Glastonbury, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Died after 1790 after age 63 in Greene, New York, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Michael Tryon [send private message], Michael Maranda [send private message], and Bill Smolak [send private message]

Biography

Jochem Tryon is found in early records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Greene County, New York, from about 1765. He married Catherina Van Slyck and they had two children, Elizabeth and William.

Jochem served in Colonel Anthony van Bergen's Regiment (1775-1777) of the New York Colonial Militia [1] ^[1]. A Lt. Jacob Tryon is mentioned in the Rev War pension record of Schram, Frederick, of Catskill (3 miles south of Coxsackie), and is likely this Jochem. He also appears in the tax assessment rolls of 1789 in Coxsackie, assessed 11 parts (2-1/2 d. per pound in value) ^[2] and also in 1787 along with Peter and Benjamin Tryon [2]. He is seen in the 1790 census but not 1800 so assumed to have died that decade.

Research Notes

NOTE on spelling of his names: In records we find his name as Jochem, Jockem, Jockern, Joachem, Tryon, and Tryen. Most commonly he is Jochem Tryon with Jochem being the Dutch spelling of the biblical name commonly spelled Joachim in English. Most of our early records of this family are from Dutch Reformed Church Records with Dutch names being commonly used.

His birth year is poorly constrained. The first record of him is a baptism record of his daughter in 1765 and he also has a son in 1775. This suggests he was born no later than early 1740s. His wife, Anna Catharina Van Slyke, was baptized Jun 1744, daughter of William and Catharina Van Slyke. Based on genetic evidence explained below, he was probably born before 1727.

There is no record linking him definitively to parents and siblings however the circumstantial evidence is very strong. There is clearly only one Tryon family in Coxsackie and in the earliest records we find Benjamin Tryon and Jochem Tryon as parents and witnesses in the baptism records of the church in Coxsackie ^[3]. Benjamin and Jochem are assumed to be brothers and the first reasonably defined generation.

In the Beers reference biography of Benjamin Tryon there is no mention of Jochem ^[4] although he is included in the tax lists and military service sections. That biography only notes an original Benjamin (born abt. 1675 in England), his sons Peter (who died early) and Benjamin, however it goes on to say that Benjamin had sons Stephen, Benjamin, and Peter, clearly the Benjamin born in 1755 and therefore skipping over the generation of Jochem and Benjamin. It is far more reasonable to put Jochem and Benjamin as the original Tryon settlers in Coxsachie.

Other than Jochem and Benjamin, and their wives, we find no other adult Tryons in the records until 1781 when their children start appearing as parents and witnesses in baptism records and in military and tax lists.

We have original documentation of Jochem, his brother Benjamin, and their descendants but nothing before 1760 and nothing suggesting ancestry, with the exception of the family story in Beers. With the exception of this family, all Tryons in American at this time are descendants of William Tryon of Wethersfield (1646-1711). The question then is: Is this family a separate immigration event from that of William of Wethersfield, as suggested in the family story, or are they descendants of William of Wethersfield? We have not been able to track all of William's grandchildren so the latter is certainly possible. Note that there are no records of a Benjamin Tryon or any variation of that name in England in 1600-1750. Benjamin is not a family name of either the Gloucestershire Tryons or the Bulwick Tryons but there are four of them among the descendants of William of Wethersfield in America by 1750.

To answer this question we turned to Y-DNA genetic analysis. The most sophisticated Y-DNA test widely available, Big Y-700, was recently done (2023) on 13 Tryon men with a wide range of ancestries leading back to the original Tryons in America, including a well documented descendant of Benjamin. He is a match to a well documented descendant of William's son Thomas. They share SNP FTE65276 and form their own haplogroup. Thomas had five known children from 1714 to 1741 which brackets the birth year possibilities of this Benjamin. This strongly suggests Benjamin was a son of Thomas Tryon. Thomas was married to Rebecca Dix by 1713 and Abigail by 1728 so either could be the mother. Thomas died in 1748 and his children born after 1730 are named in probate documents as having been assigned guardians. Benjamin and Jochem must, therefore, have been born before 1730. Thomas also has documented sons born in Jan 1728 and Aug 1729 so they must have been born by 1726 if they are his sons.

There is the possibility that Jochem and Benjamin could be grandsons of Thomas. That would require an earlier marriage for Thomas (certainly possible, he was 35 when he married Rebecca), with an unknown son born say 1710 having a son, this Benjamin, born by 1735, and Jochem by 1740. Maybe the sailor Benjamin who jumped ship on Long Island was actually a son of Thomas born about 1710. It should be noted that Thomas's youngest son Eliud lived on Long Island in the 1760s and Goshen, NY in the 1770s. I doubt, at this point, that documentation will surface that tells us which of these scenarios, or some other, is correct, but we can be certain that Jochem was either a son or grandson of Thomas Tryon.

Since the son of Thomas is the simpler hypothesis, we're going to link Jochem and Benjamin to Thomas as sons, for now. It's a work in progress.

Sources

1. ↑ Beers, Frederick L. (1884) History of Greene County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men., J. B. Beers & Co., New York, p. 238 (Ancestry.com)
2. ↑ Beers, Frederick L. (1884) History of Greene County, New York : with biographical sketches of its prominent men., J. B. Beers & Co., New York, p. 237 (Ancestry.com)
3. ↑ U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989 for Tryon, New York, Coxsackie, Coxsackie, Book 10, p. 35 onward
4. ↑ Beers, Frederick L. (1884) History of Greene County, New York, with Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men, J. B. Beers & Co., New York, page 460. (Ancestry.com)

• U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989, New York, Coxsackie, Coxsackie, Book 10, p. 45 and 79

• 1790 United States Federal Census for Jochum Tryon, New York, Albany, Coxsackie (ancestry.com) Note: Benjamin Tryon is a couple of names further down in this census