Benjamin-1 Depuy & Elisabeth Schoonmaker

Benjamin was born to Moses (38) Depuy and Maria Wyncoop (35) and baptized on October 13, 1695 [KR871] in Rochester, Ulster County, NY. He was the eighth of eleven children.

On September 3, 1719 in Rochester [KM411] Benjamin (23) married Elisabeth Schoonmaker (19), baptized February 18, 1700 [KR1158]. She was the daughter of Jochem H. Schoonmaker and Antje Hussey, the eleventh of sixteen children. The Schoonmaker's were an old, large and prominent family in the area.

They had five children:

They were born and married in Ulster County where their children, two of whom died young, were also born. Sometime later between 1729 and 1735 the family moved to the Minisink area where his brother Nicholas already lived on the Pennsylvania side. He would have been in his thirties.

Elisabeth died before December 13, 1735 at the age of 35 in Mt. Bethel, PA. Benjamin married his second wife, Eickee DeWitt, on December 13, 1735. He was 40, she was 41. [KM 822] She was not previously married and was the daughter of Jacob or Jan DeWitt and Sarah Kierstede. She was baptized June, 3, 1694. [KB 795]

They had only one child:

Three of his children married Van Campen's in the Minisink area. He was an elder in the Smithfield Dutch Reformed Church and likely a farmer in the area. [A]

His house was burned by Indians during the war, probably around 1755 when he would have been about 60. [17]

He was of mild disposition, strong mind and very pious. He was ingenious and celebrated for presaging sickness. [17]

Benjamin died in 1766 at age 70 in Mt. Bethel, PA.

His son, Benjamin, Jr. was a member of John Arndt's Company, which was engaged in the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776 and at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. He was also one of the 33 members of that company who rallied the next day at Elizabethtown. After this he served in the Revolutionary War as commissary. He is often confused with his nephew Benjamin-2, the son of Johannes. [30]

Bibliography

• Bib. 17: Schoonmaker, p. 19 & 37
• Bib. 25: NY B&G, Vol. 17, p. 256
• Bib. 25: NY B&G, Vol. 32, p. 80
• Bib. 26: Old Dutch Church of Kingston Records
• Bib. 30: G&M History of New Jersey, P. 56
• Bib. 76: E. Walters to J. Depue letter
• A: Letter from J. Arthur Depuy in Sussex County Historical Society File, Newton, NJ