Revolutionaries: the Original Sopranos

The original gangstas of New Jersey were not Italian. They were Dutch!  This is the story of my sixth great-grandfather, Elias Brevoort.  Elias was born in Manhattan to Hendrik Brevoort, whose Dutch ancestors had been here for generations.  Hendrik was actually a farmer if you can believe that.  There are not too many farmers in New York City today.

Elias selling his land in 1762 and taking off for the wilds of New Jersey... article from 1911

During most of the Revolutionary War, the tyrannical British had control of New York City, but the area around it was full of heroic Patriots like Elias.  Every now and then, when he wasn't busy with his official duties as Quarter Master for the New Jersey State Militia, Elias would round up some Army buddies jump people and rob them as they left the city to go places.  These Dutch fellas would drag their captives and all their stuff over to a certain judge in Hackensack, New Jersey.  The judge would always rule that the stuff was "Lawfull Plunder". I am sure that the judge did this without receiving kickbacks of any kind whatsoever, aren't you?

Abraham Van der Beck and his friend Elias jump a bunch of people wandering outside of New York City. They take six horses, an ox, a bunch of Honey Butter and mutton, and a slave. This is a closeup of testimony from Abraham's pension application.

 

Several people used Elias as a reference when applying for their pensions from the US government.  The whole "kidnapping people and taking their stuff" aspect of wartime behaviour didn't seem to count against them.  The QM in this photo stands for "Quarter Master".

Elias is a bit of a complicated person.  He seems to have performed his duties as Quarter Master well, and the stuff he did during the war seems to be a point of nostalgia with his fellow soldiers.  He became a bigwig judge and the chairman of the Bergen County Republicans. He had three little girls and seemed a very loving and devoted father, but he also kept a slave between the ages of 50 and 55 according to the 1830 census.  Maybe it's the same slave he took on that raid.  This is not what I would have expected from a guy from New Jersey, or from a Republican... but there we are.

His brother, Henry, never sold his land near Fifth Avenue and he became quite wealthy. His descendants hobnobbed with famous people and one of them, James Renwick Brevoort, studied with his cousin who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Smithsonian before deciding that meh, he didn't really feel like working.  He wandered about the globe and painted for the rest of his life.  Today there really aren't any Brevoort men, because the fellows tended to have daughters.  I descend from Elias's daughter, Catherine.