Part of my ongoing look into Revolutionary War veterans "from" Bethlehem brings me to William Winne. And of course it turns out there are more than one. First some info on the William Winne buried at the family plot on Creble Road where this historic marker stands. *
William Winne (1735-1812) was the sixth child of Pieter D. Winne and Rachel Van Alen.**
(I've mentioned Peter D. and Rachel in plenty of other blog posts. Just use the search function to find them all.)
Jane Van Alstyne (1749-1833) was the daughter of William Van Alstyne and Christina Van Allen.
I don't know exactly when William and Jane wed, but I do know they bucked the trend of Winne families having like a million children. They had none.*** The couple appear to have lived their lives in the family homestead that William inherited from his father. The locally famous, Dutch style house still stands across the street from the small family cemetery where William and Jane are interred. (Creble Road near 9W.)
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| Above on the left is the house on Creble before it was restored, on the right is an example house that used to stand in Albany. Below are floor plans of the Creble Road house. Both images from the Dutch Barn Preservation Society's Fall 1999 newsletter |
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| The Winne House on Creble Road in 2008. The stone ell was probably added during William and Jane's tenure. |
William and Jane each filed separate wills in which their properties and possessions were left to a variety of nieces and nephews. Since both William and Jane lived to advanced ages, these nieces and nephews were often "grand", that is the grandchildren of their siblings. William was concerned with his farms and orchards and made quite a few individual cash bequests. Jane distributed cash bequests, shares in the Albany and Bethlehem Turnpike Road and household items like a bed and a looking glass. Reading the wills, it appears that William and Jane were comfortably well off. Not super rich, but certainly not poor.
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| William's gravestone. Jane's is lying on the ground behind. |
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| "A list of the Names Belonging to Captain William Winne on the West Side of the River" Col. Vandenbergh's regiment, 1777. Lots of Bethlehem folks on this list! |
Given the family's penchant for using the same first names over and over (so many Peters, so many Daniels, so many Williams), it is no surprise that there are two William Winnes with documented Revolutionary War service. The documents pretty consistently refer to Captain William Winne and William D. Winne.
The one above, A List of Names Belonging to Captain William Winne on the West Side of the River, lists three other Winnes, John D. Winne (who I wrote about in another blog post - check that one out for the description of his time in service from his pension application. It mentions Capt. Winne a lot.) Peter Winne, and William D. Winne.
Our trusty reference, New York in the Revolution, has several William Winnes, including the Captain who served under Col. Gerrit G. Van Den Bergh and Col. Henry Quackenbos in the Fifth Regiment of the Albany County Militia. Further along in the book are the Land Bounty Papers. These list militia men who were ready and willing to serve, but perhaps did not. Albany County Militia (Land Bounty Rights) First Regiment has a William Winne as an enlisted man, and the Third Regiment, under Capt. John Vanderheyden and Abraham Veeder, has William Winne and William D. Winne as enlisted men.
Ancestry has a number of documents regarding William Winne's company. I like the one below the best,
"A Pay Roll of Capt William Winne's Company of Col B. Van den Bergh's Regt of Albany Militia to apprehend Tories from the 12th to the 16th of May 1777"
So, a William Winne was certainly out and about in the Albany County area searching for Tories. The question is, which one is this blog post about? The one married to Jane, son of Daniel and Rachel? Honestly, I have no idea. I do think they are two different people.
Maybe the Creble Road grave is the Captain's. He would have been 44 in 1776, a mature man. As opposed to his nephew John D. who would have been about 18. And I can't find any other info about William D. Winne. There is also a mention of Willem Winne in the People of Colonial Albany Project. This Willem Winne was the uncle of our William (married to Jane). The PCA account ties in both the title captain and the land bounty rights of the third regiment. Honestly, the article just muddies the water even more, possible mixing up one of the many William Winnes. Hop over here to read it.
https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/w/wmwinne3121.html
And I'll leave this dive into William Winne's service here. As I have said before, there are just too many Winnes!
** A kind of morbid side note, Peter D and Rachel really wanted a child named William. Their 3rd and 4th children were both named William, and both died young. One was born in 1725 and died the same year. The next was baptized December 8, 1728 and died sometime in 1729. Then they had a daughter, Jannetje, born 1732. Their next son was William, the one I am writing about here, who died when he was 77.
