Our list of Revolutionary War veterans "from" Bethlehem includes the name Abraham Slingerland.
It turns out two of Abraham's sons served as well, Peter and Teunis. And to make things extra fun, these are NOT the Teunis and Peter Slingerland mentioned in my previous blog post. One of those named Teunis from the previous post is Abraham's nephew, child of his older sister Hester and her husband Wouter. This is also the Teunis who was married to Rachel Bogart. And isn't it funny that I have to keep track of the various Teunis Slingerlands by using their wives' names.
Abraham Slingerland (1730-1784ish*) married Rebecca Viele (1732-1792) in 1756 in the Dutch Reformed Church at Albany. He and Rebecca had eight children baptized in the church between 1757 and 1775.
I don't believe it is stretching things too much to say that Rebecca and Abraham are "from" Bethlehem. Remembering of course that Bethlehem didn't become Bethlehem until after both of them died. I get at this from several documents including Abraham's last will and testament and his son Peter's Revolutionary War pension application. And then the cherry on top is the 1767 Bleeker map of Rensselaerswyck.
Let's take a look at the will.
Abraham describes himself as being a yeoman of the county of Albany and Colony of Rensselaerwyck. A few paragraphs in he states this
"Item I do give and bequeath unto my two beloved sons namely Peter and Abraham all that estate I have at Normans Kill where I now live with utensils therein to belonging, together with the saw mill and fulling mill and utensils to them belonging, to them and either of their heirs and assigns forever after my wife's decease or remarriage."
Did you catch the reference to his mills at Normans Kill?
Now on to his son Peter's pension application. Peter Slingerland made his application in 1833 when he was 73 years old and living in the town of Maryland in Otsego County.
The application details his four terms of service. Peter volunteered at the time of the wheat harvest in 1775 and marched to Lake George "to guard the frontier against the enemy" (2 1/2 months service). He volunteered again in the spring of 1776 when his militia company was ordered by Gen. Schuyler on an expedition to Johnstown "for the purpose of taking Sir John Johnson." When they arrived there they found out Johnson had fled to Canada so Peter's group marched back to Albany (10 days service). Next he volunteered "at the time of planting corn" as early as May 20, 1776 where he served at Fort Hunter for 2 months. And finally about the first of June 1777 Peter volunteered and was marched from Albany to Saratoga where he served until after the surrender of Gen Burgoyne "at least 4 months." He was "engaged in the transportation of baggage and provisions for the American army."
All of Peter's terms of service were under the Captaincy of his father Abraham Slingerland, Albany County Militia under the command of Col. Quackenbush (we've seen this man referred to as Quakenbos in previous blog posts). The first term of service included his brother Teunis.
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| This is a transcript copy. The application packet I looked at on Ancestry has Peter's detailed declarations. |
Now all of that is well and good, but I am trying to get at where the family lived. In Peter's application he states that he was "born on the 4th of March 1760 in the town of Albany in the state of New York about two miles from the city of Albany – that he resided in the said town of Albany until he was about 40 years of age at which time he moved to the town of Schodake in the state of New York where he lived until … he moved to the town of Maryland in the county of Otsego"
Peter's application continued "That during the whole war of the Revolution this deponent served with his father Abraham Slingerland who was a Captain in the militia of the state of New York and who owned mills and a tavern in the town of Albany aforesaid"
Did you catch the "town of Albany" .. "about two miles from the city of Albany" part?
Which brings me to the 1767 Bleeker map. Hopefully in the picture you can see the number 14 with its little sketch of a house on the Normans Kill just outside of Albany. Number 14 is identified as being Abraham Slingerland's place. For reference, number 16 is Philip Schuyler's place which still stands today.
The mills, tavern and estate of Abraham Slingerland and his heirs were in the town of Bethlehem from 1793 until it was annexed by the City of Albany in 1916. So, I think we are safe to claim all three men, Abraham and his sons Peter and Teunis, as being Revolutionary War veterans "from" Bethlehem.
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* the "ish" is because his will is signed July 13, 1784 but his executors were sworn in on Janaury 23, 1786. So he must have died between those dates but I don't have any document of an exact date of death. Rebecca's will was signed Janaury 27, 1792 and her executors appeared in court in September of that year. I cannot find a burial record for either Abraham or Rebecca. I suspect they were buried in the church lot of the First Reformed Church which was later moved to Albany Rural, but that is just a guess.
