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Part #11 of 12
(so far):
NYCHS presents
excerpts from
The Rikers:
Their Island, Homes, Cemetery and Early Genealogy in Queens County, NY
by permission of its author, an 11th generation Abraham Rijcken vanLent descendant, Edgar Alan Nutt.
He retains & reserves all copyrights. To supplement the book's few images, NYCHS has added others with appropriate identification. Above left: Image of the book's front cover. Above right: Detail from 1852 map on Page 48 (color added).

Below: Excerpts from Page 83 to Page 85 of
Chapter Five: The Riker Genealogy

[Author's note:]Throughout the genealogy several conventions will apply. When the name of a son is capitalized, that son will be the head of his own family unit listed in the following generation. . . . . a number preceded by the pound sign (#) indicates a particular burial plot or memorial in the Riker Cemetery as identified in Chapter Four.

[Webmaster's note: In this web excerpts presentation, the births, baptisms, and marriages of sons whose names are capitalized will not usually be given in their fathers' own background sections. What data is given about a male descendant whose name has been capitalized will be given when he is discussed in his own background section as head of his own family unit. After the third generation, data excerpted will become increasingly selective.

A view of part of Lent Riker Smith Homestead's beautifully decorated and landscaped grounds looking northerly toward the stockade fence.

Photo by NYCHS during the June 5, 2005 tour given by Marion Smith to benefit the Queens Historical Society. Tour images do not appear in Edgar Alan Nutt's 2004 book and have been added to the web version by NYCHS. Click image to visit the Queens Historical Society web site.

In certain cases of female descendents and those male descendents whose names have NOT been capitalized, some background data with potential historical interest may be provided.]

FIRST GENERATION

ABRAHAM RYCKEN (RIJCKEN vanLENT’)

Born - Holland; circa 1615 (based upon reported age 74 at death).

Died - 1688.

Married - Grietie Hendrickse, doubtfully the daughter of Hendrick Harmensen who in 1638 settled a farm on Sanford’s Point, Flushing Bay. [She is presumed dead] by Jan. 9, 1688, since she was not named in Abraham’s will.

[Sons] RYCK ABRAMSEN LENT, Jacob 1, Jacob 2, Hendrick, JOHN (Jan), ABRAHAM, HENDRICK LENT.

[Daughters] Mary (Maritie) and Aletta (Aeltje).

Mary - born 1649; died after 1715; married as Marytje Abrahams April, 1669 to Sibout Harckszen Kranckheyt, son of Harck & Wyntie (Theunis); moved to Cortland Manor; 8 children.

Aletta - born 1653; married 1680 (or 1673) to Capt. John Harmanszen vanLennep; removed to Cortland; 3 children.

Another view of the Lent Riker Smith Homestead rear garden looking diagonally across it toward the Secret Garden entry gate.

Photo by NYCHS during the June 5, 2005 tour given by Marion Smith to benefit the Queens Historical Society. Tour images do not appear in Edgar Alan Nutt's 2004 book and have been added to the web version by NYCHS. Click image to visit the Queens Historical Society web site.

Abraham came from Holland by 1638 and lived first in New Amsterdam, where all the children were born, before obtaining land in Newtown and acquiring in a 1664 patent from Gov. Petrus Stuyvesant what became Riker’s Island, as detailed in an earlier chapter.

Soon he was involved in a variety of property transactions, the first of which was in 1638 for a Wallabout tract of land from the West India Company, patented to him on Aug. 8, 1640, by Director-General William Kieft; this tract may have been regranted in 1660 to a company of French settlers.

Meanwhile he obtained a patent for land on Long Island on May 8, 1640; this parcel is described in the July 29, 1641, deed of Cornelis Jacobsen Stille as lying “opposite Rinnegakonck, bounded by Gysbert Rycken, Hans Hansen, etc.” In early 1642, in partnership with Jan Pietersen, he obtained title to a house and lot at what is now the northwest corner of Bridge and Broad Streets, and almost immediately he sold the property to Michel Piquet.

Later in the same year the partners obtained a lot near Fort Amsterdam which apparently they soon sold since in 1645 Abraham successfully sued for payment- In 1646 he obtained a lot on Heeren Gracht, or Broad Street, which extended to what then was Prinse Straat and now is an easterly extension of Beaver Street; he built his house on half of this lot and sold the other half to shoemaker Jochem Beeckman.

Where his family lived in New Amsterdam prior to occupying the Heeren Gracht house is not known, but he and his family were in the latter until at least 1655 when they apparently moved to the Poor Bowery farm in Newtown. Until then, and from July 2, 1643, the farm had been leased to William Hutchinson.

Another angle on the Lent Riker Smith Homestead rear garden looking directly across it toward the small trees and scrubs that block view of the Riker cemetery's eastern wall.

Photo by NYCHS during the June 5, 2005 tour given by Marion Smith to benefit the Queens Historical Society. Tour images do not appear in Edgar Alan Nutt's 2004 book and have been added to the web version by NYCHS. Click image to visit the Queens Historical Society web site.

[An undocumented source reports that the land that was leased to William Hutchinson reverted to the West India Company for failure to cultivate; if this is correct the property involved was other than the Poor Bowery farmstead.]

In addition to these property transactions there is an undocumented report that Abraham Rycken in 1638 obtained the earliest deed for land in the town of Brooklyn.

From various court record entries, many of which refer to property transactions, Abraham appears to have been rather quarrelsome and prone to litigate. One such record involves the suit of Jacques Bentyn against Abraham regarding stolen pigs that were eaten in Abraham’s house and the latter’s countersuit for slander. In April 10, 1642, proceedings resulted in proof being presented that pork had indeed been eaten in his house as a result of which the slander suit went nowhere,

The basis for the oldest and youngest sons in later Life to have adopted the Lent surname is considered elsewhere. Some records include a daughter Wyntie who was born in 1658 and married Hendrick Hendricksen, but it is certain that she instead was the daughter of Ryck Hendrickszen and the sister of Hendrick Rycken who settled on Staten Island; these individuals were members of the entirely separate Riker family referred to in Chapter One.

The will was probated in Queens County on April 10, 1689, and included an inventory of personalty totaling just £13.13.00 and consisting of his clothing, two iron pots, two chests, some old iron, and four cows. Although the estate seems extraordinarily small, its size is explained by the fact that realty, which doubtless was very significant, was not at that time considered to be part of a decedent’s estate, and by the probability that son Abraham and family were living in Abraham’s home and that much was already considered to belong to the son.

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home = NY
Correction
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NYCHS presents excerpts from The Rikers: Their Island, Homes, Cemetery and Early Genealogy in Queens County, NY by permission of its author, an 11th generation Abraham Rijcken vanLent descendant, Edgar Alan Nutt, who retains & reserves all text copyrights.

Rikers Island's role in NY correction history warrants our providing material on its "pre-Correction" background that is so bound up with Rikers family history. Bishop Nutt's book serves as an excellent vehicle for doing that. His approach is not exclusively or narrowly genealogical. More than simply tracing lineage, he places his family history in wider chronological and geographic contexts through which his exhaustive research tracked it, thus reflecting much other history -- of the island, county, city and country.

Strictly genealogical citations, notes, and codes in the printed book have been reduced or dropped in these excerpts. This presentation includes a book print copy information page.

NYCHS retains and reserves all rights to images of photos it took during the June 5, 2005 homestead tour and the September 1998 Samuel Perry Center dedication and their captions as well as captions of inserted images not taken from the printed book.