VANDERVEER - CORTELYOU HOUSE 412 East 25th Street

In 1787 Captain Cornelius VANDERVEER built a house for his son Garret (b.12 August 1765 - d. 12 December 1847) on the east side of the highway that ran through Flatbush not very far from the Flatlands boundary line. Garret married Catriria, daughter of Colonel Jeromus LOTT and his wife Lammetie RAPALJE. Their only child Lemean, commonly called Lemma Ann, was born in the house 29 May 1793. Tradition says that she owned her own slave, a girl of her own age, and that she was an artist. One of her water colors now hangs in a Brooklyn dwelling, the possession of a great-granddaughter. Lemma Ann married Simon CORTELYOU of the Narrows (b.31 December 1791 - d. 24 December 1869) on 30 June 1815 and had four children: Catherine, Van Wyck, Gerrit and Laeh (who died aged "13 months"). ... At her father's death she inherited his house in which she and her family were living and his farm that her husband was cultivating. She sold the property shortly before her death which occurred 26 June 1877 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The property passed through a number of hands and finally the house was moved to its present location and remodelled. The VANDERVEERS were descended from Cornelis Jansz van der VEER (from the ferry) of Alkmaar, North Holland, who arrived at New Amsterdam on the Otter in 1659 and went to Midwout where he received a tract of 26 morgens of land on 12 March 1661. This land lay east of the Flatbush Road and south of Canarsie Lane. On 24 February 1679; he bought land adjoining it on the south. thereby making himself one of the largest landowners in the town. Cornelis Jansz van der VEER was a magistrate of Flatbush in 1678 and in 1680. His name was on its assessment roll of 1683, on its Dongan's Patent and its census of 1698. He married Tryntje Gillis de MANDEVILLE and died in 1702-03. Cornelis's and Tryntje's son Cornelis, who was born in January 1696, either inherited or bought his father's properry. He was the sheriff of Flatbush in 1731. His wife was Jannetje WYCKOFF. He died 22 January 1782. His son Cornelius was the farm's next owner. Cornelius VANDERVEER was a captain in the Flatbush Militia. When there was fear of an invasion of Long Island by the British forces in 1776 he sent his wife Leah VER KERK of New Utrecht (whom he had married in November 1761) and their children to New Jersey while he remained at home with his slave Adam. On 22 August 1776, when the British landed he and Adam were on duty with the American Army. Having learned where the enemy guards were posted in Flatbush, Captain VANDERVEER and Adam quietly visited his farm late at night to make sure that all was well. As they were about to leave, the Captain stumbled into the enemy hidden in some bushes and was taken to General CORNWALLIS whose headquarters were in Flatbush. Then he was sent to New Utrecht and imprisoned in a barn. He was told (the story goes) that he was to be hung as a spy, but was saved from that fate through rhe efforts of a Captain MILLER who had known him before the war, On condition that he would not again take up arms against the British, he was allowed to return to Flatbush, During the war, he helped the American cause by secretly sending money to Governor George CLINTON of New York. He put his recipt for it, signed by the Governor, in a bottle which he buried near a post of his barn, After the war when the loans were being paid off he rescued his receipt only to find that all the writing except the signature was effaced. He explained what had happened and received his money, After the evacuation by the British in 1783 a Liberty Pole was erected in Flatbush, The flag which was hung to it had been made by a group of Flatbush women who met in Captain VANDERVEER'S home On 13 February 1804, John BAXTER wrote in his diary: Died in Flatbush of an amputation of the leg, Cornelius VANDERVEER, an old inhabitant of the county, Next Chapter..THE STRYKER HOUSE DUTCH Houses..Index Main Return to TOWN Index Main Return to BROOKLYN Index Main