Hester van Gelder (1662-1729)

Hester van Gelder was baptized 26 Jan 1662 in the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam. She was the daughter of Jan/John van Gelder/Guelder and Tanneke Montenac, and the 8th great-grandmother of my son-in-law.

Her parents came to New Netherland between 1660 (when they married in Beverwijk, The Netherlands, banns were proclaimed in Haarlem, The Netherlands), and 1662 (when Hester was baptized). Her father was born in Haarlem, her mother in Rotterdam. At least one brother of her father and one sister of her mother also came to the new world; they are sponsors at the baptism of one of Hester’s brothers. We don’t know exactly when they came, there are no surviving ship lists, but they left much progeny that played a large role in the history of New York, and the rest of the country.

Hester married Pieter Roome, who was baptized in New Amsterdam DRC in 1660. His parents died in Communipaw, NJ, but it is not known, when they came from Europe. They were most likely also Dutch. Hester and Pieter had ten children, at last two grew two adulthood and had children, both married a child of Samuel Berry and Cathalijntje Martens, contributing to the interconnected web of New Netherland relations. I have not pursued the other ones.

Peter Willemse Roome is mentioned many times in Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675-1776. On 29 Sep 1701 Peter and his brother John are listed as Freemen in New York City (vol. 2, pg. 171). On 30 Sep 1717 Peter Williams Roome was owed money by the City for expenses from the cleaning of the common sewer (vol. 3, pg. 149.)⁽¹⁾. Van Gelder is also mentioned frequently: 14 Sep 1686, Jan van Gelder chosen as assessor (vol. 1, pg. 182), same on 14 Oct 1687 (vol. 1, pg. 191)

(1) At least that is my interpretation of this text. It seems the city needs to raise money, to pay people back for the expenses incurred for that project