Pre-Revolutionary War Manuscript Map
Orange County, New York, c. 1769

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Peenpack
Peenpack Peenpack
Peenpack Peenpack
Peenpack Peenpack
Jacob Hoornbeek (d. 1778) (maker)
Plat Map, Peenpack Flats, New York
American: c. 1769
Manuscript pen and ink on paper, mounted on linen
Signed and inscribed by maker
Provenance: Estate of Radford B. Curdy, Dutchess County Historian
16 x 30 inches
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This pre-Revolutionary War manuscript local survey plat map appears to be a section of the valley between Cuddebackville and Port Jervis, New York, also referred to as the Peenpack Flats, in the present-day town of Deerpark. Located in New York State’s Hudson Valley, Peenpack is the oldest inland permanent settlement of Europeans in Orange County, New York. The map is made and signed by Jacob Hoornbeek, member of a large family living in the region, with an inscription indicating it was made after he performed a survey on November 30, 1769. Hoornbeek later served as a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War.

The map has simple cartography in pen and ink, showing plats of local landowners, identified by key lower left having letters and numbers in grids with owners’ names. Streams (possibly brooks or rivers?) are indicated in light blue, and there are faint yellow highlight lines. A compass direction for north is in the center of the map. No place names appear on the map.

Legible names of the landowners include members of other large families that lived in the area for many generations: Gumaer, Codebeck, Depuy, Van Inwegen and Dewitt. The Codebecks and the Gumaers were directly descended from two of the seven original settlers who arrived around 1690 and obtained what was known as the Waghaghkemeck (or Maghaghkemeck) Patent in 1697, named for the nearby river, now the Neversink (Pieroth). These ancestors, Jacque Caudebeq (later referred to as Jacob Codebec) and Pierre Guimar (later referred to Peter Gumaer), were Huguenots who were driven out of France by the persecution of French Protestants after 1685.

Many of the landowners listed on the map were related by blood or marriage, as was the mapmaker, Jacob Hoornbeek. A rich trove of genealogical research by their descendants, as well as by Hudson Valley historians, yields information about their connections to the area and to each other. These are summarized on the following list, with sources indicated in parenthesis:

• Jacob Hoornbeek (d. 1778) (the maker of the map) was among the founders of the Ulster County Militia, formed in 1775 after the Battle of Lexington during the Revolutionary War. He served as a Lt. Colonel and as Deputy to the First Provincial Congress. He died of camp fever in early 1778. (“Hornbeck Military Service”). His brother-in-law was the brother of Benjamin Depuy. They are named as co-executors in Depuy’s brother’s will. (Kelly, “Notes”). The Hoornbeek family’s descendants eventually changed their name to Hornbeck.
• Peter Gumaer (b. 1731) was a son of Pierre (Pieter) Guimar (Gumaer) (1708-1779) and grandson of one of the founders of the settlement, Pierre Guimar (Gumaer, Guymard) Jr. (1666 - 1732). Peter Gumaer’s mother was a Dewitt; he married a member of the Van Inwegen family. (Snyder).
• Jacob Dewitt Gumaer (b. 1739) was Peter Gumaer’s younger brother. (Snyder).
• William Codebeck (1704-c. 1778) (“Descendants of William Provoost”). Early records spell the name variously as Caudebec, Codebec and Codebeck, which eventually evolved to Cuddeback.
• Benjamin Depuy (b. 1740). While there was an older Benjamin Depuy (married 1719), the one born in 1740 is probably the one named in this map. (Kelly, “Family Group”).
• Jacob Rutzen Dewitt (b. before 1729) was married to a member of the Depuy family. He owned land on the Neversink River in what was then Sullivan County, but is today Orange County. He was captain of a militia company during the Revolutionary War. (“Jacob Rutzen Dewitt”).
• Geradus Van Inwegen (b. 1702) married a De Witt in 1731. He changed his surname from Van Nimwegen to Van Inwegen, which his descendants used thereafter. (Davis).

Inscription beside key, lower left:
“[?] of Land Belonging To:
Peter Gumaer
William Codebeck
Benjamin Depuy
[Gerardus?] Van Inwegen
Jacob Rutzen Dewitt
[?e] Van [Bliodt?]
[Jacob?] Dewitt Gumaer
[?] [“Cod” is legible, probably Codebeck]”

Inscription lower right: “Layed down by a Scale of ten Chains to an Inch prformed (sic) the 30th Day of November 1769 by Me. Jacob Hoornbeek.”

Condition: Generally fair, with overall toning, handling, soiling, fading. Laid on heavy linen at early date. Various cracking to paper on linen, some chipped losses especially at margins. More considerable fading at margins. Still, as a separately issued 18th century map, it is quite intact, and surprisingly good.

References:

Davis, Richard. Post to “New Netherland and New York Genealogy.” OliveTreeGenealogy. 21 December 1997. http://olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/17th/dny_22.shtml (25 May 2005).

“Descendants of William (Guilliaume) Provoost, Fifth Generation .” http://members.tripod.com/~emfogal/provost/WPXg05.htm (25 May 2005).

“Hornbeck Military Service.” http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck/hsrc/hornwar.htm (25 May 2005.

“Jacob Rutzen DeWitt / Jenneke Depuy.” 5 December 2003. http://members.fortunecity.com/jmccoy/d0001/f0000061.html (25 May 2005).

Kelly, John, ed. “Family Group: Benjamin Depuy.” 13 January 2004. http://www.spectrumdata.com/kelly/Kelly/gp55.html#head3 (25 May 2005).

Kelly, John, ed. “Notes.” Will of Elias Depuy from Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York...with Letters of Administration... Vol. 9. 1777-1783. New-York Historical Society.” Online at John Kelly’s Genealogy. http://www.spectrumdata.com/kelly/Kelly/np12.htm re hoornbeek and depuy (25 May 2005).

Mills, Samuel W. “Bicentennial Celebration of the Settlement of the Neversink Valley.” July 22, 1890. Online at Minisink Valley Historical Society. 4 April 2005. http://www.portjervisny.org/historya.htm (25 May 2005).

Pieroth, Susan Carter White, ed. “Ancestry of Maria Van Vliet Wife of John Kennedy.” Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Vol. V: Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church Records, [1716-1830]. 1913. Facsimile Reprint 1992 by Heritage Books. Online 2001 on http://www.rootsweb.com/~scwhite/kennedy/vanvliet.html (25 May 2005).

Snyder, Celia G. “Pierre Guimar.” 9 May 1999. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~celiadon/Mom/WC06/WC06_336.HTM (25 May 2005).