Page:Historical and biographical sketches.djvu/19

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THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
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other purchasers entered into similar stipulations.[1] However that may be, ere long thirteen men with their families, comprising thirty-three persons, nearly all of whom were relatives, were ready to embark to seek new homes across the ocean. They were Lenart Arets, Abraham Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Hermann Op den Graeff, Willem Streypers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Jan Seimens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes. The three Op den Graeffs were brothers, Hermann was a son-in-law of Van Bebber, they were accompanied by their sister Margaretha, and they were cousins of Jan and Willem Streypers, who were also brothers. The wives of Thones Kunders and Lenart Arets were sisters of the Streypers, and the wife of Jan was the sister of Reynier Tyson. Peter Keurlis was also a near relative, and the location of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on the certificate of the marriage of a son of Thones Kunders with a daughter of Willem Streypers in 1710 indicates that they too were connected with the group by family ties.[2] On the 7th of June, 1683, Jan Streypers and Jan Lensen entered into an agreement at Crefeld by the terms of which Streypers was to let Lensen have fifty acres of land at a rent of a rix dollar and half a stuyver, and to lend him fifty rix dollars for eight years at the interest of six rix dollars annually. Lensen was to transport himself and wife to Pennsylvania, to clear eight acres of Streyper's land and to work for him twelve days in each year for eight years. The agreement proceeds, “I further promise to lend him a Linnen-weaving stool with

  1. Dutch deed from Sipman to Peter Schumacher in the Germantown Book in the Recorder's office.
  2. Streper MSS. in the Historical Society. The marriage certificate belongs to Dr. J. H. Conrad.