WILTSIE

The Wiltsie family are Dutch in origin and the part of Holland that they came from is now Luxemburg. The first Wiltsie in America may have come over with the first group of Dutch settlers in 1623. Some researchers say they were descendants of the Baron of Wiltz but there is no proof of this. There is some dispute among Wiltsie researchers over who was the original Wiltsie ancestor in this country. Some say that Phillipe Maton Wiltsie did not exist and was created by Jerome Wiltsie who wrote a book about the family about 1900.  They feel that Hendrick Wiltsie was the first to arrive. This is backed up by the fact that no actual records of Phillipe Maton Wiltsie have ever been found. 

!. PHILLIPE MATON WILTSIE was born in Holland about 1575 and at this time Holland was being ruled by the Spain. About 1600 Phillipe Wiltsie fought with the army of Prince William of Orange that drove the Spanish out of Holland. In 1616 he married Sophia Ter Bosch at Leyden in Holland. In 1623 Phillipe Wiltsie was hired by the Dutch East India Company as a military advisor for their planned new colonies in North America. He sailed with the first group of settlers in the New Amsterdam in the spring of 1623. Upon arriving they sailed up the Hudson River to where it meets the Mohawk. Here Phillipe Wiltsie supervised the building of Fort Orange. This site is now the City of Albany. Phillipe Wiltsie then returned to the mouth of the Hudson and they built Fort New Amsterdam, now New York City, on Manhattan Island. In 1632 Phillipe Wiltsie and two of his sons went to supervise the building of the fort at Swaanendale, now the city of Lewes, in Delaware. While he was there the Indians attacked and Phillipe Wiltsie was killed. Phillipe and Sophia Wiltsie had 6 known children including a son.

2. HENDRICK MARTENSEN WILTSIE was born at sea aboard the New Amsterdam in April of 1623. Hendrick and his brother Pierre were captured by the Indians at Swaanandale and they were taken to Canada. There the Indians put them in the care of Jesuit priests.  By the time they grew up the boys managed to escape from the Indians and they returned to New York. Hendrick Wiltsie married Margarita Meyers on  January 10, 1659 at Queens on Long Island.  They lived at Queens and Margarita died  on June 26, 1704 and Hendrick died in December 1708, both at Queens.  Hendrick and Margarita Wiltsie had 8 children including a son.

3. MARTIN HENDRICKSEN WILTSIE was born on April 3, 1667 at Tarrytown, New York. When he grew up he married Maria VanWyck on June 23, 1690 at Flatbush on Long Island. They lived at Hempstead on Long Island where Maria died in 1725 and Martin Wiltsie died in 1742. Among their 9 children was a son.

4.CORNELIUS MARTIN WILTSIE was born on April 3, 1691 at Queens, New York and In 1712 he married Ruth Smith at Nassau, New York. They lived at Queens but in 1735 Cornelius Wiltsie purchased some land on Fishkill Creek in Duchess County.  He died there on December 15, 1755. Cornelius and Ruth Wiltsie had 11children including a son.

5. CORNELIUS WILTSIE was born on February 8, 1723 at Queens, New York. On January 5, 1747 he married Elizabeth Cornell at Fishkill in Duchess County. They lived at Fishkill and later moved to Duanesburg in Albany County. Cornelius Wiltsie served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He died at Duanesburg in 1794. Cornelius and Elizabeth Wiltsie had 14 children including a daughter.

6. HANNAH WILTSIE was born on September 15, 1769 at Fishkill, New York. She married Peter Lowry in 1792 in Schohare County and by 1800 they moved to Marcellus in Onondaga County. Hannah's daughter, Ruth Lowry, married Jeremiah Cramer in 1819. In 1837 she accompanied her daughter and son-in-law to Washtenaw County, Michigan. She died on July 2, 1849 at Ann Arbor, Michigan. (See Cramer family for descendants)