Person:Hendrick Hendricks or Hendrickson (1)

Hendrick Hendricks, sometimes also known by his patronymic, Hendrick Jacobsen, was probably born in late 1678 or early 1679, for he was baptized on 18 February, 1679 in Flatbush, along with his twin sister Catalyntie. Nothing is known of his early life outside of the fact that he lived in New Utrecht, Long Island, but as a young man he became active in real estate transactions with Cornelius Van Brunt, and later with Jaques Denyse. Both these men brought Hendrick in contact with Helena Cortelyou, who was first married to Cornelius Van Brunt’s brother Nicholas Rutgers, and then to Denys Teunissen, the father of Jaques Denyse. It appears that Hendrick bought land in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and lived there from 1694 to 1706. Court minutes for the period state that:

“…one Hendrick Hendricks served on the grand jury and also on a coroner’s jury, called to view a corpse thrown up by the sea on Sandy Hoof Beach.” (Early Dutch Settlers of Monmouth County, New Jersey, George C. Beekman, p. 148.) (It is not certain that this reference is indeed this Hendrick Hendricks.)

Sometime before 1706, Helena Cortelyou was a widow for the second time. In spite of the estimated 13-15 year difference in ages, Hendrick married Helena by early 1706, leaving Monmouth County, New Jersey, to live on the Cortelyou estates at New Utrecht, Long Island. This appears to have been Hendrick’s first marriage, as there is no evidence that he had married before this time. Helena had eight children from her two previous marriages, and with Hendrick she bore two more: Hendrick Hendricks and a daughter, Geesje, born about 1710.

About the time Geesje was born, Hendrick came into conflict with his wife’s family. The Cortelyou family had operated the Staten Island ferry for nearly fifty years, but in 1710, Hendrick Hendricks ". . . tried to take away their traffic. Finally when Hendricks tried to exclude them entirely, they petitioned against him 24 September 1719. . . . The [Cortelyou] brothers won their rights for twenty-one years, but subject to competition by others in a patent 7 Nov 1719.” (“Early Dutch Smiths and Van Boerums,” The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Wilson V. Ledley and B-Ann Moorhouse, April 1972, vol. 103, No. 3, pp. 145-146.)

Helena died in 1726 and Hendrick apparently returned to live on his lands in Monmouth County, New Jersey until his death around 1735, for that is where his estate was probated on 7 or 9 Oct, of that year.