4. PIETER (PETER)4 STEENBERGEN, SR. (DIRCK3 VAN STEENBERGEN, PIETER2 STEENBERGEN, DIRCK HERMANSZ1 VAN STEENBERGEN) was born 14 January 1723/24 in Amsterdam Holland, and died 1779 in Hardy County Virginia (W.VA.). He married ELIZABETH ANN GAINES 1765 in Culpepper County Virginia, daughter of WILLIAN GAINES and ISABELLA PENDLETON. She was born 1742 in Culpepper County, Virginia, and died Abt. 1784 in Mercer County, Kentucky.
Notes for PIETER (PETER) STEENBERGEN, SR.:
Peter moved to Virginia around 1754. He was and Revolutionary War Soldier and family tradition states he was an interpreter for George Washington although no documentation has ever been found to verify he was an interpreter. He was given a land grant of 2,000 acres.
A Steenbergen Family History
Peter Steenbergen, founder of the Steenbergen family in America, was born in Amsterdam, Holland. He was baptized in the Nieuwe Zijdskapel on January 14, 1724. He was the first child of Dirck Steenbergen, a wealthy merchant, and Martha Coonenburgh. Peter emigrated form Holland to St. Kitts, an island in the West Indies, during the 1740's. He arrived in the United States around 1754 and dealt in lumber and ship cargo in Baltimore. In 1765 he married Elizabeth Ann Gaines of Culpepper County, Virginia. She was born in 1742, daughter of William Henry Gaines and Isabella Pendleton, both of distinguished Virginia families.
Peter served during the French and Indian War as a Lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment of Capt. Charles Lewis's Expedition against the French between Oct 10 and Dec 27, 1755. This was part of General Braddock's and George Washington's disastrous expedition against Fort Duquesne, Pennsylvania. He received a two thousand acre land grant on Hickmans Creek, Fincastle (now Jessamine or Fayette ) County, Kentucky, for his service. During the Revolutionay War, he served as Captain in the Quartermaster Corps for the Twelfth and Fifteenth Colonial Line of Virginia. Family tradition has it that Peter served as interpreter for General George Washington. He was supposedly an excellent linguist and could speak several languages.
Between 1766 and his presumed death in 1779, Peter and his growing family lived in Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia (now W. VA). There he ran an "ordinary" (inn) and was a merchant of sorts. His daily ledger is preserved in the Library of the University of West Virginia. After his death, Elizabeth remarried to Dr. Joseph Dimone Kayser, a French physician. The Kayser-Steenbergen family left for Mercer County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1784. They had one son, Joseph Kayser, Jr. born in 1781. It is not known where or when Elizabeth died or is buried, but Dr. Kayser and son eventually returned to Virginia. They are both buried at Iron Gate, Virginia, along with William Steenbergen, the oldest son of Peter and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Ann Gaines Children are third cousins to presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor, through the lineage of her grandmother, Mary B. Taylor Pendleton, daughter of James Taylor and Mary Gregory.
Notes for ELIZABETH ANN GAINES:
Elizabeth was the twin sister of Captain James Gaines who was a Revolutionary War Soldier and the father of General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. The general "supposedly" worked close with Thomas Jefferson in forming the Declaration of Independence.
More About PIETER STEENBERGEN and ELIZABETH GAINES:
Marriage: 1765, Culpepper County Virginia
Children of PIETER STEENBERGEN and ELIZABETH GAINES are:
i. ELIZABETH5 STEENBERGEN, b. Bef. 1775; d. Abt. 1800; m. MAJOR PETER HIGGINS, Mercer County, Kentucky.
More About MAJOR HIGGINS and ELIZABETH STEENBERGEN: Marriage: Mercer County, Kentucky
ii. ALETTA STEENBERGEN, b. Bef. 1775; m. LAWRENCE.
Notes for ALETTA STEENBERGEN: She was name after her aunt in Amsterdam, Holland.
More About LAWRENCE: Residence: Tennessee
6. iii. WILLIAM STEENBERGEN, b. 11 October 1766, Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia (now W. VA); d. 23 July 1839, Lewisburg Virginia Iron Gate, Virginia.
iv. CHARLES STEENBERGEN, b. 16 November 1770, Hampshire County, VA; d. 23 July 1825, Waverly Pike, Ohio; m. (1) SARAH MCNEILL, 16 April 1791; b. 1771; d. 12 August 1808; m. (2) LEVISA LUCAS, 07 September 1809; b. 19 August 1783, Jefferson County, Virginia; d. 16 March 1865.
More About CHARLES STEENBERGEN and SARAH MCNEILL: Marriage: 16 April 1791
More About CHARLES STEENBERGEN and LEVISA LUCAS: Marriage: 07 September 1809
7. v. SIDNEY ANN AMELIA STEENBERGEN, b. 30 April 1773; d. 01 May 1861, Mercer County, Kentucky.
8. vi. ROBERT PENDLETON STEENBERGEN, SR., b. 1775, Hampshire County Virginia (W. VA.); d. 1854, Tracy, Barren County Kentucky.
vii. ISABELL STEENBERGEN, b. Bef. 1775; m. HACKNEY.
viii. HANNAH STEENBERGEN, b. 1777; m. HACKNEY.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/l/a/Sandra-W-Claywell/GENE4-0004.html
