Person:William Vanderburgh (3)

BIOGRAPHY: WILLIAM4 VANDERBURGH (Henry3, Dirck2, Lucas1), son of Henry Vanderburgh and Magdalena Knight, was born in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York and was baptized there in the Reformed Dutch Church on 3 Oct 1731. On 11 July 1754 in the Reformed Dutch Church in New York, he married MARGARET GAY. Margaret was born on 1 May 1735, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Rathbun) Gay. William received Lot #8 of 68 acres of his father's farm in deed 5:17 when his mother divided the property among her children on 19 Aug 1752. On 18 Aug 1756, deed 4:227, William sold for £9, 4 shillings, and 6 pence to Jacob Van Bunschoten the westernmost 47 1/2 acres of the lot. Jacob, in turn, conveyed it to Henry Livingston on 10 Apr 1767. On 1 May 1760, deed 3:385, William conveyed the remaining eastern 20 acres and 3 roods of Lot #8 for £39, 6 shillings to John Freer of Poughkeekpsie. On 27 May 1757, deed 3:373, James Tripp and Ann, his wife of Oblong, Dutchess County, conveyed 3 acres of land in Poughkeekpsie for £200 to William. The land bordered the east side of the King's Highway and was north of Lawrence Van Kleeck's land. Also included in this transaction was a small lot on the west side of the King's Highway that abutted the 3 acres. William was a mariner and a resident of Poughkeepsie in 1760. On 15 Mar 1760, deed 3:400, Myndert and Jacobus Vandenbogert of Poughkeepsie, sons of the late Jacobus Vandenbogert, conveyed land for £76, 5 shillings to William. The land was situated in Poughkeepsie and was 30 1/2 acres of the farm that Jacobus Vandenbogert possessed at the time of his death. The land bordered the south side of a small creek "called the landing place Kelletie;" the southwest corner of William Vanderburgh's garden; the King's Highway; and the Hudson River. On 10 Jun 1760, deed 3:382, Elizabeth Gay, William Gay, and Barent Bond of Dutchess Co., NY, executors of the estate of John Gay, of Crum Elbow Precinct, conveyed part of John Gay's estate to William for £400. The property was in Crum Elbow Precinct in the first division of Water Lot #1 of the Great Nine Partners tract and was bordered west by the Hudson River. In this transaction, William received all but 3 1/2 acres which had been previously granted to his brother-in-law, William Gay, by his father, John Gay in his 12 Dec 1758 will. Sometime late in 1760 or early in 1761, William ceased to be a mariner and was usually thereafter mentioned as a yeoman. After being a mariner for over 10 years, he may have taken up the lumber trade. One effort in this endeavor got him in trouble with Henry Beekman of Rhinebeck, NY in 1761. Henry brought suit against William in the October 1762 session of the Dutchess County Court of Common Pleas. Beekman complained that William on the last day of October 1761 "with force & arms" ... "did Break & Enter and fifty white oak trees & fifty black oak trees of the value of fifty pounds current money of New York there lately standing & growing did fell cut down and destroy & part of the timber thereof to witt fifty loggs thereof did take & carry away and the residue of the wood & timber thereof did suffer to remain & cumber the soil & land of the said Henry for a long time to witt from the said last day of October untill ..." 9 Sep 1762. Beekman brought suit not so much as a result of the loss of timber, but more so because he "lost & was depossessed of the use of the herbage of his said soil ..." resulting from the debris that William left behind. Beekman sought a recompense of £50. The court records are silent regarding the outcome. On 9 Oct 1761, deed 14:254, William, now of Crum Elbow Precinct, conveyed to Richard Davis 3 acres of the property in Poughkepsie that he had purchased on 15 Mar 1760, deed 3:400. Also included in this transaction was an "open road of the breadth of 3 rods from the Post Road through other land of William Vanderburgh to a stone house ... to be and remain a public and open road forever." This road became known as "Davis's Road" and led to Richard Davis' store at the Hudson River, south of the small creek "called the landing place Kelletie." In exchange for the land and road, Richard swapped William the title that he held in the Paltz Patent, Ulster County bordering the Hudson River, as well as several lots along the river. On 23 May 1764, deed 4:339, William, now back in Poughkeepsie Precinct as a tavern keeper, conveyed for £820 to Benjamin Peele, a mariner, of Poughkeepsie, the land William had received on 10 Jun 1760, deed 3:382. This transaction also included the lands that William had purchased on 9 Oct 1761, deed 14:254 from Richard Davis. On 14 Aug 1765, deed 4:412, Anthony Yelverton of Poughkeepsie sold for £1,040 to William Vanderburgh, again a yeoman of Poughkeepsie, a farm and land comprising seven pieces of land in Poughkeepsie Precinct and "included in The Five Hundred Rods, beyond the Great Wappinger's Creek on the Northerly side thereof being part of the pattent formerly granted to Francis Rombout, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Jacobus Kip." These seven parcels contained more than 217 acres in the vincinity of Casper's Creek and the present day environs of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie. The disposition of this property after William owned it is not certain. Some or all of it may have passed to his brother, John in the late 1760s or 1770s. On 8 Apr 1768, deed 18:53, William, still a yeoman in Poughkeekpsie, conveyed for £82, 10 shillings to Richard Davis, his land that abutted Davis's land and the road that led to Davis' store. William made out his will on 14 Sep 1766. He died sometime between Jun 1769, nine months prior to the birth of his son, James, and Jun 1770, when his Poughkeepsie home was offered for sale. His will was proved on 9 Feb 1771. William's estate appears on the town of Poughkeepsie's tax rolls for 4 Jun 1771. The assessment was £5, and the tax was .1, three shillings, and nine pence. William's wife, Margaret, was still a widow on 1 Mar 1778 when she was a witness at the baptism of William's nephew, Egbert Benson Vanderburgh, son of James and Helena (Clark) Vanderburgh. However, sometime after 1784, she subsequently married as his second wife, Richard Davis, William's former mariner partner and business associate. Margaret died on 22 Jan 1800 and is buried in northern end of the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.