Pierre (Or Peter) Dubois ^528,633

   FamilySearch ID: L4SR-CM8. Find a Grave ID: 45240435.

  General Notes:

Pierre, or Peter, DuBois came to America with his family at a very young age; his father died within several years of their arrival. Peter would go on to be one of the leading men in Fishcreek, being one of the founders of the First Dutch Reformed Church in Fishkill, a church which flourishes today and in which there is a plaque with his tombstone embedded on the wall of the church. He served as an officer of the church for 21 years.

He met and married his bride, Jannetje Burhans, in Kingston, New York, some 30 miles to the north of Fishkill where he had grown up. He was admitted to membership in that church when he was 23 and married that same year, 1697. He settled his family further south at the mouth of Fishkill Creek where he owned land and built, in 1710, a permanent residence originally 40 feet in length, was enlarged in 1812 and is today on the National Register of Historic Places. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C._DuBois_House). In 1927 the house was sold to a doctor who added a third story and operated it is a sanatorium until the 1950s. It now is a private residence in Beacon, NY. (41°29'01.0"N 73°58'25.0"W).

Peter appears often in the records of early Dutchess county: a trustee of Kingston in 1705, being a soldier in the militia in 1715, a justice of Poughkeepsie in 1729. He bought some 460 acres of land in 1729 on the east side of Sprout Creek, a tributary of Fishkill Creek. While that is the recorded purchase, he evidently owned land on the west side and other places along Fishkill and Sprout Creek as indicated in his will of 1735. It is considered that the 460 acres on the east side were willed to his son Jonathan, while sons Abraham and John recieved land on the west side. Other parcels were given to his other sons during his lifetime. His Find A Grave Memorial is number 45240435. The tombstone, which reads "Hier Lydt het Lighaam van Pater D Bois, overledden den 22 van Januarie Anno 1737/8, ondt 63 Jaar." was brought inside and mounted on a wall by one of his descendants.

  Research Notes:

There is speculation by Heidgerd, based on earlier specutation in the Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, Vol 6 (1938) pp 5/6 that Pierre, in 1688, lived on the site of the present Beacon, NY, having a lifetime lease on 80 acres from Roger and Cathryn Brett. To justify this being Pierre DuBois, it is necessary to justify the name "Peche Dewall" (Dewall being Dutch for 'the Walloon'; it is also necessary to make this 'Pierre' older. Nothing here is proved, and the speculation seems spurious.

  Events

• Baptism Place: Walloon Church of Leyden, 18 Mar 1672/73, Leyden, Holland. A Wallon church is any Calvinst church in the Netherlands whose members came from the Souther Netherlands and France and whose native language is French.

• Godparents: Louis DuBois and Johanna Nicet.

• Church: First Dutch Church, 28 Mar 1697, Kingston, NY. ⁶³⁶ Admitted to membership.

• Trustee: Kingston, 1705, Kingston, NY. ⁶³⁶ Kingston had been incorporated in 1688.

• House: On Slocum Road, 1710, Beacon, NY.

• Census: Peter Du Boys: males 16 to 60, 1; males under 16, 5; females 16 to 60, 2; females under 16,1, 1715. ⁶³⁶

• Military: He was in Captain Barent Z VanKleeck's company of troops, 21 Nov 1715, Dutchess County. ⁶³⁷ As early as 1715 Dutchess County, with a poplulation of less than 500 people, had a militia force of 63 men.

• Land, 11 Nov 1729, Dutchess County. ⁶³⁶

• Will, 26 Mar 1735, Dutchess County. ⁶³⁶ 26 March 1735, will, proved 1738: mentions his wife Jannetje, eldest son Jacob, as well as the following nine surviving children: Jacob, Christian, Jonathan, Petrus, Abraham, Johannes, Helena, Elizabeth, and Pieternella. In his will he bequeathed to his son Jonathan a farm on the "east side of Sprout's Creek", and to his sons Abraham and John lands on the "west side of Sprout's Creek" including the homestead. His other sons were given farms during the lifetime of their father.

• Burial: First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church Cemetery, 1738, Fishkill, Dutchess Co., NY. Find A Grave Memorial# 45240435. Tombstone in the Fishkill churchyard reads: "Hier Lydt het Lighaam van Pater D Bois, overledden den 22 van Januarie Anno 1737/8, ondt 63 Jaar."

Pierre married Jeannetje Burhans, daughter of Jan Jacobsen Burhans and Helena Traphagen, 12 Oct 1697 in Kingston, Ulster Co., NY. (Jeannetje Burhans was born about 1676 in Brabant, Ulster Co. and died after 1735.)