Once Home

According to Kenneth Shefsiek, on May 12, the State Assembly permitted Roelof and Solomon and twenty-five others (including Cadwallader Colden Jr.) to return to their homes. Although the exact date the Eltinge brothers returned to New Paltz is unknown, they likely did so as soon as possible. Certainly, they were anxious to be among their family and friends again and to resume their lives.

Yet their homecoming would be tainted by loss. Their father Josiah died at age seventy-one around April 1, 1784, between dates when Josiah purchased a church pew from Joseph Freer and when his heirs acquired nails and wooden boards for a coffin and possibly refreshments for the funeral. Whether Roelof and Solomon saw their father alive during their banishment in New York is unknown. Josiah’s will was probated on May 19, perhaps signifying that Roelof and Solomon had returned by this time. The family quickly went about settling the estate. A list of debts owed to Josiah was drawn up and Magdalena, his wife, signed a release of dower giving up all claims to the estate to her children, except for 25 pounds per annum for her upkeep. Magdalena died later that year.[1]

Because there was no evidence of them having had direct involvement with the British, both Roelof and Solomon appear to have regained their standing in New Paltz, if it had ever been truly lost. Upon returning, Roelof brought with him “out of the Gersey [Jersey]” 26 pounds, 2 shillings, and 8 pence. He soon resumed his merchant business in partnership with his second eldest son Ezekiel and, within a few years, was elected as one of the town’s Overseers of the Roads and then one of the Overseers of the Poor.[2]

From 1791 until his death in 1795, Roelof served as one of New Paltz’s “Twelve Men,” the land-management council consisting of representatives from each founding family to protect the New Paltz Patent. Roelof represented the share of Louis DuBois, his great-great-grandfather, while his elder brother Abraham Eltinge represented the share of their great-grandfather Abraham DuBois. The two brothers served alongside their longtime neighbors with patentee surnames, among them Jacob Hasbrouck Jr., Daniel DuBois, and Andries LeFevre Jr.[3]  

Also significant was the Owl Church congregation reuniting with the first Reformed Church in the village in 1783, a year before Roelof’s return home. There, in the stone church across the street from Roelof’s home, the family would have resumed attending services with their neighbors. Roelof died at age fifty-eight and Maria, age sixty-two, died in 1800, surviving her husband by five years. They were both buried at the old burying ground on Huguenot Street.[4]  

Solomon appears also to have resumed a normal life after returning from exile. In 1792, he married Catharine Van Deusen and moved to Hurley where her family resided (perhaps they met during the brothers’ imprisonment there). Catharine Van Deusen died in 1799 and, the following year, Solomon married Catharine “Tryntje” Louw, a cousin of his sister-in-law Maria. Solomon died at age sixty-seven in 1809, having no children of his own. He and both of his wives were buried at what is known today as the Old Hurley Burial Ground.[5]

Much has been made of the feud between the Eltinges and the Hasbroucks, supposedly behind the verdict that sent Roelof and Solomon to prison, with some saying that it continued well into the twentieth century. However, it is worth noting that George Wirtz (the husband of Esther Hasbrouck Wirtz whose money Eltinge refused back in 1776) continued to serve as the family’s doctor, receiving the sum of one pound, eleven shillings, and three pence as payment in full on Maria’s account in March 1800. In fact, the families were already linked by marriage by that time. In November 1797, two years after his father’s death, Roelof and Maria’s son Johannes married Jannetje Wirtz, daughter of George and Esther, at Marbletown. The young couple eventually had five children.[6]

Notes

[1] The timeline concerning Josiah and Magdalene’s deaths and activities around their estates was compiled from the following documents drawn from the Elting Papers, HHS Archives:

Deed, Church pew, Joseph Freer to Josiah Eltinge, March 31, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6776/rec/40.

List of goods sold to Josiah Eltinge and his heirs, March-May, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/4524/rec/41.

Josiah Eltinge’s Last Will and Testament, probated May 19, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6809/rec/15.

List of debts owed to Josiah Eltinge’s estate, May 20, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6681/rec/17.

Magdalena Eltinge’s Release of Dower, May 20, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6845/rec/16.

Letter from Roelof Eltinge in regards to his mother’s estate, November 5, 1784, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/9269/rec/5.

[2] Roelof Josiah Eltinge’s Diary cited earlier (page 13), https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/6378/rec/76.
Election Returns and Minutes and other records, Town of New Paltz, 1767-1836 (pages 47 and 54). New Paltz Town Records, courtesy of HHS, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/20734/rec/1 and https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/20737/rec/1.

[3] Election Returns and Minutes, Town of New Paltz, 1751-1824 (page 64). New Paltz Town Records Collection, courtesy of HHS, https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/20957/rec/1.

[4] Elting, The Descendants of Jan Elting, 36.

[5] Heidgerd, The Elting Family, 15.

[6]  Receipt, John & Roelof Eltinge by George Wirtz, March 22, 1800.  https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll153/id/29739/rec/7. Elting, The Descendants of Jan Elting, 53.