"Dirck Keyser, The
Founder of the Family in America, was born in 1635; he was up to the time of his
departure from Germantown engaged in the manufacture and sale of all kinds of
silk and silk wares, on Printzen Graght opposite Reestraat in Amsterdam. His
marriage with his first wife, Elizabet ter Himpel is recorded with the
formalities belonging to a man of prominence; the banns were published at
Amsterdam, in all the churches, and on the 22nd of November 1668, the marriage
formally solemnized in the church at Buyckesloot, in the presence of the Lord
and congregation. She died Monday, the 12th of May, 1681, aged forty-three
years six months. By this marriage he had two sons, Dirck,
and Pieter Dirck Keyser; and one daughter Elizabet, who died June 23,
1681. He married a second time, Johanna Harperts Snoeck also in the
church at Buyckesloot on the 22nd of November 1682. She lived only four
years, and on Thursday, the 29th of August, 1686, was buried from his residence
on the Printzen Graght in the Wester Kerk, in the thirty-eight year of her
age. By this marriage he had a daughter Johanna
and one Cornelia who died 22 October 1686. Two years after, in
1688, he emigrated with his little motherless family from Amsterdam, then being
fifty-three years of age. He brought with him his sons, Pieter
Dirck, and Dirck by the first wife; and his daughter Johanna
by his second wife, the survivors of the family of five children. They
arrived in New York in the fall of the year 1688; his daughter
Johanna, a little girl five years old, died on their way to
Germantown in September that year. He could not remember the day she was
buried, but the place was on a plantation named Congenaue between that city and
Philadelphia. He was a man of most excellent scholarship, of exceptional
refinement and of great determination and endurance -- qualities, some of which,
as we have seen, were notably shown by the first bearers of our surname, of whom
we have knowledge. He invested in land in Germantown, first a purchase
from Cornelius Cieuviers on the 9th March, 1688, prior to his coming here,
twenty-five acres, and then fifty acres from Strieper in April 1689, and again
twenty-five acres on the 12th September, 1689, from Herman up de Graff, attorney
for Dirck Sipman. He was one of the original possessors who cast lots
April 4, 1689, and drew lot 22, fifty acres as originally located October 29,
1687. It lay on the east side of the Main Street toward the Bristol
Turnpike. He was naturalized March 7, 1691, taking the oath of allegiance
to the British government and again by act of Assembly 1708. He was
engaged in the ministration of the Gospel until his death, a venerated father of
the family, and beloved follower of the Saviour.
"We have been abler to make certain the fact that he was exercising the
duties oof the ministry from 1708 to 1714 here in the old log meeting house -
the First Mennonite Church of Germantown - and the first in the Province; the
following record of a marriage is in the old family Bible to Jacob Kolp,
'Married, Jacob Kolb and Sarah Van Sintern May 2nd 1710 by Dirck Keyser in the
presence of the full congregation in the log meeting house in Germantown.'
He was among the first promoters of the first school in Germantown - and its
continuous supporter, his first subscription was made to it December 27, 18702.
s
"He lived until the 30th of November, 1714, and died here aged
seventy-nine years. He carefully preserved the records of the marriages
and deaths in his immediate family on the male and female sides and they are yet
in the family's possession. Among his effects was a copper plate which
contains the arms of Holland, his monogram, place of business, the arms of the
family, with silkworms and skeins of silk, which was used in his business, it
has been an object of much interest to the family and is now in the possession
of Hannah Nice, its oldest living descendant now (1889) ninety-four years of
age; it was engraved over two hundred years ago, and is in perfect
preservation. He was, if we may study his portraiture backward from the
general characteristics of the family, a tall man, erect, with blue eyes and
dark hair; these are probabilities. His dress was in the style of the
time, of which there are very numerous representations.
TO:
Keyser Bicentennial Reunion Book (Beginning)
TO:
DIRCK KEYSER (Emigrant)
TO:
DIRCK KEYSER, Junior (Son/Emigrant)
TO:
PIETER DIRCK KEYSER, Junior (Son/Emigrant)
TO:
ENDURANCE AND STATURE OF KEYSERS
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