Peter Clover of Somerset County, NJ

Clover Family Research Compendium

Created, Edited, and Maintained By June Clover Byrne

For the Clover Family Historical Society

Divider

Peter Clover of Somerset County, New Jersey

This article was originally written and published by June Clover Byrne Fall 2001. Copyright 2001 June Clover Byrne. I have a few additional items to add as soon as I gather them together. I have located Sarah Emans birth for example and have much more information on the tax records.
Numbers in ( ) are for endnotes. Note

For an article on the difficulties and problems associated with research in New Jersey, please check the New Jersey Page.

Peter Clover of Somerset County, New Jersey

1.    Peter Clover was the eldest son of John Peter Clover and Catherine Sharp according to an article in Caldwell’s Atlas of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, published in 1878. “Peter, being the eldest son, after his father’s death, according to the old English law, inherited all the property.” There is no further information about him in this article.(1) There is a transcription and a scan of this article on the Pennsylvania County History page. It lists all of John Peter’s children and all of Paul’s children. Peter was too old to be in the guardianship records for his father, so no other proof of his parentage has been found. There are so many errors in county histories, and this article is so important, that it behooves us, as serious researchers, to check every detail possible in order to better gauge its reliability
    Peter Clover was born ca. 1744, as he died 1 January 1822, aged 78, buried in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Raritan Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. This cemetery was on Old York Road at Amwell First Presbyterian Church. The church is now at Reaville. (2) His place of birth is not proven.
    Peter married Sarah Emans. She first appears in the records on 3 March 1765, when she signs (with a mark) that she had received 12 shillings 3 pence and 3 farthings, money from the estate of her father, Johannis Emans. “...money belongs to the four children of Johannis Emans, deceased, names, Catrintje, Sarah, Abraham and Jacob.”
    On 5 July 1767, Peter Clover signed a paper stating that he had received the sum of £21.16.7, being money that Dirck Low received of Jacob Van Dyke in behalf of Sarah. Her signature as Sarah Clover is found on other documents in 1770, 1771, and 1772. In 1 June 1770, Peter Clover signed a receipt for money received from the estate of her grandfather, Andrew Emans. (3) The paper dated 5 July 1767 looks like someone, who had been in charge of her money, turned the funds over to Peter after her marriage. Remember that women were not thought to be intelligent enough to handle their own money. If so, this transaction was right after the marriage. Since the marriage had to have taken place before 1768, when their daughter Catherine was born, (4) a July 1767 marriage date is quite possible. In any case, she must have married between the 1765 date, when she is named as Sarah Emans, and 1767, when she is named as Sarah Clover.
    Sarah’s date of birth and date of death are not certain. There is no tombstone for her in the cemetery where Peter is buried. She was deceased by 10 May 1813, when Peter signed his will. See below for her baptism date of 1740. She may have been older than he was or his date on the tombstone may be wrong. He does not mention her in the will and she would have had a dower right to part of the estate. He left his estate to his two grandsons, Abraham C. Schenck and Peter C. Schenck. If he had other descendants, he does not mention them. He left his land, his slaves and his property to the two grandsons. (5) It has long been assumed that Peter had only two daughters, Catherine and the one who married a Schenck. However, I have been told that Catherine was the mother of the Schenck boys. I have tax records which support this which I will add later. It is not impossible that he had other children, but I think it unlikely.

New Jersey Church Records:
    FHL Microfilm 1016886 has Dutch Reformed Church Records from the Holland Society of America. All items in this series are transcribed from the original Dutch by hand into notebooks by Dingman Versteeg. Volume [Notebook] 76 has records for Hillsborough, Somerset County, New Jersey, formerly New Millstone Church, New Millstone, and North Branch, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. I ordered this film because I thought that any early church records of Somerset or Hunterdon Counties had to be pertinent to our interests. No Clover baptisms or marriages were found. Although many baptismal entries showed the maiden name of the mother, there were no Clovers.
    However, there was one set of entries of interest in the North Branch, Hunterdon County Church Records. Peter Clover married a Sarah Emans, the daughter of Johannis Emans. Catrintje, Sarah, Abraham and Jacob are named as siblings in the will of Johannis. I found the baptismal records for these children on the film.
page 83: Cathryn Emans baptized 12 February 1737/8, daughter of Johannis Emans and Tenntjie
page 90: Sarah Emans baptized 4 June 1740, daughter of Johannis Emans and Tenntjie
page 96: Abraham Emans baptized 29 Jan 1744, son of Johannis Emans and Tenntjie
page 102: Jacob Emans baptized 28 March 1746, son of Johannis Emans and Tenntjie

        There is a lot more Emans information on this film. As it happens, Dirk Van Low, the administrator for the estate of Johannis Emans, was married to a Rebecca Emans. The baptisms make it clear that this entry is the correct one for the Sarah Emans who married Peter Clover. According to his tombstone, he was born in 1744. They married between 1765 and 1767. He was of an appropriate age to marry, but she was four years his senior and a little old to be marrying. It is possible that he was slightly older than his tombstone states. In any case, she was an heiress.
    I should mention that there were entries for a John McKinney and his wife Elizabeth Wicoff. I mention this because Eliza Clover was supposed to have married a John McKinney. Since they are in Somerset County, this could be confusing.
    The Hillsborough Church Records from Somerset County stop in 1782 despite a catalog description of continuing to 1805. There is a note at the end that these records are continued in another volume.

    Peter must have been a prosperous citizen. His father’s estate was inventoried at £307.2.5 (6) This was somewhere around $21,000 in year 2000 dollars. This is approximate, and, if I have a professor of mathematics out there, please feel free to do it more accurately and send it to me. The estate would have had to bear the cost of raising the small children, but there would have been a nice sum left. And Peter would have inherited the blacksmith business. His father-in-law left an estate also.
    Peter was a blacksmith as was his father and his brother, Paul. We know this because Peter Clover’s name appears on a list of those paid money by the estate of Adrian Schomp, of Hillsborough Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, in 1780. He was due £4.16.3 for smithing. (7)
    Blacksmiths were vital members of the community and well paid. Remember that this was long before what we think of as manufacture and industry. So everything in the community that was made of metal was handled at one time or another by the blacksmith. Even nails were hand made by blacksmiths. Consequently, it is not surprising to hear in his will that he owned land and four slaves. His estate may have been substantial, although I do not at this time have the full account.
    The year before Peter wrote his will in May 1813, he freed one of his slaves. On 26 February 1812, Tom, a slave of Peter Clover, of Hillsborough, was freed in Somerset County. The owner of the slave had to bring him before two Justices of the Peace who certified that the slave was sound of mind and able to earn a living and was between the ages of 21 and 40. (8) In another article, Peter was included on a list of slaveholders in Somerset County in 1809. This article comments that far more slaves were owned in areas which were predominantly Dutch. “The Dutch seemed to have more liking for the custom than the English or Scotch.” (9)
    In addition to being a prosperous member of the community, Peter was surely considered an upright, dependable citizen. In May of 1775, he was a witness in a small law suit. Judith Low, widow of Laurance Demot was sued for trespass and damage. She removed part of a fence and pastured sheep in a meadow. Peter Clover bore witness that he had seen the defendant pull down 3 or 4 stakes and rails. Case was decided for the plaintiff. Subp. Rebecca Low.(10) He appeared as a witness twice in other estate papers. (11)
    Peter served in the Revolution in the 2nd Battalion of the Somerset, New Jersey Militia.
(12) Another source says that he served as a private from Hunterdon County in Captain Stout’s Company. This is the only entry for a Clover in the index to History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey.(13)
    On 25 November 1782, he is listed in the Grandin Fulling Mill Book as having made a purchase. The mill was located near Hamden, Hunterdon County.(14) A fulling mill, according to the dictionary, is a mill where cloth is cleaned, shrunk and pressed between pestles or stampers, which press it into a more compact shape.
    There are no census records in New Jersey until 1830, which is after his death. Tax records do exist. The earliest tax record in which Peter Clover appears is 1778.
    ▸    1778 Somerset County, NJ, Peter Clover, 142 acres, 3 horses, 7 cows, 8 pigs, 1 slave.

    Child of Peter Clover and Sarah Emans:
     2.    Catherine Clover, daughter of Peter and Sarah, born ca. 2 June 1768, as she died 2 November 1792, aged 24 years, 5 months 0 days, buried in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Raritan Township. Her father’s tombstone is in the same cemetery. (15) She may have married an Abraham Schenk because Peter had two grandchildren in his will. See the following information which I cannot substantiate.

        In Peter’s will, he names his grandsons. Unfortunately, he does not name their parents.
        3.   Peter C. Schenk
        4.   Abraham C. Schenk(16)

This county history article gives a lot of information on the other side of Peter C. Shenk's family. Mention of him is at the end.
Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey under the editorial supervision of Francis Bazley Lee, pages 466 and 467:

(II) Jacob or Jacobus van Doorn, son of Pieter and Jannetje (Rauchen) van Doorn (1), removed from the western end of Long Island and settled in Monmouth county, New Jersey, about 1698. The first record of his name is a notice of his reception as a member of the Church of Brooklyn, in 1695. He served on a jury in Monmouth in 1699, and we find his signature as a witness to a deed in 1700, which shows an unusual excellence in penmanship for those times. The land in possession of Jacob van Doorn at that time consisted of about six hundred and seventy-six acres, near the present village of Hillsdale, and was very fertile. It embraces the present farms of Thomas Ely, Jonathan Holmes and Dr. Cook. The northwestern corner of it is a piece of woodland now (1906) owned by Daniel van Doren. These lands were probably purchased between 1695 and 1699, for in the latter year Mr. van Doorn appeared as a permanent resident in that country. He probably procured the Indian title to the land, and also the proprietary rights from William Penn and William Gibson, to whom these lands are assigned on Reid's map of 1685. The original residence of the family was on the point of the hill about one mile west of the village of Holmdel, and near what is now known as Ely's Mills. It was no doubt built of logs, and this was succeeded in a few years by a more pretentious place of abode. Jacob van Doorn erected a grist mill on the stream coming down from the hills encircling Pleasant Valley, at an early date, when the wants of the surrounding community called for such a convenience. It remained in that location until 1829, when a new mill was erected about two hundred yards lower down on the stream, and the old one demolished. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and business tact, as evidenced by his possessing so large a tract of land and attending to all the business detail of the mill, and he took an active part in sustaining the good influence of the church, having been one of the first deacons in 1709, and an elder in 1714. He died between April 24, 1719, and March 21, 1720, when the larger number of his children were still minors, and the youngest was but four or five years of age. He married, about 1695 or even a year or two earlier, Marytje, who was still living in 1731, daughter of Arie or Adriaen Willemse Bennet and Angenietje or Agnes Jans, daughter of Jans Thomasse van Dyke, of Gowanus. Arie Willemse Bennet, Jacques and Bantyn, in 1636, purchased nine hundred acres of land at Gowanus from the Indians. The children of Jacob and Marytje (Bennet) van Doorn were: 1. Aria, born about 1695, died in 1748 or 1749, was about three years of age when his parents removed to Monmouth county. He married, about 1730, Antje, daughter of Jan Schenck and Saartje Couwenhoven, and she survived her husband. They had children:

1. Maritje baptized March 31, 1731, married John Couwenhoven, of Middletown. 2. Jacob, baptized January 1, 1734, unmarried, was living in 1767. 3. Sarah, born about 1736, unmarried. 4. Antje, baptized March 25, 1739, married Cyrenius van Mater, who lived near the Stone Hill north of Cole's Neck. 5. Neltje, baptized May 16, 1742, married (first) Hendrick Smock, of Freehold, and (second) Garret Hendrickson, of Middletown.

2. Engeltje, born about 1697, married, about 1718, Roelof Schenck, brewer, born April 27, 1697, died August 22, 1768. Their children were: 1. Garret, baptized May 31, 1719, died about 1793. He married (first) Mary van Sickles, born 1720, died January 14, 1778; and (second) Anne Ten Eyck. He was the father of Captain John Schenck, an officer in the revolution; grandfather of the late Peter C. Schenck, of Clover Hill; and great-grandfather of Rev. Dr. N. H. Schenck, of Brooklyn. [This sounds like John was the father of Peter C. Schenck but I think he was actually an uncle.]

The following information is interesting. I don't know what any of the sources are. I tried to look at church records but didn't find the marriage there. I did not do a complete study of it. I ordered one film which was worthless because it was so faded that no one could have read it.

http://www.conovergenealogy.com/conover-p/p443.htm
Catherine Clover (F)
(28. Jun. 1767 - 2. Nov. 1795)
     Catherine Clover was born on 28. Jun. 1767. She was the daughter of Peter Clover. Catherine Clover married Abraham Schenck, son of Garret Roelofse Schenck and Maria Van Sicklen, on 13. Sep. 1786 at Monmouth County, New Jersey. Catherine Clover died on 2. Nov. 1795 at age 28.
     Abraham Schenck was born on 28. Jul. 1763. He was the son of Garret Roelofse Schenck and Maria Van Sicklen. Abraham Schenck married Catherine Clover, daughter of Peter Clover, on 13. Sep. 1786 at Monmouth County, New Jersey. Abraham Schenck married [second?] Sarah Prall, daughter of Isaac Prall and Sarah Gray, on 3. Oct. 1796 at Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
This Abraham probably brother of Captain John Schenck.

Children of Abraham Schenck and Catherine Clover
    Abraham C. Schenck+ (2. Mar. 1789 - 8. Sep. 1864)
    Peter C. Schenck+ (17. Jan. 1791 - )

Endnotes

(1) See Pennsylvaina County History Page.
(2)“Tombstone Inscriptions from Hunterdon County Cemeteries,” Clover Family Exchange 2: 1: 9.
(3) John J. De Mott, “Dirck Low’s Public Business,” Somerset County (New Jersey) Historical Quarterly, 87-8.
(4) “Tombstone Inscriptions from Hunterdon County Cemeteries,” Clover Family Exchange 2: 1: 9.
(5) “Peter Clover Will,” Clover Family Exchange, Volume 4: 2: 12.
(6) New Jersey Calendar of Wills, 1761-1770, New Jersey Colonial Documents, Volume IV, (Somerville, New Jersey: The Unionist-Gazette Association, Printers, 1928), 81.
(7) John J. De Mott, “Dirck Low’s Public Business,” Somerset County (New Jersey) Historical Quarterly, 91-2.
(8) “Manumissions of Slaves in Somerset County,” Somerset County (New Jersey) Historical Quarterly, Volume 1 (1912), 275-6.
(9) “Additional Slaveholders’ List in Somerset,” Somerset County (New Jersey) Historical Quarterly, Volume VI (1917), 95-7.
(10) “The Docket of Jacob Van Noorstrand,” The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, Volume 44: 43.
(11) John J. De Mott, “Dirck Low’s Public Business,” Somerset County (New Jersey) Historical Quarterly, 179.
(12) Virgil D. White, transcriber, Index to Revolutionary War Service Records, (Waynesboro, Tennessee: National Historical Publishing Company, 1995), Volume 1: 527.
(13) James P. Snell, History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey, (Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1881), 86.
(14) “Grandin Fulling Mill Book, 1774-1785,” Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, Volume 53: 28 (1978).
(15) “Tombstone Inscriptions from Hunterdon County Cemeteries,” Clover Family Exchange 2: 1: 9.
(16) “Peter Clover Will,” Clover Family Exchange, Volume 4: 2: 12.

Return to Clover Trees and Trails

Return to Home Page

Contact me at junebyr@yahoo.com

Page Last Updated 17 September 2009