Copyright 1999 Perry Streeter (Content updated 24 November 2002) (c) 1999 Perry Streeter mailto:perry@streeter.com http://www.perry.streeter.com This document is Copyright 1999 by Perry Streeter. It may be freely redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. I am seeking all genealogical and biographical details for the family documented below including their ancestors, children, and grandchildren and the spouses thereof, including the full names of those spouses' parents. All additions and corrections within this scope, however speculative, will be greatly appreciated. Daniel Brinson of Middlesex, New Jersey 1. William-A Brinson, was born in England about 1620. He married Margaret _____. The Brinsons were of Membury Parish, Devonshire, England. The Brinsdon name appears, with spelling variants Brinson, Brunsdoune, Brunsdon etc, in the early Membury parish registers (late 1500s through 1600s). Members of the same family also appear in the very early Yarcombe registers. It is difficult, however, to link the early entries with succeeding generations. I have tried to work out the family group, but it is a highly speculative exercise because there are so many gaps (eg burials but no baptisms). I can say that they seem to disappear from the PRs [parish registers] sometime early in the 1700s. Where did they go? Did other members of the family sail to America I wonder? The name is not common in the area - in fact I haven't found it anywhere else within the vicinity. I can also tell you that Greenland is certainly not a local name in South Somerset, Dorset or East Devon, so [it] seems to me your Daniel must have married Frances Greenland elsewhere (probably America) and not in Membury or surrounding parishes. The infrequency of the name in the established church records may signify that their sympathies lay elsewhere. In addition to other non-conformist groups, there was an early Quaker community in the Membury area, although I have found no evidence of links with the Brinsdon family yet. In 1685, after the Monmouth Rebellion, a William Brinsdon from Membury was reported "out in the Rebellion" by the constables but never brought to trial. This means he was absent or away during the rebellion and clearly suspected of being a participant. When a man was reported missing and did not return, it usually meant he was killed in the fighting. (Deborah Carmichael, correspondence [22 August 2002]) Child: 2. i. Daniel-1, m. Frances Greenland. 2. Daniel-1 Brinson, was born in Membury Parish, Devonshire, England on 8 September 1653; he died at Middlesex, Somerset County, New Jersey about 1696. Daniel was married on 8 August 1681 to Frances-2 Greenland (Henry-1). Frances was also born in Membury Parish, Devonshire, England about 1653; she died in Princeton, Somerset County, New Jersey between 1750 and 1756. She was the daughter of Dr. Henry-1 and Mary (_____) Greenland. ...the First Settler was Daniel Brynson, who came direct to Penn., and then to New Jersey, to head a fairly numerous descendency... The best short statement of him is to be found in Jan of Rott. (pp. 312-3), with reference to the Somerset Historical Quarterly, (8 Vols., Misc. Gen). (Vol. III, p. 289) (Orra Eugene Monnette, Colonial and Provincial History and Genealogy First Settlers of Ye Plantations of Piscataway and Woodbridge Olde East New Jersey 1664-1714; [Los Angeles, California: The Leroy Carman Press; 1932]; Part Four; p. 591) Frances, daughter of Princeton's first settler, Henry Greenland and Daniel, who came from Devon, England in 1677 aboard [the] ship Willing Mind, first settled in Bucks Co., Penn. By 1685/86 they moved to a 300 acre tract on [the] north branch of Stony Brook, about a mile from the Millstone River. Quaker John Horner willed funds for building Stony Brook Meeting House. In some cases Daniel's name was spelled Brymson. (James Vliet, "The Van der Vliet Family in America"; manuscript) Daniel Brinson, the son of William Brinson, of Devonshire, England, came to America about 1677. He married Frances, daughter of Dr. Henry Greenland and Mary his wife... Brinson's children were: Barefoot, named for his grandfather Greenland's great friend (perhaps not relative), Dr. Walter Barefoote, and the only one mentioned by his grandfather in his will; Margaret, who married John Van Vliet (or Fleet); Mary, who married first, a Farnsworth, and second, Adrian Beekman; and Anne, who married William Davidson. (William H. Benedict, "The Brunson (Brinson--Brynson) Family," Somerset County Historical Quarterly, [Vol. III] [1914]) A house with similar bark-covered joists [to those found in the house of Henry-1 Greenland], probably contemporary with Greenland's, exists (though much rebuilt) in Princeton Borough at 36 Edgehill Street, a property then bordering on Stony Brook, the Millstone's longest tributary. Beneath the later work is a the house probably built by Daniel Brinson, a farmer, whose name is found in a "Petition from Persons from England for Grants of Land." Fourteen signers at Burlington in 1679 asked for farm land upon which to settle "between Mr. Pitter Alderridges Plantation [Peter Aldrichs, former Dutch leader at the South River Colony, lived at Newcastle, Delaware] & the falls of Dellowar River," now Trenton. Brinson may have settled before he recieved the deed from Thomas Budd of West New Jersey (dated February 10, 1685[6]) for three hundred acres of alnd, as in the deed he is already called a "planter near Stony Brook in ye Province afores-d [West New Jersey]. Also the deed states "...now in tenure or occupation of ye said Daniell Brenson...," indicating settlement. ...In any event, during the third quarter of the seventeenth century Henry Greenland and Daniel Brinson lived about three miles apart on the old Indian path between the Raritan and the Falls of Delaware. Thus is is not surprising that Daniel married Henry's daughter Frances. Their son, later sheriff of both Middlesex and Somerset Counties, had the unusual first name of Barefoot. This probably harks back to Henry Greenland's hectic earlier life when his close friend and staunch supporter was a doctor named Captain Walter Barefoot. (Elizabeth Grant Cranbrook Menzies, Millstone Valley [hereinafter Menzies], [New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press], 44). Following Henry Greenland's death in 1695, The Daniel Brinsons apparently moved to the Greenland tavern and presumably ran it..." In any event, when Daniel Brinson died, about a year after Henry Greenland, he was "of Milston River." Brinson, "being very Sicke," mad a nuncupative will on the 9th of June, 1696, "att night... And being satisified withing himself that his death was neare Approaching, called the persons here under named to him..." These included a widow, Mary Davis, whome he called back later and "sayed you are a Widdow, and knowing what it is to bring up children, pray putt forward my wife to gett my will provied if possible in twentie-four houres after my death." Daniel, though very sick, had much consideration for his family. He gave his wife "ffrances Brymson all his Stock and moveables And also halfe of his Plantation, the other half (he sayed then) he have to his sone Barefoot Brymson, if his sayed wife could spare it, upon Accompt of bringing up her children..." Poor Daniel was dead before teh 13th of June, 1696. "The Inventory of y-e Goods and Chatels of Daniel Bronson of Millston River" was made by Benjamin Clarke and Richard Stockton (early Princeton Quaker settlers) on the "11th day of Agst," 1696 and the list includes "2 hoxen" and 20 hogs (Henry Greenland has been, in particular, a hog farmer. He was acquitted of stealing hogs from Indians in 1686), a quantity of "Putar Platers" and other utensils for use at the an inn. Of highest value on the list (L-30) is an "Engen Gall," which is, of course, an Injun gal, or Indian girl, who must have been made a slave. Frances Brinson married John Horner of Princeton and the planation on the Millstone fell to Barefoot Brinson. (Menzies, 46). Children, born in Membury, Devon, England: i. Ruth-2, b. 6 Feb 1682/83; d. in Hopewell, Hunterdon Co., NJ about 1768; m. Colonel Joseph Stout. ii. Barefoot, b. 1686; d. NJ 1748/49; m. Marritje Laurence, dau. of Lawrenze Popinga and Catherine Lewis; earliest known sheriff of Somerset Co. acting perhaps from 1711 to 1730 (SCHQ). Children, surname Brunson: 1. John, m. _____ Arrowsmith. 2. Ruth. * iii. Margaret, b. 1689; d. after 1730; m. Jan-3 Janse Van der Vliet (Jan-2 Dirckes, Dirck-1 Jans) "The Brewer," b. (then Flatbush, now) Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY in Sep or Oct 1684, d. Six-Mile-Run, Somerset Co., NJ ca. 1737, son of Jan-2 Dirckes Van der Vliet and Geertje-2 Janse Ver Kerk; direct ancestors of the compiler; see Dirck Jans Van der Vliedt of Brooklyn, New York for more information. iv. Mary, b. 1692; d. before 1759; m. (1) Henry-2 Farnsworth, son of Thomas-1 and Susannah (Ellis) Farnsworth; resided in Kingswood Township, Hunterdon Co., NJ; m. (2) Adrian Beekman (SCHQ) v. Anna, b. 1695; d. about 1749; m. (1) Nathaniel Leonard; m. (2) James Gould; or m. William Davidson (SCHQ).