The Northampton Township Historical Society received, recently, a most unusual and certainly a most valuable contribution - the portrait of Judge Henry Wynkoop. The portrait, a donation of Mrs. Dorothy Ernst of Massachusetts, a direct descendant of the Judge, while serving as a reminder of Wynkoop's local activities, also presents a challenge to the local historian.
    The Wynkoop portrait is impressive, not only for its historical significance, but as a work of art. Although the portrait is unsigned, Wynkoop's descendants attribute it to Rembrandt Peale, and verification has been made by an authority on the subject. [1] Further substantiation has been obtained by an inquiry of the Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, which revealed that Henry Wynkoop is, indeed, on the list of known portrait sitters for Rembrandt Peale, although the actual date is unknown. It is known, however, that Rembrandt Peale was active in the Philadelphia area around 1809. Assuming Peale to be the artist, the quest in search of further details begins.
    Several sources indicate that Rembrandt Peale, son of Charles Willson Peale, was born in lower Bucks County, possibly somewhere in Northampton Township on a "Mr. Vanartsdalen's farm." At this point the obvious question is: who was Mr. Vanartsdalen and where was his farm?
    To solve this riddle, various research avenues are open to historians. Land deeds, wills, and Orphans Court records are available at the court house in Doylestown, Pa. Genealogies, diaries and Bibles are stored at the Bucks County Historical Society as well as in The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Investigating old maps can take you to the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. A minor problem arises concerning the maps, however - while many maps of the Philadelphia area exist, very few detailed Bucks County maps of the 18th century are available. With this variety of source material at hand, the question remains: would it be possible to identify the Vanartsdalen farm where Rembrandt Peale was born, and unravel the mystery whose beginning reaches back almost 200 years?
    Much exciting and interesting information is available in the diaries of Rembrandt Peale's father Charles Willson Peale. [2] Charles, a painter of portraits and miniatures, originally lived in Maryland. In 1776, because of political differences, the family moved to Arch Street, Philadelphia. Here Charles, zealous patriot that he was, responded to the call for

militia volunteers, and was made a captain in a Philadelphia company of Associators.
    Throughout the summer of 1777 his company was charged with protecting the city from British capture. Rumors became rampant, however, of the impending fall of Philadelphia to the British, and the subsequent threat to the families of the revolutionaries. Peale began to search for a new home for his large family, consisting of his wife, two children, mother and sister.
    His diary of this wartime period of 1777-78 gives an insight into the life of a man who was a fiercely loyal soldier, inventor, portrait painter of Washington and fellow officers, but, equally important, a worried family man. Military duty was not to be shirked, but the family's safety came first. At that time, to the despair of the army, soldiers with family problems often took leave of the military, returning to their units when matters at home were settled. Peale was no different. He traveled around the countryside from Jersey to Lancaster searching for a haven for his family. He would find one, only to hear that the enemy was approaching, and the search would begin once more. The culmination of this quest pointed him in the direction of Bucks County.
    Peale sought help from his friend, Col. Hugh Tomb, whose home was in Northampton Township. Receiving several offers of lodging through Tomb's intercession, Peale chose the Vanartsdalen farm. Though he would have preferred a location farther from the battle zone, his beloved wife was pregnant again, winter was approaching and travelling would be difficult. Until she was "out of the straw", [3] as Peale so aptly put it, the Bucks County farm must do.
    On the morning of October 7, 1777, Charles and family arrived at the "Buck", a tavern still in existence in Feasterville, Pa., north of "Bustle Town" (Bustleton). At the Buck he found the wagons he had engaged earlier, and paid $12 to "the wagonears for their trouble." Transferring their possessions to these wagons, they proceeded to the Vanartsdalens or, as Peale often recorded in his diary, to "Mr. V.".
    Local history records show that the large Vanartsdalen family owned or rented many farms in the townships of Northampton and Southampton. Therein lies the problem - nowhere in his diary does Charles identify Vanartsdalen, either by Christian name or first initial, yet the diary is filled with other details. Monthly accounts note payment to "Mr. V." for rent, firewood, and such food as "1 1/2 lb. of lard, 8 gall. of cyder, 2 doz. eggs, pt. of Honey, 2 bushels of wheat, and cash . . . to pay the miller." He purchased "Fowl, veale," pork, hay and corn from Bennet, Hagerman, "Winekoop," and Cornell - all Northampton Township neighbors.
    When he needed transportation to Lancaster, Peale hired the wagon of local farmers Mr. Hagerman or Mr. Leffert. Other times he borrowed a horse from "Esq. Winekoop," noting in his diary: "Memorandum - to be careful never to give much flower [flour] to a Horse - I had like to have killed the horse which I had of Mr. Winecoop by this food."
    When other staples were needed, he rode to the village store at the tavern of Mr. Latham [Richard Leedom], where Peale purchased "1/2

Reading Howell's map of 1792 shows some of the locations mentioned in Charles Willson Peale's diary the year his son Rembrandt was born: Newtown, "Cross Roads," and the farms of "Wincoops", and Leedom. Library Company of Philadelphia.

Township Farm Map, the earliest known map to show owners and boundary lines.
    This proved to be anything but simple. The only John Vanartsdalen who owned property in Northampton Township during the 1770's died in the winter of 1776-77, months before Peale's arrival. Moreover, John's grandfather was Cornelius, not "Nicholas, who had married Jane Vansant." A genealogical search of the Vanartsdalen family proved instead that John and Nicholas were brothers. It further revealed the improbability of a grandson of Nicholas providing a haven for Charles Peale, because the oldest son of Nicholas was only 16 years old in 1777.
    A check through the wills disclosed that the Vanartsdalen property owners in Northampton and Southampton Townships after the 1760's were all brothers whose father, Simon, had moved to Southampton after 1726. Since two of the five brothers stayed in Southampton, they can be ruled out. However, three others, Christophel (Stoffel), Simon, and John, resided in Northampton.
    Of these three brothers, Christophel is the first to be eliminated, since he died late in 1764 without a will, and his wife died two or three years later. No property was inherited from the parents. The children were presumably "farmed out" with relatives, as was the custom, and the only land they sold was that which they inherited from a grandfather Kroesen. So the Peales could not have rented Christophel Vanartsdalen's property.
    Simon, the second brother, owned a plantation straddling the Northampton - Southampton boundary on Bridgetown Pike. Simon also owned a 124 acre tract nearby on Buck road, Northampton. In his will, probated 1794, Simon left this 124 acre tract to his son, Simon, Jr., who was already living on it when the will was written. Simon, Jr. would have been 25 years old in 1777-'78. and possibly could be the Simon whose name appears on the military rolls of the Revolution. If this was true, he probably did not farm the tract until the war ended and he married.
    There were at least six younger brothers and sisters of Simon Jr. living at the homestead on Bridgetown Pike, and, if he was not in the service, presumably he remained at home, helping his father around the farm. With such a large family to house, giving refuge to the Peale family appears to be out of the question, and raises serious doubts that either Simon or his son, Simon Jr., was the host to the Peales.
    The third brother whose home was in Northampton was John, who died in the winter of 1776-'77. At John's death, his farm of 250 acres was divided among his five children:: Simon, a theology student in New Brunswick, N.J.; Garret, aged 19, and three daughters, all married, who later, along with Simon, sold their shares of the farm to Garret.
    Simon returned home at his father's death, remaining there during the winter of 1777-'78 with his brother Garret and their mother. With the married sisters living in their own homes, this farmhouse probably had enough room to provide lodging for strangers. Furthermore, according to Peale's diary, upon his arrival at the Vanartsdalen farm, "Mr. V."

assisted him in fixing a bayonet to his gun. Simon, though a theological student, was a blacksmith by trade. Perhaps Simon was the Vanartsdalen who used his skill to repair Peale's gun.
    Further coincidences exist. Simon wrote a letter to a fellow theological student and friend, John Bogart, [6] on June 25, 1778, relating how the Tories made it unsafe for the patriots in their own homes, often dragging them out of bed. Only a month earlier, Charles Peale had written in his diary about the Merchant Men, those British sympathizers who at night raided the farms of known patriots. These dreaded night visitors not only stole food, cattle and horses, and sold them to the British army, but often captured the patriots in their beds either to hold them for ransom or to turn them over to the British army.
    Mrs. Peale begged her husband to stay at camp, as his presence at home endangered his family. After dark, he would frequently take his gun and dog, and make his bed in the fields near the house to avoid detection. Were Peale and Simon Vanartsdalen writing of the same events, or were the visits of the Merchant Men so common everywhere that most communications made note of them?
    After frequent reviewing of the diary of Charles Peale, one piece of the puzzle fell into place. On the day Peale moved his family to Bucks County, he mentioned paying the "wagonears" $12 for their trouble when they met him at the Buck. They then proceeded to "Mr. V." and Peale paid the "wagonears" 9 pounds "for bringing us this 7 miles."
    If you drive the distance from the Buck Inn to the homestead of Simon Vanartsdalen, whose property straddled the township lines, and also to his nearby 124 acre tract, you will find the distance measures only a few miles. From the Buck, however, to the 210 acre farm of the deceased John, whose sons, Simon (the theology student) and Garret were in residence, the distance measures about 6 1/2 miles. Considering the accuracy of measuring distances in those days, and more recent road changes, Peale's 7 mile measurement is fairly accurate. Using the Buck Tavern as a starting point, seven miles in any direction would take you out of Southampton Township, thus eliminating the farms of the two brothers residing in that township.
    Additional travelling is possible. At the end of the diary of the 1777-'78 period, Charles Peale has a list of directions and miles to some local points and areas. He begins with a "run(e)" or creek, goes northwest by West 4 miles to the "X Roads", [Cross Roads, now Hartsville], then southwest by south 4 miles to the "Billet" [Hatboro], northwest one mile to a church, etc. If one begins at the creek at Bristol Rd. and Second Street Pike (south of Richboro), then drives to Hartsville on Bristol Rd., it being "NW by W", 4 miles is the distance. Go "SW by S" on York Rd. 4 miles and arrive in Hatboro, and the Horsham Meeting House is about one mile "NW" of Hatboro. These and other distances he mentions are fairly accurate. It may be assumed, then, that the 7 miles to "Mr. V." is accurate too, and that the property where Charles Peale's son, Rembrandt, was born was indeed that of the deceased John Vanartsdalen.

A page from Charles Willson Peale's diary IV (1777-'78) showing his itinerary. It is headed: "From the Rune at Turn of the Road on this side of Lathums [Leedom's] to the X Roads" [Crossroads, later called Hartsville]. The mileage to "the Billet", "Church", etc. recorded here was used to pin-point "Mr. V.'s" farm where Rembrandt Peale was born. American Philosophical Society.

1. Mr. Charles Childs, formerly Childs Art Gallery, Boston, now Stow, Massachusetts. [Back]
2. Diaries of Charles Willson Peale, Manuscript Room, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pa. [Back]
3. Charles Coleman Sellers, Charles Willson Peale, (New York, 1969), p. 157. Peale's wife was attended "in the straw" by an unidentified German woman. The baby's birth was unusually easy, so easy that the family referred to it later as "that fortunate delivery". [Back]
4. Horace Wells Sellers, "Transcriptions and personal notes of Charles Willson Peale's diaries", Manuscript Room, American Philosophical Society. [Back]
5. Ibid. [Back]
6. The John Bogart Letters, Rutgers College, (New Brunswick, N.J., 1914). [Back]

Source:

Geyer, Virginia B., "Will the Real Mr. Vanartsdalen Please Stand Up?", The Bucks County Historical Society Journal, Vol. 1, No. 10 (Fall 1976): pp. 13-18

    I would like to thank Mrs. Virginia B. Geyer, the author of this terrific article, for fulfilling another long-time dream of mine and granting me permission to reprint it here for your enjoyment. This is a great piece of detective work and what's more it also contains an anecdote or two concerning Judge Henry Wynkoop that I've never read anywhere before, proving that there's still gold to be mined out there. Thank you so much Mrs. Geyer!

    I would also like to express my thanks to Cynthia D. Earman, cearman@mercermuseum.org, Director of Library Services for the Spruance Library at Bucks County Historical Society in Doylestown, PA. Cynthia very kindly researched the rights issues for Mrs. Geyer's articles and then acted as go-between for us when I sought Mrs. Geyer's permission to reprint her great work. Thanks so much Cynthia, you've been an enormous help!

    All my best,

    Chris