The following are a series of miscellaneous notes regarding Judge Henry Wynkoop's home Vredensberg\Vredensburg\Vredenshof in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. These notes have been gathered from a variety of sources, some fragmentary at best and as such they cover a wide range of subjects. By placing them here together it is hoped that the reader will receive a broader view of life on Judge Henry's estate.

    Enjoy,
    Chris

    Henry, son of Nicholas Wynkoop, was born March 2nd 1737 - very little is known of his early life - most likely brought up in the plain way on the farm. ... He inherited the homestead farm - large and very productive which he called Vredensburg. It was situated in the angle formed by the junction of two roads and as the house was considerably inland it was necessary to have two long lanes to reach either road. These lanes he planted with cherry trees of the choicest fruit. The grand-children can only remember them as very large some on the decay and the pleasure they had in eating the fruit. Besides this there was a great variety of other fruit. A large apple orchard well selected and a second orchard of Virginia crab, of which the famous cider was made and sold in the Philada. market directly from the press for forty-dollars a hogshead. The buildings were ample and convenient. The dwelling was and is a substantial old fashioned stone building. Four rooms and two entries, with a large kitchen and sitting room for the work people on the first floor.
    This farm adjourned that of Gerardus Wynkoop cousin to Henry between whom an intimacy existed more like brothers.
    Mr. W. was in the habit of having his children and grand children spend the Fourth of July with him at the old home - a real gala day, especially to the youngsters. Here Mr. R. being rather short and rotund - would roll down the banks of the terraced garden for the amusement of the children - a day of great enjoyement to old and young - tho' apt to pay a penalty on their return home - after a sumptuos feast. As it was before these degenerate days of prohibition, we were treated to a glass of wine, after dinner.
    Mr. W. died in the spring of 1817 aged eighty years - leaving what was then considered a large estate. His large and productive farm of 250 acres he left to his only son, Jonathan, likely with the hope that it would remain in the family for generations, but how delusive are all such hopes. Jonathan's only son died in early manhood. His father after that sold the farm and spent the rest of his days in the village of Newtown - one of the grandsons wished to purchase it, and offered more for it than it was sold for at public sale - but his offer was not accepted and the revered Vredensburg passed from the possession of the family into the hands of strangers.

    His old house was delightfully large and stood in the midst of a very large farm. The best parlor had tiles with beautiful pictures on them all around the chimney place. Then in the dining room stood a tall clock, just opposite the kitchen door and a very little round hole in the door for the servants to look through when they wanted to see the time. Back of the kitchen was the "stove room", where old Grannie Maria, the colored woman, used to spin and knit. There was one little room with shelves all around it called the cheese room, because the cheeses were always put there to dry.
    Around the house were many large fruit trees and just in front was a terraced garden where the children used to roll down the beautiful grassy slopes. How impatient was Grandma to have on the white dress that was always ready. They rode the old horse 'round the fields, swung away up among the leafy branches of the old ash tree, climbed ladders in the barn, jumped on the hay --- ---

From Mary Mays Beatty's "Wynkoop Records" notes papers.

    ... It was old Isabel who when the British soldiers were prowling about the country hid the silver under the floor in the room above the cheese room.

    Before the development on the old Wynkoop place Vredensburg, when all remains were destroyed, there were still the ruins of what I was told were the old slave's homes (of stone) down near the creek. - Bettyne Beatty Hull Mar. 25, 1988

    Jonathan - third son of Henry Wynkoop was born June 21st. 1776_ He grew up very slender and rather tall, and became a farmer_
    ... he returned to his fine farm, and old homestead which he cultivated so judiciously that it became one of the most productive in the county_ He was very successful in raising fruit - having twenty seven kinds of pears - a large production of plums and many other kinds - apples &ct_
    Here he lived in the enjoyment of his family, till the terrible stroke in the death of his only son_ Then - greatly to the regreat of the family connection - the revered old place, after having been in the family to the fourth generation was sold_ The change soon told upon its appearance_ Instead of being written Vredensburg - verdant hill - Ichabod* would be more appropriate. (*Meaning inglorious - chw)

    "He was much interested in the cultivation of his farm, one of the finest in the county, and planted a large orchard of the Virginia crab apple, which made the finest of cider, and was sold in Philadelphia, immediately from the press, at forty dollars a hogshead. It was supposed that the recipient in the city sold it for champagne. His colored man mentioned to someone that he was afraid his master was going to fail, he saw so much cider put in the cellar and never saw any of it taken out. He was not aware that it was passed through a process of fining and decanting, and finally disposed of, greatly to his master's advantage, in champagne bottles. The farm was planted with a variety of fruit. The long lanes reaching from the buildings to roads on either side was lined with a variety of the finest cherries and his son also planted a number of pear trees of twenty-seven varieties, besides a great variety of other fruit."

    This cider apple, also known as Hughes' Crab and Virginia Crab, was the most common fruit variety grown in eighteenth-century Virginia. In an 1814 letter to James Mease that was published in the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, Jefferson attempted to recall the history of the Hewes': "I remember it well upwards of 60 years ago, & that it was then a common apple on the James river." In property advertisements in Williamsburg's Virginia Gazette between 1755 and 1777, the Hewes' Crab appeared more times than all other described fruit varieties combined. Jefferson wrote home from Chestertown, Maryland in 1797 and suggested the superior reputation of Hewes' cider: "It will be worth his [son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph] while to have the making of his crab cyder well attended to hereafter, as I learn here that good cyder of the qualities commonly at market sell for a quarter of a dollar the bottle, wholesale. Crab cyder would probably command more." A friend of Jefferson, John Hartwell Cocke, proclaimed that the Hewes' produced "the best cider I have ever seen."

    The Hewes' is a maverick apple. Its vigorous, growth habit suggests that it may be a cross between a native American crabapple, Malus angustifolia, and the domesticated apple of horticulture. Virginian Landon Carter's "crabs" were the only apple unhurt by a late spring frost in 1772. In 1814 Henry Wynkoop of Pennsylvania lamented the unexplained decline in the health of his dessert apples, yet he rejoiced in the "smooth and fair" progress of his Hewes' Crabs. The fruit is very small, one to two inches round, with a dull-red to bright, pinkish-red skin. When pressing the Hewes' for cider, the juice "runs through the finest flannel like spring water," or, according to another writer, "the liquor flows from the pumice as water from a sponge." The juice, described as "ambrosia" by one colleague, is both sugary and pungently tart, cinnamon-flavored, and delicious.

    -- Peter J. Hatch, Director, Monticello Department of Gardens & Grounds