Letter from Christina Wanshaer to Henry Wynkoop,
November 5, 1768.

Address:

To ?nr
Henry Wynkoop
at Northampton
thece(?)

New Yor.c 5 Novmber 1768
Lieve kinders

Dit is om U te laeten weeten dat ick door
den heere sonderlingen genaden nogh gesont
byn daer ick hem noit genoegh voor Looven
En danken kan en ick heb de heere ondersteu
nende genade tot troost van mijn zijd ondervond.
in mijn droefhijt so dat de dagen mij kort zijn
En de naghten soet want de heere troost
Mij, want hij heeft mijn sak ontbonden en
Een lofsang in mijn mont gegeven Niet meer
.o.r(?) deese als weest van ons alle gegroet en
wensche U alle hil en Seegen en verblijven uwer
tederlievende moeder
Christina Wanshaer

P.S het schint my toe of
J ik hier nogh Een jaar
blive wone sal
soen de kinders voor mij
In groote hast

    Cor Snable wrote: "As you can see there is one word at the end I'm having trouble with. Even within the context of the whole sentence I don't know what to make of it. The first letter is vague, the second must be an [o] the third is in my opinion not an [e] if you compare it with other [e]'s, it's leaning forward and all the others are leaning backwards. And the fourth is an [r].

    Translating this letter is in some parts a little difficult, because the sentences are somewhat incoherent, so it's more interpretation than translation, but I will try to keep the sentences as authentic as possible.

New Yorc, 5 Novmber 1768
Dear children

This is to let you know that I, by the Lords peculiar mercy, am still healthy, for which I can never praise and thank Him enough. And I have experienced the comfort of the Lords supportive mercy at my side in my sadness. For my days are short and the nights are sweet, because the Lord comforts me. Because he has dissolved my case and given me a song of praise in my mouth. No more [talk?-chw] of this, as we send greetings from us all and wish you all salvation and blessings. Remaining your tender loving mother
Christina Wanshaer

P.S. It seems to me that I will be living here for another year.
Kiss the children for me.
In great haste.

    Although I doubt a farewell letter is written "in great haste", it is possible that it was her last letter and that this was the reason for the family to save it for 234 years. I couldn't think of another reason, the contents of the letter are not earth-shaking.

Hope this helps
Regards
Cor

Source:

Wanshaer, Christina, "5 Novmber, 1768 Letter to Henry Wynkoop at Northampton", Spruance Library, Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pa., Collection of the Joseph Henry Beatty Family, Manuscript 445, Folder 2.

    Christina (Egberts) Wanshaer was the mother of Henry Wynkoop's first wife, Susannah Wanshaer of Essex County, New Jersey. Henry and Susannah's first child, Christina, was named after her. It is not known when she passed away, although it was obviously some time after November 5th, 1768.

    As Cor has pointed out and Christina mentions herself, this letter was written in great haste! There was only one punctuation mark in the original letter and that comes about a third of the way through. The rest of this missive is one huge run-on sentence, (a sort of 18th century stream-of-consciousness piece of writing), which is where the art of interpretation comes into play. There are so many ways to parse this one sentence that meanings shift like a field of wheat on a windy day; what looks like one thing one minute, becomes something entirely different the next.

    I would like to thank my good friend Cor Snabel, cor.snabel@wxs.nl, of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands for transcribing and interpreting this old family letter for me. I've been dying to read this letter for several years now and Cor very generously made that possible.

    As with all old documents, nothing was straightforward, as Cor explains:

    "As you can see there is one word at the end I'm having trouble with, even within the context of the whole sentence I don't know what to make of it. The first letter is vague, the second must be an [o] the third is in my opinion not an [e] if you compare it with other [e]'s, it's leaning forward and all the others are leaning backwards. And the fourth is an [r]."

    "Translating this letter is in some parts a little difficult, because the sentences are somewhat incoherent, so it's more interpretation than translation, but I will try to keep the sentences as authentic as possible."

    After several different interpretations of the letter, Cor decided to share it with a friend: "It's always nice to analyze this kind of letter with someone else and the fact that my friend is a female, probably added another insight to the discussion. She could not read the crucial word either, but in her opinion the "zaak", (sak, this is spelled now as zaak, meaning case), means that Christina was struggling with an emotional matter and that she had given it in Gods hand. He (dis)solved the problem and gave her peace of mind [given me a song of praise in my mouth]. The crucial word could mean that she had no worries about it anymore.

    In my opinion that's the answer to our dilemma.

    Maybe she was referring to the death of a loved one."

    Cor, I think you succeeded brilliantly! Thank you and your friend so much. I am very grateful for your help and expertise.

    All my best,

    Chris