The Tutherlys and the Sperrys and a California Connection

If you are a Walker/Watters grandchild, David Folsom Tutherly (1819-1866) was your 3rd great grandfather. He married Susan Sperry (1824-1896). Susan had three brothers, Charles, Simon, and James. According to Deda's notes, the 'Sperry Boys' went west in 1863-1864, and David Tutherly was supposed to go with them, but he died before he could sell his farm in Claremont, NH. He died of pneumonia in 1866.

In the files are newspaper articles about two California Sperry families and two marriages. Determined to make the connection to the Tutherlys, I spent way too much time spent connecting the dots.  I've determined that these two Sperry women (if you are a Walker/Watters grandchild) are your 1st cousins 4 x removed. Since we have family on the West Coast, I was looking for a story about ancestors in California. And although the relationship is pretty diluted, the stories involve a Polish Prince and a Wealthy Nursery/Vineyard Owner. Unfortunately, no  matter how hard I searched I could not find images of either Elizabeth Helen Sperry Poniatowski or Harriet Evelyn Sperry West.

Elizabeth Helen Sperry was the daughter of Austin Sperry, the millionaire miller. Elizabeth married Andre Poniatowski, the second son of Prince Stanislas, head of the historic Polish house of that same name. Andre came to this country in 1894, the object of his visit being to offer his nobility for an heiress. His only income was a pension allowed him by the Russian government. The price reportedly paid by the Sperry's for Elizabeth's title was $1,000,000; enough to put Andre in the ranks of financiers. He formed a syndicate for the exploitation of rubber and pearl deposits in Paragua before moving to exploit the California Jockey Club whereby he intended to control all the big race tracks in the country. Eventually the Prince and Princess moved to Paris, where in 1912 the French government conferred on him the order of the legion of honor for his services in promoting the sale of French financial securities in America and American securities in France.

In a Pittsburgh Press 1915 article, it is stated that "in spite of the uncertainties of the title, the California girl has always behaved herself in a most exemplary way, and since her husband has finished sowing his wild oats, they have gained a large following in the exclusive society of the French capital, where they are both well thought of, the princess even more than her husband, as she expends a great part of her life in work among the poor of the city, especially the Polish people or those of Polish descent." Elizabeth died of an undetermined cause at the age of 30.

Elizabeth's cousin, Harriett Evelyn Sperry, married Frank Allen West. Frank's father George and his brother William owned El Pinal Ranch and Vineyards near Stockton. The Wests laid the foundation of their nursery business when few others in California took an interest in anything except the quest for gold, which had drawn thousands of people to the infant state. But when the mining fever abated and the exodus to the valley and the pursuits of agriculture began, the Wests were in a strategic position. Their business thrived and there was a demand for their nursery stock as far south as Riverside and San Diego. There was also a call for their grape vines and cuttings at points as far as Texas. 

A newspaper article describing the wedding of Evelyn and Frank in St. John's Episcopal Church states, "though the most fashionable event of the year by reason of the social prominence of the contracting parties, was marked by an utter abstinence of ostentation and by the quietness and good taste of its arrangements." After detailed descriptions of the clothing, the flowers and the music, it continues, "The ceremony was very short and proceeded without hitch of pause, the responses of both parties being given in a tone audible throughout the church." Although I have determined the date of the wedding to be November 15, I cannot confirm the year, although it was probably in the mid-1880's. Evelyn died on April 4, 1896 after being sick for "several months" so the marriage, though happy, was relatively short.

So there you have it: a bit of a Downton Abbey twist with a Polish Prince marrying an American heiress and the most fashionable event of the social year in San Francisco. The life of two cousins in 19th century California. And all with a tiny traceable connection to the Walker/Watters family.

Another NYC Mayor: Abraham De Peyster

Abraham De Peyster (1657-1728)

(If you are a Watters grandchild, he is your ninth great grand uncle)

Abraham De Peyster was appointed mayor by Governor Henry Sloughter in October 1691. Through his suggestion, the city started providing public support to the poor. From a wealthy merchant family, De Peyster also reportedly served in a number of public roles during his life, including stints as alderman, Associate Judge and later Chief Justice on the province's Supreme Court, President of the King's Council, and as Treasurer for New York and New Jersey provinces. He also served as a Colonel in the militia. Some sources state that he served as governor or acting governor of the Province of New York, which refers to a few months' time in 1701 after the death of Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont, when Lieutenant Governor John Nanfan was abroad. This left De Peyster, as the senior member of the Council, briefly in command until Nanfan returned.

From History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress:

The year 1695 was eventful in city improvements as well as political encounters. Notwithstanding all the inconveniences of war, there was a healthy, bustling activity among the people, and a rapid increase of population. There was more money in circulation than ever before, and merchants were extending their commerce and growing rich. The privateers and pirates whom the war sustained came here to buy provisions in exchange for gold and valuable commodities from the East.

Many new houses and stores sprang up, and real estate suddenly advanced. Colonel Abraham
De Peyster built a palatial mansion on Queen Street, nearly opposite Pine (note: Queen St. was renamed Pearl St). It was fifty-nine by eighty feet, and three stories high. It had a great double door in the center of the front, over which was a broad balcony with double-arched windows. This balcony was for nearly a century the favorite resort of the governors of New York when they wished to hold military reviews. The rooms of the house were immensely large (some of them forty feet deep), and the walls and ceilings were handsomely decorated. The furniture was all imported, and was elaborately carved and very costly. The grounds occupied the whole block, and there was a coach-house and stable in the rear.

The style of life of the family was the same as that of the European gentry of the same period. They indulged in elegant hospitalities and costly entertainments, the chief people of the city and province, and stately visitors from the Old World, were often grouped together under this roof. The silverware in daily use upon the table was estimated as worth about $8,500, and the most of it was of exquisite workmanship. The finest cut-glass and the rarest pattern of China adorned the quaint and massive sideboard; and the walls were hung with paintings from the old masters. They had sixteen household servants, nine of whom were negro slaves. De Peyster owned a tract of land on the north of Wall Street, east of Broadway to William Street, and thence toward the river, which was called the “Great Garden of Colonel De Peyster,” and which after his death was divided into lots and partitioned among his children. Around 1699, De Peyster donated some of his land holdings, part of his garden, for the construction of a new city hall. That city hall was later renamed Federal Hall, which briefly served as the first capitol of the United States, and the site of the first inauguration of George Washington as President.

Fast Forward to 2013: Son Douglas, who  lives in New York, saw this statue in a park and then noticed the article in the TriBeca Tribune.

Homeless and unwanted, a 355-year-old former mayor of New York City is finally returning to a place of distinction.

Rising 15 feet atop his pedestal, the bronze statue of Abraham 
De Peyster, Dutch-born mayor of New York City during the late 1600s, has been bounced from park to park over the years and languished in storage since 2004. Now, it appears, he has found a home. 
“We’ve looked at about 30 locations for Mr. De Peyster over the past dozen years or so and for whatever reason ev­ery one has been eliminated because of location or interference with utilities,” George Bloomer, a Parks Department design supervisor, told Community Board 1’s Seaport Committee last month. 

The proposed new location is in the northwest section of Thomas Paine Park, at Worth and Lafayette streets.

CB1 vo­ted unanimously in favor of the location, though given De Peyster’s history, some wondered how long he would stay. “This poor guy has been evicted from [so many] places,” said board member John Fratta. 

De Peyster was a man generous with both his money and his land. He pushed for the city to care for its paupers and do­nated space for a new city hall on Wall Street, the site of Federal Hall. In addition to serving as mayor, he was also a city comptroller, alderman and judge. 

He is most famous for being mayor but he was also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in what was then the colony of New York. So putting him in front of the courthouse is also an appropriate spot. And he did live on Pearl, then Queen Street, so it’s nearby there as well.
Commissioned in the late 1800s by one of De Peyster’s great-great-great-grandsons, the seated solemn figure was created by the sculptor George Edwin Bissell. But no sooner had work begun on a foundation for the statue in Battery Park than it became the target of criticism and the city had to look for a new location.

“The sentiment which promotes the erection of the statue to Abraham De Pey­ster is altogether commendable,” the New York Times wrote in spring of 1895. “But Battery Park is not the place for the effigy. There is no room for it. We have gone too far in the park statuary already.”

Over yet other objections, the statue went to Bowling Green in 1896. But after a short time in Bowling Green, De Peyster was donated to Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. There it stayed for 76 years. But in 1972, Bowling Green underwent a major renovation and it was decided that De Peyster had to go.

Next stop: Hanover Square. Atop a new pedestal, he stood there until 2004, when the Parks Department turned the site into the British Memorial Garden. This time, he had no place to go but storage. But Jonathan Kuhn, the Parks De­partment’s director of Landmarks and Relics, was determined to find him a home. 

One of the sites he selected was Tri­beca’s Bogardus Garden, at Reade and Hudson streets. The community group that oversees the planted triangle said no.

It could be said that similar confusion may lie ahead when De Peyster resides in a park named for a different historical figure, Thomas Paine.

Note: Abraham De Peyster's daughter Catherine married Philip Van Cortlandt, son of Stephanus Van Cortlandt.

Meet the Van Cortlandts

See a family resemblance? This handsome gentleman is Stephanus Van Cortlandt (1643-1700). To put it in context, if you are a grandchild of Nat & Bob or Warren & Tatine Watters, Stephanus Von Cortlandt was your 9th great grandfather.


Stephanus was one of the most prominent men in New York after it became an English colony. Except for the governorship, he filled at one time or another every prominent office in that province. Van Cortlandt's career was, perhaps, the most brilliant and varied, in the fifty-seven years it occupied, of any inhabitant of New York in the 17th century. He was a youth of twenty-one when, in 1664, the English capture took place and New Amsterdam became New York. In 1668 he was appointed an ensign in the Kings county regiment, subsequently a captain, and later its colonel. From 1677, when at the age of thirty-four he was appointed the first native American mayor of New York City, he held that office almost consecutively until his death in 1700. In 1693 he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the province, serving as Chief Justice, one of the highest honors being accorded to a colonial.

He was appointed by the king's auditor-general in England Deputy Auditor in New York, his accounts being regularly transmitted to England and approved. He was appointed also Deputy Secretary of New York, and personally administered the office. The Secretary always resided in England after the British custom. He was prominent in all the treaties and conferences with the Indians as a member of the council, and was noted for his influence with them.  His letters and dispatches to Gov. Edmund Andros, and to the different boards and officers in England that were charged with the care of the colonies remain to show his capacity, clear-headedness and courage.

Stephanus began acquiring land from the Indians as early as 1677 and by 1697 his landholdings in the area had grown to 200 square miles from Croton Bay north to the highlands and east to the Connecticut line. The various portions of the Van Cortlandt Manor were purchased by barter from the Indians beginning about the year 1683. An appended schedule of bartered merchandises mentioned in the deed included "8 Guns, 9 Blankets, 5 Coats, 14 Fathoms of Duffels, 14 Kettles, 12 Shirts, 50 Pounds Powder, 30 Bars Lead, 18 Hatchets, 18 Hoes, 40 Fathoms Black Wampum, 80 Fathoms White Wampum, 2 Ankers of Rum, 5 Half Vats strong Beer, 8 Earthen Jugs, 14 Knives, 1 Small Coat, 6 Fathoms of Stroud Cloth, 6 Pairs of Stockings and 6 Tobacco Boxes."

His estate was erected into the lordship and manor of Cortlandt by patent of William III, bearing the date of June 17, 1697. The Van Cortlandt manor-house is one of the oldest edifices that now remain on the borders of the Hudson river. It stands on the northern shore of Croton bay, and was built both as a country residence and as a fort. The walls are reddish free-stone nearly three feet in thickness, pierced with loop-holes for musketry. Stephanus originally built it as a fortified trading-house and it was added to by successive owners.  Some of the most notable persons in the history of the state were entertained, beginning with the early colonial governors. George Whitefield preached to the tenants of the manor from its veranda, while Benjamin Franklin rested there on his return from his Canadian mission in 1776. Washington, Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Lauzun were among its guests, and Col. Henry B. Livingston had his quarters there at the time of Arnold's treason. Eminent Methodist preachers in the early days of that church, including Bishop Asbury and Freeborn Garretson, were also entertained at the Van Cortlandt Manor. As a traditional Dutchman, Stephanus willed the estate to all of his immediate heirs rather than solely to this oldest son and so the opportunity arose in the next generation for the property to be dissipated. The house stayed in the family until 1945.

In 1671, Stephanus was married to Gertruj Van Schuyler, the sister of Pieter Schuyler, a colonial governor of New York and mayor of Albany. Stephanus and Gertruj had 14 children: John, Anne, Margaret, Oliver, Maria, Gertrude, Philip. Stephanus, Gertrude, Gysbert, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Catherine and Cornelia.

Next time we'll learn about Abraham DePeyster, another Dutch-born New York City mayor from the late 1600s who can also be traced up the same Watters line.