From The Peopling of New York City
So far, Jacob Goelet is the individual I was able to found most information on, or at least I was able to map out his background in terms of his family and lifetime. After a visit to the New York Public Library, where I found multiple articles of Historical Newspapers, I found that Jacob Goelet could have been associated with a man by the name of Raphael Goelet. (Article) The article was short and called out for people who owned dept to the two of them. I hope to find some evidence that Jacob Goelet owned, in fact, a slave by the name of "Quack" and was affiliated with the Court Party. With the information that I had found in the library, I went on www.ancestry.com and, to my suprise, found an incredible amount of information on Mr. Goelet. At first I found multiple Jacob Goelet's but I kept in mind that the one I was looking for had to be alive around 1741 when the Slave Conspiracy supposedly took place because he owned a slave who was accused and then discharged as a result,he had to be dutch and maybe even be associated with Raphael Goelet, according to the newspaper article of the New York Gazzette.
This is what I know so far:
- Name: Jacob Goelet
- Birth Date: 30 January, 1689 in New Amsterdam (New York City)
- Death: about 1768 in New York City
- Spouse: Catharina Boelen (born on 28 Aug 1692))
- Children: Jannetjie Goelet (born on 23 Nov 1720 in New York City and died on March 5 1799 in Catskill, Greene, New York)
- Parents: Jacobus Goelet (born in 1665 in New York City and died in 1731 in New York) and Jannetje Cossart (born in 1688 and died in 1736 in New York City)
Interestingly Raphael Goelet (1696-1747) appears to be Jacob Goelet's brother for they are both listed as sons of Jacobus Goelet and Jannetje Cossart. In addition to this, an article of the New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy dated at 07/25/1757 mentioned Jacob Goelet in context with a man by the name of John Dies who apparently sold ironmongery at Jacob Goelet's house. John Dies (abt 1720 - bef 1773) is listed as the spouse of Jannetije Goelet, Jacob Goelet's daughter. Also, the article included Goelet's address at the time:
- "opposite the Sign of the Golden-Key, in Hanover-Square".
I'll be sure to check this location out and try to find some pictures of the area at the time at the Municipal Archives.
Jacob Goelet and Catharina got married in 1716 in New York. I want to make a visit to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society at 22 E 58th St since it was cited as the source for this information on ancestry.com. According to the citation this database is an index to approximately 410,000 individuals who were married in or near New York City in the United States between 1622 and 1899.
It was a bit confusing following the paths of the right individuals in the Goelet's family since people were often named after their mothers and fathers, which means that there are multiple people with the same names. These results however are the product of a long, intricate search that involved a lot of sorting through genealogical data and newspaper articles about Jacob Goelet
In my research, I have found that relying on solely online research as my main source of information is not trustworthy enough. In numerous visits to the New York Public Library and other important sights around New York City related to the Slave Conspiracy have allowed me to gain a better understanding of the function of field research and also gave me great insight into the five individuals I am tracing. Nevertheless, class mates have recommended "GoogleBooks" to me since this online database contains virtually all books that are also available in the NYPL as well the New York Historical Society which has proven to be of tremendous help for my research. In addition, it is extremely user-friendly, for I was able to scan entire books (which usually hold about 250 pages) for specific names and dates within seconds.
To the right is Jacob Boelen's will, he was Catharine Boelen's father, in which Jacob Goelet is mentioned. I was relieved to find out that apparently I have been following the trace of the Jacob Goelet mentioned in Lepore's novel. I was able to extract much useful information from this document, which is to be found in the New York Historical Society.
- Jacob Goelet's exact address was 114 Pearl Street, which is, in fact, right by Hanover Square as I had learned from another document before.
- Jacob Goelet and his wife, Jacob Boelen's daughter, Catharine Boelen married on May 6th, 1716. Their daughter Jannetje, who is referred to as "Jane" in Boelen's will, was born four years after their wedding.
- I had found out about their daughter Jannetje and her husband before I had come across this document, but Boelen's once again affirmed the fact that "John Dies" was Jannetje Goelet's husband. Also, it occurred to me why my initial research on ancestry.com had been so extensive and frustrating since the Goelet's seemed to be intertwined in several other family's genealogies. As mentioned in Jacob Boelen's will, Jannetje and John Dies had many descendant in the DuBois and Van Loon families.
- Jannetje died on March 5, 1799 when she was 78.
- It is also mentioned that Jacob Goelet was a "sworn interpreter of the Dutch language" hence he must have been proficient in both English in Dutch. Many of the documents and wills in this book of wills of New York City have been translated by Jacob Goelet.
