Schraalenburgh congregation. His wife, however, connected herself with the church at Hackensack, on Oct. 8, 1715, a few months subsequent to their marriage.
In 1744, Kasparus, now a man in middle life, removed with his family to Dutchess County, N.Y., then a newly settled section, populated mostly by families from Long Island and New Jersey, thus becoming the progenitor of what is known as the ìPoughkeepsie Branch.î All of his children remained in Dutchess County, with the exception of his eldest daughter, Orseltie, who married Isak Romein, at Hackensack, in 1738, and his son Jan, who returned to Bergen County, N.J., prior to his marriage in 1745.
On November 10, 1744, he purchased an extensive tract of land, in eight parcels, lying about 3 ‡ miles south of Poughkeepsie, from Marcus van Bommel, Eggeie, his wife, and Jacobus van Bommel, his son, for the sum of £800, current money of the province of New York, consisting of some 1,600 acres and extending from the Hudson to Wappingers Creek, a mile wide on the river and 2 ‡ miles to the eastward.
The various boundaries of this estate are most minutely described in the quaint phraseology of the day, by a deed bearing the above named date and recorded on the County Clerkís office at Poughkeepsie, on Dec. 12, 1792. (Liber 11, folio 424.)
A tradition in the family has it that Kasparus Westervelt, or, as he is named in the said deed, ìGosporus Westerfelt,î exchanged his lands in New Jersey for those already named in Dutchess County, and Van Brommel wanted £100 compensation to make the bargain, while Westervelt would offer but £50. Van Brommel, with Dutch tenacity, insisted upon the sum named, and finally, after much disputing, accepted £50 in money and 50 pounds in tobacco, thus obtaining, as Van Bommel said, his £100.
This tract was a part of the lands purchased from the Wappinger Indians by Francis Rombout, a Huguenot, and Gulian Verplanck, a Hollander, in 1683, and extended ìfouer houers going into the wood,î to use the quaint language of the deed, covering the township of Fishkill and parts of Poughkeepsie and La Grange, through the northerly part of which ran the Mawenawasign, called by the Dutch, Wappinger-Kill, or creek, a name it still bears.
Rombout and Verplanck were then partners in trade, and whose title was subsequently confirmed by the colonial governor, Thomas Dongan. Rombout and his associates gave the Indians good value in money and goods for their lands. ìThe Schedull or Perticulerî annexed to the deed shows that they received among other articles, ìone hund. Royals, one hund. fathom of black wampum, forty fathoms of dufdills, forty Hatches (hatchets),