Third Generation

3. Conrad Hendrickse3 Burghardt (Hendrick Coenraetse2, Coenraet1) was born 1670 in Claverack, New York, and died 1750 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He married Geesje Hendrickse Van Wie November 12, 1693 in Kinderhook, New York, daughter of Hendrick Van Wie and Eytje Ariaansz. She was born 1680 in Albany, New York.

Note:
Conrad is mentioned as a prominent citizen of Kinderhook in 1702, and again in 1720, in the Documentary "History of the State of New York". He was extensively engaged in fur trapping and trading with Indians along the New England path, which extended from Albany to Boston and passed through Kinderhook and the southern part of the Housatonic Valley. Conrad was on friendly terms with Indians and was familiar with their languages and customs.

His name was listed among those pledging allegiance to King William of Orange in the 1699 Oath of Allegiance and was second on a 1715 Muster Roll of Capt. Van Alystyn's Camp in Albany. Numerous mention of Conrad can be found in Charles Taylor's "History of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, 1676-1882". He became a prominent landowner in the Upper Township of Sheffield (now Great Barrington) and raised a large family. Both Conrad and his younger brother, John, were proprietors of land rights when the Upper Township was organized; Conrad had six rights (2,400 acres), and John had four rights (1,600 acres). Much of the acreage was located in the finest parts of Great Barrington and Egremont, some lying along the banks of the Green River.

According to Edward Collins in his "A History of Old Kinderhook", a map of tow tracts surveyed prior to 1700 shows a land grant of 3590 acres east of the creek, and partly in Claverack, to Coenradt Borghardt and Elias Van Schaack. Coenradt Borghardt, for almost every possible spelling of whose name there is ample authority, was long and prominently identified with the civil and religious life of the town. His home was not far from the brick schoolhouse on the Landing Road.

We were greatly grieved to read in the Albany Court records that these great landowners, Elias and Coenradt, were in 1671 haled before the Court for "stealing potatoes." We were pleased, however, to find that at the trial of the case, after the examination of four witnesses, they were honorably acquitted. But to moderate their joy, they were charged the costs of the trial. Their accuser was presumably impecunious and irresponsible!

Conrad and some of his neighbors were summoned to appear before the Governor and Council of New York in New York City and answer the charge of having employed Paulus Van Vleck, a religious teacher who had been forbidden to preach by the council, in December 1702. As the season was unfavorable for traveling, Conrad petitioned that the matter be postponed until the spring, but the petition was not granted. So, Conrad and his neighbors journeyed to New York City and appeared before the authorities on March 11, 1703. There they "acknowledged their error, and submitting themselves thereon, were discharged with a caution to be more careful in the future."

In the spring of 1717, Conrad and Elias Van Schaack applied to the Governor of New York for a license to purchase a tract of 4,000 acres of land southeast of Kinderhook and west of the Westenhook patent. The land, which included a large part of the Housatonic valley, was laid out by a government surveyor in the fall of 1717, but it was immediately claimed by Henry Van Rensselaer of Claverack Manor upon the strength of an alleged prior patent. A controversy followed for many years, and Conrad connected himself with the New England settlers in the Housatonic Valley. The alliance proved of great benefit, and he was sought out by Colonel John Ashley of Albany, chairman of the Housatonic Colony [now the area around Great Barrington, Massachusetts] Settling Committee, to purchase land in the southern portion of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, from the Housatonic Indians.

Conrad was so successful in the endeavor that he reduced the price asked, £1,200, to £460. Konkapot, and twenty other Indian owners, met with the Committee in Westfield, Massachusetts, on April 25, 1724. Conrad acted as interpreter, and the committee purchased a tract of land extending four miles east of the Housatonic River and bounded on the south by the Connecticut line, on the north by the "Man-ska-fee-hunk" Mountain, and on the west by the New York line.

In 1723, Conrad with friends, Captain Abraham Van Alstyne and Leondert Conyn, were appointed as commissioners to lay out a road to Greenbush. The road, cleared or rock, brush, and dirt, for two rods wide, was called the Post Road and was described as part of the Great Western and Wagon Road from Boston to Albany. After leaving Spingfield and Westfield, the Post Road ran through Colebrooke, Sheffield, Roeloff, Jansen's Ferry, Claverack, Kinderhook, and Greenbush. The first stage company in the vicinity was chartered to run a line of weekly coaches over the Post Road in 1785; the line ran from Albany to New York City, and the trip took two days in summer and three days in winter.

In 1725, the Settling Committee engaged Conrad to measure the distance from the Hudson to the Housatonic River at the narrowest point near the Housatonic Townships. The area caused much annoyance by the Westenhook patentees who claimed a large portion of Berkshire County. Conrad went to Albany to meet with a surveyor, but the surveyor did not appear at the appointed time. He soon visited Albany again and learned that the surveyor had been bribed by the Westenhook patentees. Conrad went to Schenectady and employed another surveyor, but the new surveyor again disappointed him! Undaunted, he traveled eighty miles further to Kings Township and secured the assistance of a third surveyor, paying £5 in New York currency. Along with the assistance of Conrad and one of his sons, the third surveyor measured the line.

Some of the settlers in the Housatonic Townships were molested and sued as trespassers by the Westenhook patentees in 1726. A legal fight in the Court of Albany cost Conrad a great amount of money, £70, as he put up the bonds for the settlers who lost in Court. Conrad later went to the Court and petitioned for reimbursement. The literature states, "his oratory went on for hourse and put the Court to sleep." He was later employed by the Settling Committee to purchase a tract of land north of the Housatonic Townships, and for seventeen days, Conrad entertained "with great fatigue and trouble" thirty-one Indian owners, who came from the Susquehanna country in Pennsylvania, at his home.

Conrad removed from Kinderhook to the new settlement of Great Barrington, where he owned the meadow (now in the village), bringing nearly all his children with him, around 1730. The mansion house of the Burghardt family, a log, Dutch looking structure, with a long, sloping roof to the south, was located across from the St. James Episcopal Church on the main street of town. It lay near the corner, north of the Wahaiwe Cemetery, of the settlement upon a plot of several acres. The house was occupied by the Burghardt family for about one hundred years; it was torn down about 1840.

Conrad purchased a slave boy, Tom, born in West Africa, from Dutch slavers in New York, probably in the early 1730's. During four days in October, 1780, Tom served as a private in John Spoor's company whose regimental commander was Colonel John Ashley. Tom was also the great-great maternal grandfather of William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) DuBois, born in Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868. W. E. B.'s life spanned nearly a century, and he promoted welfare and equality for Black Americans a generation after the Civil War until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. W. E. B. was named professor at Atlanta University in 1910, was one of the first founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and wrote extensively and backed politicians for the cause of racial justice in America.

Conrad petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a reward for his services in connection with the colonization of southern Berkshire County in 1741. Although they showed that he had received some compensation, the Court presented a tract of two hundred acres of land in Richmond, north of Great Barrington, to him in 1742.

Conrad Burghardt passed away in Sheffield (now Great Barrington), Hampshire County (now Berkshire County), Massachusetts, around 1750. The church records of St. James Episcopal Church report, "He was a man of great intelligence, enterprise, and public spirit, as well as of sturdy integrity, and, judging from his autograph, a man of good education for those times. He appears to have been the most wealthy of all the settlers and to have maintained an influential position among them. Mr. Burghardt died about 1750, and was undoubtedly buried in the vicinity of others of his family, in the south burial ground, in Great Barrington. It is to be regretted that no suitably inscribed monument perpetuates the memory of this sturdy patriarch, who may fairly be entitled to be called the Father of the Housatonic Colony.

Conrad's six rights in the Upper Housatonic Township was transferred as follows: two were given to his son-in-law, Isaac Van Deusen, in 1743; three were given to his sons, Peter and Jacob, in 1746; and one was given to his son, Hendrick, at an earlier date.

Children of Conrad Burghardt and Geesje Van Wie are:

    + 6 i. Maritje Coenradse4 Burghardt, born January 27, 1698 in Kinderhook, New York.

    + 7 ii. Hendrick Coenradse Burghardt, born January 19, 1700 in Kinderhook, New York; died 1758 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    + 8 iii. Fyche Coenradse Burghardt, born November 30, 1702 in Kinderhook, New York; died June 28, 1777 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    + 9 iv. Eyche Coenradse Burghardt, born October 20, 1704 in Kinderhook, New York.

    + 10 v. John Coenradse Burghardt, born September 1706 in Kinderhook, New York; died 1788 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    11 vi. Conrad Coenradse Burghardt, born 1708 in Kinderhook, New York; died October 27, 1792 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    + 12 vii. Garrett Coenradse Burghardt, born 1710 in Kinderhook, New York; died August 11, 1792 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    + 13 viii. Petrus Coenradse Burghardt, born January 15, 1712 in Kinderhook, New York; died 1787 in New York.

    14 ix. Jacob Coenradse Burghardt, born January 1715 in Kinderhook, New York.

    + 15 x. Stinche Coenradse Burghardt, born June 10, 1718 in Kinderhook, New York.

    16 xi. Ari Coenradse Burghardt, born 1720 in Kinderhook, New York.


4. John Hendrickse "De Bruer"3 Burghardt (Hendrick Coenraetse2, Coenraet1) was born 1675 in Claverack, New York, and died 1764 in Kinderhook, New York. He married Catrina Hendrickse Van Wie April 05, 1707 in Kinderhook, New York. She was born 1687.

Note:
John is said to have been called "De Bruer" because he was engaged in brewing and to distinguish himself from others of the same name. John and his family lived in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Claverack, New York, and Kinderhook before settling above Rattlesnake Mountain in Stockbridge, New York. When the township was set apart for the Indians, he exchanged his possessions for four rights (1,600 acres) below the mountain and moved to his new home around 1736-37. John settled on the road to Stockbridge; he made his home on a lot of two hundred acres of farmland and meadowland along the river.

Will:
I, JAN BORGHART, of Kinderhook, in Albany County, leave to my eldest son, Hendrick, my large Dutch Bible and my cane, with silver head on, in right of his Primogeniture. I also leave to my son, Hendrick, the 2 lots of land at Sheffield, in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, situated on the east side of the Housatonic river and on the east side of the mountains, now in his possession. I leave to my grandson, Jan Borghart, all the rest of my estates in Sheffield and Great Barrington, except 400 acres of woodland, which I leave to my granddaughter, the daughter of my son Hendrick. I leave to my grandson, Jan, a negro woman. I leave to my grandson, Lambert, son of my son Hendrick, of all the right I now have in a tract of land I bought of Rykert Hansen, on the south side of Kinderhook, as by deed. Also of my right in a stream, watercourse, and sawmill at a certain place called Poten Hoek, near Kinderhook, in partnership with Robert Van Dusen, with all the tools. I leave to the children of Fytie, wife of Andrew Kittell, deceased, all my real and personal estate in Kinderhook and my right in the Town Patent, being. Also of my right in the land bought of Rykert Hansen and of my right in the sawmill and stream at Poten Hoek. Also 2 negroes. I leave to my daughter, Eytie, widow of John Moore, late of Claverack, £200 out of the estate I have given to the children of my daughter, Fytie. I leave to my granddaughter, Anna, who now lives with me (daughter of my son Hendrick) £35 and 2 cows. I leave to the children of my daughter, Maria, late wife of Jurge Van Hoesen, a negro man. To Jan, the son of my daughter, Fytie Kittell, my gun. My son-in-law, Andrew Kittell, is to have charge of my estate while he remains a widower and no longer. I make my grandsons, Jan and Lambert Borghart, and Peter B. Vosburgh, executors. As for my negro 'Piet,' I give him free of being anybody's negro.

Children of John Burghardt and Catrina Van Wie are:

    + 17 i. Hendrick Janse4 Burghardt, born 1707 in Kinderhook, New York; died 1790 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    + 18 ii. Conrad Janse Burghardt, born 1709 in Kinderhook, New York.

    + 19 iii. Eitje Janse Burghardt, born 1711 in Coxackie, New York.

    20 iv. Maritje Janse Burghardt, born 1713 in New York.

    21 v. Teunis Janse Burghardt, born 1715 in New York.

    22 vi. Feytje Janse Burghardt, born 1718 in Kinderhook, New York.

    23 vii. Garrett Hendricksen Burghardt, born 1719 in Kinderhook, New York; died 1761 in Kinderhook, New York. He married Antje LaGrange February 22, 1750.

    Will:
    In the name of God, Amen, September 4, 1758. I, Gerritt Borghard (or Broghard), of Kinderhook, in Albany County, being sick in body, leave to my wife, Antye, all personal estate, negroes, and goods. I leave to Lambert Broghordt, son of my brother Hendrick in Sheffield in New England, a piece of land in Albany County on the south of the Kinderhook Patent, as conveyed to me by my father, Jan Broghordt, on May 9, 1756. And he shall pay to my sister Eytje Moor's daughter, Geesie, £30. Also £30 to my cousin, Abraham Van Hoesen, son of Judge Van Hoesen of Kinderhook, and £30 to my sister, Fytie, wife of Andries Kittell. I make my wife executor.

    24 viii. Andries Janse Burghardt, born 1722 in Kinderhook, New York.

    + 25 ix. Feytje Janse Burghardt, born 1727 in Kinderhook, New York.


5. Isaac Hendrickse3 Burghardt (Hendrick Coenraetse2, Coenraet1) was born 1676 in New York. He married Judick Goes 1697 in New York.

Children of Isaac Burghardt and Judick Goes are:

    26 i. Alida4 Burghardt, born 1698 in New York.

    27 ii. Christina Burghardt, born 1701 in New York.

    28 iii. Jan Burghardt, born 1703 in New York.

    29 iv. Hendrick Burghardt, born 1706 in New York.

    30 v. Abraham Burghardt, born 1711 in New York.