Seth Kaller, Inc.

The children of Abraham De Peyster convey a lot, with “tenement,” on the east side of Broadway above New Street (in the middle of today’s financial district) to Mary Van Cortlandt, their late nephew’s wife. The family patriarch’s will specified that his extensive property holdings in New York City be divided equally among his children. The lot cited here had been Catharine (née De Peyster) Cortlandt’s share of her father’s estate. When Catharine died, her share was inherited by her son, Stephen van Cortlandt. In turn, when he died in 1756, it became the property of his widow, Mary Walton Ricketts van Cortlandt. (Witness Jacob Walton is likely a relative.)

ABRAHAM DE PEYSTER (d. 1767). Document Signed (“A:D: Peyster”). New York, New York, January 14, 1757. Also signed by Isaac de Peyster and his wife, Anne, Pierre De Peyster and Elizabeth (De Peyster) Hamilton. Witnessed by Hayman Levy, Samuel Seabury, Jr., Jacob Walton and William Sackett. With remains of five personal wax seals. With embossed New York IV Pence tax stamp.

Inventory #20053       Price: $3,600

Partial Transcript

...East Side of the Broad Way between the House of the Widdow of John Minerson on the North Side and the House late of M r. William Barker on the South Side. The East End fronting on the New Street containing in Breadth to the Westward thirty four foot in Length on the North Side two hundred and three foot on the south side two hundred and ten foot all English Measure...

Historical Background

Abraham De Peyster, Sr. (1658-1728), a wealthy New York merchant, served as mayor of the city from 1692 to 1694, as well as chief justice and president of the king’s council. In the latter capacity he acted as interim governor in 1701. De Peyster also served as colonel of the forces of the city and county of New York, and treasurer of the provinces of New York and New Jersey. His eldest son, Abraham, the initial signer of this document, was provincial treasurer from 1721 to 1767.

Hayman Levy (1721-1789), “the well known business man of New York for whom the first John Jacob Astor beat furs for a dollar a day.  He was wealthy, and although he failed in business in 1768 and was ruined by the fire of 1776, nevertheless his energy, industry and business capacity always placed him in the front rank of New York’s merchants.” (N. Taylor Phillips)

Hayman Levy was born in 1721 in Fernholz, Hanover, to Moses & Reyna Levy.  By 1746, he was in Manhattan, where in 1750 he took the oath of freemen.  He married the following year Sloe Myers (1728-1811), a New York native, and the daughter of Solomon & Judith Myers.  They are known to have had eleven children.  Members of Congregation Shearith Israel.

In 1754, he was a purchasing agent for the British force during the French & Indian War.  Mentioned as the owner of a privateer and as engaged in the fur trade (New York Mercury of Aug. 17, 1761).  In 1770, Levy signed the New York non-importation resolutions, and may have signed the Philadelphia resolutions in 1765.  The occupation of New York by the British caused him to remove to Philadelphia.  On July 20, 1776, he is mentioned in the Journal of the Continental Congress.  One of the founders of the Congregation Mickve Israel, organized in 1782, and served on the first board of trustees.  In 1784 he returned to New York and aided in the reestablishment of the congregation in that city.

References

Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York. Vol. XIV. 

June 12, 1786 – February 13, 1796.

Levy, Hayman.  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/

Phillips, N. Taylor.  “The Levy and Seixas Families of Newport and New York.”

Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. No. 4. 1896.

Stern, Malcolm.  First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988.  3rd ed. 

http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/pdfs/stern_p159.pdf
http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/pdfs/stern_p217.pdf

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