The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 81

ttMxa.n EAGLE MAGAZINE, 1141 ff IS Hi' ir'rT 'itu'ffi tin- v' 5' "WWW Estate of John Underbill, ttn Long Island, now the property of one of bis lineal descendants, Myron C. Taylor THEY Helped Build AMERICA entering into the forty years during which Governor Stuyvesant told Governor Winthrop that the Dutch had held possession of Long. Island. Whatever his peccadilloes with women in his earUer days as legislator, mediator and High Sheriff of the North Riding, UnderhiU was respected as an honest administrator by the Dutch, whom, like the New Eng landers, he had saved from massacre by the Indians. Many of Underbill's descendants were also Quakers, and this is not surprising, as their teachings are more closely allied to those of Anne Hutchinson than the Intense Calvinism of the Puritan fathers.

There are three main branches, If indeed one can be so arbitrary in a country whose early settlement necessarily scatters family groups: Long Island, where his son John and his daughter settled; Westchester County, a large part of which was owned by his son, Nathaniel, including Bronxville and Williamsburg, and New Hampshire, where his son Benoni. dating from his term as Governor, remained. In the early English armorial bearings is found a continuous record of what is oalled "the great UnderhiU family," dating from 1228. We find the garter bestowed upon one John, who married Alice, Viscountess of St. Albans, widow of Lord Bacon; a Sir John UnderhiU and Edward "The Hot Gospeler," who resided in Warwickshire near Kenil-worth and narrowly escaped the ire of Mary Queen of Scots.

Sir Arthur Underhlll, barrister, of London, is a contemporary member of the UnderhiU Society. Among the lineal descendants of Captain John UnderhiU in America were Mrs. R. Ogden Doremus, first president of the society; Walter Lis-penard Suydam, descendant of the Huguenot, Antonle de l'Espenard the late Colonel John Tar boss UnderhiU of Brooklyn," John Garrett UnderhiU. Harvey D.

Underhlll, Harry B. Underbill. The contemporary president is Francis Jay Underbill. their spokesman and mediator. As one of the earliest planters, he wrote to England advocating the new country as an excellent place for plantations.

He bought a parcel of one hundred and fifty acres of land from the Indians In what is now Locust Valley, in Oyster Bay Township near Piping Rock and not far from the Sea-wanhaka Yacht Club. The first Underhlll called his place "Killing-worth" and the original deed hangs over the fireplace in the library built of the old timbers, with the family seal affixed, a hind resting (the country at peace) and the trefoil (three perfect hearts and one whole of St. Patrick). The original UnderhiU coat of arms is to be found on a tablet in the church at Stratford -on-Avon, as is also that of the family of Captain Underbill's second wife, Elizabeth Feke of Flushing. It is interesting also to note that a member of the family sold his residence, "New Place." to William Shakespeare in the great dramatist's latter days.

The Long Island estate is now the residence of a lineal descendant, Myron C. Taylor, chairman of the Finance Committee of the U. S. Steel Corporation. Captain UnderhiU also owned number 1 Wall street, the site of Trinity Church, land lying near the Boston Public Library, and among others what is said to be the oldest house in Brooklyn.

In a unique work on the first white settlement on Long Island called Keskachange. Frederick Van Dyck gives some account of this. Governor Kieft had granted Bergen Island to John UnderhiU in 1646. The Rackawacke (Rockaway) Indians set up a claim and I believe their sachem and the sachem of Canarsie signed the deed which was given for "a quantitie of brandy, a new trooper's coat, some powder, etc, etc." It is not known whether UnderhiU buUt the "house to strengthen his purchase, or the Dutch East India Company for use in the wampum trade. In any case it was one of the elements of possession exiled in spite of his achievements, because he was apprehended in the heinous offense of kissing a cobbler's wife!" As a matter of fact, the real trouble with Winthrop started with the Anne Hutchinson trials.

Underhlll, who loved freedom of thought and was used to speaking his own mind and allowing others to do so. became an advocate and defender of this lady who preached a doctrine of free grace, much like that of the "inner light" of the Quakers, some two hundred and fifty years before women began to speak on public -platforms. But, we are told, she was striking at the authority of the clergy in an intensely theocratic community. The controversy became secular. A general election took place to test the strength of the parties, as in our own times in Ireland and England, and Winthrop defeated Vane for the Governorship.

The Rev. John Cotton recanted, and Vane returned to England disgusted. John Underhlll claimed the right of free speech of a soldier, said he had ever spoken his mind in the Netherlands. But Winthrop was said to be afraid of his popularity and bent on punishing the followers of Anne Hutchinson. So Underhlll, then Governor of Exeter and Dover (now New Hampshire), was called to trial "for unseemly conduct." In the end sentence was remitted and he was acquitted by proclamation.

Let us follow "the first soldier" through the pages of a disinterested, authoritative historian, John Fiske. in his "Beginnings of New England." "The overthrow of the Pequots was a cardinal event in New England. All that New England contributed was that daredevil John Underhlll and seventy-seven English troops to help Captain Mason. Two of these were killed, and six hundred and ninety-five Indians." If John Underhlll nearly finished the Pequots in ending their war with the white men. the Indians respected his word and used him in after years as By Portia Willis-Berg THE Tercentenary Celebration of the founding of Boston this year marks the arrival with Governor Winthrop and his charter of most of the historically famous Boston families.

And It so happened that Captain John Under hill, who came over at this time with his friend Sir Henry Vane, became the founder of one of the distinctively New York families. John UnderhiU came over In 1630 as first soldier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, along with the charter that gave to the new land perhaps the first free government in the world's history. But it happened that Underbill got himself "in deepest circumstances" with the Governor in spite of great prestige, and he wmt to Connecticut and finally settled in the province of Nieuw Amsterdam. "The most conspicuous Englishmen of this time in the Ne-c Netherlands were Isaac Allerton and John Underbill. writes Mrs.

Schuyler Van Rensselaer in her history of New York in the Seventeenth Century. Speaking the Dutch tongue, having fought with Maurice of Nassau in the Netherlands, and his wife a Dutch lady, he accepted the offer of Governor Kieft of Nieuw Amsterdam to live in his province and protect the Dutch from the Indians. Already Underhlll had gained fame as an Indian fighter In the Pequot wars, of which he wrote a short history on a visit to England called "News From America. a quaint volume still to be found in the Public Library. Of his coming to New York.

Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer relates ir her "Social Ladder." "the Pilgrims frowned on many things that go toward making a gracious and pleasant culture and drove out not a few persons of real refinement. Captain John UnderhiU, ruffler. swordsman and able warrior, who had rendered the colony noteworthy service In the Pequot war, was.