It will be noticed that his mark is made in subscribing the will, and is the only instance I have met with where the name is not written of any Skillman, but he was able to write, from the fact that he was one of the witnesses to the deed from his son Isaac to Samuel Albertus in 1729.

It is said of him that he began life poor and took 10 a. of land, which he was to have the use of for ten years for clearing it. That one day, while at work and with his coat lying on a pile of brush, by some means the brush took fire, and before he could rescue the coat, part of the sleeves were burned, but he had to continue wearing it until he harvested his crop of wheat, which, selling for a good price, so helped him that he was poor no longer; in fact, had no trouble in making money afterwards.

By the records of the town of Newtown, he held the office of Commissioner of Highways for the years 1714 and 1731. In 1721 he, with others, erected a school house at Middletown, a local name for a place near Dutch Kills; and again in 1735 his name appears as one of those who erected a school house at Hellgate Neck, the site of which could not be far from his residence.

By the records of the Dutch Church of Newtown it ap pears that he subscribed in 1731 the sum of £5 towards the erection of the church. In 1736 he was chosen one of the church masters, and his seat was No. 1 on the northwest side of middle aisle. That of his wife Ann was No. 12 on the southeast side of same aisle. His name in connection with the church disappears in 1738, but his wife's name appears as a communicant in 1741, and also on October 4 of same year as a witness to the baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of her son Benjamin, and then her name disappears.

The old neighborhood burying ground in which all the older Skillmans were buried, including Abraham, second son of Thomas2, lies or is situate, as near as I could make out, between Gilbert st. and Pearsall st, and on each side of Bradley ave., at a place called Blissville, north of and

near Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City. This burying ground occupied a knoll adjoining the salt meadow, and is about one mile south of the Skillman farm. It was used by all the different families of that neighborhood. About 1855 it was graded and the grave stones used to underpin a barn near by

His will, it will be seen, is an elaborately drawn document, and is, no doubt, the work of "Peter Berrien, who filled the Supervisorship of Newtown, and the Town Clerkship for several years; he lived at a period ending in 1737, when Newtown labored under the misfortune of not possessing one lawyer; all the deeds of that time are in his fine handwriting; he was a surveyor by profession, and the most useful scholar and man of business in his day.

To this Mr. Berrien the Dutch Reformed Church of Newtown village are indebted for the plot on which the present edifice now stands. Its first "Kerck Meisters" were Peter Peter Berrien, Thomas Skillman and Petrus Schenck. These worthy men ordained the comfortable provision that every one be provided with two seats, and 'when there shall be preaching, those who own seats shall move and give room for one another, the first seated moving and giving room for those that come after them, both males and females, in order to preserve love, friendship and politeness in our said church.' A. D., 1736." All his children are named in his will as follows: I. John3.

II. Abraham1.

III. Isaac3.

IV. JacobR.

V. Benjamin'.

VI. JosephR.

VII. Mary, married John Bond.

VIII. Mercy, married John Fine.

IX. Ann, married Hendrick Vandewater.

To which I will add :

X. Elizabeth and XI Peter,

Twins, and were probably the first born, but died soon; were baptized 1694; are not named in father's will.

Of the six sons of Thomas' I will speak in their order: John3 went to New Jersey. His son John married his cousin Catharine Paynter, and had children, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas, John and two daughters-one was Margaret. Nothing is known of these children but Jacob, who moved from Kingston, N. J., to Union, Broome Co., N. Y., in 1805. He had two sons, Elias S. and John. Elias S., my informant, aged 83, in 1876 lived at Union. John moved to Dryden, Tompkins Co., N. Y, married there, raised a family, and died there. John W. Morrell said that a John Skillman, of New Jersey, used to visit Dutch Kills, and sometimes brought his nephew "Dick" with him. Mr. M. could not tell anything of this "Dick."

Rev. W. J. Skillman says: "John (Jan Dutch), baptized in New York June 24, 1696. No witnesses are given. About this John very little is known. His father bought land in New Jersey on the Milstone, near Rocky Hill (Peter and Lawrence Vandeveer place), about 500 acres of John Van Horn and Catharine his wife, deed dated Dec. 14th, 1729, for him and his brother Isaac. His son John and Anna his wife sold his father's allotment, containing about 253 acres, to Roelof Van Dyck April 30, 1768, and disappear; both f. and s. disappear."

Abraham1 was born 1704 and baptized April 18th of that year; he married Margaret Fine, of New York city, by whom he had a son Thomas, who never married and was lost at sea, and three daughters: Hester m. William Paynter; Elizabeth, born July 9, 1737, died June 7, 1808, m. John Morrell; and Catharine m. Isaac Messerole, of Brunswick. He died during cold weather in the year 1794.

In the division of his father's land he had the north half of the homestead. He was indolent, spent his time

mostly in the house, seldom went to church, and was reputed rich. He refused to say, God save the king," when required by Andries B., and went to New Jersey until compliance with one of Lord Howe's proclamations permitted his return. How the tradition that Abraham was father of Joseph originated I am at a loss to conceive. I have spent much time, trouble and expense to ascertain the names of his children. The testimony of Mrs. Margaret Skillman Morrell Cumberson, aged 99, and a grand-daughter of Abraham, together with that of Major Wm. Bragaw, aged 851⁄2 years, settles the names of Abraham's children; also that of John W. Morrell, grandson of Elizabeth. During the Revolution Abraham's well was poisoned. This was a great mystery. Of course no one done it, and perhaps to screen the Patriots it was laid to a negro. A number of Hessian soldiers, whose regiment lay on the farm, were poisoned by the water. His silver was concealed among the stones at the bottom of the well while the soldiers were there. His fine apple orchard was cut for firewood by the soldiers, and this he used to grieve about in after times.

There is nothing to show that he went to church but once, and that once was as a sponsor at the christening of one of his brother Benjamin's children, Elizabeth. His son-in-law Paynter came from Philadelphia, and was a Quaker, and this may ac count for Abraham's not going to church, in connection with the fact that he may have imbibed Quaker views, as many others of those times did. His wife lost her mind on account of a highway being laid through their farm. His son-in-law Paynter was said to be sharp and smart, and persuaded him into consenting to convey his farm to Paynter in 1788; this raised a feud between his family and the Morrell and Messerole families, culminating in a law suit to set aside the deed, but the suit failed, and the deed was held valid, as I have been told.

[From the Long Island City Star, March 28, 1879 ]

REMAINS OF ANCIENT NEWTOWN.

THE PAYNTARS.

The Payntars glided into Newtown sometime before the Revolution, without a pedigree; an inexcusable lapse in the estimation of the tourist; whence they came, he knows not, except from Pennsylvania. Nor do the Payntars much value a pedigree, save from the Deed of 1788, wherein is recited that Abraham Skillman, in consideration of £767, conveyed certain lands on the Dutch Kills to William Payntar. This mysterious person had some twenty years previously invested his stock of untried affections on the daughter of Abraham Skillman, a lineal decendant from the original patentee of the Dutch Kills, under Governor Dougan of 1686 in the reign of James II. The name of Skillman now disappears from the Dutch Kills and is succeeded by that of Payntar, similarly to the extinction of Praa from Greenpoint. The maidens of that period were wayward even to the romantic choice of strangers, and to this wise instinct we owe the present profusion of Meseroles and Payntars. The broad acres without a male heir, may have directed the unseen current of the female thought to some youth devoid of worldly treasure, but rich in the untold wealth of a pure mind—as we are taught from the Ledger and Weekly-but this is outside our province and nobody's business save those who are long since dead and gone. Many Payntars now came on the earth, one of whom was William, who, grown to maturity, developed the tendency of an operator in real estate, as it was understood in those primitive times.

This William at one period owned half of Ravenswood, and an extensive tract around Middletown, which properties he finally disposed of and bought up the plantation of Burger Joris and all the Payntar Estate on the Dutch Kills. The old Abraham Skillman homestead still faces the south, inhabited by a Payntar. The remorseless steam shovel has not yet torn away the grassy slopes, where of yore the comely young stranger woed and won the heiress of Abraham Skillman. The cottage stands on the opposite side of the ravine road from the public school. The Hessians, during the Revolution, had extensive camps around this region, and, as far as a hogshead of rum drank every week could effect it, these inoffensive warriors were happy. Stretched on the shady declivity over the creek they viewed with hazy eye the bewitching landscape which had remained intact even to our time. Of their native home in Hesse they might dream, but not of a welcome from the Prince of Hesse. To him their non-return by the British Government secured one thousand dollars per man, as per agreement when he shipped his human cattle to maintain the throne in the Colonies.

The winding descent to the old dock on the creek below still reminds you of the market boats, but time has removed the busy mill which worked on the opposite side of the Kills, where now the