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"The first family to arrive in America from Holland was Phillippe Maton (Martin) Wiltsee in the year 1624. Phillippe, a Protestant, fought in the battle of 1597 under Prince Maurice against the Germans and the Spaniards under Count Frederick of Herenberg. In the military records he was considered an excellent soldier and was called Phillippe Maton and Frenchman Wiltsee." Born about 1570 near the town of Wilt-z in Luxembourg. His first wife's name is not known. His second wife was Phillipette Caron. She was born in 1582 and died in 1613. They were married January 10, 1599 in the Dutch Reformed Church in Leydon, Holland. He married his third wife, Sophia Ter Bosch, in the same church in 1616. Sophia was born in 1598 in Overyssel, Holland. The children of Phillippe and Sophia Ter Bosch Wiltsee were:
(1) Lyntje (Helen), born in Holland in1 618. She was married for the second time about 1638 to Adam Roelensten, the first Dutch school master in America. They had two children: Trntje, born 1644, and Daniel, born 1646.
(2)Pierre , born in Holland in 1620.
(3)HENDRICK MARTENSEN WILTSEE was born aboard ship on the Atlantic Ocean in1623.
(4) Macheljie (Mathilda) born 1625 married Andries Barentsen
(5)Martin Born 1628, and
(6) Maria born 1629.
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Phillippe Maton (Wiltsee) and his wife Sophia Ter Bosch sailed aboard the ship "New Netherland" with their son Pierre and their Daughter Lyntje. The Dutch Settlers Society Yearbook (D.S.Y.B. ) gives the following account:
The ship New Netherland arrived at the North River (Hudson River) the beginning of May, 1624. Eight men were left at New Amsterdam (New York) and the rest continued up river to Fort Orange (Albany) where they helped build a fort. In 1626 Phillippe and his family established a home in Waalbought, Long Island. In the summer of 1632, he took his sons, Pierre and Hendrick and one servant to a new settlement at Fort Swaanendael, now Lewis, Delaware where Phillippe was murdered and the boys taken captive by the Delaware Indians. About a year later, the boys were turned over to the Mohican Indians and taken to Canada where they remained in the custody of Jesuit Priests for seven years until they escaped. The records of Paul Le Jeune S. J. and Anna De Noue, S. J.. Father Devoste, and Father Daniel, show the boys made their escape November 29, 1640. In 1633, about a year after the boys were captured, their Mother and sister Lyntje returned to Holland where Sophia died in 1646.
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