Middagh family papers
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Middagh family papers (1654-circa 1840) contain a variety of documents, many linked to the Middagh family by name or by affiliated family, including Couwenhoven and Stryker.
Biographical note
Aert Middagh (circa 1707-1777), son of Gerrit Aertsen Middagh and Cornelia van Kowenhoven, married Magdalena Stryker (b. 1710), daughter of Jan Pieterse Stryker and Margretta Schenk. All of these surnames appear in the collection. For further genealogical information, see the item level inventory associated with the March, Middagh, and Sands families property records (1974.038).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in rough chronological order.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains a variety of documents, many linked to the Middagh family by name or by affiliated family. Many documents have no obvious relationship to the Middaghs. Most of the collection includes legal documents of various forms including deeds, bonds, agreements, and legal filings.
Among the documents are: the concluding pages (pages 5-8) of the 1825 correspondence from William Steele to his son concerning Jonathan Dayton's recollections of Benjamin Franklin's proposal for prayer at the 1787 Constitutional Convention; the articles of agreement between generals Burgoyne (British) and Gates (American) at Saratoga during the Revolutionary War (1772), signed by Burgoyne; plans for the building of a school in Huntington, Long Island, and the subscriber list (1762); a circa 1675 transcript of a 1669 Suffolk County Clerk's document regarding the testimony of several Indian sachems of Montauket relating to a land dispute concerning the Conklings; a testimonial of a committee of Boston preachers recommending minister Joseph Torrey (1732); an accounting of legal expenses charged in the case Aert Middagh v. John Middagh; and terms of sale on property mortgaged to Henry Landon.
Three items concerning African-Americans in Brooklyn are in the collection: an unidentified will (1727), an enslaved person's bill of sale (1737), and an arrest warrant concerning the unlicensed sale of liquor, including to African-Americans (1751). Aside from Middagh, among the names appearing in the documents are Couwenhouven, Stryker, and Thomas Tredwell (Suffolk County). Eight documents (1654-1702) are in Dutch.
The collection includes one outlier document, the terms of sale of property mortgaged by Isaac Conklin and George L. Conklin to Henry Landon. The document is undated, but is perhaps circa 1840, based on the dates concerning Henry Landon in the Landon family papers (1977.025). It is possible that this document was originally part of the Landon papers (received in 1866, less than a year before the Middagh donation) and was separated by mistake.
Subjects
Organizations
Families
People
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Open to users without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
The material in this collection is in the public domain. While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Middagh family papers, 1974.179, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mrs. Sarah Gracie, 1867.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
If digital surrogates exist, they should be used in place of the originals whenever possible.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The collection was arranged likely in the mid-2000s. The collection was described and a finding aid produced in 2012 by Larry Weimer.
Oppressive descriptive language was remediated from the subject terms, abstract, and scope and contents notes in this finding aid as part of an anti-racist descriptive language audit performed in January 2021.
The collection's folder headings were added to this finding aid by Dee Bowers in August 2023.