22 years, indicating that he had arrived about 1676. For this period he had exercised his calling as blacksmith, a most important trade for an early settlement, when the repair of the simplest tool involved a long, dangerous trip through primeval forests to the nearest forge, generally many miles distant.

At the massacre, Willem was severly wounded, but fled with his daughter to Esopus, or the modern Kingston, Ulster Co. N.Y. From exposure to the extreme cold, the daughter lost the use of her legs, up to the time of the petition. A list of the grandchildren shows that all the daughters except Gertruy did well for the country.

At Esopus, Willem was well received by the Indians and seems to have travelled over to the Minnisink or Port Jervis portion of the Delaware, a neighborhood for many years served by the Kingston D(utch?) Ch(urch?) Pastors. The Indians gave him a tract of land at Mahackameck (Maugakemeck), commonly called Schackeackaninck, in an elbow of the Delaware for which he received a license to purchase from the Earl of Bellamont, 15th October, 1698, and a deed from the Indians, 30th June, 1700. Willem complained that the land had subsequently by error been included in a patent to Matthew Ling and associates, and prayed that said patenties might be compelled to give him a deed for the land. The petition, signed Willem Tietsoort, was read 10th Sept., 1707, the entry reading "The petition of Wm. Tietscoort read and ordered to lye on the table."

This petition refers to land at Menissing near Port Jervis and the patent to Tietsoort is of record at Orange Co., NY County Clerk's office. I know of no earlier white settler at Manissinck than Willem Tietsoort and it is probable he

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