David Provost Documents

[DPowell]

A recent donation to BCHS:
A letter addressed to David Provost of New York, in 1825 from his father. There are interesting references to life in Pompton Plains at that time. He writes "our Jane has been lately unwell for two days owing to a cold she took at Jacob Tewrses wife spinning visit. but is well again. spinning visits are very frequent here - once a week - next friday there will be one at Cornelius H. Van Nesser (sp?) and next week one at the Widow Maria Demotts, so that your mother can scarse make time to spin her own flax.

"our old fish fike we put in the river the other day and ketch'd on Succer - but the river is too high as yet to get anymore fish - the new fike will be fit to launch in the river by next Saturday"

"You made up your mind to go with your Cousins to their Dancing School and show them a Dutch caper - but if you shou'd go to their Dancing school one quarter, you wou'd shew our girls and boys English capers."

The reference to spinning illustrates how women produced the spun flax yarn, wool and flax yarn for woven cloth, an important commodity in a pre-industrial society.

Fike or Fyke is a fish trap or cylindrical net associated with Bergen County. Per the Fyke Nature Association http://www.fykenature.org/faq.html, Fyke Brook area is also known as Campgaw. Interestingly, this letter was in a collection of documents where Campgaw is mentioned in the early 1800s. Some of the family names are Myers, DeMott, Berry, Garrison. The collection will go in the BCHS library.

[BobW]

Is the father in the letter David Provost the Revolutionary War Veteran and school teacher of Pequannock?  The handwriting looks similar.

[DPowell]

It would be interesting to know more about them. It is signed Barbara and David Provost, Pompton Plains, March 1825. He advises to "give my respects to Your Uncle John and tell him I am well...

It is addressed to "M. David Provost, Living in New York, Favor of M. Nicolas H. Manderville"

[BobW]

The names all match those of David Provost of Pequannock, his wife Barbara Speaker (or Speakes) Provost, son David, and one of his brothers, Jonathan or John.  They were all alive in 1825.  The handwriting is a good match for David’s signature in his Revolutionary War pension documents.  I will pull together more information and post it here or email it.  David still has decedents living in Morris and Bergen Counties.  Several of David’s grandsons lived in Hackensack in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s including my great great grandfather.  David, Barbara, and many of their children and grandchildren are buried in the Pompton Plains Reformed Church Cemetery.  He probably pronounced his surname "Provo."

[DPowell]

Todd Braisted gave me David Provost's pension records to post.
It appears David Provost was about 75 at at the time the letter was written.


Bergen Common pleas

State of New Jersey   }
Bergen County   } ss

   On the 31st day of October 1832 personally appeared before the Judges in open Court now sitting being a Court of record so constituted by te laws of the State of New Jersey, David Provost a resident of Pequanonk in the County of Morris & state of N. Jersey afored. aged about Eighty two years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration, in order [to] obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th June 1832.
   That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers, and served as herein Stated.  That he served one month as a Volunteer under Capt. Gabriel Ogden 10 Jany. 1776 to guard the pass at Pompton furnace to prevent the tories going to New York.  In the Month of March 10th 1776 he served one month under Major Doughty and Capt. Layton, a Volunteer guarding near the City of New York and at New York.  One Month under Capt. Henry Mandavill, Colo. Ford of Morristown Comdg. Novr. 1776 at the time that General Washington was retreating through New Jersey.  One month under Colo. Ford to guard Elizabeth Town in the year 1777 – Capt. Debow comdg. the company.  14th July 1777 served one month under Capt. Mandavill Colo. Seely comg. at Elizabeth Town New Jersey.  1778 I served one month under Capt. Jno. Debow Genl. Winds Comdg. at Hackensack heights, where we had an engagement with the British.  I served one month under Capt. Jno. Debow against the Hessians under Kniphauson – had an Engagement with the Hessians 1780.  In 1780 Decr. 20th I served one month under Genl. Alexander, or Lord Sterling and made the tour to Staten Island, against the British.  April 12th 1781 served one month under Capt. Jno. Debow to guard Newark (New Jersey) against the refugees who had a few days before, burnt the accadamy to the ground.  In June 1778 while my Company & regt. lay at Elizabeth town in N Jersey, an Election was held to choose an Ensign, I was duly Elected Ensign of the Company, after which and during the war while in service I served as such.  Colo. Seely commanded the regt..  The Company Officers then stood Henry Mandavill Capt, Peter N. Kingsland Lieut. and David Provost Ensign.
   I was directed to go to Morris Town to Judge Condit, where I should receive my Commission from Governor Livingston.  I did go with my certificate – the Judge was not at home and I did not go again but served as Ensign ever after under my certificate.
   I hereby relinquish every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declare that my name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state at this time.

                     David Provost


Sworn to & Subscribed the
day & year afsd.
      Abr: Westervelt Clerk

Interrogatories by the Court

1st      Where and in what year was you born?
answer      In New York in the month of Augt. the 21st AD 1750.

2nd      Have you any record of your age, and if so where is it?
answer   Yes – In the books of the reformed Dutch Church of the City of New York.

3rd   Where were you living when called into service; where have you lived since the revolution, and where do you now live?
answer   Pompton Plains Morris County – at the same place except two years at Bloomingdale about three miles from his present residence.

4th   How were you called into service were you drafted, or id you Volunteer your service, or serve as a substitute.
answer   Volunteered my whole service.

5th   State the names of the regular officers, who were with the troops where you served, such Continental and Militia you can recollect and any general circumstances of your service.
answer   Don’t remember the regular officers he served with Militia Officers – Colo. Drake, Colo. Seely, and Major Doughty.

6th   Did you ever receive a discharge from the service, and if so, by whom was it given, and what has become of [it]?
answer   Never recd. a discharge from the army.

7th   State the names of persons to whom you are known in your present neighbourhood, and who can testify to your character for veracity, and good behaviour, your services as a soldier of the revolution.
answer   Major Van Gelder, John Mead, Philip Schuyler and Samuel Roomer.

Bergen Common pleas

   On the 24th day of October 1832 personally appeared in open Court before the Judges now sitting, John D Pyatt and William Colfax who being duly sworn according to law doth on their oath declare that they have been intimately acquainted with David Provost who is now applying for a pension since the revolutionary War, that he has always been reputed to be a man of strict veracity and truth and faithfull as a soldier of the revolution.

                     John D. Piatt
                     Wm. Colfax
Sworn to & Subscribed the
day & year aforesaid
      Abr: Westervelt Clerk
   And the said David Provost under oath further states that he is poor, and unable to hire a conveyance to take his witnesses to the Court at Hackensack rising twenty miles – and that the witnesses are all very aged decline the expence of taking their own, or hiring carriges, subjecting themselves also to expence of attending Court.  The names of the witnesses are Major Van Gelder, Samuel Roome, Philip Schuyler, John Mead.

                     David Provost

Sworn to, & subscribed the day
and year aforesaid.
      Abr: Westervelt, Clerk


National Archives and Records Administration, Collection M-804, Pension and Bounty Land Application Files, No. W1479, David Provost, New Jersey.

[nancyterhune]

It's interesting that this David Provost (Provoost) says in his affidavit (if that's the correct term for the court Q&A accompanying his Rev War pension application) that he was born August 21, 1750.  Is the transcription correct?  In his father's bible, there is a record of the family that gives David's birthdate as August 10.  And according to the baptismal records of the New York Reformed Dutch Church, he was baptized August 12.  This David was known as "David Provost, Jr." and his father "David Provost, Sr."  His mother was "Catrin Vangelder" in the Bible record and "Catalyntje Van Gelder" in the baptismal record (same person, just different spellings of what is the name "Catherine" in English).  Please note, Provost descendants and researchers, that in Andrew J. Provost's "Biographical and Genealogical Notes of the Provost Family from 1545 to 1895" (1895, p. 54), David Jr.'s birthdate is incorrectly given as April 10, 1750. 

[BobW]

It's interesting that this David Provost (Provoost) says in his affidavit (if that's the correct term for the court Q&A accompanying his Rev War pension application) that he was born August 21, 1750.  Is the transcription correct?  In his father's bible, there is a record of the family that gives David's birthdate as August 10.  And according to the baptismal records of the New York Reformed Dutch Church, he was baptized August 12.  This David was known as "David Provost, Jr." and his father "David Provost, Sr."  His mother was "Catrin Vangelder" in the Bible record and "Catalyntje Van Gelder" in the baptismal record (same person, just different spellings of what is the name "Catherine" in English).  Please note, Provost descendants and researchers, that in Andrew J. Provost's "Biographical and Genealogical Notes of the Provost Family from 1545 to 1895" (1895, p. 54), David Jr.'s birthdate is incorrectly given as April 10, 1750. 

David Provost's pension affidavit gives his birth as August 21st, 1750.  However his wife Barbara's later application for a widow's pension includes two page's from David's bible.  These pages state "David Provost born in the City of New York August 10, 1750 Old Style & baptized in the Old Dutch Church in said City by a Dutch minister by name Ritzman."  Barbara Speaker Provost’s pension application contains an 1843 affidavit from her son David Provost (David Provost III and the recipient of the letter above) swearing that the leaf containing his father’s family record was taken out of his father’s bible now in possession of his sister.

The Provost Genealogy incorrectly states that David Provost Sr. was "was in the War of the Revolution, enlisting from Morris County" when it was actually David Jr.  The Genealogy also shows David Jr. and Barbara's marriage as having occurred January 18, 1775.  The correct date is January 18, 1793.

The Genealogy says that David Sr. was a “Captain of militia in 1765 and on guard as Colonel, at City Hall under Lord Stirling.”  Do you know if this is correct?

David Provost Jr. is my Great Great Great Great Grandfather through his son Jacob.

[Steenrapie]

Britain and its American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, requiring a correction of 11 days in abandoning the Julian calendar then in use. Accordingly, September 2 , 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752. That is why George Washington's birthday is celebrated on February 22nd, when he was born on February 11, 1731, under the Julian calendar (Old Style). Thus both dates are correct---August 10, 1750 (Old Style) and August 21, 1750 (New Style).