alternate: Gerret Cornelisse Van Nieuwkirk

2. Gerret Cornelisse van Nieuwkirk (Cornelisse 1) ( Generation 11 - ? 1264 )
The passenger list ( O'Callahan, Documentary History of New York, iii, 35.) of the Mocsman, 25 April, 1659, contained the entry: "Gerrit Corn. van Niew-Kerk, and Wife and boy and sucking child." The boy was his brother Mattheus, aged about twelve years in 1659. Following a custom somewhat common in Holland families after arrival in New Netherland, the brothers were more or less known as Gerret (or Gerrit) Cornelisse and Mattheus Cornelisse. The children of the elder brother, Gerret, appear in official records of Ulster County and those of the Kingston Dutch Church both as "van Nieukirk" and as Nieuwkirek, or Nieuwkerck, without the "van" prefix. The
children of the younger brother, Mattheus, adhered to the prefix and are on official and church records of Bergen County, New Jersey, as van Nieuwkirk or van Nieuwkerck. The descendants of both later changed the surname spelling and, in the fourth generation, Newkirk became the prevailing form. Some branches of the family continued the spelling Nieukirk to the present day and these, it would appear, all descend from Gerret Cornelisse's grandson, Cornelius Nieukirk, who so wrote his surname, and who moved to Salem County, New Jersey, about the year 1718. Gerret Nieuwkirk promptly secured a home lot at Midwout, Long Island, which he sold after a few years. Bergen's Early Settlers of King's County, New York, Gerret Cornelise van Duyn, 331-2, gives the following brief account of this transaction:

Van Nukerk, Gerrit Cornelisse, probably from Nykerk, a town in Gelderland, or Nieuwerkerk, a town in
Zeeland, sold March 10, 1665, to Arent Evertse, molenaer (miller), a farm on the east side of the road in
Flatbush of 18a morgens, abutting on Corlaer's Flats, as per page 20 of Liber D, Flatbush records.

On April 24, 1666, Gerret and his wife became members of the Dutch Church at Bergen. Their son Jan was baptized in
New York, September 8, 1666, but the parents may have been residents of Bergen at the time. The next record found on
them is at the baptism of their daughter Gerretje, at Kingston, New York, March 12, 1669. About this time the father
purchased a farmstead in the Hurley Patent, in Ulster County. In 1670, he is listed in Captain Henry Pawling's Company
of Foot Militia, as from Hurley, at the Rendezvous of April 5th of that year, ( Report of the State Historian, State of New
York, Colonial Series, vol. 1, 379) and on May 26, 1677, he was one of the witnesses to the deed from the Indians to
Louis DuBois and Associates for the Paltz Patent. (Documents Pertaining to the Colonial History of New York, xiii,
507.) The next public record of him would appear to be on June 9, 1695, when he, his wife and his brother Mattheus
were witnesses at the baptism of Mattheus, son of Pieter Lambertse Brink and Geertruyt Mattheusen, grandson of
Mattheus Cornelisse, and great-nephew of Gerret Cornelisse, in the old Dutch Church of Kingston.
His will, executed February 3, 1686, probated March 4, 1695/66, styled him of Hurley. The document is conclusive as
to the seniority of the three sons and two daughters named. There may have been other children who predeceased him, as
had the nursing child, the Mocsman passenger.
He married in Holland, Chieltje (Cornelia) Cornelissen Slecht ( Generation 11 - ? 1265 ) ( Her name is
variously spelled Slecht, Slegt, Sleght ) to whom was bequeathed his entire estate with reversion, at her decease, to their
five children equally. She was deceased before June 30, 1702.
Children of Gerret Cornelisse and Chieltje (Slecht) Niewkirk, or Nieuwkerk i.Child, name unknown, born in Holland;
died after April, 1659
4. ii. Cornelis Gerretse, married Jannetje Jansz Kunst.
5. iii. Arie Gerretse, born Flatbush, L. I.; married Lysbeth Lambertae.

iv. Jan Gerretse, baptized New York Dutch Church, September 8, 1666; married at Kingston, July 23, 1687,
Titjen Deckers and was a sponsor at the baptism of his niece, Neeltje, daughter of Jacob and Gerretje
(Nieuwkirk) DuBois, May 27, 1716. This is an early instance on the Kingston Church Records where the family
name appears as Nieuwkirk.

6. vi Neeltjk Gerretse, born cirea 1667; married (1) Peter Crispell (2) Johannes Schepmoes.7. vii. Gerretje Gerretse,
bapt. Kingston, March 12, 1669, married (1) Barent Kunst (2) Jacob DuBois