Annetje Geltche Wilkins

Of Ann, the wife of Nicholas Stillwell, the First, little is known. She was probably an English woman, for she subsequently became the wife of William Wilkins and of William Foster, both Englishmen, and nowhere among the Dutch records, wherein her name appears and where the opportunity has been ample, has her surname been given, as was common among the Dutch of that day. The earliest mention of her name that I have so far seen occurs in the Dutch Church Records of New Amsterdam, when 1647, Jan. 14, Anne, the wife of Nicholas Stillwell, was a sponsor, with Richard Cool, at the baptism of Anna, daughter of John Harten, in the Dutch Church, at New Amsterdam. She was a lady of good birth and breeding and was alluded to in contemporary records as Mistress Anne Stillwell, an appellation of restricted use and confined to those of good station.

      Ann Stillwell was the mother of many, if not all, of Nicholas Stillwell's children, and was presumably somewhat younger than her husband Nicholas Stillwell, and perhaps somewhat older than her last husband William Foster. Nicholas Stillwell may have married her in Old England, or perhaps in Virginia. She proved a capable, energetic woman, a loyal and untiring companion, and a mother whose wise councils and loving admonitions reared an admirable family. 

      Ann Stillwell,1 shortly following the death of her husband, removed from Staten Island to Gravesend. Here she had bought, June 21, 1672, while residing at Dover, from Jan Jansen Van Ryn (Rhyn) the house and lot, No. 18, with the meadow reserved, which the grantor originally had purchased from her husband Nicholas Stillwell. Gravesend Town Records. Upon this property she probably took her up residence in company with her children Mary and Jeremiah, and perhaps John. Capt. Nicholas Stillwell, her son, one of the most eminent men of the town, was her neighbor. Her interests therefore were equally divided between the Staten Islandand the Long Island settlements. 

      Dec. 29, 1672, a few months following her arrival in Gravesend, and so close as to be the likely cause of her removal to that town, she married the local magistrate, William Wilkins. 

 [paragraph not copied]

Mr. Wilkins died in 1676, and after a brief widowhood, she, Ann, married, by license dated Jan. 13, 1679, William Foster, of Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y. Original license in possession of Dr. John E. Stillwell.

      Ann Stillwell's death probably occurred about 1686, for she joined her husband, William Foster, in conveyances, as late as 1684, and was alluded to in an inventory of the estate of Cornelius Stenwick, taken about July 29, 1686, as "Nicholas Stillwell's wife," debtor to the amount £177.4.0, wampum value. That her demise must have occurred about 1686, is further confirmed by the fact that William Foster, in 1687, had another wife, Hannah, alluded to in deeds, as also in his will of this date, 1687. 

      So far as I have seen Ann Stillwell left no will. Her lands on Staten Island she may have given to her daughter Anne, wife of Nathaniel Britton, or to her son Thomas Stillwell. Her Gravesend property she gave, June 20, 1683, by deed, in which her husband William Foster joined, to her son Jeremiah Stillwell, in consideration of his paying £3, annually, during the life of the longest liver. 

http://mysite.verizon.net/chris.stillwell/roots/reading_room/read00...

There is a disconnect on Anetje Van Dyke. Nicholas Stillwell (c.1635 – 1713) is not son of Anetje, but rather of Abigail Hopton. Abigail died in England in 1638, and shortly thereafter, Nicholas [the father] emigrated to the New World, along with his children who were born in England. Once across the ocean, he then married Anetje Van Dyke as his second wife.

• Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 12 2017, 14:05:26 UTC