Jacob Van Buskirk

The Descendants of Jacob Van Buskirk and Susannah Townsend

First Generation

1. Jacob Van Buskirk was the progenitor of all Van Buskirks who originated on Prince Edward Island. Born June 30, 1749 near Loonenburg, Albany County, New York, son of Andries Thomasen Van Buskirk (Thomas², Laurens¹) and Annetje Vervey, daughter of Jan Cornelius Vervey and Catharina Ackerman.

Jacob Van Buskirk married 1st around 1769 Gertrude Schram, the daughter of William Schram of Loonenburg. Jacob married 2nd Susannah Townsend daughter of James Townsend of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.

Jacob Van Buskirk was a successful land owner and had a 500 acres land in New York. He was described as being handsome, tall, blue-eyed and a crack shot with the rifle. As the revolution started, Jacob was a Loyalist and was thrown in prison for more than a month because he refused to take an oath of allegiance to Congress.

On his release Jacob Van Buskirk went over to the King’s forces, rowing to a warship in the river while the ship’s marines had their muskets pointed at him. He then joined Butler’s Rangers that fought the rebels in the northern New York area. At the end of the war, he was in Captain Andrew Bradt’s company of Butler’s Ranger as a Corporal. The Rangers were starting to settle in West side of the Niagara. Jacob Van Buskirk and his wife separated, Gertrude took the children and went back home. Jacob who could not go back because he was a loyalist and he was a soldier of the Butler’s Rangers.

He went with his friend Richard Lorway (who was also in Captain Bradt’s company as a Sergeant) to Nova Scotia to Louisbourg hoping to get a land grant there. There he met the Townsend family who have been there since 1758 when James Townsend, a soldier in the British Army, was at the siege of Louisbourg where the French lost. Jacob Van Buskirk eventually married his daughter, Susannah Townsend. His friend, Richard Lorway, married another of James Townsend’s daughter.

In search for a land grant, Jacob and Susannah Van Buskirk and their young children moved around 1789 to the Island of St. John as it was called then.

They lived in the New Glasgow or Rustico area of the Island of St. John. Jacob appeared in the Assembly in Charlottetown in 1833 in hopes of getting a land grant. He stated that he was 84 years old and living with his son on leased land.

According to his grandson, Jacob Van Buskirk lived to be 108 years old, that would put his death in the year 1857. According to the Wall family bible there is this entry under "death" "Susannah Van Buskirk November 21, 1858".