My forefathers, their history from records & traditions - Tracey/Tracy ...

BRADHURST, BROADHURST, de BRADEHURST 13
had been sent to America in 1650 by the Dutch East India Company,
and became Minister of the Dutch Church at Bevervvyck (Albany) in
1652/ Reynier Schaets was the brother of Bartholomeus Schaets,
Chamberlain of the Government (or Stadt) House at New Amsterdam,
who was one of those "Knickerbockers" so quaintly caricatured in
Washington Irving's History of New York.""
It may be here as well to recall the fact,—especially for English
readers,—that New York was formerly a Dutch Settlement ; and
that,
after its acquisition by the Crown of England, Charles II. granted
these possessions in America to his brother James, Duke of York and
Albany (who later became King James II.), in whose honour the Dutch
names in these Colonies were r-eplaced by those of his titles. Thus
the Province of New Netherlands became the Province of New York,
and Beverwyck was named Albany, and the city of New Amsterdam
was henceforward called the City of New York.
Reynier Schaets was one of the early settlers at Schenectady,
where, in 1689, he was appointed Justice of the Peace. On 9th
February, 1690, at the massacre and burning of that place by the
Indians and French, he and a son of his were among the sixty who
lost their lives. His children by Catrina Bensen were two sons
named Gideon and Bartholomew, and a daughter, Agnietie, wife of
Matthys Nak, of Albany, who have left descendants.
His widow, at the time of her second marriage, was thirty-nine
years of age ; and the old Dutch records of Albany call her Catalyntie
Bensing, "wedmve van Reinier Schaets," and describe her husband as
Jonathan Broadhurst, '^jong man van Derington in Engelandt."^
She was descended from Jan van Rechteren ; and was related to
a number of Dutch families. Her grandfather was Sampson Bensing,
or Bensen, who was living in New Amsterdam in 1649, and whose
will, dated 20th July, 1726, was proved 23rd February, 1731. Her
step-father, Herman Thomas van Hun,* of Amersfort, was the nephew
of Wendeltie Harmense, of Alckmar, in Holland.
' Brodhead's History of the Slate of New York.
^ E. de V. Vermont. 3 Pearson,
-t Preface to First Settlers in Albany.