from The Dutch Settlers Society of Albany, Vol. 42, Yearbook 1968-1970
JEREMIAH WILTSIE, son of Cornelius Wiltsie and Ruth Smith, was born on Oct 4, 1718 in Newtown, Long Island. He and his family moved to Dutchess County around 1733. In 1740 Jeremiah and his nephew Lawrence (Johannes's son) went on a long trip (several years) to visit relatives. It was on this trip that he met and married Mary Cornell. They went back to Hopewell and lived in the upper story of Cornelius' store. (Willsea: volume I, p. 31.)
Jeramiah, following his father's death in 1755, carried on with the family mercantile business until early into the Revolutionary War. He took over his father's store (and its contents and accounts) in Hopewell (by arrangement with his other brothers Henry, "Honnes", and "Jeans" who, along with Jeremiah, were given the store in their father Cornelius' will). The business dealt in cloth, woolen blankets, wool, flour, cooperage, furs, farm produce and other items produced in Hopewell and traded these items with New York City merchants (by way of Fishkill Landing on the Hudson River, 15 miles from Hopewell down Fishkill creek). He got, in trade, sugar, salt, spices (and other "groceries" that were not made locally), and goods imported from Europe. (Willsea: volume I, p. 34.)
In the fall of 1768, Jeremiah hís sons Thomas and Cornelius traveled to Pownal, Vermont (which in pre-revolutionary times was part of the colony of New Hampshire) to visit David Cary and his wife Anne Cornell (Jeremiah's cousin). Thomas married David Cary's daughter Elizabeth and they lived on rented land on the side of Mt. Anthony, near Bennington, Vermont. Thomas and Elizabeth bought David Cary's farm in 1784. Jeremia hís son Cornelius went to Ballstown, near Saratoga Lake 36 miles from Pownal and about 25 miles north of Albany, NY. In the meantime, Jeremiah's support of the English caused him to move his family from Dutchess County to Hoosac Corners (near the Hoosick River near the junction of New York, Vermont and Massachusetts) to live closer to his son Thomas who lived in Pownal. Further persecution led him to move to Nobletown (present day Hillsdale) to join his son William. Jeremiah later moved (about 1778) to a farm near South Bethlehem (about 10 miles south of Albany, NY) in Albany County.
Jeremiah married twice. He married his first wife on Mar 17, 1744: Mary Cornell (b. Oct. 9, 1721; d. about 1756), the daughter of Thomas Cornell and Annatje Wiltsie. Jeremiah's second wife was Mary Smith. They were married about 1757. One report lists Jeremiah's death after the war ended (about 1785), another gives the date as 1793 and Jerome Wiltsie's "memoirs" gives the date as 1792.
Jeremiah Wiltsie and his first wife Mary Cornell had seven children, born in Rombout, Dutchess County. Jeremiah Wiltsie and his second wife Mary Smith had five children, b. in Rombout, Dutchess County.
