The Huyck Bain Crandell Collection, Document BH083
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1791-08-30 Letter, Andries J Huyck to Aron Huyck & Samuel van Slyck, Inquiring After Their Health
Inquiring after their health and asking them to write.
Image: BH083 obv.jpg
Image: BH083 rev.jpg
Transcription
Obverse
To Mr Aron Huyck and Samuel van slyck atte{sic?} Pompoonack
Reverse
Charles Town August 30 1791
these are to acquaint you that we are all well and hopeing that you are in same and I Should wish that you would be so kind as to Write all that concerns me about Deyo and all afairs in so Doing you will oblige your friend Andries J Huyck{sig}
Commentary
Notes:
- Andries J. Huyck writing to Arent Huyck and Samuel Van Slyck — the carpenter and laborer we’ve tracked through the archive since the 1760s is now in Charles Town — almost certainly Charlestown in what is now West Virginia, or possibly Charleston, South Carolina, though the former is more likely given the Hudson Valley migration patterns westward in the post-Revolutionary period. (This is a bit of a stretch - there are too many Charlestowns to choose from and no indication here which to choose - jhc)
- “Pompoonack” — the address confirms Arent Huyck was still living at Pomponick — the Huyck family farm on the Kinderhook patent lands, the same property documented throughout the entire archive since the 1679 root deed.
- Samuel Van Slyck — a new name as co-addressee. The Van Slyck family appeared in the 1744 Kinderhook tax list — Tobias Van Slyck, Peter Van Slyck, Dirk Van Slyck — a well-established local Dutch family. Samuel Van Slyck was almost certainly Christina’s brother or close male relative, living with or near Arent and Christina at the family farm. It also adds another dimension to the archive’s genealogical descent — the Huyck family connecting through marriage to the Van Slyck family, one of the established Dutch families of Kinderhook visible in the 1744 tax list. Consistent with the pattern throughout the archive of the Huycks marrying into other prominent local Dutch families — Goes, Van Dyck, and now Van Slyck.
- “All that concerns me about Deyo” — Deyo is a new name, apparently someone whose affairs Andries J. was following from a distance. Could be a business partner, a debtor, or a family connection. The Deyo family was a well-known Huguenot family in the Hudson Valley.
- “And all affairs” — Andries J. asking for a general update on his interests back in Kinderhook, suggesting he had left relatively recently and still had unresolved business there.
- August 30, 1791 — thirty years after Andries J. first appeared in the archive as a carpenter building Andries B. Huyck’s barn. He would now be in his late 50s or early 60s, having apparently relocated westward in the post-Revolutionary period as many Hudson Valley families did.
- The letter is informal and warm — “your friend Andries J. Huyck” — suggesting a close personal relationship between Andries J. and Arent despite the generational difference. Andries J. being Arent’s first cousin once removed — son of Johannis, nephew of Jacobus — would explain the familial closeness.
- “Hoping that you are in same” — “hoping you are in the same [good health]” — a standard letter opening formula of the period.
This letter marks a significant moment — the archive’s cast of characters dispersing in the post-Revolutionary period, with Andries J. gone west and Arent holding the Pomponick farm. The family network that was so tightly concentrated in Kinderhook through the colonial period is beginning to scatter.
— Notes by Claude.ai 4.6 2026-05-08 - jhc
Metadata
Document: BH083
Date: 1791-08-30
Language: English
Type: Letter
Subject: Social
Principals: Arent/Aron Huyck, Samuel van Slyck, Andries J Huyck
Places Mentioned: Pomponack, Charlestown
— page revised 2026-06-14 - jhc
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Huyck Bain Crandell Collection © 2026 by John H. Coxon is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
