Nicholas Stillwell whose origins can be traced back to Guilford, Surrey County in England, emigrated from Leyden in Holland about 1638 and after the death of his first wife, Abigail Hopton. He brought with him his only two children from his first marriage, Richard, born about 1636, and Nicholas, born about 1638, and he settled on Manhattan Island. His great grandfather, John of Collampore, Surrey County, England, was born in 1515 and died in 1558. John had married, Joana , a woman whose last name is unknown to us. She died in 1585. They had five children, one of whom was also named John, born in 1539, and who married Jane Pearl or, perhaps, Parle. John Stilwell and Jane Pearl, the grandparents of Lt. Nicholas Stillwell had four children, the younger of whom, was Nicholas Stilwell, born in 1570 and died in 1607. His wife's name was Ales or Alyce and they had a family of six children, the fifth being Nicholas II, who was born about 1603 and was the one who emigrated to America and known as Lt. Nicholas Stillwell. Nicholas II, took as his second wife, Anna Van Dyke, by whom he had as issue: Ann, b. 1639; Abagail or Alse, b. 1645; William, b. 1656; Thomas, b. 9/7/1651; Daniel, b. 13/11/1653; Elias; and Jerimiah, b. 16/10/1660. We know nothing about Anna Van Dyke except that she came from Holland. The family eventually settled on the eastern shore of Staten Island, where Nicholas died on the 28th day of December in 1671. The child named Abagail is of interest to me as she is in my direct line of ancestry. She married three times. First to Samuel, my ancestor, and the son of Obadiah Holmes on 26 October 1665. This first marriage resulted in the following children: Samuel, b. 12/2/1668, who died single; Henry, who died single; Joseph, b. 17/3/1672; Catherine, b. 15/6/1675; Ann, my ancestor, b. 20/12/1670, who married Jacobus Kierstede; and Mary, who died single. After the death of Samuel Holmes, Abagail, in 1680, married William Osborne who died without issue. Her third marriage, in 1683, to Daniel Lake resulted in five more children being added to the family: John, Abraham, Elizabeth, Thomas, and another child named Ann. In the legendary origins of the Stillwell name it is said that the name can be traced to about the year 1450 and came from certain peculiar wells or springs near Warborough in Surrey County, England. They were called still-wells or high still-wells and the name was applied to the members of the families and all their descendants who lived on the lands in their vicinity. Among the peculiarities attributed to these wells or springs were the fact that they were still, deep, pure and sparkling, and they never froze, all of which characteristics are said to have been preserved in the traits and habits of the descendants of those who took their name and first drank of their waters.
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The Dutch In New Amsterdam
Developed Feb 16, 1998