Thomas Quick is one of the best documented ancestors in the database, in part because legal documentation has been preserved in the State archives and he was active in government. The way he died, and the repercussions of his death are what have kept his life story a matter of interest for so long.
Two hundred and sixty years ago, in the midst of the French and Indian War, Quick was killed by a small group of Delaware Indians, in the presence of at least one of his sons and another male relative. The son, also Thomas Quick, vowed revenge and made a it a matter of public record to kill as many Indians as possible. The mythology around Tom Quick, Indian Slayer, is multilayered. Early accounts present him as a hero and credit him with speeches made at his father’s grave. None of these narrative embellishments can be documented, but it is clear that the younger Tom Quick did kill Indians when the opportunity presented itself. The most complete and documented treatment of the elder Quick’s death that I am aware of is at the Minisink Genealogy website: Van Etten’s 1756 Account of the Death of Thomas Quick.
The remainder of his article is about the elder Thomas Quick.
Indenture of Thomas Quick, son of Derick Quick, deceased, with the consent of his brother-in-law, Henry Heus and Helegant de Key, his aunt, to John King, Shipwright, for seven years from 1st November, 1702. Apprentice to be taught to read, write and cypher, and at the expiration of the term to receive one axe, one adz, one maul, one saw, one chisel and one mallet.
New York Historical Society Collection, 1885: 602.
Page 528, Marriage 308 1713 22 Dec.
THOMAS KWIK, j. m., born in Nieuw-Jork (New York), and MARGRIETA DEKKERS, j. d., born in Rosester (Rochester). Banns registered, 6 Dec.
Albee, George Sumner, Town of Rochester: 1703 – 1953: A Whimsical History of our Town.
From Kingston the newcomers spread onto the land. I use the word ‘spread,’ but really they could not spread very much, for land rich enough to farm was to be found only in the valleys, not on the hill ridges, and it was up the valleys that wagons and ox-carts had to roll if they wanted to roll at all. So men and women who bore the names of Schoonmaker, and DePuy, Osterhoudt and Quick, Hoornbeck and Dekker made their plodding way into the valley of the Rondout to claim whatever land they thought would best reward their hard work.
Notes (Michelle Boyd)It has been suggested that Margriet, the wife of Thomas Quick, was the daughter of a Jacobus Decker. There were two Jacobus/Jacob Deckers in the previous generation. One, however, did not have a daughter named Margriet. The other Jacob did, but she would have been only about thirteen years old when Margriet Decker married Thomas Quick in 1713. So, it is unlikely that Margriet, the wife of Thomas Quick, was the daughter of Jacobus Decker.
There were three Decker families having daughters named Margriet/Grietje: Gerrit and Margriet/Grietje (Decker), Gerrit and Magdalena (Schut), and Hermanus and Rachel (de la Montagne). Thomas and Margaret Quick did not name their children Gerrit, Hermanus, or Rachel. They did name children Margriet and Lena.
The presence of Tietjen Decker (daughter of Jan Broersen), Jan van Kampen, senior (Tietjen’s husband), Anthony Westbroek (husband of Jan Broersen’s daughter, Magdalena), and Orseltjen Westbrook (Anthony and Magdalena’s daughter) suggest a relationship with the Jan Broersen family, which would rule out both Hermanus and Rachel.
Lena is likely a daughter of Thomas Quick. She and Salomon had a son named Thomas (Machackemeck baptisms, p. 137) and a daughter named Grietje (p. 128). These children could have been named after their baptismal witnesses-Thomas Wells and Grietje De Witt, respectively-but they could have also been named after Thomas and Margriet. Strengthening the argument that Lena was Thomas and Margriet’s daughter are he facts that Cornelis Quick was the witness for Lena’s son Joseph in 1756 (p.132) and Lena, along with Benjamin Quik, were witnesses for the baptism of Benjamin, the son of Dirk Quik and Apolonie Van Garden, in 1743 (p. 106).
There are no extant baptism records for Cornelis but he is very likely Thomas and Margriet’s son. The main proof is in the Machackemeck baptismal record on page 133. On 19 Jun 1757, Cornelius Quick and Maria Westphaal, James Everigame and Anna Quick, and William Ennes and Elisabeth Quick all had children baptized with Cornelius’ record just before Anna’s and Elisabeth’s as the secord record after Anna’s, possibly suggesting that the three families purposefully had these children baptized at the same time. In addition, “Cornelius Quik and his wife Maria” were the witnesses for the son of William Ennes and Elisabeth Quik baptized that day, who happened to be named Cornelius.
In the Machackemeck baptismal records, Hugh is shown as “Hugh Shellet” who with his wife Anna Quick had their daughter Grietje baptized 26 Aug 1659 (pg. 138).
Evidence that Thomas and Margriet had a son named Thomas comes from the Records of Baptisms of the Reformed Church at Machackemeck (Deerpark), pg. 133: “1757, June 19. Parents: James Everingame, Anna Quick, Child: James Witnesses: Thomas Quick, Margreth, Suster and Broeder (brother and sister).” As the father and child are both named Everingame, this means that they are sister and brother to Anna (Margreth=Margrita Quick).
Quick, Arthur C. A Genealogy of the Quick Family in America (1625-1942) 317 Years. South Haven and Palisades Park MI: Privately published by A.C. Quick, 1942. Print.
Hoes, Roswell Randall (comp.) Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co. 1997 (original publication date 1891).
Ennes, Calvin. A Bit About the Ennes. Au Gres, Michigan, 1969.
Batko, A.C., History of Montague, New Jersey. 2009.
Albee, George Sumner. Town of Rochester: 1703 – 1953: A Whimsical History of our Town.