Hugo FRERE

                   NOTE:
    -The first entry in the records of Ulster Co. NY., written in French and made in 1683, sets forth that about the year 1650 during the notorious Hugenot persecutions there was an exodus of Protestant families from France to Holland, Germany, Switzerland and America. One group located in Germany in the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine River, the capitol of which was Mannheim. The natives called this area the Pfals. Between 1662 and 1676, a number of these refugees families emigrated to America and settled on the Wallkill (or Wall River) which lies west of the Hudson River in Ulster Co., NY.  -On May 26, 1677, twelve of these families joined together and purchased about 40,000 acres of land from the Indians. In 1678, Governor Andros, as representative of Britian, issued to them a "Patent of New Paltz". Obviously, the name was derived from their temporary Rhineland home in Pfals. One of the twelve Patentees was Hugo Freer (later spelled Freer and Frear) who was the progenitor of that family in America. A monument was erected in 1908 in New Paltz dedicated to the memory of the twelve Patentees.
    -More Historical detail is available to read in PAF Notes




one of the patentees of New Paltz, NY.;and his old stone house is still standing.CHAPTER XXXTHE FREER FAMILY AT NEW PALTZThe Freer family of New Paltz and elsewhere in the United States is descended from Hugo Freer, one of the New Paltz patentees. Hugo was one of the last of the little band to arrive at Kingston. There is no mention of his name previous to the purchase of the New Paltz patent from the Indians in 1677. He probably had just arrived in the country at that time. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Haye, and their three eldest children, Hugo, Abraham and Isaac. In the papers that have come down to the present time there are more in the French language among the descendants of Hugo Freer than of any of the other Patentees, which seems to indicate that he had not been very long absent from his native country when he came to New Paltz. When the church was organized at New Paltz in 1683 Hugo Freer was chosen deacon, and in 1690 he was elder in the church. This would show that he was a man of known piety and excellent standing among the brethren in the little community. Most of the other settlers at New Paltz were related by marriage. But neither Hugo the Patentee nor any of his children married New Paltz people. A good portion of the children and grandchildren of Hugo the Patentee married and settled outside the bounds of the New Paltz patent, going to Kingston, to Dutchess county and elsewhere. Still among his numerous descendants many remained at New Paltz. During the first century after the settlement there was perhaps Page 349 no family that furnished a larger proportion of eminent men than the descendants of Hugo Freer the Patentee. The Freers of colonial days had means and piety as well. The Bontecoe Freers, cultivating the lowlands on the Wallkill in the great bend of the stream, above Dashville Falls, would walk barefoot five miles to church at New Paltz in summer, putting on their shoes when near the village. But when the time came to put up the new stone church in 1772, the Freer family contributed considerably more than one-fourth of the whole amount needed, and two of the name served on the building committee. Tradition states that one year the Freers paid the whole amount of the quit rent due from the New Paltz settlers to the colonial government and in return received 200 acres of land at Mud Hook, near the north west corner of the New Paltz Patent. In the Revolutionary war the Freers furnished a large number of officers and men, the list including Col. John Freer and Capt. Jacobus Freer of Dutchess county and Lieuts. Daniel Freer and Anthony Freer of Ulster, also about a score of private soldiers. At the commencement of the last century Samuel Freer of Kingston was for many years a noted newspaper man, editing the Gazette. If not the very first, he is at least the best remembered editor of the first quarter of the last century. He used to carry his papers on horseback to his patrons at New Paltz and elsewhere, and it is related that when asked if he had news to tell would answer in Dutch, "Always news when the paper comes." In the second war with England, Capt. Zachary Freer of New Paltz served as a captain, his regiment being stationed on Long Island. Page 350 The Freers left the village at an early date. Not a single tombstone bearing the name or initials of any member of the family is to be found in the old graveyard here. The old homestead in this village passed from Hugo Freer, senior, son of the Patentee, to his son-in-law, Johannis Low, whose descendants occupied it for a long time. The Freers scattered widely during the colonial period, and for that reason it has been difficult to trace their history. The family was most numerous at Bontecoe. The old graveyard there is probably next to that in this village the oldest in the Patent. Among the Bontecoe Freers the name of their ancestor Hugo was continued from generation to generation, but has now died out and the last Hugo in this vicinity died at his home at Bontecoe at a good old age about 1850. In the old days it was not customary for la
ymen to take part in the services in church. It is stated that the only man to raise his voice in public prayer in the New Paltz church at about 1820 was Jonathan Freer of the Ohioville neighborhood. None of the Freers of the early days were merchants, as far as we know, and none of them made or sold whiskey, that we are aware of. The Freer homestead in this village is the northernmost of the old stone houses on Huguenot street. It is still occupied as a residence, is in a good state of repair and has not been changed much since the olden times, except that the great beams have been cut down and there is no longer a great fireplace. The house is about 40 feet in length and 35 in width, including a small, frame addition in the rear. Hugo Freer, the Patentee, was twice married, his first wife being Mary Haye and the second Jannitje Wibau. The children of Hugo, the Patentee, were: Hugo, Senior, Abraham, Page 351 Isaac (who died when 18 years old), Jacob, Jean, Mary and Sarah. The first named daughter married Lewis Viele of Schenectady, and the other married Teunis Clausen Van Volgen of the same place. The three eldest sons of Hugo, the Patentee, located at New Paltz and Jean moved to Kingston. Mary, the daughter of Hugo the Patentee and wife of Lewis Viele of Schenectady, sold her one-sixth part of her father's estate to her brother Hugo for 83, as is shown by a document dated 1710, which among many other papers of Hugo Freer, Senior, has come down to the present day and is now in the possession of the writer. Jean Freer, son of the Patentee, who had located at Kingston, also sold to his brother Hugo, Senior, his share, one-sixth part, of the estate of their father. The sale was made in 1713 and the price paid was 80. From : History of New Paltz, New York ******Hugo Freer (the Patentee) was born at Harly, now spelled Herly, a tiny village in the district of Haut Boulonnois, 20 miles SE of Boulogne, 25 miles SW of Hazebrouck, in Normandy, France. He moved to Mannheim (Germany) in the province of Die Pfalz on the Rhine River around 1651. Hugo married Marie de la Haye of Douai (France) at Mannheim 10-02-1660. They had a daughter Marie born 09-13-1661, a daughter Sara born 01-22-1664, and a son Hugo born 07-01-1666. Marie and both daughters died in the Great Plaque of 1666. Hugo then married Jeanne (Jannetje) Wibau (also spelled Verbeau) of Bruyelle who was the widow of Simon Floquet on 01-22-1667. One year later a son died in infancy. A son Abraham was born on 06-16-1670 and a son Isaac born 02-20-1673. Hugo Freer, the Patentee, died in New Paltz in 1698. Jeanne died 12-08-1693. Both are buried in the Walloon Cemetery on Huguenot Street, New Paltz, but the headstones have disappeared.====================Ruth P. Heidgerd's The Freer Family, Huguenot Historical Society, 1968.====================Family tradition has it that Hugo escaped into the German Palatine from France hidden in a barrel. There is speculation that he was the son of a catholic family and had converted to Calvinism in France, fleeing to avoid his persecutors, changing his name to Frere (French for brother). Hugo arrived in the Wiltwyck NY area ( now known as Kingston, Ulster Co.) in 1675. It was here that he met the the other Huguenots and became associated with the group that became the original Patentees of New Paltz. The original 12 patentees purchased land from the Esopus Indians in 1677 and built log cabins on what is now Huguenot St. New Paltz, NY. In 1692 a stone house was built, which still stands today. It is now owned by the Historical Society. In the 1600's the spelling for this Huguenot family was Frere or Freer, later to become Frier, Free, Frar, Freir,Frayer, and Freyer. It would seem the spelling of Frayer evolved with Isaac and his family in the 1780's. Hugo was a church officer, in 1683 he was a deacon and in 1690, he was a church elder. Hugo also owned a female black slave.=====================This family starts with Hughes Frere of Herly-en-Boulonois and Marie de la Haye, a young woman of Douaye in the reconquered land, marrying in the Frenc
h Huguenot Church in Mannheim, GER, on 2 Oct 1660. (The descendants are traced in Ruth P. Heidgerd, cp, The Freer Family, Vol I, 2nd ed, 1991 and Vol II, 1993).Little was known about him until 1978, when the Huguenot Historical Society acquired copies of the marriage and baptismal records of the French Congregation at Mannheim,Germany, from 1651 to 1710. Most of the New Paltz Patentees had fled their homeland in the north of France during the mid-1600s and settled for a time in the province of Die Pfalz on the Rhine River, seeking freedom from persecution for their Calvinistic religious beliefs. The Mannheim record shows that "Hugues Frere" of Harly-en-Boulogne, about two miles southeast of Boulogne, was married to Marie de la Haye there on Oct. 2, 1660. They had two daughters and a son during the next five years, but apparently Marie and the daughters died sometime around 1666 during the plague which reduced the congregation by over one-half in seven months. Hugo then married Jeanne Wibau on Jan. 22, 1667 and they had three sons. Connections to other of the Patentees include Jeanne as a godmother to Jacob, son of Martin DuBois, and Hugo as a godfather to Esther, daughter of Jean Hasbrouck. Also,it is probable that Jeanne was the niece of the wife of Christian Deyo, who had previously been listed as Jannetje Verbeau. Hugo Freer arrived in America during the latter part of the Huguenots' stay in Hurley, where they lived before settling New Paltz in 1678. The north section of his home on Huguenot Street, the Hugo Freer House, dates to 1694. His will of Jan. 4, 1698 was written in French and was signed with an X, indicating that he (probably) could neither read nor write. None of Hugo's children married into the French community here and most married into Dutch families. The south portion of the Freer House was added in the 1720s by Johannes M. Low, the husband of Hugo's granddaughter, Rebecca. The wooden lean-to at the rear was constructed during the time of the Revolution and at one time contained a cobbler's shop in the southeast corner. In the earliest - built stoneportion of the house, the two windows on the north side and one on the west are original. There was once an outside door where a se cond window, of a different height from the others, is now located on the house's west side.In the more recent 1720 south portion, the attic window is original and one can still see the faint outlines of a mow door to the west where hay and provisions could be brought into the attic directly from outside. The Freer House was first sold in 1828 and passed through ten different owners until it was restored and modernized by John Follette, a Freer descendant, and sold to the Huguenot Historical Society in 1955. An interesting incident occurred (in) 1931 when Annie M. DuBois, the (then) current owner of the house, threw herself into the well of the homestead. As one enters the house a small hallway separates the oldest portion on the left from the later addition. The original floor boards remain in the north room and the projecting sycamore beams indicate that this room once had a jambless or walk-in fireplace like that in the Jean Hasbrouck House. A small mantle-piece held candles and soot marks are still visible on the beams above. Many of the furnishings in the house have been contributed by both the Freer and Low families. An old chest or trunk brought to America by Hugo Freer is on display in the living room. Of interest also is the Isaac Freer cradle, a chest containing a complete set of English Sprig china which was traditionally passed to the oldest daughter in the family and homespun linen sheets on the beds. There is also a bedspread marked "Jane Freer" which was woven at Libertyville, N.Y. by the Low family in the early 1800s. On the walls hang a portraft of Martinus Freer and a painting of his home in Ohio after the Civil War. The Freer House, along with the other Stone Houses on Huguenot Street, may be visited from May 13 through October 2l,1981 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. PIease phone 255-1160 for reservations for gro
ups of over ten people (1981).=======================1698 WILL: New Pal;tz, Ulster Co, NY. The will of "Hugue Frere of the Paltz, laborer" is dated 4 Jan 1697/8 and is written in French. His eldest son, Hugo Frere, was to have ten pieces of eight as his birthright; the three younger children, Jacob, John, and Sara, were to have his real property, lands and house, until Sara turned 16. It was then to be divided equally except for certain individual gifts to them and the other children, Jean and Maria.[blanch.ftw]The first entry in the records of Ulster Co. NY., written in French and made in 1683, sets forth that about the year 1650 during the notorious Hugenot persecutions there was an exodus of Protestant families from France to Holland, Germany, Switzerland and America. One group located in Germany in the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine River, the capitol of which was Mannheim. The natives called this area the Pfals. Between 1662 and 1676, a number of these refugees families emigrated to America and settled on the Wallkill (or Wall River) which lies west of the Hudson River in Ulster Co., NY.On May 26, 1677, twelve of these families joined together and purchased about 40,000 acres of land from the Indians. In 1678, Governor Andros, as representative of Britian, issued to them a "Patent of New Paltz". Obviously, the name was derived from their temporary Rhineland home in Pfals. One of the twelve Patentees was Hugo Freer (later spelled Freer and Frear) who was the progenitor of that family in America. A monument was erected in 1908 in New Paltz dedicated to the memory of the twelve Patentees. (Chuck LeRoy GENDEX)[Abc.ftw]one of the patentees of New Paltz, NY.;and his old stone house is still standing.CHAPTER XXXTHE FREER FAMILY AT NEW PALTZThe Freer family of New Paltz and elsewhere in the United States is descended from Hugo Freer, one of the New Paltz patentees. Hugo was one of the last of the little band to arrive at Kingston. There is no mention of his name previous to the purchase of the New Paltz patent from the Indians in 1677. He probably had just arrived in the country at that time. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Haye, and their three eldest children, Hugo, Abraham and Isaac. In the papers that have come down to the present time there are more in the French language among the descendants of Hugo Freer than of any of the other Patentees, which seems to indicate that he had not been very long absent from his native country when he came to New Paltz. When the church was organized at New Paltz in 1683 Hugo Freer was chosen deacon, and in 1690 he was elder in the church. This would show that he was a man of known piety and excellent standing among the brethren in the little community. Most of the other settlers at New Paltz were related by marriage. But neither Hugo the Patentee nor any of his children married New P