They were Jonathan, son of Thomas, and
Isaac, son of Benjamin.Sources for this article in addition to those used in the earlier Belknap articles were deeds and wills of these members
of the Belknap family, Mildred Parker Seese’s Belknap file, and THE BELKNAPS AND THE BELKNAP
BURYING GROUND, a typed article in Newburgh Free Library by Donald F. Clark.
Thomas, Benjamin and Samuel Belknap were the first generation of the Belknaps who came here from
Massachusetts. They were not young men as many of the first settlers were, but had grown children, some of whom
came later. Samuel Belknap was the father of the tribe of Belknaps that lived in what is now town and city of
Newburgh. He had bought twenty six lots on the Baird patent in 1749 before coming. The
early historians say thatThomas and Benjamin settled in New Windsor but they do not tell us where. As Thomas bought thirteen lots of the
Baird patent from his brother Samuel and lived there, that places him in town of Newburgh. But his children
Thomas, Sarah, Joseph and John lived in New Windsor, that is, in Little Britain, and his son Jonathan did too for a
while. Benjamin Belknap’s house has not yet been located, but two of his children, his sons Isaac and Jeduthan lived
here. He may well have lived with one of them.
Jonathan Belknap’s house was north of The Square on Silver Stream Ave. in town of Newburgh. We claim him
among the Little Britain Belknaps because his house was just like his cousin Isaac’s, and because he lived for a while
in New Windsor. He had a farm of two hundred acres and additional land totaling five hundred acres. His house was
probably built in the 1760’s and was known as Sycamore Place.
Jonathan fought in the Revolution and seems to have contributed heavily to freedom’s cause. In 1788 he was so in
debt that the sheriff of Ulster County sold all five hundred acres to the highest bidder, Phineas Bowman, for three
hundred forty two pounds. Jonathan evidently came to New Windsor to live for at the New Windsor Precinct
meeting 1789 it was voted that George Denniston, William Watson and Thomas McDowel be a committee for
superintending the building a pound at Jonathan Belknap’s. His stay in New Windsor was short, for in the first
census, 1790, he is listed in town of Newburgh.
Jonathan Jr. was able to buy back the home farm of two hundred acres. He died in 1811 before his father who died in
1817. It remained in his own family and their descendants till the government bought it for Stewart Field expansion.
The last Belknap to live in it was Phebe Catherine Belknap who died in 1935. The farm is completely buried under
Stewart Field and the house town down.
There was a Belknap cemetery on the farm. Stewart Field had the problem of moving the seventy nine graves. They
are now near the north east corner of Stewart Field and surrounded by a stone wall built from the stone of the
Jonathan Belknap house. The grave of most interest to Little Britain is that of Sarah Belknap Hamilton, daughter of
Isaac of the other twin house, and keeper of Sarah Hamilton’s tavern on The Square.
Jonathan Belknap did not have much property to leave to his family but he made a will April 14, 1817. He divided his
money among his children and added “Also my wright in the New Windsor Meeting House to be divided equally
between Sands, Mary, Marcy and granddaughter Mary.” and he signed with his mark.
The other twin house was that of Isaac Belknap, yeoman. His wife was his cousin Sarah, daughter of Thomas
Belknap. The deed has not been found but a map shows that it was on the John Johnston patent as was his brother
Jeduthan’s. The house is still standing on the edge of Brown’s Pond, down a lane from Moores Hill Road. The farm
had two hundred acres. It remained in the family for many years, owned finally by Belknap descendants named
Markey. Now it has almost completely disappeared. In the years 1920-1917 the aqueduct cut across it west of the
house. Later, Newburgh confiscated the land east of the house for the pond. We have a description of it in Mr.
Oscar Barck’s list “Belknap houses in New Windsor town 1798.” By then Isaac Belknap had died. He had willed it
to his son Isaac, and the son had willed it back to his mother. It is listed under Widow S. Belknap, “On the road to
Bethlehem & joins land of Enos Chandler & Jas. Moore, Stone house 38 x 24 1 1/2 stories good l.f. barn 40 x 30 1
cornhouse 167 x 12 1 log outhouse 18 x 16 2100 acres good.”
The farm is noted in RECORDS OF ROADS
TOWN OF NEW WINDSOR, “Whereas Isaac Belknap, ThomasJohnston, James Humphrey and several others have requested that we should lay out a Road leading from the
Northeasterly corner of a small field which Edward Falls purchased of Reuben Wood on the South side of the
Highway leading from Little Britain to New Windsor and from thence to run Southerly across said field to the East
side of a crotched black oak tree and so along the road as it is now used to the Bridge near Reuben Woods Mill and
thence to the Barrs of said Isaac Belknaps and from thence Westerly along said Road to a Clove or Hollow leading
through said Belknap’s fields thence Southwesterly through said clove to said Belknap’s turnip patch and so
continuing the same course through a piece of woods to the field of Thomas Johnston . . . to the lane leading past
said Johnston’s house and the House of James Humphrey, and from the South end of said lane as the Road is now
cleared to Bethlehem Meeting house or untill it meets with the County line . . .” dated 1771. Isaac Belknap had been
there long enough to have his house built, some land cleared of trees, and the turnips growing.
He made his will Sept. 27, 1787. It was proved Oct. 15, a little over two weeks later. He left his personal estate to
his wife Sarah, to his older son Isaac the homestead farm, to his son Benjamin the farm he had purchased of Neil
McArthur and half of two lots in Newburgh, the other half of the two lots to his daughters Olive and Prudence, and
what he left to his daughter Sarah Hamilton was to be handled by Robert Johnston and Thomas McDowel in such a
way that James Hamilton could have none of it.
The house is beautiful in its sturdy simplicity. The gambrel roof has pleasing slopes. The kitchen fireplace is in the
basement, a huge one with a Dutch oven. The main floor has a hall through the center with outside door at each end,
and with two rooms on each side, a fireplace in the corner of each room. Stairs go up to the loft where tradition says
there was many a party for the young people of the neighborhood. The bear’s foot once nailed to the kitchen door
has long since disappeared.
Vandals and weather are giving the old house a hard time. It is too lovely to lose. It should be helped to survive, to
speak to us of the skill and energy and bravery of the pioneers. And “all were patriots” as the bronze plaque on the
house’s front wall says of the early Belknaps.
