Your Name in History

Relyea Genealogy Part of the Our Name in History Series!

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Denis first appears in May 1693 in records of French Huguenot Church of New Paltz, New York at baptism of Isaac Frere, son of Hugo Frere and Marie Anne LeRoy. He is documented in the Relyea Family by Mary Knight Crane in New York GBR, Jan 1924, pp 62ff. and in the "Dutcher Family Records He settled on the grant of land given to Captain John Evans, patent dated 1695 in Ulster County, New York. He was the first settler of the Town of Marlboro and lived on the stream called Old Man's Kil in 1697. At one time he was supposed to have occupied the stone house on the Hudson just south of Juffrow's Hook, now called Blue Point. He paid taxes in Marlboro and Plattskill in 1714-15, 1718. He was a miller and lived to be very old and was called Old Denis. From him are descended the numerous families of Relyea's who have scattered all over the country.

...and it is quite certain that Dennis Ralje (Relyea), or as he was afterwards called "Old Dennis" was settled on a stream that is now called "Old Man's Kill" at the present village of Marlborough soon after Evans got his Patent (granted c1690). He was the first settler of the town of whom we have knowledge; and the stream or kill there was called after him. There is no record that any white man set foot in what is no the Town of Marlborough previous to 1684. It was originally a part of the "Paltz Patent" granted by the Colonial Governor in 1678. ^{[ History of the town of Marlborough, Ulster Co., New York; C.M.Woolsey; Albany 1908, p.20 ]}

Jean Giron (uncle of the wives of Hugo Freer & Denis Ralji), came from France to Canada and bought a farm on the River St. Charles near Quebec. He married Madeleine Deschalets. He was from Creances, bishopric of Coutances, in Manche, the long finger with Cherbourg at the tip which points from the north of France into the English Channel.

In the same year Simeon Le Roy, who was a master carpenter, bought land next to his brother-in-law on the River St. Charles. He remained in Quebec until 1679 or later, but in 1681 he had removed to Montreal. While he was in Canada he appears to have been a Catholic, for all his children were baptized by the priests. In 1682 he was in Albany, and thereafter he lived in Kingston, where he was as late as 1701.

In 1704, however, he probably left htere and he was a witness at the baptixm of his grandchildren on Staten Island, in 1706 or 1707. Through his son Francis he was head of the LeRoy family, originally of Dutchess County, and through his son Leonard, or "Jonar" as the Dutch called it, corrupting the French sound, he was head of the "Laraway" family, originally of Schohari County.

All of his children, except Jean, who is mentioned in the letter (which he wrote to his niece Mrs. Hugo Freer of New Paltz) and remained in Canada, married either Huguenots or Hollanders and became Protestants. ^{[ History of the town of Marlborough, Ulster Co., New York; C.M.Woolsey; Albany 1908, p. 357: ]}