The following material is from Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, Early Settlers of New Jersey and their Descendants, by John E. Stillwell, M.D., Vol. IV, New York, 1916, p. 298 et seq. Patty Myers "Richard Stout, the first of the name in America, was born in Nottinghamshire, England; and his father's name was John. The said Richard when quite a young man paid his addresses to a young woman that his father thought was below his rank, upon which account some unpleasant conversation happened between the father and son, upon account of which the said Richard left his father's house and in a few days engaged on board a ship of war, where he served about seven years, at which time he got his discharge at New Amsterdam, now called New York. About the same time a ship from Amsterdam in Holland, on her way to the said New Amsterdam was drove on the shore that is now called Middletown in Monmouth County in the state of New Jersey, which ship was loaded with passengers who, with much difficulty got on shore. But the Indians not long after fell upon them and butchered and killed the whole crew as they thought, but soon after the Indians were gone a certain Penelope Van Prince, wh! ose husband the Indians had killed, she found herself possessed with strength enough to creep in a hollow tree, where she remained some days with a number of severe wounds in her head and back. An Indian happening to come that way whose dog barking at the tree occasioned him to examine the inside of the tree, where he found the said Penelope in this forlorn and distressing condition which moved his compassion. He took her out of the tree and carried her to his residence, where he treated her kindly and healed her wounds, and in a short time conveyed her in his canoe to New Amsterdam where he sold her to the Dutch who then owned that city. The man and the woman from whom the whole race of Stouts have descended are now in the city of New Amsterdam where they became acquainted with each other and were married and notwithstanding it may be thought by some they conducted [themselves] with more fortitude than prudence, they immediately crossed the bay and settled in the aforesaid ! Middletown where Penelope had lost her first husband by the Indians and had been so severely wounded herself. There was at this time but six white families in the settlement, including their own which was in the year 1648. Here they continued until they became rich in property and rich in children." >From the manuscript written, in 1825, by Capt. Nathan Stout, and corrected by Joseph D. Hoff, of Middletown, N.J., in August, 1885. This manuscript contained many errors.* *The original is now owned by Mr. J. Hervey Stout, of Stoutsburg, whose father had it printed in a small edition, by the Hopewell Herald, to save it from destruction. Copies of the book are now scarce. _______________________________________ Setting aside, temporarily, his traditional history, we now come to Richard Stout's known history. This starts about 1643, when, in June of that year, Lady Deborah Moody, accompanied by her son, Sir Henry Moody, and a number of English families of good condition, arrived at the fort, at New Amsterdam, fresh from religious persecutions in New England, to seek and found an asylum under the Dutch. They were hospitably received and permitted to select such lands as they wished. At the date of their arrival, Richard Stout was probably among the English settlers, who, prior to that time, had located among the Dutch upon Manhattan Island, attracted thither from the religious intolerance of New England, or for purposes of trade, or in the spirit of adventure. These English speaking bodies soon joined to found the new settlement of Gravesend, upon Long Island, whither they probably at once commenced to remove. By 1645, with some intervening vicissitudes, they were well organized and ! the Director General, Kieft, issued them a patent dated Dec. 19th, of that year. Among the thirty-nine patentees enumerated was Richard Stout. An entry in the Town Book of the new settlement throws some light upon the life and times of Richard Stout. Unfortunately it is incomplete: May 7, 1647. "Richard Stoute being sworn deposeth yt in the . . . . his being a soldiere at the ffort with Penneare and other his fellow soldieres," etc. Twice, in 1643, the English were employed as soldiers by the Dutch. The unparalleled stupidity and barbarity of the Dutch Director-General, Kieft, and certain of his followers, jeopardized the very existence of the Dutch settlements, by embroiling them with the Indians. About the first of February, 1643, the warlike Mohawks descended upon the tribes inhabiting the shores of the lower Hudson, to enforce the tribute of dried clams and wampum which had been withheld at the instigation of some of the Long Island Indians. Fleeing like sheep before wolves, consumed with cold, hunger and fright, some four or five hundred fugitives sought the protection of the whites upon Manhattan Island, where, under the walls of the fort, these pitiable objects were fed and sheltered by the hospitable settlers for a fortnight. Recovering confidence, they broke up into two parties, one of which ventured across the river to Pavonia, on the way to their friends, the Hackensacks, while the other removed to the vicinity of Corlear's Hook, where a number of Rockaway Indians had lately set up their wigwams. At this juncture, the Director, when heated with wine, yielded to the appeals of his Secretary to revenge a murder committed, some time previously, at Hackensack, and the failure of the Westchester Indians to surrender the murderer of one of the settlers, Claes Schmidt, likewise an affair many months old. Volunteers and soldiers thereupon were led to the two Indian encampments, where, under cover of darkness, they fell upon the trusting savages and foully murdered eighty in one place and forty in the other, sparing neither infants, women nor the decrepid. Never was there fouler butchery. When they realized that it was not the Indians of Fort Orange, but the Dutch who had attacked them at Pavonia and Corlear's Hook, they joined the Long Island tribes, who had recently been plundered of their corn by Dutch farmers, made bold by recent events, and who had killed two of the savages while defending their property. These two factions now made an alliance with the River Indians, an! d eleven tribes, numbering two thousand warriors, burning to avenge the massacre of their people, rose in open war and every white man upon whom they could lay hands was killed. They laid waste the whole country from the Raritan River to the banks of the Connecticut. The fort became the sole refuge of the panic stricken inhabitants, who, huddled together, bewailed their utter ruin through the folly and criminality of Kieft, and they now threatened to abandon the colony in a body. In this emergency, the Director General saw no resource to prevent a depopulation of New Amsterdam, but to take all the settlers into the service of the Company, for two months, until peace could be reestablished, "as he had not sufficient soldiers for public defense." Life and Times of Nicholas Stillwell, p. 86. This uprising was of short duration, for the savages, who had glutted their revenge, felt the need of planting their maize, and made overtures of peace, which were eagerly accepted by Kieft, and a treaty was concluded, first, with the Long Island Indians, on Mch. 25, 1643, and with the River Indians on Apr. 22, 1643. The second uprising, in 1643, occurred some months later, and again was the result of Kieft's maladministration. Notwithstanding the fearful experience he had just passed through, his cupidity and dishonesty were such that he embezzled the gifts that were to ratify the late treaty with the River Indians, which occasioned such dissatisfaction and discontent that the outraged Indians seized several boats laden with peltries in retaliation and as an offset. In doing this, ten white men were killed. Then followed war in its most terrible shape. The settlements of Anne Hutchinson, John Throckmorton and the Rev. Francis Doughty were all destroyed, some of their settlers killed or taken into captivity, while the balance, amounting to over an hundred families, quickly made their way to the Fort at New Amsterdam. Lady Moody's settlement, at Gravesend, alone was able to withstand their assault. Here, the townsmen, many of whom had served during the two months in the Indian outbreak in! the Spring, under Lieut. Nicholas Stillwell, Ensign George Baxter and Sergeant James Hubbard, well organized into a trained band, gave them so brisk and severe a reception that they were soon in full retreat. So great was the need of protection at the Fort that Kieft again found it necessary to take "into the public service all the able bodied English inhabitants of the neighboring villages, the Commonalty of New Amsterdam having agreed to provide for one-third of their pay; and a company of fifty was immediately enrolled from their number, armed and drilled." About March, 1644, the Indians were vanquished, and on Apr. 6, and Apr. 16, 1644, Sachems from various tribes concluded a new peace at Fort Amsterdam. It was in one of these two enlistments that Richard Stout served with Robert Pennoyer and other fellow soldiers, and I am inclined to think it was in the first one. More to come---