General Notes

Aka: Ecker;   Wolfert built the house called " Wolferts Roost", later owner by
Washington Irving, renamed: "Sunnyside".

Just north of Abraham Martling was that farm of Jan Ecker the first deacon of the church. A son of Stephen Eckker "from Ham out of the land of Marde," he married Magdalena Vonck June 4 1693 but left no descendants in the male line. Jan's elder brother Wolfert Ecker was born in Flatbush probably about 1668. Some time before 1691 he settled on the bank of the Hudson in Southern Tarrytown where he built the Dutch farm house immortalized by Washington Irving as "Wolfert's Roost." * This house was owned by Major Jacob Van Tassel during the Revolution when it was burned by the British in retaliation for some depredation committed by the doughty Jacob within the British lines. After the war it was rebuilt and was bought in 1802 by Capt. Oliver Ferris whose son Benson sold it to Washington Irving in 1835. All of the Ackers of Westchester County are descended from Wolfert and his wife Mritje Syhouts whom he married in January 1692. The Ecker-Ekkerson family of Rockland County was of a different origin. Just north of Wolfert Ecker's farm Glode Requa settled about 1729.