The Chatfield–Chatvelt family

In 2008 I published an article entitled “Thomas Chatfield … probable father-in-law of Joannes Verveelen,” the Verveelen of the title being an early settler of New Harlem in New Netherland.^[1] Personally I do not feel there is any reasonable doubt that Thomas Chatfield was the father of Verveelen’s wife, but as no documentary evidence has been found which explicitly avows the relationship, some qualification of the claim had to be made in the title.

The article is still too recent to be reproduced in its entirety on this site. In the meantime, I give a brief sketch of my own line of descent below. Francis Chatfield and Anne Peckham, the couple who head this chart, would appear to have been the ancestors of most modern Chatfields, including the various Chatvelt families of the Netherlands. Several incompatible attempts have been made to extend the line further backward, of which that of Elizabeth French (1916) still seems the most convincing.^[2]

I am continuing my researches on the Chatfields in my own line of descent, and on all their spouses. The first in the series was the paper on the Verveelen family.^[3] The second was the Chatfield article. The third established the parentage of Paulina van Oudenhoven, wife of Thomas Chatfield and mother of Anna (Chatfield) Verveelen.^[4]

Since the appearance of my 2008 article, a notarial document from 1623 mentioning “Thomas Chatfield, lieutenant in the company of Capt. Meoles & Paulina van Aldenhoven his wife,” of which I had previously seen only an abstract, has become available in facsimile reproduction.^[5] He signs his name “Thomas Chatfield” but she signs hers “Paelinna [sic] van Hoven.” The majority of records relating to her however give her name as Paulina van Oudenhoven, and it is now known that she was a daughter of Gillis van Oudenhoven and Anneken van der Elst, of Den Haag.

                            Francis Chatfield
                            (ca. 1532-1594)
                     of “Chatfields” in Westmeston,
                       and of Rumboldswyke, Sussex
                             = Anne Peckham
                              alive in 1594
                                    |
                           Lt. Thomas Chatfield
                            (ca. 1568-1636+)
                  of Bergen-op-Zoom and Geertruidenberg,
                               North Brabant
                       = (1) Paulina van Oudenhoven
                             (d. in 1623-33)
                                    |
                          Anna Chatfield/Chatvelt
                               (1612-1664+)
                      = Johannes ver Veelen/Verveelen
                             (1616-1699/1701)
                       of New Harlem, New Netherland
                                    |
                             Maria Verveelen
                               (1656-1748?)
                              = Adolf Meyer
                                (d. 1711)
                              of New Harlem
                                    |
                           Anna Catharina Meyer
                               (1677-1762)
                             = Abraham Lent
                               (1674-1749)
                  of Tarrytown, Westchester Co., New York
                                    |
                                Isaac Lent
                               (1707-1771)
                    of Fishkill, Dutchess Co., New York
                             = Sara Luyster
                               (1714-1767)
                                    |
                              Catharina Lent
                             (say 1743-1767+)
                             = Francis Harris
                               (1740-1816),
                         of Sandy Cove, Digby Tp.,
                   Annapolis (now Digby) Co., Nova Scotia
                                    |
                            Catherine Harris
                               (1767-1846)
                             = John Comfort
                             (ca. 1755-1830)
                 of Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., Upper Canada
                                    |
                             Francis Comfort
                               (1800-1880)
                   of Beamsville, Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co.
                            = Jemima Wilcox
                               (1801-1876)
                                    |
                             Margaret Comfort
                               (1833-1916)
                           = John Kennedy (IV)
                               (1832-1897),
                 of St. Anns, Gainsborough Tp., Lincoln Co.
                                    |
                             John Kennedy (V)
                               (1862-1939)
                        of Melita, Manitoba, Canada
                      = Susanna Samantha Helena Young
                               (1882-1937)
                                    |
                            Jean Margaret Kennedy
                               (1917-2000)
                      = Richard Harry Mitchelson, Jr.
                               (1914-1998),
                           of Winnipeg, Manitoba
                         (my natural grandparents)

Some Chatfield Heraldry

Above: Arms of Jacob Chatvelt, from the armorial of the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap te s’-Hertogenbosch (click for larger image).^[6]

Above: Chatfield wapenbord in Breda Cathedral (Grote Kerk te Breda), with captions probably added, or at least overpainted, in modern times.^[7]

Notes

This document is from the Genealogy Page of John Blythe Dobson at johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/ff/Chatfield.cfm
Written 22 July 2009
Last revised 11 May 2014