Roelof Schenck, son of Martin Schenck, is the American ancestor of the branch of the family from which Robert Gumming Schenck is descended. While he is generally spoken of as Roelof Schenck, his name was Roelof Martense Schenck. He was born at Amersfoort, Holland, in 1619 and probably came to America because of the misfortune which overtook his ancestors and family during the Netherland wars of the sixteenth century and the action taken by the several courts respecting the ancestral estates. He was accompanied by his Brother Jan and sister Anetje. After his arrival he lived for a time at Brenklyn. In 1660 he married Neeltje Conover, a daughter of Gerrit Wolphertse and Altie Cornelisen (Cool) van Couwenhoven and about that time settled at Flatlands, formerly Amersfoort, Long Island, where he lived until his death in 1704. The first mention of him in the early colonial records is concerning a grant of twenty- three morgans of land at Amersfoort, dated January 29, 1661. On the 2ist of February, 1664, he was one of the magistrates of the "five Dutch towns" on Long Island, who joined in a request to the director general to call a meeting of delegates from these towns on account of the English outrages and for the purpose of sending a deputation to Holland. At a government council held August 18, 1673. Roelof Schenck was appointed one of the schepens for the town of Amersfoort and on the 25th of October, of the same year, was elected a lieutenant of militia. On the 26th of March, 1674, he attended as a deputy the council held at the city hall in New Amsterdam. A valuage of Amersfoort property in September, 1676, shows that only one other had holdings exceeding his own in value. He was made justice for Kings county, New York, December 12, 1689, and captain of horse January 13, 1690. In the civil list of the province of New York for 1693 his name appeared as a justice for Kings county. When the church records of Flatlands, Long Island, were commenced the names of Roe- tof and his brother Jan stand first on the list of church members in that vicinity and he served as deacon or elder, perhaps in both of those offices as is indicated by the fact that his name appears on a roll of church officials who met to make arrangements about church matters. Taken from
History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio By Augustus Waldo Drury, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, S.J. Clarke
page 6-7