Johannes Vermilye (see Page 1 of Vermilye book),
born 1631/2 at Leyden, Holland, son of Isaac and Jacomina (Jacobs) Vermeille. Married
on 27 August 1670 at New York City to Aeltie Waldron, who was born in 1651 (daughter of
Resolved Waldron) and died in 1734 at Yonkers, New York. Johannes was one of the
original Patentees of Manhattan Island.
He died 1696 at Fordham, lived at Harlem until old ; wrote his name Vermelje :
brewer, Court Messenger, Magistrate : member Leislers Council and sentenced to
death, but finally pardoned after 15 months in jail and an English court heard the
evidence (they were really patriots) ; then apparently moved to Fordham, Westchester
County, as his last 2 children, Johannes and Johanan (John and Hannah) are not recorded
as being baptized in the Dutch Church at New York, as all the others were ; in
fact the only record of them seems to be the 1698 census of Fordham which lists
"widow Vermillion" with five children including those two. The others apparently married
or working away from home ; in 1690 was a witness on Louis Morris's will ;
Riker says he became rich in farms at Yonkers, but he never lived in Yonkers nor owned a farm.
Johannes Vermilye's worth was recognized by an appointment to command a military company in
1663. Later he served two terms as Magistrate. His house occupied a spot nearly central of the
block between First and Second Avenues and 122nd and 123rd Streets. He came to New Amsterdam
in ripe man hood and uniting in his character the sterling traits of the French and Dutch, he
was made Court Messenger in 1665, and Constable in 1667, being for this year also farmer of the
excise ; previous to which he had set up a brewery. On 27 August 1670, then holding the
position of Magistrate, he married Aeltje, daughter of Resolved Waldron ; when he probably
built upon land procured some years before, but which is first taxed in 1671.
Mr. Vermilye took a leading part both in civil and church affairs. In the Political Crisis of
1689, he was chosen one of the committee of Safety, which on 8 June 1689 appointed Captain Jacob
Leisler to be "Captain of the Fort" and on 16 August, signed his commision as "Commander in Chief"
of the province. Taking seat in Leisler's Council on December 11, ensuing, he was sent soon after
upon a embassy to New Haven.
He continued a member of the Council till a sudden end was put to Leisler's rule by the coming
of Col. Slaughter, 20 March 1691, by whose orders Leisler and his Council (Vermilye included)
were "committed to the guards" on a charge of high treason. The execution of Leisler and
Milbourne, but two months later, seemed to Vermilye and his fellow prisoners similar fate. But
after a painful suspense of 17 months they were liberated by Governor Fletcher, on his arrival,
and were pardoned by the King on 20 February 1693. Vermilye surviving this trying ordeal but a
short period, as he was deceased in March 1696, his widow sold out his lands at Harlem in 1715
to her nephew, John Delamater, and died at Yonkers in 1734.
The Vermilje and Waldron Families were members of the Harlem Reformed Dutch Church (also known
as the Harlem Collegiate Reformed Church). Both Johannes and Resolved (Aeltje's father) served as
Elders. In 1686, they were among the financial contributors and contract signers for
construction of a stone church ; referred to as the second church, a replacement for the
first church, a plain rough, 2-storied, timbered structure built between 1665 and 1667. The
corner-stones were set with considerable ceremony on 29 March 1668 ; the first stone being
laid by Resolved Waldron and the second by Johannes Vermelje. The first service was held on 30
September 1686. During the Revolutionary War, the church was destroyed ; the only surviving
relic is its steeple bell, forged in Holland in 1734.
