What happened to Peter Van Camp?

John Van Camp and Mary Frees had 4 daughter and 3 sons. Every one of their children applied for a land grant as a son or daughter of a United Empire Loyalist except for Peter. What happened to Peter? Did he die early? Or did he move back to the United States? He had 2 uncles and many cousins living in New York. That would be a logical place for him to go if he was looking to make his fortune. I decided to try and find Peter.

John Van Camp was the youngest son of Peter Van Camp and Phoebe Bergen. He, his father and his 3 brothers all fought for the British during the American Revolution. After the war, two sons, Jacob and John, accepted a land grant from the British and settled in Dundas County, Ontario. Two other sons, Simon and Teunis, returned to New York. Each son had a son named Peter for a total of 4 Peter Van Camps born between 1771 and 1798.

Jacob, Peter and Phoebe’s first born son, married Annatie Buys about 1769 in New York. Their first son was named Peter Van Camp after Jacob’s father, following Dutch naming conventions. Peter was born on 11 May 1771 and baptized at the Reformed Dutch Church at Schaghticoke, Rensselaer, New York shortly thereafter. His grandfather, Peter Van Camp, was one of his sponsors.  Peter, son of Jacob, went to Canada with his parents, married Rhoda Brundage before 1792 and moved his family to Darlington Township, Durham, Ontario, Canada. Peter and Rhoda had many children but none named Peter. Peter died there on 25 Feb 1848.

Simon Van Camp married Sarah Buys, sister to Annatie Buys, about 1775. They named their first born son Peter following tradition. Peter was born on 26 July 1777 and baptized in 1778 at the Reformed Dutch Church at Schaghticoke. This Peter followed his Uncle Teunis westward and settled in Onondaga County New York. He married Martha Ostrander about 1798. Together they raised 4 sons and a daughter but did not name any of their sons Peter. Peter died in Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York on 25 February 1851.

Teunis, Peter’s and Phoebe’s third son, married Elizabeth La Grange about 1785 and settled in Courtland County, New York. Their first child, a son, was born in 1786 and they named him Peter. This Peter married a woman named Phoebe and moved to Onondaga County and died there about 1846. I have only been able to identify 2 children for this Peter, both sons and neither named Peter.

So now we get to Peter born 1798 in Canada, son of John and Mary Van Camp, my mystery Peter. When you search for Peter Van Camp in the 1830 US Census on Ancestry, 3 entries pop up. One Peter Van Camp in Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York. This is the son of Simon and Annatie Van Camp. The second one is in Tully, Onondaga, New York. This is Peter, the son of Teunis. And the third Peter is living in Rockdale, Crawford, Pennsylvania. This household has 2 males under 5, 1 male 30-39, 1 female under 5 and 1 female 20-49, a total of 5 people. This male would have been born between 1791 and 1800. This is the right age for Peter son of Mary and John. When you search the 1840 census for Peter Van Camp, the same 3 entries appear, the 2 in Onondaga, New York and 1 in Pennsylvania but now he lives in Delaware, Mercer, Pennsylvania and he has a total household of 9. Peter has 1 male under 5, 1 male 5-9, I male 10-14, 1 male 40-49, 1 female under 5, 2 females 5-9, 1 female 10-13 and 1 female 30-39. This could be the same Peter Van Camp household. Fortunately, we were able to find a Peter Van camp household living in Independence, Cuyahoga, Ohio in 1850 that fits nicely with the family from both the 1830 and 1840 censuses. Here is the family that was enumerated in 1850 in Ohio. When you plot this family out against the 1840 census, the eldest son is missing. But he would be between 20 and 25 and is not expected to still be at home.

Peter   age 57     birth year 1793       born NY

Maria       44                1806            VT

Peter       20                1830            PA

Mary        22                1828            PA

Jane        18                1832            PA

Nancy       16                1834            PA

William     13                1837            PA

Caroline    11                1839            PA

Edward       9 or 7?          1841 or 1843    PA

I decided to see if anyone claimed this family in Ancestry trees. I found several trees and picked one that had several records attached to it. This person did not have parents for Peter but was speculating that they might be John Van Camp and Mary Frees. I e-mailed the tree owner and told her my story of looking for Peter and I thought I had found him. She shared some of her family history with me and shared a couple of stories that have been passed down in her family. Supposedly Peter told his sons on his death bed that they should go to Canada because there was an inheritance waiting for them there. He may have been referring to the land grants. An even more interesting story is that Peter said he was run out of Canada by one of his sisters who was toting a shotgun and told him she would kill him if he came back. He must have believed her. It makes you wonder what he did and which sister had the gun.