108 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



grietje (Margaret). The register of the old Dutch church at Tappan 

 contains the names of many children of the Gesners who were baptized 

 between the years 1744 and 1815. 



John Henry Gesner (second) (1724-1811) inherited his father's 

 estate, to which he made considerable additions. He lived con- 

 tinuously at Tappan and in 1811 was buried in the old Gesner burying 

 ground, his grave and that of his wife being marked by tombstones 

 still legible. The site of his house and the family burying ground 

 may still be seen about a mile and a half southeast of Tappan village. 

 In 1744 he married Famitcha Brower, daughter of Adolphus Brower 

 and Jannette Ferdon. The Browers were descended from Adam 

 Brower who emigrated from Cologne, France, to New Amsterdam 

 in 1642. Famitcha's grandfather Jacob Brower, was married in 

 1682 to Anneke Bogardus granddaughter of the famous Anneke 

 Jans Bogardus who was descended from William of Orange (William 

 the Silent). Jannette Ferdon was descended from Thomas Ferdon 

 who had emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1645. The Ferdons (or 

 more correctly Verdon) were a French Huguenot family who had 

 taken refuge in Holland where they resided for a number of years 

 before coming to America. 



Seven sons and two daughters were born to John Henry Gesner 

 (second), the eldest in 1745 and the youngest in 1768. Canadian 

 history is interested in only two of these sons, the twin brothers 

 Henry and Abraham Gesner who settled in Nova Scotia. 



The American revolution was fraught with unhappy consequences 

 for the family. The father was fifty-two years old at the outbreak 

 of the war; the eldest son was twenty-seven and the j^oungest eleven. 

 Several etters of the father and a remarkable diary of his youngest 

 son Nicholas have been preserved. From them we learn that the 

 father, John Henry Gesner (second), endeavoured tO' maintian a 

 neutral attitude in the war, refusing to sign the Association Articles. 

 Never openly espousing the patriot cause and yet fearing to declare 

 himself a King's man, he passed a miserable existence during the war 

 and was considered a Tory by the Americans. His eldest son John 

 Gesner (third) adopted his father's course, but, being suspected by 

 the Americans, he escaped to New York where he lived, probably as 

 a non-combatant, within the British lines throughout the war. Upon 

 the cessation of hostilities he went lo Nova Scotia where he lived 

 for five years. Then returning to Tappan he passed the rest of his 

 life in the nearby village of Nyack, where several of his descendants 

 reside at present. 



