Isaac See

His surname was sometimes spelled "Sie." Isaac See was born in 1634 in Pas de Calais, France.¹ He was the son of Jean Sy.²

Isaac See married Esther Sy, daughter of Pierre Sy, on 11 December 1657 at the French Church, Mannheim, Germany. The translation of the church record reads Isaac Sy, young man, residing at Friesenheim, son of the late Jean Sy, lifetime (Resident) of Nielles lès Calais, and Esther, daughter of Pierre Sy, residing at Mannheim, have been married in the French Church of Mannheim this 11th December, 1657.²

James Riker, in his 1904 book,³ states that Isaac and Esther had a son, Isaac Jr., whose wife was named Maria and who came to New York with them in 1674. Grenville Mackenzie's 1966 book states that Isaac Sie, Jr., was born in France probably about 1645.⁴ However, in an article published in 1979 in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Glenna See Hill⁵ argues that since the marriage record of Isaac Sy and Esther shows they were married in 1657, "there could not have been an Isaac, Jr. of marriageable age in 1674." Therefore, she concludes, the children listed by Riker and Mackenzie has having belonged to the non-existent Isaac Jr. were actually the children of Isaac Sr. The parent-child relations in the present work are based on this conclusion.

Isaac See and Esther Sy emigrated in 1674 from England to Harlem, New York, together with Nicholas de Vaux and his wife Marie.⁶ The ship was the one that brought over Sir Edmund Andros when he became the Governor of New York: H.M.S. Diamond⁷ which arrived in New York on 22 October 1674.⁸

The Sees obtained two farms of 194 acres on Karle’s Neck, Staten Island, by patent of 29 September 1677.³

Isaac See settled in Nanegeeken, now Thornwood, New York, some time before 1695.⁹ He was listed on the membership roll the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, New York, dated 1697.^10,3