Descendants of Founders of New Jersey

Robert Zane, Jr. was baptized on 29 March 1642 at the Church of St John the Baptist at Yarcombe, Devonshire, England. His family relocated to Ireland in 1656 following England’s Civil War. As did many other families of the era, they moved to Ireland where they were able to enjoy religious freedom.

In 1664 Robert married Margaret Hammond in Dublin, Ireland. Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Hammond and Grace Midlem of Yorkshire, England. She traveled with her brother James to Ireland in or about 1661 where she met Robert. Together Robert and Margaret had three children, though only one son, Nathaniel would survive. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1661, resurgence in persecutions of Quakers developed in both England and Ireland.

The Zanes sailed for America in 1673 on the Mary of Salem, probably as the advance guard for the Irish Tenth (or one tenth of all West Jersey), also called Fenwick’s Colony of Salem, West Jersey. It is believed that Margaret died en rout to America as there is no record of her death in Ireland or after arrival in America. Zane landed at Elsinburra later traveling up to nearby Salem, West Jersey with his young son. He eventually built a house in Salem, however within a few years time, left to locate and settle land along Newton Creek, West Jersey.

In 1677 he became one of the Proprietors of West Jersey, listed as Robert Zane of Dublin, Ireland, serge maker. Two years later he married his second wife, Alice Alday, rumored to be of Native American descent. She died leaving no issue. By 1681, Robert had settled and built a home at Newton, New Jersey; in the following year, he was elected to the first Legislature of New Jersey, and re-elected in 1685.

Robert Zane died in 1694 leaving his third wife of thirteen years, Elizabeth Archer Willis (1658-1699) and three children with her in Newton, New Jersey. Descendants of those children, such as his great grandson, Isaac Zane were among the earliest settlers of the West. Isaac’s son Ebenezer Zane built his cabin where Wheeling, West Virginia now stands. Another of Roberts descendants, his son Nathaniel’s granddaughter, Ester “Hetty” Zane married Richard Collin at Christ Church in Philadelphia, merging two old New Jersey families of Zane and Collins.

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Jacob du Trieux was baptized on 2 December 1645 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands. His grandparents, Philippe du Trieux and Jacquemine Noiret, were French Huguenots who fled to the Netherlands from France to escape religious oppression; it was there that Jacob’s father (Philippe, Jr.) was born in 1619. Philippe and Jacquemine du Trieux eventually risked their lives, crossing the Atlantic in the spring of 1624 to settle in the New World with Philippe Jr . and daughter Maria duTrieux.

Jacob du Trieux married Elizabeth Lysbeth” Post on 26 September 1674 in New Orange, New York. While many immigrants of Dutch descent were moving on to settle in or near Albany, New York at the time, Jacob and Lysbeth moved to settle in New Jersey. A deed for the purchase of land in Monmouth County, New Jersey, dated 7 March 1675, can be found in Deed Book E, page 43, in Monmouth County. At least one son, Philip, was born in 1676 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Jacob’s son Philip remained in Monmouth County for the rest of his life, marrying Sarah LaRue there in 1703 and dying in Monmouth County on 24 November 1750. However, Jacob and Lysbeth moved on to New Castle County, Delaware in the latter part of the 17th century. It was in New Castle County, Delaware that Jacob du Trieux died on 27 December 1709. Lysbeth remained in new Castle County, Delaware until her death in 1733.

In the latter years of Jacob du Trieux’s life, the surname evolved into Truax or Truex. Thousands of descendants of Jacob du Trieux have been and still are known by the surname Truax throughout the United States. Historians might suggest that it was the life-changing decision of Jacob’s grandparents to uproot their lives to come to the shores of the New World that changed the course of history in many aspects. For example, both President Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt descend from the du Trieux family. The number of descendants from this family has grown exponentially, residing throughout the United States and around the world.