THE SMITH FAMILY. - A branch of the Smith family, which is still
numerous in the northern and western parts of Bergen County, is descended
from Lambert Ariaense, who was a native of the Province of Gelderland, in Holland. He emigrated to America when young and settled at New
Amsterdam, where, on the 9th of April, 1682, he married Margaretta Garrets Blawvelt, a daughter of Garret Hendricksen Blawvelt, of Deventer,
Holland. In 1686 Lambert Ariaense became, with his brothers-in-law, the
Blawvelts, and others, a purchaser of the Tappan patent, a large part of
which was in Bergen County, N. J. Lambert received a large portion of this
patent at each of the divisions. Rev. David Cole in his "History of Rockland County" says:
Lambert and his two sons located at the 'Green Bush,' where he built
a stone house, near where the burying-ground now is. This house was
torn down after the Revolution and a new one erected on the same spot
by Gerret Smith. Lambert had three sons. The eldest, Garret, was settled, by his father, south of the swamp. Abraham, the second, stayed on
the old place, and the third, Cornelius, built on what was then called the
Ridge, just west of the present Erie Railroad. Garret, the eldest, was
great-grandfather of Gerret Smith, the philanthropist and friend of the
slave. Lambert's descendants soon grew so numerous that it was necessary
to distinguish one from the other, and as he was a smith by profession it
became convenient to designate him as Lambert Ariaensen Smidt. This
name continued for several years, most of the branches dropped the Ariaensen entirely, and the family was known by the name of 'Smith.'
The descendants of Lambert, the smith, spread south into New Jersey,
some of them retaining the surname Ariaensen, hence the Auryaunsen
family.
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