Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

Notes on ttje iFainflff of "Bt WLoU
A family of the early De Wolfs, probably one of the sons of Balthasar
and his descendants, lived near the upper end of " the Street," on the east
side. Their well still exists in the lot between the houses of Mr. J. P.
Van Bergen and Mr. W. B. Tooker. Other members of the family owned
all, or part, of the Meeting-house Hills, and hved on or near them. One
of these was a Benjamin, probably the same as "Benjamin DeWolf"
who in 1730-31 "acted as Society's clerk," and who "belonged to the
committee to make arrangements for building a new Meeting-House in
1737 ;" who was also selected "to entertain the committee of the General
Court to ascertain the place whereon to erect a new Meeting-House." In
1744 Rev. Mr. Parsons registers a vote of the church that the council
agreed upon by the church and certain brethren may be entertained at
Mr. Simeon De Wolf's, "provided he will take the trouble of it." These
persons would not have been selected to entertain some of the leading men
of the State, members of the General Court and pastors of churches, if
they had not been men of good social standing, living in good-sized and
well provided houses, in the vicinity of the meeting-house. In 1771
Stephen DeWolf, great grandfather of the present Lyme family, built a
house four or five miles east of the village of Lyme, on land which
belonged to his wife Theody Anderson ;
and till recently the homes of the
Lyme family have been in that house and another in the same neighborhood.
It is impossible now, and probably always will be, to learn more than
the few facts we have given in regard to Balthasar De Wolf and his imme-
diate family. They were not among the large landholders, though the
sales and bequests made by Balthasar and his sons and grandsons, of lands
which had belonged to him, show that they had a good landed estate ; nor,
so far as appears from the records, were they conspicuous in the affairs of
the town. But there was some condition or quality, either in education,
character, family respectability, personal attraction, or other " unknown
quantity," which enabled them to marry into some of the best famihes in
Lyme and the neighboring towns. The early settlers of Lyme brought
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