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

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Notes on tJjr jFawtli? of mt Wiolt
"Here lies the body of Mr. Daniel De Wolf, A.M., died Oct. lo"^ 1752, In his
26*'' year."
As the tree is known by its fruit, we are left to draw our chief infer-
ences in regard to the traits of mind and character of Balthasar De Wolf
and his children from what we can learn of their descendants. Never rich,
the divisions and subdivisions of their lands among successive generations
would soon have made them poor. But it does not appear that any of
them waited for that fate. Very few graves of the earlier generations can
be found, and nearly all their descendants, in all the generations, went away
from Lyme. Of all the large families of Balthasar's three sons, and of his
many grandsons, only four male members of the family of his name now
live in Lyme—Messrs. John Anderson, Roger Williams, George Winthrop
and Jeremiah E., De Wolf, prosperous and respectable business-men, and
useful in the town. There must have been an early energy and ambition
in the family, which carried them away from their birthplace in search of
adventures, or to better their fortunes, and made them always ready for
ventures by sea or land, in war or peace. In the old times, before business
became centralized in the large cities. New London was a thriving shipping-
port, and in Lyme vessels were built which went out to many markets,
chiefly in the West Indies, and brought back cargoes to its wharves.
Probably by these means Charles De Wolf made his "venture" to the
island of Guadeloupe, where he finally married, and, prospering, became
the founder of the wealthy and distinguished Rhode Island family of
De Wolf. Others going out to new regions for war, returned to them
afterwards in peace, to make new homes. Among these were the founders
of the Nova Scotia branch. Simeon De Wolf having been appointed,
in March 1745, "an armourer" in the expedition for the capture of
Louisburg, under Maj. Gen. Roger Wolcott, he and others of the
family were easily led there again by the special offers of the British
Government after the removal of the Acadians from Nova Scotia.^ Their
For a farther account of the Lyme emigration to Nova Scotia see our Introduction.
135