Lott family papers
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Abstract
The presence of the Lott family in Brooklyn stretches back to 1652, when Peter Lott emigrated from the Netherlands and settled in the town of Flatbush in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Flatbush would later become part of Kings County (now the borough of Brooklyn) in 1664 after the British took control of New Amsterdam. Several of Peter Lott's descendants were prominent citizens of Kings County who held influential positions in public office at the local and state levels. The Lott family papers date from 1702 to 1954 and contain items illuminating the lives of several members of the Lott family, chiefly those of the second through eighth generations. The collection also represents members of several families connected to the Lotts by marriage or through business and legal transactions, including the Bennit (also spelled Bennett), Bergen, Boerum, Cortelyou, Ditmas, Duryea, Everit, Hegeman, Lefferts, Livingston, Lloyd, Longmire, Ludlow, Martense, Nevins, Rapalje (also spelled Rapalye, Rapelje, and Rapelye), Remsen, Ryder, Schenck, Suydam, Terhune, Van Brunt, Vanderbilt, Vanderveer, Van Eyck, Vegte, Wyckoff, and Zabriskie families. Materials in the collection include personal and business correspondence; legal documents, such as deeds, indentures, conveyances, and agreements; financial records; music books, scrapbooks, and sketchbooks; clippings; genealogical materials; wills; notebooks and autograph books; photographs; and various ephemera.
Biographical Note
The presence of the Lott family in Brooklyn extends back to 1652, when Peter Lott, a French Huguenot, emigrated from the Netherlands and settled in the town of Flatbush in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Flatbush would later become part of Kings County (now the borough of Brooklyn) in 1664 after the British took control of New Amsterdam, renamed it New York, and Anglicized its place names. Several of Peter Lott's descendants were prominent citizens of Kings County who held influential public office positions at the local and state levels.
This collection chiefly relates to members of the second through eighth generations of the Lott family, beginning with Engelbart Lott (1654-1730), son of Peter, who was married to Cornelia De La Noy and resided for a time in New Castle, PA before returning to settle permanently in Flatbush. Engelbart and Cornelia had several children, including Abraham Lott (1684-1754), who was married to Catherine Hegeman (1691-1741) and became owner of the family farm after his father's death. Abraham was also elected a Representative of Kings County in the Colonial Legislature of New York.
Abraham and Catherine's son, Engelbert Lott (1719-1779), also resided in Flatbush and was married to Maritje Ditmas. He too became owner of the family farm after Abraham's death, and was also the principal land surveyor in Kings County and a Judge of the Kings County Court of Common Pleas.
Engelbert and Maritje Lott's son, Johannes E. Lott (1746-1811), was the First Surrogate of Kings County and was also a Judge of the County's Court of Common Pleas. He and his wife, Catharine Vanderbilt Lott (1757-1840), had several children, among them Abraham (d. 1840), a farmer and resident of Flatlands, and Jeremiah (1776-1861), who like his father resided in Flatbush and was Surrogate of Kings County, as well as a surveyor and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
Jeremiah and his wife, Lydia Lloyd Lott (1789-1865), had a daughter, Catharine (1807-1881), who in 1829 married John A. Lott (1806-1878), the son of the above-mentioned Abraham Lott (d. 1840) and one of 19th-century Brooklyn's most celebrated citizens. John was a senior member of the law firm Lott, Murphy, & Vanderbilt, along with prominent Brooklyn politician Henry Cruse Murphy and Judge John Vanderbilt. He was later First Judge of the Kings County Court of Common Pleas, a member of the New York State Assembly, Senator from the first district, Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Associate Justice of the New York State Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice of the Commission of Appeals.
John A. and Catharine Lott's daughter, Maria Jane Lott (1840-1916), married wealthy lumber merchant John H. Livingston (1825-1907) in 1868. Their son, Charles L. Livingston, Sr. (1869-1944), was also a lawyer and married Sarah Ryder Longmire (1876-1961). Among Charles and Sarah's children were Charles L. Livingston, Jr. and John H. Livingston (d. 1995), who were partners in the family law firm of Lott & Livingston (the successor of the firm Lott, Murphy, & Vanderbilt). John H. Livingston was married to Elizabeth Sloan Pratt Livingston.
Source:
- Phillips, Van. The Lott Family in America: Including the Allied Families: Cassell, Davis, Graybeal, Haring, Hegeman, Hogg, Kerley, Phillips, Thompson, Walter and Others. Ann Arbor: Edwards Brothers, 1942; Trenton, N.J.: Sold by Traver's Book Store, 1942.
Scope and Contents
The Lott family papers date from 1702 to 1954 and contain materials illuminating the lives of several members of the Lott family in Brooklyn, chiefly those of the second through eighth generations (please refer to the Biographical Note for more information about specific individuals who feature prominently in the collection). The collection also relates to members of several families connected to the Lotts by marriage or through legal and business transactions, including the Bennit (also spelled Bennett), Bergen, Boerum, Cortelyou, Ditmas, Duryea, Everit, Hegeman, Lefferts, Livingston, Lloyd, Longmire, Ludlow, Martense, Nevins, Rapalje (also spelled Rapalye, Rapelje, and Rapelye), Remsen, Ryder, Schenck, Suydam, Terhune, Van Brunt, Vanderbilt, Vanderveer, Van Eyck, Vegte, Wyckoff, and Zabriskie families.
Materials in the collection are quite varied, but are mainly comprised of family correspondence; legal documents, such as land deeds (sometimes including hand-drawn maps of properties), indentures, agreements, and conveyances, including one document transfering an African American enslaved person from the estate of Abraham Lott to Jan Van Der Veer (Vanderveer); and financial records. Several of the affairs referred to in the legal documents are presumed to have been overseen by members of the Lott family in their official and legal capacities. Also, some of the legal documents are written in Dutch, though most are in English.
Additional items include wills; Lott family genealogical records and family history notes, as well as a Lott family coat of arms; notebooks and loose pages of notes; a series of blueprints for the H. D. Lott residence in Flatbush; loose clippings containing obituaries and marriage announcements of family members and friends; an autograph book (containing inscriptions in English, Japanese, Dutch, and various West African languages); and music books, scrapbooks, and sketchbooks. These latter items contain drawings, poetry, music compositions, religious writings, obituaries and marriage announcements, and various clippings and ephemera relating to local news, politics, education, fashion, advertisements and sales, dining, literature, housekeeping, and various Brooklyn Dutch Reformed churches. Other items relating to the Lott family's involvement in Protestant Dutch Reformed churches in Brooklyn, particularly the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, include printed histories, programs and brochures, photostat copies of ecclesiastical records, pew deeds, and correspondence.
The collection includes visual materials, such as photographic prints, stereocards, negatives, non-photographic prints, and one illustration. Many of the images document late 19th century Flatbush.
It also includes items relating to Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush, such as programs and the Academy's clay seal; and various pieces of ephemera.
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Families
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Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Reproduction rights for photographs have not been evaluated. Please consult library staff for more information.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Lott family papers, ARC.186, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession 1977.029 was the gift of Miss Ditmas through the Brooklyn Museum, 1935. Accessions 1977.352 and V1991.137 are presumed to have been the gift of Charles L. Livingston, Jr., date unknown. Accession 1983.003 was the gift of Judge Wildermuth, 1980. Accession 2001.051 was the gift of Elizabeth S. Livingston, 2001. Sources and dates of acquisition for accessions 1977.513, 1978.147, 1980.002, 1985.038, and 1991.011 are unknown.
Other Finding Aids
An earlier version of this finding aid is available in paper form at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Item-level descriptions and digital versions of images from the collection are available for searching via the image database in the Othmer Library. Please consult library staff for more information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Minimally processed to the collection level.
The collection combines the accessions 1977.029, 1977.352, 1977.513, 1978.147, 1980.002, 1983.003, 1985.038, 1991.011, 2001.051, and V1991.137.
Visual materials which were originally part of accession 1977.352 were added to the collection by archivist John Zarrillo in December 2014. Blueprints for the H. D. Lott residence in Flatbush added to the collection by John Zarrillo in Feburary 2015. One folder containing genealogies of the Schenck and Van Eyck families which had been separated from the papers was reintegrated by John Zarrillo in November 2015.
Material found in repository added to collection by Lena Evers-Hillstrom in October 2018.
Oppressive descriptive language was remediated from the scope and contents note in this finding aid as part of an anti-racist descriptive language audit performed in January 2021.
