Lucas Von Beverhoudt (1728-1796)

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This white person has 1 related event in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.
Identifier
NJS-PER-02870
Given Name
Lucas
Family Name
Von Beverhoudt
Birth Date
1728
Death Date
1796
Sex
Male
Occupation
Landowning
Biographical Description
Lucas Von Beverhoudt was a wealthy planter of Dutch descent who lived in the 18th century. He was from the Danish West Indies (now part of the U.S. Virgin Islands) where his family was involved in developing sugar plantations using enslaved labor since the 17th century. He had multiple plantation properties and scores of enslaved laborers in St. Thomas and St. Croix.

In 1772, he purchased a 2000-acre plantation from William Kelly in Morris County, New Jersey, in the area of modern-day Parsippany. He called the estate Beverwyck. He got Abraham Lott Jr to manage the plantation for him and build a mansion on the property. Morris County tax records indicate that Lucas Von Beverhoudt was the owner of 17 enslaved people on the Beverwyck plantation in 1778, plus one person who belonged to Abraham Lott Jr also worked on the plantation. Lucas Von Beverhoudt relocated from the Danish West Indies to Beverwyck with his family in 1779. After he moved to New Jersey, he still maintained ownership of a plantation in St. Croix as an absentee landlord; that plantation, called the Work & Rest Estate, had 232 enslaved Black people in 1786.

Lucas Von Beverhoudt died in 1796, bequeathing the Beverwyck plantation to his daughter Adriana and her husband Tobias Boudinot. At the time of his death, the inventory of his estate indicated that he was the owner of 8 enslaved people ranging in age from an infant to 75 years old.

The Beverwyck site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. See the National Register nomination documentation for information about slavery at Beverwyck.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Places
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Beverwyck Plantation, Parsippany
Parsippany
Enslaver of
Wanno (b. 1780)
References

"Beverwyck Site," National Register of Historic Places documentation, 2004, NPGallery ID 04000430, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/2076cb4e-c13d-4437-bdd2-b3faebb51de7.
Erin Feith, “A Tale of Two Beverwycks,” Morris County Historical Society (blog), December 7, 2021, https://morriscountyhistory.org/a-tale-of-two-beverwycks/.
Isaac S. Lyon, Historical Discourse on Boonton, Delivered before the Citizens of Boonton at Washington Hall, on the Evenings of September 21 and 28, and October 5, 1867 (Newark, NJ: Daily Journal Office, 1873), p. 6, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.0014207820A.
A List of Slaves on Work & Rest Estate situated in Queen's Quarter No. 37 & in Company's Quarter No. 14 & 15, the Property of Lucas Von Beverhoudt Esq, for the year 1786. Ancestry.com database: Danish West Indies, Records Relating to Enslaved People, 1625-1904. Provided in association with the Danish National Archives - Rigsarkivet. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/22856551?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a224730782b55764f31754b6e6c79517571427069534e63383973727934704869776a726c325547646e6b2b493d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d.
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
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