201,202,203, Vol. II, pg. 592,188, Vol. XV; Vol. XXXII, 1901
“*Though proof is not positive, the writer by careful research and study, brings the line of descent from Francois Dupuis much nearer to the door-steps of Senator Depew than does any possible line leading from Nicholas. [The part in italics was unintentionally omitted from its place at the head of the third paragraph on page 77 of the April number.]

“The earliest positive record [Stile’s Kings County (Bushwick)] of Francois places him as one of the twenty-three first inhabitants of “Boswyck,” modernly pronounced Bushwick, and now a component part of Brooklyn. This record was a petition of March 14, 1661, asking for the usual privileges of a newly incorporated village. Francois was then unmarried, but no doubt was arranging for a home in which to take his prospective bride during the coming autumn. Another record [Stiles’s Kings County (Bushwick)], year 1663, enrolls him with a Boswyck company of militia, having Ryck Lydecker as its captain. This company was evidently organized for home protection against Indian depredations. How long Francois remained at Bushwick is uncertain. William is his only child known to have been born there. Probably others were, but baptismal records of the first ten years of his marriage are not extant. Perhaps he resided in New York for a time, but there is no evidence to substantiate such a claim, unless we accept the baptismal records of the New York Reformed Dutch Church, years 1671-1677, during which time three of his children were there baptised. In the latter year (1677) Bergen says [Bergen’s King County.] he and his wife became members of the Dutch Church at Flatbush. Certain it is that their next two children were baptised there in 1679 and 1681 respectively [Hol. Soc. year-book, 1893]. Yet all this does not prove that the family up to this time had changed their residence. Though it does seem singular that the Assessors of Bushwick and other Dutch towns of Long Island, in making up their tax lists for 1675 and 1675 [Doc. Hist. N. Y. S., Vol. IV (1675), Vol. II, (1676)], should on both occasions skip Francois if he were a resident among them, and as he was not even down for poll tax it is fair to presume that he was absent, perhaps on Staten island, where we find him at a later period. In this case, he had his reasons for returning to Long Island, probably in 1677, and then going back to take up his grant of eighty odd acres, bearing date December 21, 1680 [Calendar of Land Papers, N.Y.S.] which was laid out for him on the south side of the Fresh Kill. Another Staten Island grant was made him April 4, 1685 [Calendar of Land Papers, N.Y.S.], but this time at Smoking Point. In april, 1682, he and Robert Wright, as residents of Staten island, appealed from a decision in a land suit, which was yet unsettled in September, 1685. The records [Cal. N. Y. Hist. Mss. (English)] in these cases are of “Francis Pew,” as the English scribes would have it; but Riker in his “History of Harlem,” and Clute, in his “Annals,” are good authority as to his identify. Except that Clute places him as a son of Nicholas, with nothing to back his theory but a flimsy guess. In 1686 Francois had his son Nicholas baptised in New York. The next year he turns up as a resident of Rockland County (then a part of Orange), where on September 26th, he signed an oath of allegiance [Hist. Mss., Vol. XXXV., State Library, Albany] with the other inhabitants of recently established settlements at Haverstraw and Orangetown. While three of his children married and settled in Rockland County, Francois appears to have crossed the river, previous to the census of orange in 1702, and sat down in Westchester County, where others of his children had married and settled. After 1687 we do not find his name except on church records. His youngest child, Mary, was baptised in new York in 1689. If the record is correct he had married again; Geertje Willems having been superseded by Annie Elsten, the mother of Mary. We next find Francois with his daughter Maria, standing as sponsors or God-parents at the baptism of his grand-daughter Grietje Quorry, in the Sleepy-Hollow Church, April 1, 1702. This church a few years later recorded the same two as members, having residence on the patent of Captain DeKay and Ryck Abrahamsen (Lent.). A grandson of the latter having previously married the said Maria [This patent, afterwards known as “Rycke’s Patent,” was located north of Peekskill and adjoinging the Manor of Cortlandt, wherein many of this branch of the Depew family became permanent fixtures.].

“The archives do not unfold further information of Francois, who was has become the most important factor of this paper. He probably followed the pursuit of farming, enjoying a quiet un-assuming life, rather than the prominence of political or other history making activities. His children married into good families, but they too successfully avoided the record maker and burned their historical bridges to the disparagement of the one who may wish to become the family historian. It is only through the Records of the Reformed Dutch Churches of New York, Tappan [Baptisms are published in Cole’s Rockland County Hist.], Tarrytown [Date from 1697], and Cortlandt [Date from 1741], that any of the lines of Francois can be traced, and as much is lacking, it is the scraps put together, using the peculiar judgment of a genealogical student, that enables the following arrangement.189, July

Information on children is included with each child’s individual record.