John Lake and Ann Spicer

John Lake
7th Great Grandfather
b. Jul 06, 1617, Wickford, Essex, England
d. 1696, Gravesend, Long Island, New York Colony

Anne Spicer
7th Great Grandmother
b. 1632, Brooklyn, Kings Co, Long Island, New York Colony
d. aft 1709, Gravesend, Long Island, New York Colony

John Lake was the first in the line of Lakes to come to North America.

He married Anne Spicer in 1649 at Gravesend, Long Island, New York. Anne was born 1632 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, and died after 1709 in Gravesend, Long Island, New York. John Lake probably arrived the American Colonies about 1636. On 8 Apr 1643, Rem Jansen leases land for 3 years on Wallabout Cove (area that became Brooklyn) to "Jan Lockh" and "Jan Picces".

John resided in New Amsterdam until at least 1654. Between 1654-60 he was living in the Flatlands; 1660-70 in Flatbush; and after 1670, appears to have resided in Gravesend until his death. In all the town rateables, he appears to only be of modest means. Most of his neighbors have much more in land and livestock. His sons to seem to be somewhat more successful in becoming "good neighbors" in that they become assessors, fence viewers, constables, whalers, etc. but the bottom line is that they are still small land farmers.

In 1643, both John and the family of Thomas Spicer, his father-in-law, became part of a company of Englishmen who began to plan a religious freedom colony on Long Island, New York. This company was under the leadership of Lady Deborah Moody, a widow, who came to Massachusetts about 1640. She first settled at Salem, Massachusetts. and became a follower of Roger Williams, the famous Quaker. Because of persecution in Massachusetts, she and her band of followers removed to New Amsterdam, New York where they acquired a land patent on December 19, 1645 from Governor Kieft, for the establishment of a colony with freedom of religion to be called Gravesend. Both John Lake and Thomas Spicer were considered to be among the founders of the community and at the time of his death in 1658, Thomas was a magistrate of Gravesend. According to records of the Long Island Historical Society, "Gravesend Village was laid out in a village square of 16 acres with farm lots radiating from the square. There were 39 patentees, each receiving a house lot in the village and a farm of probably 20 acres."

Gravesend was one of the original towns in the Dutch colony of New Netherland and became one of the six original towns of Kings County in colonial New York. It was the only English chartered town in what became Kings County and was designated the "Shire Town" when the English assumed control, as it was the only one where records could be kept in English. In 1643 the land was granted to Lady Deborah Moody, an English expatriate who hoped to establish a community where she and her followers could practice their Anabaptist beliefs free from persecution. Due to clashes with the local native tribes the town wasn't completed until 1645. But when the town charter was finally signed and granted it became one of the first such titles to ever be awarded to a woman in the new world.

In 1654 the people of Gravesend purchased Coney Island from the local natives for about $15 worth of seashells, guns, and gunpowder.

In August 1776, Gravesend Bay was the landing site of thousands of British soldiers and German mercenaries from their staging area on Staten Island, leading to the Battle of Long Island (also Battle of Brooklyn). The troops met little resistance from the Continental Army advance troops under General George Washington then headquartered in New York City (at the time limited to the very tip of Manhattan Island). The battle would prove to be the largest fought in the entire war.

While slavery was legal in New York, the town also had a significant African American population, many of whom remained in the area even with the abolition of slavery.