John Lake and Margaret Snyder
John Lake
4th Great Grandfather
b. 1719, Somerset Co, New Jersey, New York Colony
d. 1815, Ernestown, Lennox & Addington County, Ontario
Margrietje Snyder
4th Great Grandmother
b. 1728, Montgomery Twsp, Harlingen Dutch, Sommerset Co, New Jersey Colony
d. 1835, Ernestown, Lennox & Addington County, Ontario
John Lake was the first in the line of Lakes to come to Canada. His wife Margaret Snyder (4th Great Grandmother) came from a somewhat wealthy family in New Jersey. These Snyders were a different line of Sniders, possibly originating in the Netherlands. She had been given a deed for ten acres of land in New York City where Trinity Church now stands, by one Colonel Black.
John and Margaret married and had their first six children in New Jersey. Margretje’s brother Hendrick and the Lake boys were interested in acquiring new lands of their own. New York was giving out grants in the north. They took these grants and moved to the East side of Hudson’ river 10,000 acres of vacant Land granted 2 July 1761. After their move to New York, they had three more children.
During the American Revolution, Connecticut sent Ethan Allen and his followers to seize Ticonderoga, while Massachusetts sent Benedict Arnold for the same purpose. Ethan Allen would not yield the leadership to Benedict Arnold. The taking of Ticonderoga caused the trouble between the Crown and the Colonists to come to a head. John and Thomas Lake and their sons were loyal to the Crown and joined the Loyalist Rangers. The Lakes remaining in New Jersey were sympathetic to the rebels.
At the Battle of Bennington, John's brother, Nicholas Lake, and son-in-law, John Hogle, were killed by the rebels.
Some of the fighting took place on Lake land holdings. The Lake families were caught right in the midst of the conflict and fought for their lives and property. When the war ended they were burned out and dispossessed of all their holdings. At the time that General Burgoyne capitulated, John Lake was taken prisoner with some of his brothers and sons. All were held as prisoners until the end of the war.
When the Lake family home was burned during the war, all their deeds and other papers were lost, so that when they made their way to Canada, they went practically empty handed and impoverished. Margaret had saved her mother's Dutch Bible, and a bed pan. These items were still with the family in Ontario, in 1950.