Hunterdon County Historical Quarterly, Vol. 6, page 38. “Earliest American Ancestors of Somerset Families.” “ Schomp—originally Schamp, of Huguenot origin, the family in 1573, escaped from France [immediatley after the St. Barthowlemew’s Day Massacre] to the Netherlands, from which country Pieter Schamp, a soldier, came to New York City in 1672. His son George [Joost], about 1712, settled between South Branch and Neshanic in Somerset co. and, in 1729, removed to Pleasant Run, Hunterdon co. between White House and Flemington. From him, descend the Schomp families. Part of the original house built at Pleasant Run by George’s son Hendrick and used as a tavern still stands [as of 1917].” The will of George Schomp was proved 14 Jun 1760. The inventory was taken on 10 Jun 1760 and included personal property of a Dutch Bible and other books, a silver cup, looking glass, and five negroes.

Hunterdon Historical Newsletter, Spring 1975, vol 11, #2
Early Settlers of Hunterdon County — The Schomp Family
It is said that at one time if a person were to walk through the Pleasant Run section of Readington Township, every other resident he met would be a Schomp. The Patriarch of the early Hunterdon County family had eight children. In turn, they bore their parents twenty-five grandchildren. From these, over fifty great-grandchildren came to be. As most of the offspring remained in the Pleasant Run district, therefore, it can well be imagined how, at one time, every other person met would have been a Schomp!
The first Schomp to settle in Hunterdon County was Joost, whose Dutch name was a derivative of George, a name widely used by the family for many generations. Up until about 1825, the surname was always spelled in the original Dutch - Schamp - but the long sounding “a” in the pronunciation later resulted in the spelling Schomp, as the name is invariably used today.
Joost Schamp was the second child, and only son, of the seven children of Pieter Schamp and his wife, Jannetje Dircks. Pieter and Jannetje were residents of Bushwick, Long Island, New York, (now a part of Brooklyn), when Joost was born in 1676. Because there was no church in the village at the time, Joost’s parents brought him to the Reformed Dutch Church of New York City, where he was baptized on August 23, 1676.
Joost’s youth was spent on his father’s Bushwick farm. While still in his teens, his father died, and, as the only son, he took over the family farm. By November 6, 1701, Joost was recorded as a Free-holder of Bushwick, and thus paid “one heavy piece of eight” toward the fencing of common lands. In 1706 “Joost Camp” was described as the owner of a forty acre farm in the Bushwick assessments of that year.
About 1703, Joost Schamp married Margrietje Lock, the daughter of Claes Hendrickszen Lock and his wife, Kniertje Hendricks. Margrietje was born in 1682, and was baptized in the Dutch Church of New York City on Dec 20th of that year. Joost and Margrietje were the parents of four boys and four girls, most of whom were born in Bushwick.
On October 12, 1713, “Jost Schamp” and his sisters sold the family farm to their sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, “Barent Coal”. The farm was described as “… a Certain Messuage or Tenements house & a parcel of Land Scituate lying and being in New Bushwick … Containing by Estimation forty Acres …” With the farm sold, Joost and Margrietje moved from Long Island to Somerset County, New Jersey, in the present area of Franklin Township, along the Raritan River, where several of Joost’s cousins had already settled. In this move, the only male bearing the surname Schamp in his generation, carried the name from New York to New Jersey, where it has perpetuated for over 250 years.
The first known record of Joost’s being in New Jersey is in 1715, when in “A List of the Militia Regiment Under the Command of Coll Tho:Farmar” in the “Seventh Company”, (mainly Franklin Township), there is listed “George Scamp Ser[geant].”
From about 1717 to 1728, Joost maintained a farm in Franklin Township, Somerset County. On May 13, 1728, he purchased 500 acres in what was then Am well Township, Hunterdon County, and is now the Pleasant Run area of Readington Township. The land, purchased of “Daniel Coxe of Trenton”, was described as “… lying betwixt the North & South branches of the Raritan River: …” On this land Joost established a sizable farm, which was often referred to as a plantation.
As in New York, the Schamps were members of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Jersey. An early notation of Joost and Margrietje in New Jersey is found in the records of the church of New Brunswick: the second child to be baptized in the church, on August 13, 1717, was “Kristiena”, the daughter of “Jooris Schamp” and his wife, “Grietje”. In the baptismal records of “de kerkup de Milston”, now the Harlingen Reformed Church in Somerset County, “Joost Schamp” and “Margrietje Lok” are recorded as witnesses to their first grandchild baptized in 1733.
While a member of one of the Reformed Churches “throughout the entire Raritan District”, Joost became involved in a controversy which broke out between members of the church, and their minister, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. The Dominie, they said, “did not teach correct doctrine”, and in June, 1725, a formal complaint was sent to the Church authorities in New York City. In the list of signatures to the complaint against Frelinghuysen, there was “Joost Schamp.” While residents of Readington Township, the Schamps attended the Readington Church. In the baptismal records of this church, Joost and Margrietje are recorded as witnesses to grandchildren baptized in 1740, 1752, and 1757.
Joost had little to do with the civil authorities of his county and state. In July, 1734, “Geo. Scamp” was among the ‘forty eight Good and Lawful Men” of Hunterdon County selected for the August Term Grand Jury. In a “Pole of the Freeholders of the County of Hunterdon for Representatives to serve in the General Assembly of the Province of New Jersey taken on October 9, 1738, “George Scamp” voted for Daniel Coxe. In a list of Freeholders in “Reading Township”, in 1741, there appears “Justis Schamp.”
Joost was an agriculturalist throughout his life, beginning with his father’s 40 acre farm, and ending with his 500 acre “plantation” in Readington Township. An idea of his prominence as a farmer is seen by the inventory of his estate made a few days after his death. Among the large number of farming apparatus, there were wagons, plows, an “Iron tooth harrow”, pitchforks, a “Neck Yoke”, a “Sythe & Cradle”, sheep shears, and “2 wooden Shovels”. Also listed were a vast variety of livestock, consisting of 22 sheep, 10 pigs, 13 horses, 12 cows and one bull. Cultivated products consisted of wheat, rye, “Indian corn”, and buckwheat. Added to this, Joost’s farm also had “5 hives with bees”, and a “Cider Mill”. Joost also owned five Negro slaves, who worked on his plantation.
Both Joost and Margrietje lived to comparatively great ages, outliving three children and several grandchildren. They lived to see all twenty-five grandchildren, of whom four of the boys were named in honor of Joost, and five of the girls for their grandmother, Margrietje.
Joost was the first to pass away, at the age of 84, in the first week of June, 1760. On May 28, 1760, just days before his death, Joost, described as “ … weak of Body but of Sound mind and memory …” made his last Will and Testament. Executed at his plantation in “the Township of Reading in the County of Hunterdon”, Joost very carefully divided his vast land holdings among his surviving children and grandchildren.
Joost’s widow spent her remaining years on the homestead plantation which had been willed to her son, Hendrick. Margrietje lived to be 89, passing away on December 11, 1771. In the inventory of the “Goods and Chattles of Margaret Scamp Widdow late of Readington” there was included a “Feather Bed & bedding”, a warming pan, and a “large Arm Chair”.
Margrietje’s tombstone is in the old cemetery at Pleasant Run, Readington. Joost and Margrietje were buried in a family burial plot situated not far from their plantation. No stone survives to mark Joost’s grave, however, Margrietje’s tombstone still stands. Her initials “MS” are surmounted by the smaller letters “JS”, standing for those of her husband. The “D 11 +1771” indicates her death as December 11, 1771.