work is in the possession of the Rev. Garret C. Schenck, and is an immense folio volume, handsomely and strongly bound and clasped. It contains a history of the family of the Schencks, Barons van Toutenburg, from the year 878 or 880 down to its offshoot in 1225, of a branch known as the family of Schenck van Nydeck, the history of this latter family being continued down to the time when some of its representatives emigrated to this country. The contents were gathered after long and patient research and from the most authentic sources, a list of which will be found in the appendix. It is embellished with the coats-of-arms and colored escutcheons of these and their allied families, and with drawings of the seals used by members of the family as early as 1271; also pictures of several of the old castles in which the family resided in feudal times, with likenesses of its author and also of General Sir Martin Schenck van Nydeck, from whose brother, General Peter, the family in this country is descended. Most of the Colonel's work will no doubt be reproduced by the Rev. Mr. Schenck in his forthcoming work.

It will be noticed that from the time of the marriage of the Rev. William Schenck, 1768, until the present, is about equal to that from about the average time of marriage of the ancestors of the family in America, (Roelof and Jan Martense Schenck, and Johannes Schenck, of Bushwick,) down to his birth. In other words, in 1740 there were probably living three times as many of our name as are now to be found of the descendants of the Rev. William Schenck, and from this some estimate can be made of the large numbers, living and dead, constituting this family in this country, and consequently the great extent of the labors of collecting and compiling its history. It has been found inexpedient to enumerate in this work the collateral descendants, so great are their numbers and so difficult to be reached.

This family of Schencks in America is divided into three branches, represented at the heads of each by Roelof and Jan Martense Schenck, of Nieu Amersfoort, now Flatlands, Long Island, New York, who immigrated from Utrecht, in Holland, in 1650, and by Johannes Schenck, who, at the age of twenty-seven years, with his wife, Maria Magdalena de Haes, immigrated from Middleburg, Holland, in 1683, and settled finally at Bushwick, on Long Island. His father was Martin Schenck, of the Nydeck family, born in 1633 and died in 1704, a lieutenant bailif, or judge of the Wick or Province

of Kessel, and who had the degree of T. U. Doctor conferred on him. His father, Theodore, also held the same office, as did also Theodore's father, Martin, who was a son of Peter Schenck van Nydeck, Bailif of Gibberfort, and son of the first Derick Schenck van Nydeck, who died at Blynbeek in 1525.

From these sources have descended very large families, scattered through the United States and also in foreign countries. Those States in which they are most numerous are New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. In Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, and Iowa, also, they have established families of considerable magnitude, and representatives can no doubt be found in all of the Northwestern States. Those of the name living in that portion of New York bordering upon the upper region of the Hudson river are mainly descended from Johannes, of Bushwick.

During the war of the Revolution this family was firmly devoted to the patriot cause, and contributed its full share to its success, and furnished a long list of officers and men for the American army. The same was also true of the late war of the Rebellion. The number who entered the Union army is not yet known, but in the "Roll of Honor," or record of the names of the Union soldiers, who died in the defense of the Union, interred in the national cemeteries, are found twenty-nine of the name of Schenck, the larger part of them belonging to one or other of the three branches of this family, and this does not include the names of many others who were killed in battle or died from wounds or of diseases incident to the service, and who were buried at their own homes. From the ratio of dead to survivors in that war there must have been near two hundred of our name and race who took part in that grand struggle to establish the integrity of our country; besides those in the army there were also many in the navy, some of whom were killed or died in that service. On the other hand no record has yet been found of any member of this family having served in the rebel. army.

There is no other family of the name for any great length of time in this country except one. In 1740, Michael Schenck, a German, immigrated from the Palatinate of the Rhine and settled near Lancaster, Pa., and his descendants form quite a large family, found mostly in that State and in Virginia and North Carolina.

In recent times others of the name have immigrated from various parts of Germany, and probably also from the Netherlands, and settled in this country, but having no traceable connection with our family.

The compiler of this work has for some years past devoted many of his leisure hours to gathering its material, and as from the nature of his life and duties as an army officer, subject to so many changes, and from what he has with regret learned as to the fate of family and many other records in the history of the past, these may soon be scattered and lost, he desires to anticipate such a fate, and to rescue from oblivion the few facts yet remaining of the early history of his family, hoping that it may also incite others to some efforts to correct and amplify this imperfect beginning.

These records, so far as they relate to his efforts to collect, were mostly gathered for the information of the Rev. Garret C. Schenck, of Marlboro, Monmouth County, New Jersey, who has been for near fifty years engaged in the preparation of a complete genealogical history of the entire family, now very near perfected, and it is hoped that any one coming to the knowledge of any mistake or want of completeness in the records to be found in these pages, will inform him of the fact. To him is due the efforts of the compiler to complete such of this work as he may claim as his own, and to his constant courtesy and unwearying aid are due the sincerest acknowledgment and thanks, and it is hoped that this record will prove of value to him in the completion of his family history, as well as an aid to others in enabling them to assist him to a speedy and successful completion of the same. A. D. SCHENCK, U. S. Army.

SCHENCK.

This name appears in its primitive form in the Latin as Pincerna. In the fourth century, Ulfilas, the Goth, made the literary world acquainted with the term pugg, (pronounced pung,) and applied it to a purse or leather money bag. St. Jerome, about a century afterwards, mentions the barbarous word pincerna as the common appellation of the chief vintner in his day, and adds that the office of cup-bearer was one of the first dignitaries in the courts of foreign princes.

Pincerna, a butler, and a cup-bearer were then one and the same office. It is contended that this was not always the case. The only part of the word which is not classical Latin is pinc; the termination erna is the Anglo-Saxon œrn, ern; Goth, arn, and taking its origin in the Sanskrit verbal root arna, to cover, it runs through the Teutonic dialects denoting a place of stay or repository. In all probabilities, therefore, the word had by some means or other made its way to the Romans from one of the barbarian courts, in which there was the office denoted by the name, which, from its relation to the Gothic pugg, a leather bag for money, appears to be connected with the bags of leather or skins to hold wine.

In low Latin, the pincerna is called buticularius, bucellarius, busellarius, etc., other names of similar formation, all denoting the leather-bag man.

From buticularius came butellarius, whence the French boutiller, which appears to be the origin of our butler.

Under the form of Schenck, the word relates more particularly to the office of cup-bearer, and from this office this family name is derived.

They were employed long before history takes notice of them, ancient though it be. Of all the offices of the household of the ancient kings of Media, that of cup-bearer was first and highest in rank. He had charge of the table and the

wine, and all the general managements of the palace were under his direction and charge. He was the king's chief attendant when in the palace, and guarded him from interruption when engaged, and was, in fact, the master of ceremonies at the royal court. One of his most important functions, however, was to taste the royal wine that he offered to the king. He did this, not by putting the cup to his lips, but by pouring out a little of it into the palm of his hand.

This custom was adopted to guard against the danger of being poisoned, for such a danger would, of course, be very much diminished by requiring the officer who had the custody of the wine,and without whose knowledge no foreign substance could well be introduced into it, always to drink a portion of it himself immediately before tending it to the king.

Generally this office, like most others immediately connected with the king's household, was not permitted to be enjoyed by a slave or a foreigner. Such a post was far too important to be entrusted to any person except those who were most distinguished by their birth, services, or merits, and had received the most excellent education; to the end, that, as they had the liberty of approaching the king's person day and night, he might, from men so qualified, hear nothing which was unbecoming the royal Majesty, nor have any sentiments instilled into him but such as were of a noble kind; for it is very rarely seen that kings fly out into very vicious excesses, unless those who approach them approve their irregularities or serve as instruments to their passions.

Though, as heretofore remarked, cup-bearers were employed long before history takes notice of them, etymology, assisting history, would infallibly place Skinker as the oldest title of butler, or cup-bearer. Its root, as might be expected, is Sanskrit. But a more recent derivation may be found in the connection between the Anglo-Saxon scene, a cup or pot, and scanca, the shank or leg, and as cups were anciently formed of shells, conks, horns and bones, the large shank of some beast may have been the occasion of naming the bearer of it Skinker, as used in Western Europe, and even in England, at an early age.

Another theory is, that originally wine-skins were simple butts or bags, without any spout, or at most but a clumsy aperture. Convenience taught the wine-drawer to insert the "shank-bone" of an ox into this aperture, and thus formed a spout. This appears to be the origin of the cups.