This is research from my book on River Edge:
On June 9, 1686, Gawen Lawrie conveyed 242 acres, the middle portion of his 720 acres in present-day River Edge, to Eptkey Jacobs Banta of New Hackensack (now northern Teaneck). Eptkey Jacob Banta’s son Cornelius Epke Banta inherited his father’s lands on the west side of the Hackensack River. After his first wife died on July 5, 1697, while giving birth to twins, Cornelius Epke Banta married her cousin, Magdalena, daughter of Samuel Demarest and Maria De Ruine, on November 18, 1699. On December 3, 1702, he purchased the 240 acres lying to the north of his inherited lands from Richard Pope, which he then gave to his eldest son, Epke, by endorsement on the deed, dated September 7, 1711. This land extended west from the Hackensack River, bounded north by what is now Manning Avenue and south by the line whereon Dorchester Road now runs. By his last will and testament, written April 13, 1719 and probated June 20, 1719, Cornelius E. Banta bequeathed to his third wife, Ablech, daughter of Pieter Jansen Slot and widow of Adam Van Orden, (whom he had married March 1, 1719), “her abode of house roome, and ye management of my estate on ye place where I now live, as long as she and my children hereafter can agree, and after they can no longer agree, that then, ye said children, hereafter named shall pay unto my good wife ye sum of twenty pounds current money within two years after, out of my estate...” He devised “the place where I now live and ye land which is in the Hill” to be equally divided between his two sons, Jacob and Abraham Banta; they were to pay legacies of £70 to their three sisters, Rachel, Leah and Elizabeth, within sixteen years after they came of age. One half of his cattle and household goods was to go to the children begotten of his first wife and the other half to the children begotten of his second wife, Magdelena Demarest. Two spinning wheels, a churn and milk tubs, however, were to remain the property of his three daughters, to be equally divided amongst them. His eldest son, Epke (Egbert), received a sword as his preference or birthright.
Epke Cornelius Banta, who received the farm lying north of what is now Manning Avenue, married Jannetie Du Rye on April 3, 1707. They had five children: Cornelius, born January 1709; Jannetie, born June 15, 1710; Francintie, born November 19, 1713, but died in infancy; Jan, born November 6, 1715, but died in infancy; Francynthie, born July 19, 1717. Epke died before December 2, 1728. Since neither of his sons survived into adulthood, his farm was divided between his two surviving daughters. Jannetie married Jacob Van Saen (Saun), Jr. at Hackensack on October 1, 1728. Francyntie married Nathaniel Earle at Hackensack on August 19, 1737.
On January 28, 1740, Francytie (Banta) Earle, wife of Nathaniel Earle of Stien Rapie, blacksmith, deeded 127 acres “at a place called Stien Rapie” to Henry Meyer of Quacksack for £200. This “piece or parcel of Land together with the dwelling house, Barn & out houses & Orchard thereunto,” was described as “the East side” of the lot, next to the Hackensack River; it being the half part or moiety of 254 acres, more or less, descending jointly to Jannitie and Francyntie, heiresses of Epke C. Banta. The division was indicated by marked pepperidge trees; the whole lot being bounded south by land of John Banta, north by land of Jacobus Van Voorhees and Hannis Losier (Johannis Lozier), east by the Hackensack River and west by the Spruyt [Sprout] Brook. On January 29, 1741, Henry Meyer of Quacksack, “for the good will and affection which I have towards my loving son-in-law, Nathaniel Earl” deeded him these 127 acres at Stien Rapie. The connections here are somewhat convoluted: Hendrick Meyer married Elsie, widow of Edwaert Earle, Junior, at Hackensack on May 8, 1716. Nathaniel Earle married Francintje Banta at Hackensack on August 19, 1737. Henry Meyer thus purchased his daughter-in-law’s inherited property from her and presented it to her husband who was actually Henry’s stepson, not his “son-in-law.”
On April 17, 1784, Simpson Dyckman of Westchester County, New York, conveyed 120 acres, comprising about the southeastern third of the Pope tracts, extending from to the Hackensack River, to Wiert Banta for £700. West of the brook running along Elm Avenue, the northern boundary of this tract runs along Madison Avenue west to the western limits of Van Saun Park, just east of the intersection of Forest Avenue and Spring Valley Road in Paramus. East of the brook along Elm Avenue, the northern boundary ran along Monroe Street, east to Kinderkamack Road. Only a narrow strip of the tract continued east of Kinderkamack Road, bounded on the north by what is now the line of Jackson Avenue, to the Hackensack River. Today, Manning Avenue runs along the southern boundary of this tract. The dwelling house on this tract stood on the west side of Kinderkamack Road, approximately in the middle of Clarendon Court. In 1740, this tract had belonged to John Banta.
Cornelius Epke Banta’s second son, Jan C. Banta, received a farm adjoining his brother Epke’s farm on the south. Jan Cornelius Banta, second son of Cornelius Epke Banta, married Cornelia, daughter of Ferdinando Van Sicklen of New Amersfort, on April 3, 1708. He died after 1750, for on May 1, 1750, he composed his last will and testament, devising “that piece of land on the West side of the Moreess Kill (i. e., De Mare’s or Demarest’s Kill or Hackensack River), beginning on the south line of the heirs of gr. Banta, running thence westerly along said line till it comes to a run of water called the Moclekill, and then along said kill to the line of Yost Boskirk, thence easterly along said line to a run called Wybrig in Killetje, thence northerly along said run to the north line of John Van Orden till it comes to the road, then southerly along said road to the line of Yost Boskirk, then easterly along the said line till it comes to Moreess Kill, then northerly along said Kill to the place where it first began” to his four daughters: Eva, Jannetie, Francintie and Margrety. He bequeathed “all the rest of my land on the west side of a run of water called the Muelekil [Mill Creek]” to his son Cornelius. His daughter Eva, born July 5, 1713, married John Huyler. Jannetie, born July 31, 1715, married Johannes Lozier. Fransintie, born March 24, 1717, married Frans Hooglandt. Margriete, born October 21, 1722, married Nicholas Toers. Daughter Maria, born November 17, 1724, married Samuel Demarest. Cornelius J. Banta, born November 8, 1708, married Rachel Banta.
