This collection contains the legal, financial and personal papers of the Winne family, who have inhabited the Bethlehem, New York area since the late seventeenth century. The first member of the Winne family to settle in the colonies is identified in Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs (Cuyler Reynolds, ed., 1911) as Peter Winne, who moved to Bethlehem from Holland in July of 1684. The earliest reference in this collection is to Adam Winne, son of Peter, who, according to Records of the People of the Town of Bethlehem (Bethlehem Historical Association, 1982), was a farmer who owned a parcel of property in Rensselaerwyck. Contained in the collection is Adam's last will and testament, dated 1790 from Bethlehem. The rest of the papers primarily consist of legal and financial documents. The majority concern Peter W. Winne (1789-1847) and his son, Barent S. Winne (1818-1891). Barent, and perhaps his father as well, owned a dock on the Hudson and a successful barge business. Both men were married to women of the Staats family, another family with a long presence in Bethlehem and with ancestry tracing back to Adam Winne. As the papers indicate, the Winne and Staats families maintained close ties. Members of the Staats family are often mentioned in the Winne papers, and several of the documents are directly concerned with the Staats.