Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch : probably a habitational name from a lost or unidentified place called Benschote, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure for cattle, Middle Dutch scho(o)t(t)e, or by a corner of woodland or heathland in a marshy area, Middle Dutch scoet. The element Ben- is unexplained.
- Theunis Eliasen Van Benschoten’s name is found regularly, as both a witness and a principal, on documents from in and around Kingston, NY, from April 1671 until his death in 1725.