But an agricultural depression, coupled with flooding in 1651, 1658, and 1662 had driven the Gameren Van Tuyls into bankruptcy. It fell to two of Jan Sandersz van Tuyl's grandsons, Geerlof Otten and Jan Aertszen, to rebuild the family and its fortunes, which they and their descendants did throughout the 18th century, despite multiple floods and French invasions in 1672 and 1796. All in all, the 18th century was good to the Van Tuyls for two main reasons: long periods without war and successful farming of the potato. While the Netherlands got caught up in the 19th century's industrial revolution, and Americans moved west to cultivate more and more land, the Van Tuyls and their neighbors were forced to subdivide their farms in order to support inheritance claims. And when the potato blight of the 1840s hit, agriculture was devastated, driving many Dutch to emigrate to America. But the Van Tuyls stayed put, many of them reverting to subsistence agriculture, day labor, and brick factory jobs for the rest of the 19th century. As they entered the 20th century, Gameren's Van Tuyls were much worse off than their American cousins. In 1662, young farmer Jan Otten van Tuyl, a grandson of Jan Sandersz van Tuyl, killed a man in a tavern knife fight and subsequently fled, taking his wife Geertruyd and baby son Otto with him. He was convicted "in absentia" by the High Bench of Zuilichem and sentenced to death. On April 16, 1663 he and his family set sail from Amsterdam for America, arriving in New Amsterdam before July 9, 1663. They eventually settled in the poorer part of town—Wall Street—and proceeded to raise the first generation of American Van Tuyls. The Children of Jan Otten and Geertruyd van Tuyl:  By the beginning of the 18th century, Jan Otten van Tuyl was dead, but he and his wife Geertruyd had raised seven children, six of whom had produced thirty-eight grandchildren for the second generation in America. Most of today's Van Tuyls and Van Tyles are descended from the two youngest boys, twins Abraham and Isaac, both of whom became farmers on Staten Island. In 1695, brothers Otto and Aert van Tuyl, ship carpenters by trade, landed berths aboard John Hoar's pirate ship "John and Rebecca", bound from New York City to the Indian Ocean: Otto as the ship's doctor and Aert the ship's carpenter (for more information about this trip, see Abraham Samuel).