Introduction
Sarah Rapelje (July 9, 1625, Fort Orange - 1685, Bushwick, New York) was the first European Christian female born in New Netherland.
Biography
Sarah Rapelje was the daughter of Joris Jansen Rapelje (1604-1663) and Catalina Trico (1605-1689). Joris Rapalje and Catalina Trico were Walloon Calvinists who sailed onboard the ship Eendracht from the Dutch Republic in 1624. They arrived at a site on the Hudson River where they helped built the settlement at Fort Orange in what would eventually become Beverwyck, and later Albany, New York. This is where Sarah Rapalje was born. After Manhattan Island was bought from local Indians, Joris Rapalje and Catalina Trico and their family were sent to Manhattan Island to help with the settlement of New Amsterdam. Joris Rapalje later bought land in Brooklyn, and eventually moved to Wallabout Bay
Sarah Rapelje married Hans Hansen Bergen in 1639. They had eight children seven of whom lived into adulthood. Hans Bergen died in 1653.
In 1654 she married Teunis Gysbertse Bogaert (b. 1625, Heicop, Dutch Republic - d. 1699, Breuckelen, New York). They had seven children. Through their youngest child and only son, Guysbert, she is the 7th-great grandmother of actor Humphrey Bogart.
On April 24, 1660, Governor Stuyvesant named Bogaert a magistrate of New Amersfoort and Midwood. In 1663, he was appointed a magistrate in Brooklyn, succeeding his father-in-law Joris Jansen Rapelje. He served in that capacity until 1673. He also served as a magistrate of Bushwick between 1664 and 1665 and was a representative of Brooklyn in the Hempstead Convention of 1665. Actor Humphrey Bogart (1899 – 1957) is one of their descendants.
Legacy
Rapelje's chair is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York, a gift of her Brinckerhoff descendants. Brooklyn's Rapelye Street is named for the family. Sarah Rapelje herself was granted a large tract of land in the Wallabout in Brooklyn by Dutch authorities for being the first European Christian female to be born in the New Netherland. The family owned extensive property in the area of present-day Red Hook.
Related Reading
- Bergen, Teunis G, (1866) The Bergen Family: or The Descendants of Hans Hansen Bergen, One of the Early Settlers of New York and Brooklyn (New York City: Bergen & Tripp)
- Fosdick, Lucian John (1906) The French Blood in America (Boston, Mass.: R. G. Badger)
- Ross, Peter (1902) A History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Volume 2 (Lewis publishing Company - Long Island, N.Y.)
- Stiles, Henry Reed (1867) A History of the City of Brooklyn, Volume 1 (Published by subscription in Brooklyn, NY)