Sarah Rapelje
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Sarah Rapelje, or Rapelie or Rapalje or Rapalye (born June 1625) is acknowledged as "the first white female child of European parentage born in the colony of New Netherland". In Russell Shorto's book on early New Amsterdam, "The Island at the Center of the World," Sarah Rapelje and her husband Joris are called 'the Adam and Eve' of early New York, not only for their procreative proclivities -- their descendants are estimated to number one million -- but also for the fact that she was the first child born to European parents in New York State. Her chair is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York, a gift of her Brinckerhoff descendants. "In 1656, at the age of thiry," recounts writer Russell Shorto in his book on the founding of Manhattan Island, "The Island at the Center of the World," "she (Sarah Rapalje) proclaimed herself 'first born christian daughter of New Netherland."[1]
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- ^ 'In 1639, HANS HANSEN BERGEN married SARAH, daughter of Jores (George) jfansen Rapalie, (since spelled Rapalje and Rapalye,) born according to the family record on the gth day of June, 1625, and who was the first white female child of European parentage born in the colony of New Netherland, which then covered the present states of New York, New Jersey, and a portion of Connecticut[1]. The early historians of this state and locality, led astray by a petition presented by her, April 4th, 1656 (when she resided at the Waaleboght), to the governor and council, for some meadows, in which she states that she is the first born Christian daughter in New Netherland, assert that she was born at the Waaleboght. Judge Benson in his writings even ventures to describe the house where this took place." He says: "On the point of land formed by the cove in Brooklyn, known as the Waaleboght, lying on its westerly side, was built the first house, a one-story log house, on Long Island, and inhabited by Joris Jansen Rapalie, one of the first white settlers on the island, and in which was born Sarah Rapalie, the first white child of European parentage born in the state. In this, if there is any truth in the depositions of Catalyn or Catalyntie Trico (daughter of Jeronomis Trico of Paris), Sarah's mother (a copy of which may be seen on pages 49, 50, and 51 of vol. 3 of New York Documentary History), they are clearly mistaken. In her deposition taken on the 14th day of February, 1684-5, before Col. Thomas Dongan, governor of the province, she states that she came over in 1623 or 1624, to the best of her remembrance. In the other, taken at her house on Long Island, in the Wale Bought this 17th "day of October, 1688," before William Morris, justice of the peace, she states that she was aged about 83 years, and was born at Paris; that in 1623 she came to this country in the ship Unity, commanded by Arien Jorise, that as soon as they came to "Mannatans," now called New York, they sent two families and six men to "harford River," two families and six men to Delaware River, eight men they left at New York to take possession, and the rest of the passengers, about eighteen families, went with the ship as far as Albany, then called "Fort Orangie." That deponent lived in Albany three years, that in 1626 she came from Albany and settled in New York, where she lived afterwards for many years, and then came to Long Island where she now lives. Sarah, therefore, undoubtedly was born at Albany instead of the Waaleboght, and was probably married before she removed to Long Island, there being no reason to suppose that she resided there when a single woman, without her parents. [1] Until the publication, by the Long Island Historical Society, in 1867, of the Hon. H. C. Murphy's translation of the interesting journal of Dankers and Sluyter (disciples of De Labadie), who visited this country in 1679 and 80, which journal he obtained while minister of the United States at the Hague; it was supposed that Sarah was the first born child of European ancestry in this state, but from their evidence it appears that John Vigne was entitled to the honor, having been born at New Amsterdam in 1614, eleven years before Sarah. Jan or John Vigne was the son or Guelyn Vigne and Ariantje Cuvilje, his mother owning a farm in the vicinity of the present Wall and Pearl streets, on which there was a wind mill standing on a hill near the corner of Wall and Pearl streets. This farm, which was one of, if not the oldest cultivated on the island, was, after the death of his parents, occupied by Jan, who in addition to farming, carried on a brewery and kept his wind mill at work. His mother, Ariantje, died about 1648, and he had three sisters, Maria, who m. Abram Verplank, Christina m. Dirck Volckerson, of Bushwick, and Rachel m. Cornells Van Tienhoven. He died in 1691, having been twice married, the last time, Feb. 15, 1681, to Wieshe Haytcs, leaving no issue of which any account has been seen. In 1657, he was admitted to the rights of a great burgher, held the office of schcpcn for several years, and June 4,1663, obtained a patent from Director Stuyvesant for a tract of meadows lying easterly of the town of Bergen, in New Jersey.' Teunis G. Bergen, The Bergen Family: The Descendants of Hans Hansen Bergen one of the Early Settlers of New York and Brooklyn, Long Island, Albany, New York, Joel Munsel, 1876, Page 22
