Background
Everardus Bogardus was born in 1607 at Woerden, Netherlands, the son of Willem Bogardus.
Everardus Bogardus was born in 1607 at Woerden, Netherlands, the son of Willem Bogardus.
Everardus matriculated in Leyden University, July 17, 1627, as a student of letters.
Everardus was sent by the Consistory of Amsterdam as a comforter of the sick to Guinea, whence he returned in 1632, with good testimonials. After having been examined and ordained for the ministry, he was, on July 15, 1632, accepted for service in New Netherland, as successor to Rev. Jonas Michaëlius, the first minister. He sailed the same month with Wouter van Twiller, the newly appointed director general, in the ship Soutberg, which arrived at New Amsterdam in April 1633. His advent in New Netherland marks the erection of the first church edifice at New Amsterdam, a plain wooden building, on the site of the present 39 Pearl Street, which took the place of the mill loft used by Michaëlius.
Bogardus soon came into conflict with Van Twiller, whom he threatened to denounce openly from the pulpit. He was also antagonistic to Lubbert van Dincklagen, the public prosecutor, who on his return to Holland, in 1636, laid charges against Bogardus before the Classis of Amsterdam. On July 8, 1638, Bogardus petitioned the director and council of New Netherland for leave to go to Holland to defend himself, but it was felt that he could not be spared. Van Dincklagen renewed his accusations and, in 1640, requested the Classis to be relieved from the excommunication which had been passed upon him through the machinations of Bogardus. After some correspondence with the Consistory of New Amsterdam, the Classis, in 1644, resolved to postpone action until Bogardus could be heard.
In 1642, at the wedding of Bogardus's eldest stepdaughter, Sara Roeloff, to Dr. Hans Kierstede, Director General Kieft secured subscriptions for a new church. From the pulpit in this church, Bogardus afterward severely criticized the director's Indian policy and made uncomplimentary allusions to his person. Kieft at first sent him a "Christian admonition, " which Bogardus refused to receive, and then, on January 2, 1646, in the name of the council, sent him a formal communication, in which among other things he accused him of having appeared in the pulpit while drunk and in which he threatened to prosecute him in a court of justice for stirring up the people to mutiny and rebellion. Bogardus admitted some facts, but demanded proof of others and denied that Kieft and his council had jurisdiction to try his case. The director and council offered to submit the matter to impartial judges. Bogardus, however, preferred to defend himself before the Classis of Amsterdam and requested that another minister be sent over in his place. On August 17, 1647, he and Kieft and many other passengers sailed on board the ship de Princesse from New Amsterdam. The captain having missed his reckoning, the ship was wrecked during a violent September gale near Swansea, on the southern coast of Wales. Out of about one hundred persons on board, eighty-one perished, among them Kieft and Bogardus.
In 1638, Bogardus married Anneke Jans, the widow of Roeloff Jansen van Masterland, an early settler of Rensselaerswyck. Through this marriage Bogardus came into possession of a farm of sixty-two acres on Manhattan Island, which in 1636 had been granted to Roeloff Jansen and which afterward became known as the "Domine's Bouwery. "