Background
Sarah Rapelje was the daughter of Joris Jansen Rapelje (1604-1663) and Catalina Trico (1605-1689).
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 Netherlands 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 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 was first married to Hans Hansen Bergen in 1639. She had eight children with Hans Bergen of which seven children lived into adulthood.
Hans Bergen died in 1653. 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 Rapalje 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. 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, New York)
Stiles, Henry Reed (1867) A History of the City of Brooklyn, Volume 1 (Published by subscription in Brooklyn, New York).