Everardus Bogardus

Everardus Bogardus (27 July 1607 – 27 September 1647) was the dominie of the New Netherlands, and was the second minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest established church in present-day New York, which was then located on Pearl Street at its first location built in 1633, the year of his arrival. Bogardus was, in fact, the second clergyman in all of the New Netherlands.

Early life in the Netherlands Bogardus was born in Woerden, in the province of Utrecht, Holland in 1607. He entered Leyden University for the study of theology in July, 1627. On 11 January 1632, just five years after he had entered Leyden University, he was ordained a regular minister of the Dutch Reformed church. Soon after he was commissioned by the "Lords Directors of the Honorable West India Company of the United Provinces of the Netherlands," to minister to the spiritual needs of the colony at New Amsterdam.

A humorous anecdote about the building of this church contends that

Bogardus frequently was combative with the Directors of New Netherland and their management of the Dutch West India Company colony, going up against the often-drunk Wouter van Twiller and famously denouncing Willem Kieft from the pulpit during the colony's disastrously bloody Kieft's War (1643–1645). He stepped up his denouncements when Kieft tried to place a tax on beer. Bogardus Place is located in the Washington Heights section of New York City borough of Manhattan (ZIP code 10040). It was opened in 1912, and runs one block (641.7 feet) between Hillside Avenue and Ellwood Street, and is named for the family who previously owned much of the land that forms both Fort Tryon Park, and the Fort Tryon section.