Joris Jansen Rapelje

Joris Jansen Rapelje (28 April 1604 – 21 February 1662/63) was a member of the Council of Twelve Men in the Dutch West India Company colony of New Netherland. He and his wife Catalina (Catalyntje) Trico (1605–1689) were among the earliest settlers in New Netherland.

Biography Joris Rapelje and Catalina Trico were married 21 January 1624, at the Walloon Church of Amsterdam. Rapelje, an illiterate 19-year-old textile worker whose origin was noted in the registry as 'Valencenne' (Valenciennes, Spanish Netherlands), and his 18-year-bride, had no family present to witness the ceremony. Four days later, on 25 January, the couple departed from Amsterdam, bound for North America. He was of French Huguenot descent.

The Rapalje family were first employed at Fort Orange, in what would eventually become Albany, New York. Fort Orange was being erected by the Dutch West India Company as a trading post on the west bank of the Hudson River. It became the company's official outpost in the upper Hudson Valley. The families aboard these ships were principally Walloons, French-speaking residents of Valenciennes, Roubaix, Hainaut and related sites, now in Belgium's region of Wallonia and France's region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, but then part of the Spanish Netherlands.

By 1626, Dutch authorities had relocated most settlers from Fort Orange to Fort Amsterdam at the southern end of Manhattan Island. The Rapeljes established a residence near the East River, and were among the earliest purchasers of land in Manhattan, later building two houses on Pearl Street near the Fort. In 1637, Rapalje purchased about around Wallabout Bay in what is now Brooklyn. His son-in-law Hans Hansen Bergen acquired a large tract adjoining Rapelje's tract. Today the land where the Rapalje's farm stood is the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1641, Rapalje was one of the Council of Twelve Men representing Manhattan, Breukelen and Pavonia. From 1655 through 1660, he was a magistrate of Brooklyn. He died in Breuckelen, New Netherland.

Family

Home of the Rapelje family, foot of 34th Street and the North River. Drawing by Eliza Pratt Greatorex

Joris Jansen Rapelje and Catalina Trico were the parents of 11 children, including Sarah Rapelje, the first female child of European parentage born in New Netherland. Sarah Rapelje's chair is in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York, and is thought to have been brought to New Netherland by the family.

Their daughter Jannetje married another Vanderbeek; Rem Jansen Vanderbeek, whose descendants took the name Remsen and who became a leading New York mercantile family.

Because of the number of their descendants, author Russell Shorto has called Joris Jansen and his wife Catalina "the Adam and Eve" of New Netherland as the number of their descendants has been estimated at about a million.

Brooklyn's Rapelye Street is named for the family. The spelling of the Rapelje family name varied over the years to include Rapelye, Rapalje, Rapareilliet, Raparlié, Rapalyea, Raplee, Rapelyea, Rapeleye, Rappleyea as well as others.

Rapelje, Montana is named for a family descendant, J. M. Rapelje, general manager and vice president of the Northern Pacific Railway.