RAPLEE, JANSSEN,
FAMILY IN AMERICA

IN AMERICA

The family of George (Joris) Janssen de Rappalje and Cathylyn Trico arrived in America aboard the ship Unity that was under the command of the Dutch explorer Cornelious Mayes. They sailed up the Hudson river and dropped a party off at what is now Kingston, NY. The Raples and their party were dropped off at Fort Orange in the area now known as Albany.

On February 14, 1684/5, Joris's wife Catalina Trico twice gave this sworn deposition to British colonial officers.

A few years later as the English encroached upon Dutch settlements, they were removed to New Amsterdam (New York) for their safety. Here they set up a tavern, (hotel/restaurant/bar) and purchased 60 acres from the Indians across the river to grow food on for the tavern. The deed for this land is somewhere in the NY archives in Albany. No, we did not get the land as cheap Peter Sty did when bought Manhattan. Unlike the Dutch, as Huguenots we were bound to pay a fair price for what land we bought. As the property is on the East River which is actually a tidal estuarry, the current changes direction four times daily. You can move one dirction for a little less than 6 six hours and then the river changes direction. The entrance to the New Amsterdam harbor and the old farm are offset enough to allow a man in a small sailing boat to cross the river easily twice a day in either direction, preferably at slack tide which lasts but a few minutes. In the 1640's Joris became the Harbor Master as he could easily keep an eye out for arriving ships from his tavern. The farm was seized illegally after the revolution and became the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Children of Garret Rapalje:
Jacques b. 1752, Garret Jr. b. 1757, Joris/George b. 1759, Anne b. 1762
Formerly thought to be Joris Rapalje's children
Information supplied by cousin Susan S.

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The following reference to Joris and Catalina is lifted from Russell Shorto's excellenat book "The Island at The Center of the World",   ISBN # 0-385-50349-0.   At this time, 2004, it is still in print and I highly recommend it to anyone curious about life New Amsterdam.

". . .They agreed to take part in the wildly hazardous enterprise on the condition that the company first marry them in a hastier-than-normal ceremony, which took place four days before their ship left Amsterdam on January 25, 1624. "Espouse le 21 de Janvier," the clerk of the Walloon Church of Amsterdam recorded, without wasting too much time getting the names right, "Joris Raporbie de Valencenne, et Caterine trico." Being illiterate, both made their marks on the page. He was nineteen, and she was eighteen; neither had parents sign the registry, which suggests that both were either alone in the world or alone in that part of the world, which amounted to the same thing. Like many who were to follow, they had nothing to lose.

Considering the stupendous dangers awaiting them, first at sea and then on arrival, it wasn't a union a betting man would likely lay money on. And yet, sixty years later, when the English colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland were embroiled in a border dispute and needed evidence of "Christian" occupation of certain lands along the eastern seaboard, the resentatives of William Penn found an old woman to testify who was known to have been among the first European settlers. Catalina Trico, now in her eighties, was a widow, but she and Joris had had a long and fruitful mar riage.

The records of New Netherland show them among the first buyers of land in the wilderness of southern Manhattan, building two houses on Pearl Street steps away from the fort, obtaining a milk cow, borrowing money from the provincial government, moving their homestead to a large tract of farmland across the river in the new village of Breuckelen, and giving birth to and baptizing eleven children. Their first, Sarah, was considered the first European born in what would become New York (in 1656, at the age of thirty, she proclaimed herself "first born christian daughter of New Netherland"). She was born in 1625, and the same records duly show her marriage in 1639, to the overseer of a tobacco plantation in what would become Greenwich Village, and, in turn, the birth of her eight children.

Over the course of the brief life of New Netherland and into the history of New York the Rapalje children and their offspring would spread across the region. In the 1770s, John Rapalje would serve as a member of the New York State Assembly (he rejected revolution and became a Loyalist). Their descendants have been estimated at upwards of one million. . ."

NOTE: John Raplee was tared and feathered for his loyalty and his estate was seized by the new government to later become the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Raplee estate in Brooklyn with Manhattan in the background.

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There are interesting documents in the New York archives taken from New Netherlands court records kept in the Tammny Hall court house in New York City. These concern matters such as borrowing a slave, Cathyleen being sued for insulting the manhood of a tavern customer, the borrowing of money, suing people, etc.

In 1662 the British took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York. The British were appalled by the number of Jansens in the colony. In Dutch, "sen" is used to denote "the son of." So anybody who was a son of Jan, was a Janssen or Jansen. At this point the family changed their named to Rapalje or Rapallye, which eventually became Raplee.

Click here for known Descendants of Joris Janssens Rapalje and Catalnte Trico
Supposedly there were eleven Raplee children, but I can only account for ten of them. New information on descendants has been gathered but time has not allowed updating of this page.

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Raplee, Colet, Coligny Families in Europe

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Chart of Coligny/Colet descent from Charlamagne
Chart of Coligny/Colet descent from Willaim I of England

Admiral Coligny - His Family and the Lordship of Châtillon-sur-Loing    
by M. Becquerel
Click here for descendents of Col Gaspard Colet de Rapalje
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