Help! There are Walloons in my tree

2019—No. 1. Prompt: First

Help! There are Walloons in my tree 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley @2019 

Some of my ancestors, who were among the first settlers of New York in 1624, were not Dutch or Huguenots. They were Walloons — French-speaking inhabitants of what is today southern Belgium and an adjacent part of France. They were Protestants who fled the Spanish regime and went first to the Netherlands and then to New Netherland. 

They arrived in 1624, but so far it has not been determined whether they sailed on the de Eendrach [Unity] in January 1624 or on the Nieuw Nederland. The later sailed from Amsterdam on or after 30 March 1624. While no passenger lists for these two ships exist, “several passengers can be identified, based on records of dismissals from the Amsterdam French Church (1624) and records of the Dutch West Indies Company,” according to Henry B. Hoff in his article “The First Settlers of New York in 1624.” [1] 

This year marks the 395th anniversary of the arrival of the first known immigrant ancestors of mine. They were Ghislain Vigné and his wife, Adrienne Cuvellier, and (presumably) their three daughters — Maria, Christina, and Rachel. It is possible there were other children in this family who did not survive. Their only known son, Jan, who was born about 1624, is considered to be the first European male child born in New Netherland. 

According to Harry Macy, Jr. F.A.S.G., F.G.B.S. in his article “375th Anniversary of the Eendracht and Nieuw Nederland,” [2] those who can trace a line to one or more of the four first families of New Netherland — Rapalje, Monfort, du Trieux and Vigné — must number in the millions. So obviously I have lots of cousins out there. However, the Vigné line “daughtered out” and descendants today, including myself, will be found other surnames. 

My branch descends via Maria Vigné, born ca 1613, probably in Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais (now Hauts-de-France) who married first Jan Pieters Roos in New Netherland and after his death, married secondly, my ancestor, Abraham Isaacsen Ver Planck, about 1634. [3] 

They had nine known children, including my 8-great-grandmother, Ariantje Ver Planck, born 1646, who married Melgert Vanderpool Sr. in 1668, and had eight children. 

Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands 

While updating research on Ghislain Vigné and Adrienne Cuvellier, I made a couple of discoveries about them and the city in which they lived prior to coming to New Netherland. They joined the Walloon Church in Leiden (Netherlands) in 1618. Five of their children, including a set of twins, are listed in the Register of Baptisms there from 1618 to 1623. 

Leiden, at that time was a small city, located about 25 miles from Amsterdam. It had a population of about 45,000 in 1622. Among the famous people who called Leiden their hometown was Rembrandt Harmenzoon van Rijn (1606-1669) and other Dutch Masters such as Jan Lievens (1607-1674) and Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). Rembrandt even lived in the same district as the Pilgrim Fathers, in the area surrounding Pieterskerk — a late-Gothic church, also called the church of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

This raises the possibility that my New Netherland Walloon family might have known some of my husband’s Pilgrim ancestors — the Mitchells, and Francis Cooke and Hester le Mahieu (who married about 20 July 1603, in Leiden; Hester was the daughter of Walloons). These families were all in Leiden about the same time. Additionally, some of the Pilgrims attended the same church — the Walloon Church (Vrouwekerk). They might have worked together in the cloth industry as weavers, wool combers, carders, or cloth-fullers. 

Perhaps the Walloon ancestry of Hester le Mahieu connects to my Vigné and Cuvelliers. If so, such a connection would probably date back to the middle-to-early 1500s and would be a first for my genealogical research outside of Switzerland.

Endnotes:

[1] American Ancestors Magazine. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010. (Volume 11.1 (2010), pp. 28-28. Online database https://www.AmericanAncestors.org/

[2] Macy, Harry Jr., The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter, 1999, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society at http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/

[3] Ver Planck, William Edward, compiler, History of Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, and his Male Descendants in America (1892; reprint, Fishkill Landing, New York: J. W. Spaight, 1892). (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002040693997 : accessed 7 April 2016.