Individual Details
Isaaks Hermans Op den Graeff
(28 Feb 1616 - 17 Jan 1669)
Converted himself and his family to Quakerism. (One source has them wavering back and forth between the two sects.)
Isaac Hermans or Op Den Graeff, Herman's only known son
(according to Jordan)
b Crefeld, Germany, 2/28/1616 (Jordan) m date unknown (Jordan)
to Unknown (Jordan) d 1679, "Dutch Quakers" d 1/17/1669 (Niepoth).
"Dutch Quakers"
has him married Greitijen Peters. This from the wedding certificate
of his son Derick in Crefeld, she also came to PA with her children,
and died in Philadelphia 11/19/1683. THen her son, Herman, wrote to
a correspondent in Holland in Feb 1684 with the news of his mother's
death, and Pastorius mentions her death, too, though doesn't name her.
Greietjen Pieters.
There is considerable speculation that Greitjen Peters was a sister
of Theiss Doors. Her name tells us that her father was named Peter.
Not only one Peter around. The source of this turns out to be that
this is on the pedigree charts on the Scheuten Manuscripts, too.
It is more likely than the notion that Hillekrin Op den Graeff was
Agnes/ NEess Doors; because there weren't that many Peter's around.
Someone wrote me she is often referred to in source material as
Greitjen Peters Doors, this is supposed to be in the FAll 1997 and
Fall 1998 issues of Krefeld Immigrants. In the fall 1997 issue in
her article on the current status of research on the Op den graeff
family, Jones raises the question as a footnote.
In an addendum in the fall 1998 issue of Krefeld Immigrants,
JOnes presents new information that clarifies much; see above
for the actual origins of the Scheuten manuscripts (the Scheuten
family's version of its pedigree, prob written between the mid
17th and end 19th century). She provides the substantially
different pedigree tables for the Op den graeff family in another
copy of the Scheuten Manuscripts; this one doesn't list a spouse
for Hillekrin, does give definite rather than approximate sates of
birth and death for her and the other children, lists more than
18 children, and also lists Isaac's wife only as Grietjen, with
their four children who went to Pennsylvania in 1683. In another
table, she is called Gertjen, "Margret" or Gritjen. Jones traces
the notion that she was named Grietjen Peters let alone Grietjen
Peters Doors, and finds the first source appears to be Hull (WIlliam
Penn and the Dutch Quaker MIgration to PA), Niepoth appears to get
the idea from Hull who appears to be his reference for it, and Hull
never says where he got it, according to Jones. Hull had a whole
discussion of the Quaker wedding certificate from Krefeld, for those
who haven't seen it. It is available in every large library.
Jones doesn't have it quite right, though; I checked in Hull and
Niepoth; both cite the Krefeld Quaker wedding certificate as their
source. On the Quaker wedding certificate, Grietjen signs her
name, Greitjen Peters. So that is the source. No Doors yet.
Wherever the name Grietjen Peters came from, people probably tacked
"Grietjen Peters Doors" onto that!
Niepoth writes that Agnes was born in Kaldekirchen and cites no
reason why he thinks that is true. If she was born in Kaldekirchen,
she could not be the daughter of Herman Op den Graeff whose children
were all born in Krefeld. Charles Kester in Kesters and Doors of
Kaldenkirchen cites no parents for Agnes; he wrote after Niepoth
and used Niepoth for a source, and he had access to the original
church registers and school records, and other relevant records,
in Kaldekirchen.
Isaac Hermans converted himself and his family to Quakerism. One
source has them and other Krefeld families unable to decide if they
were Mennonte or Quaker, sometimes one thing, some times the other,
jsut as in Pennsylvania.
He and Hendrik Jansz wrote in 1680 in Rotterdam and Amasterdam, in
Dutch, a pamphlet to the leaders of Crefeld detailing their persecution.
According to some sources including I think Jordan, they had 18 children.
Four emigrated to Pennsylvania. I t is unclear to me whether both
Herman the bishop and Isaac Herman had 18 children, atleast one person
on the Original13 list thinks that is the case.
Norris Saunders (Original13 list cited a chart by June Lutz, sent him
in 1993, of "A tentative Reconstruction of the Opdengraff-Pletjes Lines"
She thinks Isaac and his wife Greietjen Pieters had just Adolphus,
Dirck, Herman, Abraham, Mararite, and Vonder.
=====================================================
From the Settlement of Germantown (book), pp 7-11.
The origins of the sect of Mennonites is somewhat involved in obscurity. Their opponents, following Sledanus and other writers of the 16th century, have reproaced them with being an outgrowth of the Anabaptists of Muenster. On the ocntrary, their own historians, Mehrning, Van Braght, Mattaschoen and Roosen, trace their theological and lineal descent from the Waldenses, ... The subject has of recnet years received thorough and philosophical treatmetn at the hands of S. Blaupot Ten Cate, a Dutch Historian.
The theory of the Waldensian origin is based mainly on a certain similarity in creed adn church observances; the fact taht the Waldenses are known to have ben numerous in those portions of Holland and Flanders wehre the Mennonites arose adn throve, and to have afterward disappeared; the ascertained descent of some Mennonite families from Waldensians; and a marked similarity in habits and occupations. This last fact is especially interesting in our investigation as will hereafter be seen. The Waldenses carried the art of weaving fro Flanders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade as in many localities to have gone by the name of Tisserands, or weavers. It is not improbable that the truth lies between the two theories of friend and foe, and that the Baptist movement which swept through Germany and the Netherlands in the early part of the 16tn century gatehred into its embrace many of these communities of Waldenses. AT the one extreme of this movement were Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean Matthys and John of Leyden; at teh other were Menno Simons and Dirck Philips. Between them stood Battenberg adn David Joris, of Delfft. The common ground of them all, and about the only ground which they had in common, was opposition to the baptism of infants. The first party became entnagled in the politics of the time, and ran into the sildest excesses. They preached to the peasantry of Europe. After fighitng many battles and causing untold commotioin, they took possession of the city of Munster, and made John of Leyden a king. ...
===========================================================================
From Germantown, 1683-1933
Numerous interrelationships by marriage existed among the party. ...
Most of the names, it is evident, are Dutch rather than German. The European home of these immigrants had been in or near Crefeld, which is in teh Rhine region of germany not far from teh borders of Holland.
Influences Prompting the Migration
Religious and economic motives mingled in impelling this migration. While tehse German pioneers held to relgious ideas which were subjected to restrictions in Germany, nevertheless theirs was not the zealous faith of the New England Puritans...
In Germany full religious privileges were generally granted the Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic Churches. Numberous gruops of adherents to mystical beliefs had come into existence. In teh Lutheran church, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Philip Spener, a distinguished theologian, the movement termed Pietism was gaining recruits in the Rhine region. These Lutherans held that their church was in danger of becoming fettered by intellectual doctrines and dead formalism. THey sought an awakening of vital piety that should manifest itself in life rather than in profession. The Pietists had no desire to secede from the church of their fathers. But the clergy as a rule frowned upon teh movement, so that Pietism, mysticism adn the faiths that demadned adult baptism all were more or less under the ban, and their adherents were compelled to meet furtively in the homes of members to conduct their assemblages for worship.
Even before he had thought of ounding a commonwealth in America where persons of any and all Christian faiths might be welcome, William Penn had been in contact wtih the Greman sects to whom the recognition of church and state was denied. In various ways their beliefs were akin to those of the English Quakers, teh espousal of whose religion had brought imprisonment to Penn. Quaker preachers traveled through Germany conducting meetings among Pietists and mystics. In 1671 and again in 1677 William Penn made such tours. ... In Frankfort-on0the-Main they were welcomed by members of Spener's congregation and the visitors spoke at religious meetings held in homes of Pietists.
At Krisheim, or Kriegsheim, a village near Worms, a little congregation of Quakers had existed for some years. Penn preached for them in a barn. Quaker meetings had also been held in the nearby town of Crefeld, arousing complaints from teh clergy, though there is no evidence that Penn visited Crefeld in 1677. In Crefeld there also was a Mennonite congregation, between whom and the Quakers were many bonds of sympathy. The Mennonites' custom of adult batism caused them to be calssed wtih the outlawed Separatists, Pietists and heretics generally.
This note from Charles J Peterson ancestry tree
Isaac Hermans op den Graeff. Birth also given as Aldekerk, County of
Muir, Germany.
Judy Goldbaum, 17 May 2000.
Donna N. Basinger, Clymer Connections, RootsWeb's WorldConnect
Project, 22 May 2000. Born 1 September 1616. Died 17 January
1678/1679.
June (Shaull) Lutz 1988, History of the Op den Graef/Updegraff
Family, pp. U-6. Birth 28 December 1615 or 28 February 1616. Death
17 January 1669, 17 November 1678, or 16 January 1679
http://sml.simplenet.com/reunion/haller/ps23/ps23_203.htm, citing
D.B. Boles and H.W. Boles 1997, Speece-Robinson Ancestry. Life dates
22 February 1616 - 17 January 1679, noting that alternative dates of
birth 28 December 1615 and 28 February 1616 and death of 16 January
1679 are also found in other references. Five children Herman
Isaacs, Derick Isaacs, Abraham Isaacs, Margaretha (Margrit) and
Jacob, noting that other sources add Adolphus and Vonder.
Dora Smith, Op Den Graeff Ancestry,
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/5127/Webster/herman.html, 17
July 2000. Notes that some sources state he (like his father) had
eighteen children.
Isaac Hermans or Op Den Graeff, Herman's only known son
(according to Jordan)
b Crefeld, Germany, 2/28/1616 (Jordan) m date unknown (Jordan)
to Unknown (Jordan) d 1679, "Dutch Quakers" d 1/17/1669 (Niepoth).
"Dutch Quakers"
has him married Greitijen Peters. This from the wedding certificate
of his son Derick in Crefeld, she also came to PA with her children,
and died in Philadelphia 11/19/1683. THen her son, Herman, wrote to
a correspondent in Holland in Feb 1684 with the news of his mother's
death, and Pastorius mentions her death, too, though doesn't name her.
Greietjen Pieters.
There is considerable speculation that Greitjen Peters was a sister
of Theiss Doors. Her name tells us that her father was named Peter.
Not only one Peter around. The source of this turns out to be that
this is on the pedigree charts on the Scheuten Manuscripts, too.
It is more likely than the notion that Hillekrin Op den Graeff was
Agnes/ NEess Doors; because there weren't that many Peter's around.
Someone wrote me she is often referred to in source material as
Greitjen Peters Doors, this is supposed to be in the FAll 1997 and
Fall 1998 issues of Krefeld Immigrants. In the fall 1997 issue in
her article on the current status of research on the Op den graeff
family, Jones raises the question as a footnote.
In an addendum in the fall 1998 issue of Krefeld Immigrants,
JOnes presents new information that clarifies much; see above
for the actual origins of the Scheuten manuscripts (the Scheuten
family's version of its pedigree, prob written between the mid
17th and end 19th century). She provides the substantially
different pedigree tables for the Op den graeff family in another
copy of the Scheuten Manuscripts; this one doesn't list a spouse
for Hillekrin, does give definite rather than approximate sates of
birth and death for her and the other children, lists more than
18 children, and also lists Isaac's wife only as Grietjen, with
their four children who went to Pennsylvania in 1683. In another
table, she is called Gertjen, "Margret" or Gritjen. Jones traces
the notion that she was named Grietjen Peters let alone Grietjen
Peters Doors, and finds the first source appears to be Hull (WIlliam
Penn and the Dutch Quaker MIgration to PA), Niepoth appears to get
the idea from Hull who appears to be his reference for it, and Hull
never says where he got it, according to Jones. Hull had a whole
discussion of the Quaker wedding certificate from Krefeld, for those
who haven't seen it. It is available in every large library.
Jones doesn't have it quite right, though; I checked in Hull and
Niepoth; both cite the Krefeld Quaker wedding certificate as their
source. On the Quaker wedding certificate, Grietjen signs her
name, Greitjen Peters. So that is the source. No Doors yet.
Wherever the name Grietjen Peters came from, people probably tacked
"Grietjen Peters Doors" onto that!
Niepoth writes that Agnes was born in Kaldekirchen and cites no
reason why he thinks that is true. If she was born in Kaldekirchen,
she could not be the daughter of Herman Op den Graeff whose children
were all born in Krefeld. Charles Kester in Kesters and Doors of
Kaldenkirchen cites no parents for Agnes; he wrote after Niepoth
and used Niepoth for a source, and he had access to the original
church registers and school records, and other relevant records,
in Kaldekirchen.
Isaac Hermans converted himself and his family to Quakerism. One
source has them and other Krefeld families unable to decide if they
were Mennonte or Quaker, sometimes one thing, some times the other,
jsut as in Pennsylvania.
He and Hendrik Jansz wrote in 1680 in Rotterdam and Amasterdam, in
Dutch, a pamphlet to the leaders of Crefeld detailing their persecution.
According to some sources including I think Jordan, they had 18 children.
Four emigrated to Pennsylvania. I t is unclear to me whether both
Herman the bishop and Isaac Herman had 18 children, atleast one person
on the Original13 list thinks that is the case.
Norris Saunders (Original13 list cited a chart by June Lutz, sent him
in 1993, of "A tentative Reconstruction of the Opdengraff-Pletjes Lines"
She thinks Isaac and his wife Greietjen Pieters had just Adolphus,
Dirck, Herman, Abraham, Mararite, and Vonder.
=====================================================
From the Settlement of Germantown (book), pp 7-11.
The origins of the sect of Mennonites is somewhat involved in obscurity. Their opponents, following Sledanus and other writers of the 16th century, have reproaced them with being an outgrowth of the Anabaptists of Muenster. On the ocntrary, their own historians, Mehrning, Van Braght, Mattaschoen and Roosen, trace their theological and lineal descent from the Waldenses, ... The subject has of recnet years received thorough and philosophical treatmetn at the hands of S. Blaupot Ten Cate, a Dutch Historian.
The theory of the Waldensian origin is based mainly on a certain similarity in creed adn church observances; the fact taht the Waldenses are known to have ben numerous in those portions of Holland and Flanders wehre the Mennonites arose adn throve, and to have afterward disappeared; the ascertained descent of some Mennonite families from Waldensians; and a marked similarity in habits and occupations. This last fact is especially interesting in our investigation as will hereafter be seen. The Waldenses carried the art of weaving fro Flanders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade as in many localities to have gone by the name of Tisserands, or weavers. It is not improbable that the truth lies between the two theories of friend and foe, and that the Baptist movement which swept through Germany and the Netherlands in the early part of the 16tn century gatehred into its embrace many of these communities of Waldenses. AT the one extreme of this movement were Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean Matthys and John of Leyden; at teh other were Menno Simons and Dirck Philips. Between them stood Battenberg adn David Joris, of Delfft. The common ground of them all, and about the only ground which they had in common, was opposition to the baptism of infants. The first party became entnagled in the politics of the time, and ran into the sildest excesses. They preached to the peasantry of Europe. After fighitng many battles and causing untold commotioin, they took possession of the city of Munster, and made John of Leyden a king. ...
===========================================================================
From Germantown, 1683-1933
Numerous interrelationships by marriage existed among the party. ...
Most of the names, it is evident, are Dutch rather than German. The European home of these immigrants had been in or near Crefeld, which is in teh Rhine region of germany not far from teh borders of Holland.
Influences Prompting the Migration
Religious and economic motives mingled in impelling this migration. While tehse German pioneers held to relgious ideas which were subjected to restrictions in Germany, nevertheless theirs was not the zealous faith of the New England Puritans...
In Germany full religious privileges were generally granted the Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic Churches. Numberous gruops of adherents to mystical beliefs had come into existence. In teh Lutheran church, under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Philip Spener, a distinguished theologian, the movement termed Pietism was gaining recruits in the Rhine region. These Lutherans held that their church was in danger of becoming fettered by intellectual doctrines and dead formalism. THey sought an awakening of vital piety that should manifest itself in life rather than in profession. The Pietists had no desire to secede from the church of their fathers. But the clergy as a rule frowned upon teh movement, so that Pietism, mysticism adn the faiths that demadned adult baptism all were more or less under the ban, and their adherents were compelled to meet furtively in the homes of members to conduct their assemblages for worship.
Even before he had thought of ounding a commonwealth in America where persons of any and all Christian faiths might be welcome, William Penn had been in contact wtih the Greman sects to whom the recognition of church and state was denied. In various ways their beliefs were akin to those of the English Quakers, teh espousal of whose religion had brought imprisonment to Penn. Quaker preachers traveled through Germany conducting meetings among Pietists and mystics. In 1671 and again in 1677 William Penn made such tours. ... In Frankfort-on0the-Main they were welcomed by members of Spener's congregation and the visitors spoke at religious meetings held in homes of Pietists.
At Krisheim, or Kriegsheim, a village near Worms, a little congregation of Quakers had existed for some years. Penn preached for them in a barn. Quaker meetings had also been held in the nearby town of Crefeld, arousing complaints from teh clergy, though there is no evidence that Penn visited Crefeld in 1677. In Crefeld there also was a Mennonite congregation, between whom and the Quakers were many bonds of sympathy. The Mennonites' custom of adult batism caused them to be calssed wtih the outlawed Separatists, Pietists and heretics generally.
This note from Charles J Peterson ancestry tree
Isaac Hermans op den Graeff. Birth also given as Aldekerk, County of
Muir, Germany.
Judy Goldbaum, 17 May 2000.
Donna N. Basinger, Clymer Connections, RootsWeb's WorldConnect
Project, 22 May 2000. Born 1 September 1616. Died 17 January
1678/1679.
June (Shaull) Lutz 1988, History of the Op den Graef/Updegraff
Family, pp. U-6. Birth 28 December 1615 or 28 February 1616. Death
17 January 1669, 17 November 1678, or 16 January 1679
http://sml.simplenet.com/reunion/haller/ps23/ps23_203.htm, citing
D.B. Boles and H.W. Boles 1997, Speece-Robinson Ancestry. Life dates
22 February 1616 - 17 January 1679, noting that alternative dates of
birth 28 December 1615 and 28 February 1616 and death of 16 January
1679 are also found in other references. Five children Herman
Isaacs, Derick Isaacs, Abraham Isaacs, Margaretha (Margrit) and
Jacob, noting that other sources add Adolphus and Vonder.
Dora Smith, Op Den Graeff Ancestry,
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/5127/Webster/herman.html, 17
July 2000. Notes that some sources state he (like his father) had
eighteen children.
Events
| Birth | 28 Feb 1616 | Krefeld, Germany |  | ||
| Marriage | 1640 | Crefeld, Germany - Greitjen Peiters | |||
| Death | 17 Jan 1669 | Krefeld, Germany | | ||
| Religion | Converted from Mennonite to Quakerism | |
Families
| Spouse | Greitjen Peiters (1620 - 1683) |
| Child | Dirck Op den Graeff (1642 - 1697) |
| Child | Herman Isaacs Op den Graeff (1644 - 1704) |
| Child | Margrit Isacks Op Den Graef (1645 - 1685) |
| Child | Adolphus Op Den Graef (1648 - ) |
| Child | Vonder Op Den Graef (1651 - ) |
| Child | Margaretha Op den Graeff (1651 - ) |
| Child | Jacob Op den graeff (1653 - ) |
| Child | Abraham Isaac Op den Graeff (1660 - 1731) |
| Father | Hermann Op Den Graef (1585 - 1642) |
| Mother | Gretjen Driessen Pletjes (1588 - 1643) |
| Sibling | Unknown Op Den Graeff (1606 - ) |
| Sibling | Hester Pletjes Op Den Graeff (1607 - 1657) |
| Sibling | Trinken (Dinken) Op den Graeff (1607 - 1608) |
| Sibling | Abraham Op den Graeff (1610 - 1654) |
| Sibling | Trinken (Dinken) Op den Graef (1611 - 1658) |
| Sibling | Agnes Neesgen Op Den Graeff (1614 - 1691) |
| Sibling | Unknown Op Den Graeff (1620 - ) |
| Sibling | Dirck Isaacks Op den Graeff (1621 - 1697) |
| Sibling | Daughter Op den Graeff (1622 - 1622) |
| Sibling | Alletjin Op Den Graeff (1623 - 1706) |
| Sibling | Frinken Op Den Graeff (1628 - ) |
| Sibling | Sophia Op den Graeff (1629 - ) |
| Sibling | Susanna Op Den Graeff (1629 - 1714) |
| Sibling | Andreas Op den Graeff (1631 - ) |
| Sibling | Jacob Op Den Graeff (1634 - 1634) |
| Sibling | Fricken (Frincken) Op den Graeff ( - ) |
| Sibling | Alletjen Op den Graeff ( - ) |
| Sibling | Child Op den Graeff ( - ) |
Endnotes
1. William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania, William Hull.
2. William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania, William Hull.
3. William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania, William Hull.