William Vigne

Wallonia, where Guillame Vigne was born, is a region that, today, spreads over parts of Belgium and the north of France. The name is sometimes written Vinje. The Vignes were one of the first families in New Netherlands, arriving in 1624.

Source: Richard Cline Mar 1998

Guleyn (Ghislain) Vigne

1. Born: C 1580 90, Valenciennes, Department of Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
2. Married C 1608, Valenciennes, Department of Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, to Ariaentje (Adrienne) Cuvilje
3. Died: 30 Apr 1632, New Amsterdam, the Dutch Colony (colony renamed in 1664 to New York)

Guillaume Vigne also aka William de la Vigne

Residence: 1623 Leuden, Netherlands

Immigration: Apr 1624 New Amsterdam

Vigne (Vigné, Vinje, etc.) . . . In 1947 Herbert F. Seversmith wrote an article "Ariaentje Cuvilje (Adrienne Cuvellier), Matriarch of New Amsterdam," published in National Genealogical Society Quarterly 35:65-69. An extended account is in his Colonial Families of Long Island, New York, and Connecticut, vol. 2 (1951), pp. 847-63, with additions at 2:1032-33, 3:1467, 4:1980-82.

Recent research has uncovered considerably more information, as revealed in Dorothy Koenig and Pim Nieuwenhuis, "The Pedigree of Cornelia Roos, an Ancestor of Franklin D. Roosevelt," New Netherland Connections [NNC] 2(1997):85-93, 3(1998):1:1-5, correction 3:2:34-35. See also William J. Parry et al, answers to queries, NNC 1(1996):4:95-97. Koenig and Nieuwenhuis (2:1:2) indicate that Adrienne's husband's name was Ghislain Vigne or Vigné, not Guillaume as previously thought. Like Zabriskie, the NNC authors agree that the Vigne family had to be among those who first came over in 1624, and that the Labadists had erred in implying that Jan Vigne was born in New Netherland in 1614.

The Vignes quickly died out in the male line, and later descendants are to be found in accounts of other surnames.

He immigrated on the trader ship, Tiger, which burned circa 1613. There is a story that Guillaume, the dockmaster, rescued Dirck Volckersten who was shipwrecked in New Amsterdam harbor. Ten years later, DIrck married his daughter, Christina. Resource: New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. XC, 1959, page 164.

"The ship they arrived in New Amsterdam on was called the Tiger. It caught fire and was burned on the beach of Manhatten. While they were making a new ship from salvaged and green wood, they built log huts on the island. The Vignes were of the first settlers of New Amsterdam. They acquired considerable property where Wall Street is now located."

The location of Guelyn's bowery was just what would seem ideal for people staying on Manhatten to colelct peltry brought down the trails or waterways. Most of the surface of lower Manhatten (Manatus) was covered with glacial bolders and conical hills of gravel drift, but there was a fertile tongue of land sloping down to the East River from the north/south ridge, with a clear

brook on one side (Maiden Lane) and an inlet from the river on the other (Broad Street). Guelyn built his cabin on this East River strand at the spot where Wall Street now intersects with Pearl Street.

This narrative was found on the Internet: Contents Updated 14 June 1998 Jan Vigne - "the first white male born in New Netherland".

Of interest is this modern story: see: http://www.cathleenschine.com/journalism/ny_ground/

“In 1614, the Tijge , a Dutch trading ship, burned at anchor and sank in the North River. Three centuries later, in 1916, workers were digging a tunnel for the I.R.T. subway line. At the intersection of Greenwich and Dey, twenty feet below ground, their shovels hit wood: the charred keel and three charred ribs of a ship. The style of the ship was early Dutch, and radiocarbon dating of the wood indicated that the vessel was built some time between 1450 and 1610. There is no record of any other ship going down in flames in the North River at that time, which suggests that the Tijger, a trading vessel a world away from home, burned and sank beneath the water where almost four hundred years later two towering buildings devoted to world trade burned and sank to the ground.” (c/o Mike van Beuren {GENi})

Family . . . The Vigne family originated from Valenciennes, France. They had three daughters, Christine, Maria and Rachel, prior to their journey to New Amsterdam. Christine and Maria, the oldest and second-oldest, were probably born about 1610 and 1613, respectively. The youngest, Rachel, was baptized on March 16, 1623 at the Leiden Walloon Church. The Vignes sailed to America on the Nieu Nederlandt in April of 1624, and began their farm - one of the first six on Manhattan Island - by 1625.

First Born . . . The year 1624 (or 1625) witnessed the birth of Jan [Jean] Vigne, the first white male born in New Netherland. He was probably born on Manhattan Island. It is also possible that he was born at Albany, or in Connecticut or New Jersey. The Nieu Nederlandt's passengers were scattered to all of these places for a short time before returning to the safety of Manhattan. Jan's honor to be the first-born male was well-known and is recorded in The Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, [ed. by Bartlett Burleigh James and J. Franklin Jameson. New York, 1913]. Excerpt from entry of 24 Sept. 1679, translation from Dutch: "We conversed with the first male born of Europeans in New Netherland, named Jean Vigne. His parents were from Valenciennes and he was now about sixty-five years of age."

Danckaerts overestimated or miscopied Jan VIGNE'S age - he would have been about 55, and not 65, in 1679. His true age is roughly substantiated by the fact that Jan was still in school in 1635, according to a prenuptial agreement in which his future step-father promised to feed and clothe him and ensure he attended school. At one time there was also a bronze plaque in the Town Hall, naming him as the first-born. The first European child born in New York was Sara RAPALJE, daughter of Joris Janszen RAPALJE and Catalina TRICO, in June 1625.

Jan grew up on the Vigne farm, just north of what is now Wall Street. We know there was a precipitous falling-out among the family after his stepfather Jan Jansen Damen moved into the house. Damen evicted two of Jan's married sisters and their husbands in 1638, and a year later his presence or influence may have pushed the third sister into marrying the scoundrel Cornelis Van Tienhoven when she was just 16 years old. It's difficult to pass judgment on this situation, however, since contemporary social standards did make him master of the house.

Atlantic Crossings . . . Jan may have sought an early exit from his stepfather's realm and apparently took the biggest step in leaving - by the age of 21 he was across the Atlantic and living in Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands. Jan's brother-in-law Van Tienhoven was from Utrecht, so it is likely that he was involved and may even have recommended this venture. It's also likely, knowing the characters of Damen and Van Tienhoven, that both of these men wished the only male Vigne heir would leave New Netherland and never return.

He married Emmerentje Gosens VAN NIEUWERZLUYS [during her lifetime there were numerous spelling variations for every part of her name] in Utrecht in 1645, when he was 21. She was the widow of Lambert Wolf and already in her mid-to-late thirties. Her children by Lambert were daughter Aeltgen (1627), daughter Gysbertgen (1628) and son Herman (1631). Jan moved into her home on Oude Gracht in the Jacobsbridge section of the city. There they had three more children: Johannes in 1646 (probably died in infancy), Johannes (2nd, 1647, also died young) and Gosen (1648).

Jan returned to New Netherland in the spring of 1647. While there, his stepfather Jan Jansen Damen entrusted him to collect on some payments from the Dutch West India Company upon his return to Europe.

Also Known As:<_AKA> Willem Vienje

They were Walloons (Protestants) who fled France for Leiden due the terror. The Vignes were one of 30 Walloon families picked by the Dutch West India Company to establish a permanent settlement in New Netherlands in 1624. He was been called Guleyn, Geyeyn Geyan, Guleyn and also Willem Vinje (Vienje). The name means "vine" in French. They owned a farm just outside the fort and may have owned land just north of the wall on Manhattan. His first name may have been Ghislain.

Guillaume Vigne was the son of Jean de la Vigne. Guillaume Vigne was born circa 1586 at Of, Vallenciennes, France. Guillaume Vigne was born between 1580 and 1590 at Valenciennes, France. He married Adriana Cuveille in 1608 at France. Guillaume Vigne died circa 30-Apr-1632 at New Amsterdam, New York County, New York. He died circa 1632 at New Amsterdam, New York County, New York. He died in 1632 at New Amsterdam, New York County, New York.

He was also known as Guleyn Vigne. He was also known as Gulyn Vinje. He was also known as Guilliam Vinje. He was also known as Willem Vinje. He was also known as William Vigne. He was also known as Geleun Vinge. He was also known as Willem Vinje. He was also known as Guillaume Vigne. He and Adriana Cuveille resided at at Leuden, Netherlands, in 1623. Guillaume Vigne immigrated in Apr-1624 to New Amsterdam, New York County, New York; poss sailed on the Niew Nederladt. He left a will circa 1632

Dirck and his mother-in-law were named executors of the will, as recorded below:

"We, the underwritten, William WYMAN, blacksmith and Jan Thomaisen GROEN, as

good men do attest and certify that before us appeared Dirck VOLCKERSON, the

Norman and Ariantje CEVELYN, his wife's mother in order to agree with her children

by her lawful husband, deceased; she gives to Maria VIGNE and Christine VIENJE,

both married persons each the sum of 200 guilders as their share of their father's

estate. To Rachel VIENJE and Jan VIENJE both minor children, each the sum of 33

guilders, under the condition that with her future husband, Jan Jansen DAMEN, she

shall be held to keep the said two children in good support, until the come of age, and

that she shall be obliged to clothe and feed them and make them go to school as good

parents are bound to do."

Children of Guillaume Vigne and Adriana Cuveille:

Maria Vigne+ b. 1613, d. circa 1670

Rachel Vigne b. 16-Mar-1623, d. 18-Feb-1663

Jan Vigne b. after May-1624, d. 21-Dec-1689

source from http://www.conovergenealogy.com/ancestor-p/p228.htm#i35922

1 Guillaume Vigne

b: 1590 Valenciennes, France

d: Bef Apr 1632 New Amsterdam

+Adrienne Cuveille b: Abt 1590 Valenciennes, France

m: Abt 1608 Valenciennes, France d: May 1655 New Amsterdam

2 Maria Vigne

b: 1613 France or Holland d: 1689 NY

+Abraham Issacsen Verplanck (second husband) b: Abt 1613 Holland

m: 1634 New Amsterdam d: Abt 1680 NY

3 Catalyna Verplanck

b: Abt 1638 d: 1691

+David Pieterson Schuyler b: Abt 1636 m: 1657

4 Maria Schuyler

b: 1666

+Hendrick Van Dyck b: Abt 1666 m: 1689

5 Lydia Van Dyck

b: Abt 1707

+Cornelius Van Schaack b: 1705 Albany Co., NY m: 1728 d: 1784

6 Cornelius Van Schaack

b: Abt 1730

+Angeletje Yates b: Abt 1750

7 Maria Van Schaack

b: 1773 d: 1845

+Jacobus J. Roosevelt b: 1759 NYC, NY m: 1793 d: 1840

Father: Jacobus ROOSEVELT Mother: Annatje BOGERT

8 Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt

b: 1794 d: 1871

+Margaret Barnhill b: Abt 1794

9 Theodore Roosevelt

b: 1831 d: 1878

+Martha Bullock b: 1834 m: 1853 d: 1884

10 Theodore Roosevelt

b: Oct 27, 1858 NYC, NY

26th President of the United States of America, Sep 14, 1901 - March 4, 1909

d: Jan 6, 1919 Oyster Bay, NY

Source: http://www.jamesjnolan.com/pages/famous%20lines/385.html

2007

Maria's parents were GUILLAUME VIGNE and ADRIENNE A. {CUVELLIER} VIGNE, each of whom was born sometime between 1580 and 1590. Guillaume, whose name was customarily rendered as Guleyn in Dutch, is thought by one researcher also to have been born in St. Waast-la-Haute, Valenciennes, France, in 1586 to a family that may have come from nearby Cambrai. Although Guillaume and Adrienne were married in France in 1608, they were in actuality Walloons – a Calvinist Gallic-Teutonic, French-speaking group that lived on both sides of the present border area between France and Belgium, since Valenciennes was heavily Walloon in composition.25 Many of the "French" immigrants to New Amsterdam were actually Walloon Calvinists, although others came to the Dutch outpost from northern France.

Valenciennes (previously in both the Netherlands and Belgium but now in northeast France, near the Belgian border) was in the southern portion of the Spanish-controlled Walloon provinces of the Netherlands. When Philip II of Spain ascended to the throne in 1556, he began to take action against what he saw as religious heresy in the Low Countries, which as we have seen began to attract those, like the Walloons, who were seeking asylum from religious persecution. Valenciennes had in fact been the first Dutch city to offer resistance to the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands, in 1567, and it had suffered severe destruction as a result. Many of its inhabitants had taken refuge elsewhere; others, apparently including members of the Vigne and Cuvellier families, fell victim to Spanish repression.

The twelve-year truce between the Spanish and the Dutch rebels neared an end in 1621. As it came to a close, some Walloons and French who were living temporarily in England decided that immigration to America would be preferable to returning to their home territory, since it was likely to be the scene of renewed fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. They asked the English to let them go to Virginia, then persuaded the new West India Company to permit them to immigrate to New Amsterdam instead. The Vignes were living in the tolerant and safe city of Leyden by early 1623, for their youngest daughter was baptized there on March 16 of that year. We do not know if they were among those who lived briefly in England, but we are fairly sure that they were part of the body of Walloons who departed for New Netherland at this time.

One Vigne researcher has identified a Cuvellier woman who was married to a Dutch merchant instrumental in the Van Tweenhuysen Company that sent to North America the very first Dutch trading expedition, headed by Captain Adriaen Block, and so it is possible the Vignes had learned about the opportunities for settlement through a family connection. As a group the Walloons were drawn not only by the prospect of freedom of worship but also by promises of livestock and land ownership after they had worked six years for the West India Company. About thirty Walloon families, well over 100 persons in all, volunteered to be among those immigrating to New Netherland.

After formally swearing allegiance to the Dutch West Indies Company and to the Dutch government, an advance party of Walloons and others sailed on the Eendracht on January 25, 1624; its captain was Cornelius May (after whom Cape May is named). When the ship arrived in what is New York Harbor it had to drive off a French vessel that was there to claim the area for France. The main body of Walloons followed two months later aboard the Nieuw Nederlandt (New Netherland). We do not know which group included the Vignes, presuming that they were among the Walloons who came to New Netherland at this time. Some of the Walloons were deposited on what is now Governor's Island, just off Manhattan Island; others were placed in locations in what is today New Jersey and Connecticut, on an island in the Delaware River, and at Fort Orange (already ten years old in 1624) nearly one hundred miles up the Hudson River. This dispersion of families was in keeping with the Dutch concept of claiming land by having persons actually inhabit it – the land, in this case, being the area adjoining the three key rivers that the Dutch intended to control: the Fresh (Connecticut), North (Hudson), and South (Delaware) Rivers.26

We do not know whether the Vigne family lived for a brief time in one of these other locations or remained in what would become New York City the entire time, but since most of the couples were sent someplace other than Manhattan it seems possible the Vignes began their lives in New Netherland at one of the outposts.27 Within a few years, between 1626 and 1628, hostile Indians had led to a Dutch decision to consolidate all of these weak and scattered settlements on Manhattan Island, which as we have seen Peter Minuit "purchased" from the local Indian tribes. Discouraged, more than half of the Walloons had by now returned to Europe, but the Vigne family stayed. They are the first of my ancestors to have come to America.

An old tradition is worth recounting here. This tradition holds that the Vignes were living in what would soon become New Amsterdam by 1614, even before Manhattan Island began to be settled. Indeed, they are sometimes credited – by a plaque at City Hall in New York City, for instance – with being the parents of the first child of European origins born in Manhattan, in 1614: their son Jan Vigne (Maria's younger brother), whom we have already met. Some of the speculation has the Vignes traveling with Captain Block, who after his ship burned wintered on Manhattan Island during 1613-1614.28 According to this story, Guillaume Vigne was an early trader for the United New Netherland Company and had his family with him during his stays on Manhattan Island. Recent research, though, has unearthed the fact that several Vigne children were baptized in Leyden between 1618 and 1622, and so the weight of evidence supports 1624 for the family's arrival in New Amsterdam.29

Moreover, the date of 1614 for Jan Vigne's birth depends on a casual estimate of his age (as "about sixty-five") many years later, and the estimate itself may in fact have been written as "fifty-five." Jan Vigne seems to have been in school, and so a minor, even as late as 1635, which also argues for considering 1624 as the year of his birth. (Although it is true that his contemporaries often regarded Jan as the first European child born on the island, this could have been so even if the Vigne family arrived in 1624; the point at issue is which year they arrived.)

Whatever year the Vignes arrived, and whether or not Guillaume was once a trader, we know that once they were definitely residing on Manhattan Island he was engaged primarily in agriculture. He was in fact the first tenant on the six farms north of what would be Wall Street (near Pearl Street) that the West India Company owned, laid out, and rented in its effort to produce foodstuffs for its soldiers and employees in New Amsterdam.30 In time he like so many others undoubtedly took up the production of tobacco. But Guillaume did not live for long: he died in New Amsterdam no later than April 30, 1632, when his will was recorded.

A few years later, Adrienne married a man named Jan Jansen Damen, a prominent and relatively wealthy resident of New Amsterdam; Maria, already married herself by this time, is listed as one of the four children of Guillaume and Adrienne. The Damen-Vigne marriage, which took place as early as 1635 but no later than May 7, 1638, brought together two families that owned a large share of the property of the young town.31 Damen was well-connected – he too was a member of the Twelve – and the churchwarden. The combined property (known as the Kolk Hook farm), just outside the city wall, was largely on the east side of Broadway (near present-day Maiden Lane, Pine Street, and William Street) but also ran westward to what was then the shore of the Hudson (North) River – very near to where the World Trade Center would later be built upon landfill. The Damen farmhouse was on Broadway near Cedar Street, and Adrienne seems to have kept a smaller house about where 112 Broadway is today.32

The court minutes record some of the details of an embarrassing public spectacle, a disagreement of some sort between Damen and his new wife's family – including son-in-law Abraham Verplanck. Damen filed suit to throw these relatives out of his house. There was a countersuit, but eventually harmony was restored. Damen died as early as 1651 and certainly by 1653, when the court minutes refer to Adrienne as his widow.

Adrienne herself died in 1655, almost certainly in New Amsterdam. Unfortunately, we do not know anything about her Cuvellier family, except that it was originally probably French.33 As for the Vigne line, we know only that Guillaume's father was named JEAN DE LA VIGNE. One research describes Jean as the Walloon dominie (minister) in Amsterdam from 1585 until his death in 1622, but I have not been able to confirm that this man was the Jean de la Vigne who was Guillaume's father. This Jean who served as dominie was born about 1560 in Valenciennes, France, and so a link does seem plausible.

There are grounds for doubting such a link, however. We can presume that Jean de la Vigne had fled France at some point during the 1580s for the haven of the Netherlands. If Maria Vigne was born in France about 1608-1610, however, we can date the immigration of her parents Guillaume and Adrienne to the Netherlands much later – between then and the early 1620s. In addition, one source suggests that Guillaume and Adrienne joined Leyden's Walloon church in October 1619, which makes one wonder why they would flee there rather than to Amsterdam if Jean was the dominie in Amsterdam. In the end, without more evidence we cannot be positive that Guillaume was related to the Jean de la Vigne who went to Amsterdam during the 1580s.34

came to Neiu Amsterdam, New Netherland on an exploratory and trading voyage from the Netherlands

In 1613, Guillaume and his family came to Manhattan Island on an exploratory and trading voyage. The Directory to Persons in New Netherlands, 1600s, lists his approximate arrival at 1624.

In 1613, the couple and their 2 children shipped out on one of four Dutch ships on an exploratory and trading voyage to America. Their ship, the "Tiger", caught fire and burned on the beach of Manhattan. While they were making a new ship from salvaged and green wood, they built log huts on the island.

Their son, Jan Vigne, was born that winter of 1613-14 in one of those huts. He was the first person born in the colony. The Vignes never returned to Holland. The family was one of the very first settlers of Manhattan. They acquired considerable property in the area where Wall Street now is located. In fact, much of the land on which Wall Street is now located, as well as 200 acres on Greenpoint (now Brooklyn near the Williamsburg bridge) was owned at one time by Vigne and Volkertsen descendants!

The location of Guelyn's bowery was just what would seem ideal for people staying on Manhattan to collect peltry brought down over the trails or waterways. Most of the surface of lower Manhattan (Manatus) was covered with glacial boulders and conical hills of gravel drift, but there was a fertile tongue of land sloping down to the East River from the north-south ridge, with a clear brook on one side (Maiden Lane) and an inlet from the river on the other (Broad St.).

Manhattan Indians from their village of Werpoes on a point in the freshwater pond, had long since cleared patches of this land and planted maize and tobacco. Guelyn built his cabin on this East River strand at the spot where Wall Street now intersects with Pearl, and his son Jan retained this part of his father's holdings at his death in 1689, although other parts had been sold off or released to co-heirs of his mother. Guelyn Vigne died in 1632.

They settled in Fort Orange, New Amsterdam (near what is presently Albany, NY). He was also known as Wilem Vinje, which was the Dutch "translation" of his French name.

There is reason to believe that he was the first tenant of the farm laid out north of the present Wall St. by the West India Company and that he died there.

Ghislain Vigne was a Walloon. Also called Willem Vinje In the mouths of his Dutch neighbors, this was how his name was pronounced. Also called Guillaume Vigne.2 He was born circa 1586 in Valenciennes, Countship of Hainaut, Kingdom of Holland. He married Adrienne Cuville before 1610 in Valenciennes, Countship of Hainaut, Kingdom of Holland.

The Walloons were French-speaking Protestants from the southern Netherlands region that is now Belgium and northern France. In the 1500's and 1600's it was subjected to protracted wars involving Holland, France and Spain. A 12-year truce beginning in 1609 provided some respite, but the truce was not renewed when it expired in 1621.

Another unsettling factor in that region was the desire of the Catholic French monarchy to convert or kill the Protestant population living within and along its borders. Many non-Catholics fled after having their property confiscated. It was then they decided to flee for Holland. He and Adrienne Cuville immigrated to Leiden, Zuid Holland, Netherlands, arriving before 1623.

After they began living among the Dutch, the Vigne name was changed to Vienje. Guillaume became known as Willem Vienje and Adrienne as Ariantje Vienje. He and Adrienne Cuville were were one of 30 Walloon families selected by the Dutch West India Company to establish a permanent settlement in New Netherlands [New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut] in 1624 in Leiden, Zuid Holland, Netherlands.

The original Company plan was to send only five or six men to set up a fur trading post on Manhattan Island. The addition of the Walloon families may have been a late change to the plans. Perhaps the families volunteered when they heard of the colonization plans. After all, the Walloons were a displaced people who had become refugees in crowded little Holland. There was no land available to them - the Dutch had run out of land and had just started to reclaim land from the sea.

Guillaume immigrated to New Amsterdam, Kings County, New York, arriving April 1624; The Vignes are believed to have sailed from Holland in April of 1624 on the "Nieuw Nederlandt". Some of the other colonists, including Joris Janszen Rapaelje, were also from Valenciennes. The Vignes had three daughters, Christine, Maria and Rachel, when they sailed to America. Most of the 30 families must have had children, as the total number of new colonists was about 120. Upon reaching the Hudson River in mid-May, they found a French ship that was trying to claim the territory for the king of France. With the help of a smaller Dutch ship that arrived from the West Indies, they politely aimed their cannons and escorted the French ship out to sea. Cornelis May, captain of the "Nieuw Nederlandt," became the first Director of the New Netherlands colony.3 He died before 1632 in New Amsterdam, Kings County, New York.

[F.G.B.S. John Reynolds Totten, "Jan Cornelius Buys (alias Jan Damen) and His Three Wives," in Genealogies of Long Island Families, From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume I, Albertson-Polhemius, Henry B. Hoff (selections and introductions), editor. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1987), Vol I, pg 280, under "Jan Cornelius Buys and His Three Wives". Hereinafter cited as "Jan Cornelius Buys"].

• Residence: New York, New York, United States - Circa 1620
• Immigration: 1624 - Niew Nederland or De Eendracht 1624 Amsterdam to New Netherland
• Residence: New York, New York, United States
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Apr 29 2017, 12:54:44 UTC
• Residence: New York, New York, United States - Circa 1620
• Immigration: 1624 - Niew Nederland or De Eendracht 1624 Amsterdam to New Netherland
• Residence: New York, New York, United States
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Apr 29 2017, 13:24:00 UTC