Abraham Hegeman

THE HEGEMAN FAMILY.

BY JAMES C. AIKIN.

THE Hegeman Family, was potentially associated with the early history of that part of the present city of New York (borough of Brooklyn) which was known for more than two and onehalf centuries as Flatbush. Adriaen Hegeman, the founder of this line, was a settler there, about the middle of the seventeenth century. The Hegeman name is an old one in the Netherlands. It is found also in Germany. Some of the descendants of Adriaen write their name Hageman, which form originated in New Jersey, and is used by Rev. Andrew James Hageman of Roycefield, N. J., who has done much valuable work upon a genealogy of the family. One branch of the family fell into the use of the spelling Hagaman; and Hagaman Mills, N. Y., was named after them. Others, it seems, have lapsed into Hagerman, but they are not to be confounded with the Hagerman line descended from Christopher Hagerman, who fought in the British service on the continent of Europe, against the rebellion in Scotland, and at Quebec, and who settled in Albany County, N. Y., and went thence to Canada at the close of the Revolutionary War—of which line is James John Hagerman of Colorado Springs, Col., the well-known capitalist and railroad builder.

There was a Castle of Heegh (pronounced Hag, the double e sounding like a in fate), at Didam, Netherlands. It was sold a century and a half ago, and the castle demolished, and there is now only a hunting box there, which the proprietor occupies during the hunting season. Near it are lanes lined with beech trees of the growth of several centuries, and the moat of the castle still remains. Every part of Gelderland has Hegemans.

The city of Harderwijck had for mayor Jacob Hegeman, who died in 1571. One of his sons was Wolter, a captain in the service of the states-general, who died at the siege of Bronkhorst, in 1582. Another son was Johan, who married Jutgen, and had a son Jacob, who married Naaltje Wolffs.

Nyhoff speaks of a Hegeman in 1414. Slicthenhorst wrote of a Hegemans, born in Harderwijck, as a clever officer.

Wolter Hegeman, mentioned above, was a very conspicuous soldier. It is written that his name and the rumor of his arrival terrified the enemy. At Deventer he captured the works that defended the bridge, and destroyed the bridge. He retook the town of Anhalt and the castle of Hattem.

Duke Willem Van Gelder, in 1402, bequeathed to Jan Hegeman an annuity of fifty gold guilders. Some of the early Harderwijck Hegemans wrote their names Hegheman, Heegman, and Heegeman.

The coat of arms of this family is as follows: Three silver arrows, pointed at each end, in a blue field; crest—& silver wing, with an arrow-head projecting vertically through the edge.

Eoelof Hegeman was burgomaster of Elberg from 1646 to 1654, and perhaps longer.

Roelof Hegeman was burgomaster at Heerde in 1668.

Adriaen Hegeman, the Ancestor.

ADRIAEN HEGEMAN, with his wife Catharine (Katherij) Margits, arrived at New Amsterdam in the year 1650. He had a son Jacob, baptized in New Amsterdam March 9, 1653. His sons Abram, Isaac, and Denijse (Denyse) are identified as "natives" of this country, and others of his children, Benjamin and Elizabeth, seem to have been born here; but some of them were born abroad, as Joseph and Henry. The former is described as from Amsterdam.

Adriaen died at Flatbush, Long Island, April, 1672, and his widow in 1689 or 1690. He was a magistrate of Midwout (Flatbush) from 1654 to 1660, and in 1663; he was a schout-fiscaal in 1661 of the five Dutch towns on Long Island. In 1655 he and Thomas Swartwout petitioned the director-general to have the limits of Midwout defined, and Commissary Stryker and themselves were authorized to make the demarcation requested. He obtained a patent, in 1661, for one hundred acres of land in Midwout, and settled upon it. In February, 1664, he procured the making of depositions in relation to the misconduct of an English troop at Midwout, and in the same month he headed a delegation to a convention at Flatbush which was called for the purpose of selecting delegates to lay before the states-general the distressed condition of the country.

Adriaen Hegeman had eight children: Joseph, who married Femmetje Remsen Van der Beek; Hendrick, who married Ariantje Bloodgood; Jacobus, who married Jannetje Ariens Ryerson; Abraham, who married Geertruy Janse; Denijs, who married Lucretia; Isaac, who married Marytje Roelofse Schenck; Benjamin, who married Barendji Janse, and Elizabeth, who married Tobias Ten Eyck.

Line of Joseph.

Joseph Hegeman, who married Femmetje R. Van der Beek, is described in the marriage record in 1677, at Flatbush, as from Amsterdam. He was a member of assembly from Kings County, 1721-5. He was an elder of the Dutch Church at Flatbush in 1690. In 1710 he purchased the Harlingen tract of land in New Jersey, but it does not appear that he ever occupied it in person. He contended manfully, and at great personal risk, for the rights of the provincials against the administrations that were endeavoring to force episcopacy upon them. He was also in opposition to Acting-Governor Leisler. In 1702 he was a trustee of Flatbush, and as such took part in establishing the boundary between that town and Jamaica. In the year following he sat as a justice of sessions to try certain rioters.

Adriaen, the eldest son of Joseph,1 married Marijtje Cornell. He settled in the town of Oyster Bay, first at Dosoris (dos uxoris), and afterward at Cedar Swamp, so-called, apparently because of its freedom from swamps. (Lucus a non lucendo.)

Peter Hegeman, son of Adriaen and Marijtje, spent all his life at Oyster Bay. By his second wife, Magdalena Derje, he had a son Joost (pronounced Yost, and hence written in that way at times), who married Gertrude Hegeman, daughter of Jacobus and Gertrude (Onderdonk) Hegeman. Joost remained at Oyster Bay. His youngest child, Adrian, married Eliza Balster, from Halifax, N. S.

This Adrian was alderman from the fourth ward of New York City, 1805-8, and assemblyman in 1810. In 1821 he was appointed a judge of the marine court, and in 1823 was chief-justice. His oldest child, William, married Eliza Jane Niven.

William Hegeman was the founder of the well-known Hegeman drug house in New York City, in which he was succeeded by his son, Johnston Niven Hegeman. William's youngest child, Elsie Anna, married Hon. Chauncey Mitchell Depew.

William Augustus Ogden Hegeman, commonly known as "Ogden Hegeman," was the oldest child of William. He married Anna Bradford Clark. He was a prominent lawyer of New York City, in partnership with Oliver P. Buel, and died December 24, 1888, leaving two children, Anna B. and Charlotte M. He was indefatigable in tracing the history of the Hegeman Family, and it is understood that his work

■It has not been found possible to follow "Early Settlers of Kings County" in relation to this family, nor is it safe to accept that useful work implicitly in its distribution into families. The labor was immense and errors crept in.

was methodically arranged, but unfortunately it has not been available to the present annalist, who has taken up the work at a later period; and Hon. Chauncey M. Depew states that it was not found among his effects.

Line of Abraham.

Abraham Hegeman, son of the first settler, married Geertje Janse of Albany. He was a member of the Dutch Church at Flatbush in 1687.

Adrian, son of Abraham, married Adriantje. He was a weaver by occupation, lived in Flatbush, and was clerk of Kings County, 1726-50. His will, dated in 1770, mentions his son Rem as deceased, and names the children of Rem, and, among them, a Rem.

Rem, son of Adrian and Adriantje, died before September 1, 1770, for he is mentioned as deceased in the will of his father. The name of his wife has not been discovered.

Rem, son of Rem, mentioned above, and Sarah Stoothoff, had a son Rem, born April 12, 1795, died March 2, 1867. Rem the father was of Flatbush.

Rem, son of Rem and grandson of the earlier Rem, born in 1795, married, in 1815, Helen Wyckoff, daughter of Peter and perhaps of Abigail Lott.

John, son of Rem and Helen, was born February 16, 1816, died October 29, 1845, and was buried in Flatbush. He was married and had two sons, John R. and William R., each of whom was married. The latter was born in 1842, and died November 9, 1891, in Brooklyn. John R. is president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City. He married Miss Evelyn Lyon, and his son, John Rogers Hegeman, Jr., married, October 22, 1895, Elizabeth, daughter of Barak Guitman Coles. John R., Jr., was in 1898 a captain in the One Hundredth Regiment of New York Volunteers in the war against Spain.