Bourgon Broucard

Bourgon Broucard was born at Burgundy, France, in 1645, and, in 1665, married Catharine Le Febre, also a native of France. They emigrated from France to Mannheim, then the seat of the Rheinland Palatinate (Kurpfalz) in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in 1674, and from thence to the Dutch American colonies between 1672 & 1675.

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From New Netherlands and New York Genealogy by Olive Tree Genealogy:

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/17th/dny_10.shtml

Date: Tue Feb 25 17:04:44 1997

• Name: Marcie Richie
• Surname of Immigrant: Broucard (Brokaw, Bragaw)
• Given name(s) of Immigrant: Bourgon
• Name of Ship: Gilded Otter
• Arrival Date: 1675 or 1676
• Origin of Immigrant: France?
• Immigrant's Date & Place of Birth: 1640 (estimate)
• Immigrant's Date & Place of Death: after 1712 NJ
• Immigrant's Spouse: Catherine LeFevre
• Source of Information: The Brokaw-Bragaw Family by H. Minot Pitman NYGBR Jan 1955, p. 5; Marie Broucard and Her Husbands by Fred Sisser NYGBR Oct 1988, p. 204; Records of the Reformed Dutch Churches of Brooklyn and New York City. of

Immigrant's Children:

Child by Marie du May

• 1.Marie bp. 1 Feb 1665 Manheim, Germany

Children by Catherine LeFevre

• 1.Jeanne bp. 17 Nov 1667 Manheim, Germany d. after 1723 m. Jan Teunisse Covert c. 1689
• 2.Marie bp. 6 Aug 1670 Manheim, Germany d. after Sept 1723 m.1. Myndert Wiltsie 14 Nov 1694 New York, NY m.2. Andrew Bird c. 1701
• 3.Catherine bp. 9 June 1672 Manheim, Germany
• 4.Isaac bp. 21 Mar 1675 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 5.Isaac bp. 7 Aug 1676 Brooklyn, NY d. 14 Mar 1757 Elmhurst, NY m. Hilletje
• 6.Jacob b.c. 1678
• 7.Jan bp. 14 Nov 1680 Flatbush, NY d. 1740 Somerset Co., NJ m. Sara Teunis Van Middlesward c. 1704
• 8.Peter b.c. 1682 NY d. 16 Feb 1758 Somerset Co., NJ m. Judith Van Nest c. 1704
• 9.Abraham b.c. 1684 Brooklyn, NY d. summer 1747 Somerset Co., NJ m. Maria Davis
• 10.Catharina bp. 14 Mar 1686 New York, NY m. Pieter Hoff c. 1704

Notes: Bourgon married Marie du May 1 Dec 1663 at Manheim and Catherine 18 Dec 1666 also at Manheim. Bourgon and Catherine were members of the Walloon Church at Manheim. Magdalena LeFevre, the wife of Joost Duryea, was probably Catherine's sister. They may have been the daughters of Abraham LeFevre and Antoinette Jerrian. (Does anyone have more on this?) The Broucards and the Duryeas immigrated to New Amsterdam about the same time. The Broucards settled in Brooklyn in 1676. They moved to Flatbush in 1677, then to Bushwick in 1684, and to Dutch Kills in 1688. In 1690 Bourgon and his son-in-law, Jan Covert, bought land in Newtown (now Elmhurst). In 1700 they bought 2,000 acres on the Millstone River in Somerset County, NJ. All of the Broucards and their in-laws, except Isaac, moved to Somerset Co., NJ. The last record of the couple is when Catherine witnessed the baptism of a granddaughter on 6 Aug 1712 as the wife of Bourgon.

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Bourgon Broucard was born near La Rochelle (reportedly the town's name was Bungary, but no reliable location for this place name has yet to be found), France, in March of 1645. He belonged to the Protestant group known as Huguenots. In the early 1660's, before he was 20 years of age, he emigrated to a Huguenot and Walloon community in the region near Mannheim, Germany. Many French and Walloon exiles from England and from the Dutch seaboard were fleeing to Mannheim, drawn there by assurances of freedom and protection under the government of the Protestant Elector, Charles Lewis, who held out strong inducements to the refugees to settle there.

In Henry G. Bayer's The Belgians, First Settlers in New York and in the Middle States (New York: Devlin-Adair, 1925):

"A little colony of Walloons, flying before the troops of the Duke of Alva, had come to settle within the territory of the Palatinate, at Frankenthal, near Mannheim, its capital, where we find many families that later moved to New Netherland: David de Marest, Frederic de Vaux, Abraham Hasbroucq, Chretien Duyou, Methese or Matthew Blanchan, Thonnet Terrin, Pierre Parmentier, Antoine Crispel, David Usilie, Philippe Casier, Bourgeon Broucard, Simon Le Febre, Juste Durie, and others."

Bourgon was married to Marie du May on December 1, 1663. A daughter, Marie was born in Mannheim (Baptised on November 1, 1665), but died at an early age. Her mother must have died in childbirth or shortly thereafter, for on December 18, 1666, Bourgon married again, to Catherine Lefevre. Catherine may have been of Dutch ancestry, the daughter of Abraham and Antoinette (Jerrian) LeFevre, but these records are incomplete. After the birth of their third daugter, in Mannheim in June, 1672, Bourgon and Catherine moved to Amsterdam, Holland, where a son was born in March, 1675, who did not survive. Later in 1675, the family emigrated to America, along with Catherine's sister Magdalena and her husband Joost Duryee (Durie).

In America, the family settled in "New Amsterdam" in what is now Brooklyn, NY. Bourgon apparently was a successful farmer, who gradually increased his land holdings. In 1702 he sold his land in New York and purchased 2000 acres of land in Somerset County, NJ, bounded on the north and northwest by the Raritan and Millstone Rivers. This became the home for several generations of the family.

Catherine lived until at least 1712; Bourgon is said to have died in 1720.

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Bourgon Broucard was born at Bungary, near La Rochelle, France, which is on the very Western seacoast on the Bay of Biscay. He evidently grew up there. In the years following 1500, criticism of the church developed, in Europe, which movement later developed into open warfare. This criticism was developed by Calvin, in France, and by Luther, in Germany. Those led by Calvin became known as Calvinists and his followers, in France, as Huguenots. The " "Register of Ancestors " "of the Huguenot Society of New Jersey states that the family of the name of Broucard lived in La Rochelle, France, and that Broucard was at one time an honored and most noted name, in France. The insignia of the Huguenot Society, was worn by the Huguenot ancestors as an emblem of their faith. The eight corners of the four arms of the Cross of Malta were regarded as signifying the Eight Beatitudes, and the Fleur--de--lis the Mother Country of France, and the suspended Dove, the Church under the Cross.

And It was in La Rochelle, France in this setting we first find Bourgon Broucard when he married Marie du May. He was also married there to Catherine Lefevre, and his first four children were born there. Some time between 1672 and March 1675 they removed to Amsterdam, Holland, where they were for a short time. During the year 1675 the Broucards and the Durie (Duryea) families and others of the Huguenot Faith, left Holland and came to America where they settled at what is now Brooklyn, New York. In Riker's " "Annals of Newtown, " "Long Island, he lists Magdalena Le Febre, wife of Joost Durie and Catherine Le Febre, wife of Bourgon Broucard as possibly sisters, who came to America on the same boat the ""Gilded Otter. " "And in the 'Duryea Family", by Gustave Anjou, he lists the parentage of Magdalena Le Febre (or Le Fevre) as of Abraham and Antoinette (Jerrian) Le Fevre. Others list her as daughter of Isaac and Fannetje (Borderick) Le Fevre, or of Abraham and Antoinette. Mr. Harold Duryee of Canton, Ohio, who has done much research on the Duryee-Duryea family, says that he is of the opinion that the parents were Abraham and Antoinette, as in old Dutch family manner the parents named their children a lot after their parents. The name Isaac appears only in the Broucard family, but Abraham appears in both the Broucard and Duryee families, and Antoinette in the Duryee family and Fannetje in neither. He also says that Magdalena and Catherine Le Fevre were sisters.

In 1676 Bourgon Broucard, living in Brooklyn, was assessed as owning 11-1/2 morgens (about 23 acres) of land and valley and two cows. Then in the year following he was in Midwout, at which time his wife was transferred from the Dutch Reformed Church of Brooklyn, to the French Church in Manhattan, by certificate, but her name does not appear in the early French records of that church. (NYG & B Rec., v. 86, p. 6-revised.)" " In 1684 he moved to Cripplebush in Bushwick, Long Island, where he bought a farm. Four years later he sold this farm and moved to Dutch Kills, now a part of Long Island City, and there in 1692 he bought a large estate, a part of which was the plantation originally owned by Burger Jorizz. In a deed dated, June 21, 1690, it shows that he and Hans Tunis Couert (Covert) of Bedford in Kings County, yeoman, bought land in Maspeth Kills, Newtown, and on July 16, 1643, he bought 19 morgens and 400 rods of land there, called the Mill Land. (Queens Co.County Deeds, B. 2,pp. 352-53. ) A morgen was an old Dutch measure of 2-1/2 acres.

On Oct. 30, 1700, a bill was brought before the Assembly for the quieting of title to the lands of "ancient freeholders," "including those of Bergoon Bragan, who were inhabitants of Hellgate Neck, within the bounds of Newtown, Long Island. ""This bill was rejected and when again brought before the Assembly, in May 1703, his name does not appear as by that time he had moved to Somerset Co.County, New Jersey." (Annals of Newtown, pp. 131-33 and NYG & B Rec., v. 86, p. 6. )

In 1702 Bourgon sold his land in Newtown to William Post, which land was later bought back by Bourgon's son Isaac. On May 9, 1702, Bourgon and his son in-law, Jan (John) Coverson (Covert) bought for L 400, of William Dockwra, a merchant of London, two thousand acres of land in Somerset County, New Jersey, bounded on the north and northwest by the Rarity and Millstone Rivers. (Deed Bk. Lib. C. -2, p. 447, in Off. of State, Trenton, N. J.New Jersey ), and thereafter we have no record of him unless he was the Bourgon Brokaw appearing as a witness, June 2, 1717, at the baptism of Johannes, son of Thomas and Antie Cosyn at the Dutch Church in Jamaica, Long Island. It is possible this was his grandson, Bourgon, who could not have been over twenty at that date. His wife appears at the Raritan Dutch Church, Aug. 6, 1712, at the baptism-n o£ her grandchild, Catalyntie, daughter of Abraham. She is then called ""wife of Beugon" "not widow.

BWB to James S. Williams m. Katherine B. Davis to Catherine Simmons m. Richard Evan Williams to Margaret Morrow m. Abraham Simmons, to Thomas Morrow m. Jane Brocaw, to George Davis Brocaw m. Jane Custard to Abraham Brocaw m. Judith Davis, to John Brokaw m. Sara Tunis Van Middlesward.

BWM has a DNA connection to Kevin Glade Hoff, listed as rowell1639 on dna.ancestry.

References

• Perry Streeter, “Long-Overdue Brokaw/Bragaw Additions & Corrections: The European Origins of Bourgon-1 Broucard and Catherine le Fevre,” New Netherland Connections (October, November, December 2010; Volume 15; Number 4 [final issue]); available for free online as: http://www.perrystreeter.com/brokaw-bragaw.pdf