Dirck Isaacs op den Graeff, Original 13 Families of Germantown, PA

Graeff, op den (Opdegraf, Updegrave, Updegrove) family

Op den Graeff (Opdegraf, Updegrave, Updegrove), an old Krefeld Mennonite family, which turned Quaker in part ca. 1679-1680, four members of which emigrated to Germantown with the first 13 immigrant families in October 1683. Some of their descendants continued in or returned to the Mennonite faith and were found in the Montgomery County congregations of Skippack and Boyertown until modern times. The grandfather of the first Germantown immigrants, Herman, a linen weaver and merchant, was born 26 November 1585 of Mennonite parents in Aldekerk, about 12 miles (20 km) from Krefeld, moved in 1609 to Krefeld, m. Grietjen Pletjes of Kempen in 1615, died 27 December 1642, leaving 18 children. This Herman op den Graeff was one of two delegates of the Krefeld Mennonite Church to sign the Dordrecht Confession in 1632 and served as preacher in the congregation there.

One son of Herman, Isaac Hermans op den Graeff, b. in 1616, married Grietjen Peters (d. 1679), was converted with his family to Quakerism. His widow, who died in Philadelphia 19 October 1683, his three sons Derick (Dirk) Isaacs, Herman Isaacs, and Abraham Isaacs, and a daughter Margrit (m. later to Peter Schumacher, immigrant from Kriegsheim who arrived in 1685) emigrated to Germantown as part of the 13 famous first families on the Concord, arriving at Philadelphia, 6 October 1683, settling in Germantown soon thereafter. Dirk was married in a Quaker ceremony in 1687 in Krefeld, to Nölken Vijtten, probably a daughter of Veit Scherkes, one of the 13 family heads. Herman had been previously married to Liesbet Isaacs, a daughter of Isaac van Bebber, another of the 13 first families. The op den Graerfs were a family of linen weavers in Krefeld and continued this occupation in Germantown, although the three brothers purchased jointly 2,000 acres of land in Germantown from William Penn's agents in Rotterdam, Jacob Telner and Benjamin Furley.

Dirk op den Graeff was the ieader of the 13-family immigrant group and remained prominent in Germantown civic life. He with his brother Abraham signed the famous first petition against slavery in America in 1688. In 1689 he was one of the 11 charter members of the Germantown corporation, in 1692 he was one of the town's six "committeemen," and in 1693-1694 he was the bailiff or chief executive (burgomaster). He died childless in 1697. Herman op den Graeff, like his brother Dirk, was a member of the Germantown Quaker meeting, one of the 11 charter members of the corporation, and died childless 2 May 1704, after having moved to Delaware County.

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Our Family Ancestors - Thomas Maxwell Potts (1895)- https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-62766-83/our-family-ance...