Herman Isacks op den Graeff

• Herman Isaaks Op Den GRAEFF was born about 1642 in Krefeld, Holland. (3758) The source lists Krefeld as being in Germany. It's also listed in other sources as being in Holland. He died on 7 Nov 1708 in Dover, Kent Co., Del..(3759)
• When William Penn issued his charter incorporating Germantown on 12 August 1688, charters were given to the three UpdeGraff brothers and eight others. Herman become the first Town President. He later moved to the Perkiomen region, then to Kent County, MD, where he died.
• Herman Isacks op den Graeff Find A Grave Memorial

Married

Herman Op Den Graeff in the U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Name: Herman Op Den Graeff, Arrival Year: 1683, Arrival Place: Germantown, Pennsylvania, Primary Immigrant: Graeff, Herman op den, Family Members: Wife, Lisbet I. van Bebber, Source Publication Code: 1734, Annotation: Date and port of arrival or date and place of naturalization. Extracted from W.I. Hull's William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania (see PILI, first edition, source no. 3313). Source Bibliography: DUTCH AND GERMAN SETTLERS IN GERMANTOWN, 1683-1709. In Krefeld Immigrants and Their Descendants (Links Genealogy Publications, Sacramento, CA), vol. 1:2 (1984), pp. 41-47.

• Married: (1) to Liesbet van Bebber, she is listed in the U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index with Herman Op Den Graeff , Arrival Year: 1683
• Married: (2) to Debra Van BEBBER on 7 May 1691 in Germantown, Philadelphia Co., Pa.. (3760)

Children with Liesbet van Bebber

• Elsabet Op Den Graeff died Bef. 1711; married Peter Bon.

Children with Debra Van BEBBER

• Sydge Van Bebber Op den GRAEFF.

Notes for Herman Isaacs Op den GRAEFF:

Herman Isaacs op den Graeff, descendant of an old Mennonite family, left the Mennonite fold in 1679 to become a Quaker. The next year he co-authored a pamphlet about religious persecution which was published in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In Maintaining the Right Fellowship, Mennonite historian John L. Ruth tells the story of Herman's own persecution:

‘’The [Krefeld] Reformed Synod received complaints that these former Mennonites no longer practiced baptism or the Lord's summer (claiming these were entirely spiritual matters), held separate meetings, and for some irritating reason would not doff their hats even when greeted in the street.

"Just how angry this made some Krefelders was evidenced by the expulsion of the new Quaker, weaver Herman op den Graeff, and five other persons by armed men who led them out of the city. After the Quakers had cautiously returned,they were re-expelled, with a local deputy swearing by his soul's salvation that if they came back again he would personally see them whipped and branded. After they had nevertheless slipped unobtrusively back into their homes, still another Krefeld Quaker, Johannes Bleijckers, who failed to tip his hat to two of his neighbors, was thrown down, kicked and dragged by his hair until he was too seriously injured to walk. So we will not be surprised to find both Herman op den Graeff and Johannes Bleijckers, three years later, sailing toward America in search of another society."

Herman was one of the original 13 heads of household who settled Germantown. The small group of German Quakers arrived in Philadelphia 6 Oct 1683 on the Concord after a ?? month voyage from Gravesend. Herman came with his wife Lisbet van Bebber, his mother, his two brothers, Abraham and Dirck, and his sister Margaret. The op den Graeffs were evidently a family of means, since they were able to buy 2000 acres in Pennsylvania before sailing. Herman acted as Pennsylvania land agent for Jacob Telner and Dirck Sipman.

Herman Isaacs op den Graeff, descendant of an old Mennonite family, left the Mennonite fold in 1679 to become a Quaker. The next year he co-authored a pamphlet about religious persecution which was published in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In MAINTAINING THE RIGHT FELLOWSHIP, Mennonite historian John L. Ruth tells the story of Herman's own persecution:

"The [Krefeld] Reformed Synod received complains that these former Mennonites no longer practiced baptism or the Lord's supper (claiming these were entirely spiritual matters), held separate meetings, and for some irritating reason would not doff their hats even when greeted in the street.

"Just how angry this made some Krefelders was evidenced by the expulsion of the new Quaker, weaver Herman Op den Graeff, and five other persons by armed men who led them out of the city. After the Quakers had cautiously returned, they were re-expelled, with a local deputy swearing by his soul's salvation that if they came back again he would personally see them whipped and branded. After they had nevertheless slipped unobtrusively back into their homes, still another Krefeld Quaker, Johannes Bleijckers, who failed to tip his hat to two of his neighbors, was thrown down, kicked and dragged by his hair until he was too seriously injured to walk. So we will not be surprised to find both Herman op den Graeff and Johannes Bleijckers, three years later, sailing toward America in search of another society."

Herman was one of the original 13 heads of household who settled in Germantown. The small group of German Quakers arrived in Philadelphia 6 Oct. 1683 on the Concord after a ?? month voyage from Gravesend. Herman came with his wife Lisbet van Bebber, his mother, his two brothers, Abraham and Dirck, and possibly his sister Margaret. (Some researchers say yes, some say no on Margaret.) The Op den Graeffs were evidently a family of means since they were able to buy 2000 acres in Pennsylvania before sailing. Herman acted as Pennsylvania agent for Jacob Telner and Dirck Sipman.

Herman had the third lot on the west side of the Germantown main street, between his two brothers, who were also weavers. When William Penn granted a charter to Germantown in 1689, Herman was one of the 11 incorporators. He was a burgess and the first "towne president". He signed a petition against a tax bill in 1692; the next year he signed the petition supporting George Keith in the controversy which split the Pennsylvania Quakers. His property was assessed for #80.1.5.

In 1684 Herman wrote a letter to Europe describing the trip over as "a wonderfully prosperous voyage". As he wrote how cattle eat in the woods in spite of the cold, Indians entered his makeshift house. According to Ruth, he "took the hand of one, closed it around the pen, and went on with his letter for a line or two: '...in the town have one lot seven rods wide, three acres in size, also forty acres....'"

Herman's wife Lisbet died in 1691. Some writers (William Hull, William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration, and Samuel Pennypacker, Settlement of Germantown) say Herman died childless in 1701, leaving his estate to his brother Abraham, but the consensus is that he he married Lisbet's sister Deborah and moved to Kent Co, DE on 29 Sep 1701. A "Herman Updegrove" died there in 1708, leaving his estate to wife Deborah and mentioning, though not naming, minor children.

Sources

correspondence w/Andree Hoeman, Columbus, NE

William Hull, WILLIAM PENN & THE DUTCH QUAKER MIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA (Swarthmore College 1935), pp 196-97, 208-09, 216-17, 403, 416-17

Samuel Pennypacker, SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN Benjamin Bloom NY 1970 (1899)

John L. Ruth, MAINTAINING THE RIGHT FELLOWSHIP (Herald Press: Scottsdale, PA 1984), p 48

Clyde Updegraff Shank, Manuscripts, PA State Library, PA Genealogical Society

CALENDAR OF KENT CO DE PROBATE RECORDS 1680-1800 (DE Archive Commission 1944), p 30: ARdch Vol A51, p 198; Reg of Wills, Liber B, folio 67

"We whose names are to these presents subscribed, do hereby certify unto all whom it

may concern, that soon after our arrival in this province of Pennsylvania, in October, 1683,

to our certain knowledge, Herman op den Graff, Dirk op den Graff, and Abraham op den

Graff, as well as we ourselves, in the cave of Francis Daniel Pastorius, at Philadelphia, did

cast lots for the respective lots which they and we then began to settle in Germantown; and

the said Graffs (three brothers) have sold their several lots, each by himself, this 29 November,

A. D. 1709. Lenart Arets, Jan Lenson, Thomas Hundus, William Streygert,

Abraham Tunes, Jan Lucken, Reiner Tysen." See Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania,

also "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim," (Pastorius) By J. G. Whittier.

Children of Herman den GRAEFF and Deborah Van BEBBER are:

  i.   Elizabeth Updegrave, 

ii. William Updegrave, born in Dover, DE.
Notes for William Updegrave:
Possible son of Herman's son Isaac

  iii.   Isaac Updegrave, born 1693 in Germantown, PA; died 1747; married Rachel Linton. 

835 iv. Sytge UPDEGRAVE, born 1695 in Germantown, PA; married (1) John KREY; married (2) Hubert Cassell ca 1721.