Roots of Slavery: Christina Cappoens of New Amsterdam

An early Greenpoint House still standing
when Wm Felter wrote his book in 1915

Christina Cappoens, a rare woman of her day, lived a very affluent life in New Amsterdam and her family had extensive land holdings in what is now Bushwick, Greenpoint, and New Jersey. She was also one of the largest slave owners in the Dutch settlements. By all reports, her personality was as large as her holdings. Her family would play a prominent role in the development and business of the area for the next 200 years.

Christina and her husband Jacob Hay, whom it is believed she married in New Amsterdam in about 1647, were members of the NA Dutch church from as far back as 1649 and their only child, Maria, was baptized there on 04 Jun 1652.  Some researchers believe the couple was married in Europe earlier. Christina would be seen frequently in church records as a baptismal sponsor of many children.

Jacob bought up land from family friend Dirck Volckertszen and part of that 2,500 tract would

Much of Brooklyn and Bushwick were owned by
the descendants of Christina Cappoens

become Bushwick. Christina became a widow when Maria was about eight years old. After Jacob's death and Christina's remarriage, on that land would be built her home, where generations of descendants then lived. The lands owned by the Hays' were farmed by African slaves. At that time, the family did not live on their farms primarily due to problems with Indians.

On 05 Aug 1659, Christina married David Jochemsen. It is theorized that Jacob Hay died intestate, for all of his lands became David's. They became Christina's only after David's death (see will in part 1 of this story). David had come from Amsterdam before 1659. He served in the Bushwick militia in 1663 and in the Nochols Patent of 1667. He was a citizen and freeholder at Bushwick. It is believed there were no children in this second marriage.

The couple built a stone house at what is now the north side of Freeman St east of Oakland Ave in Greenpoint. Her daughter Maria would take over the home after her second widowhood and remain after her last marriage, to Peter Praa, until her death in 1742. There are many references and discussions of the various family wills*. Peter Praa would also add extensively to the family's land holdings in Greenpoint and New Jersey. Jan Meserole III, adds even more land to their vast wealth.

1600s Slave Market in New Amsterdam

Christina lived in her "great house" on Hoogh (High) Straat in New Amsterdam from about 1675, when she moved from the house in Greepoint, to her death in about 1693. David would die in 1682. The street was later named Stone St. Homes of the many of the town's most influential citizens were located there. They lived at 61 Stone St and a smaller home was in the rear of the property.

One of the less savory aspects of this time and place was the use of slaves by most wealthy settlers. This paragraph provides some insight into Christina and her slave ownership:

Women who owned people were not rare and slaveowner was more than a means of securing vulnerable women. Gender influenced only the pattern of slaveholding. Single and poor women had fewer choices of servants and typically acquired them through inheritance so that cultural preferences were less apparent, but wealthier women were likely to have women bondservants. Better Dutch men regularly bequeathed enslaved children (especially girls), women, and the elderly to their wives and daughters; their reason were given adolescents and all adult full hands regardless of gender. Dutch women then passed their bondswomen on to their daughters. In her 1687 will, Christina Cappoens, the widow of David Jochemsen and the mother-in-law of Pieter Praa, secured her daughter's future and disposed of the fettered women she had acquired over her lifetime. She instructed her executors to free her "negro woman, Isebella..from all manner of servitude and slaverye [sic]." Cappoens left "all my daily clothes," a ring, a pot, and a kettle to Isebella, and she allowed the servant to keep any bedding alredy in her possession. The mistress probably believed that she was being kind, but the act had a cruel edge. Ownership of Isebella's daughter, Lysbett, was not rerelinquished but transferred to Cappoen's daughter, "Maria, during my daughter's life, without any contradiction." Upon Maria's death Lysbett was free to "go where she shall think fitt."

A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn 1636-1990, Craig Steven Wilder, Columbia University Press, 2001

Wilder goes on to say that when Peter Praa's daughter, Elizabeth married Jan Meserole III, it united two of the largest slaveholding families. The family is portrayed in some historical documents as benevolent overseers of the slaves, yet, the book provides a completely different view and portrays Peter as willing to use the slaves up until they are no longer able to work and then freeing them to avoid the cost of caring for them in their old age. Jan Meserole fares even less well as a hard-line slavemaster who would not tolerate any dissent among his slaves. It's a fascinating read.

Slavery would not be outlawed in New York until 1829.

The next generation of descendants, from the Jan Meserole line, starts an intertwining of marriages to suitable Dutch, English and French families in the New World and in doing so, connected up the Dutch and French lines from Christina Cappoens and the French (later French-Canadian) LeRoy's of Ulster and Dutchess County, New York which brings us eventually to my dad.

*Sources:
"Will of Christina Cappoens," 17 Jun 1687, in Tillou, Hunt vs Cunningham 15-20, Meserole Family Papers
"Will and Testament of Peter Praa, Esq.," 1739 in Tillou, Hunt vs Cunningham 29, Merserole Family Papers
A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn 1636-1990, Craig Steven Wilder, Columbia University Press, 2001
Historic Green Point ; a brief account of the beginning and development of the northerly section of the borough of Brooklyn, City of New York, locally known as Green Point, William L. Felter, Greenpoint Savings Bank, 1915

Christina Cappoens, A Woman of Wealth

The village of New Amsterdam, 1660

Imagine my surprise to find out that I descended on my working class father's side of the family to
one that was not only wealthy, but one of the most influential families in the history of what is now the United States. My dad always said we were "Heinz57" and it's true. We descend from Germans, English, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch ancestors.  Those Dutch though - they were something.

Christina Cappoens was born in about 1620. There is still discussion as to her parentage, with some saying her family was of Scandinavian blood and some Dutch. This I will not take on. Suffice it to say, she arrived in the new land and married Captain Jacob HAY, who had served in the West Indies. In 1658, Hays died, leaving Christina with her only child, Maria Hay.

Captain Hay built their home in what is now Manhattan on Stone Street. According to the Stone Street Historic District:

 "Stone Street, Stone Street Historic District, Financial District, Manhattan On the southern half of this site, landowner Wessel Evertsen built a house (c. 1660) for Asser Levy, a Jewish butcher and moneylender who successfully fought for permission from the town "to keep guard with other burghers" despite the disinclination of his fellow townsmen to serve with Jews.

 Levy retained the property for ten years, then conveyed the house and lot to Jan Herberding (a/k/a John Harpendingh), who later leased land on the west side of today's South William Street to Congregation Shearith Israel for its synagogue. At the northeast corner of the site Jacob Haey (a/k/a Jacob Heij, d. 1658), who had been a prosperous trader in Curasao and Santa Cruz, erected a comfortable house (c. 1648). Haey also owned a large plantation, in what is now Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which was cultivated by African slaves. His widow, whose second husband was shipmaster David Jochemszen (a/k/a Jochems), continued to live in the Stone Street house until at least 1686. The lane adjacent to this property was very narrow, and remained so for a century; in 1754 residents petitioned to widen it, as it was the "only passage thro Mill Street Commonly Called the Jews Ally [...] to Duke Street." The Haey/Jochems house and its garden were then sacrificed for the widening of the lane; however, documents indicate that the site of 59-61 Stone Street soon again contained two structures. The southern half of the site (No. 59 Stone Street) was associated with Gershom Mendes Seixas (1746-1816), the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, chief spokesman for American Jewry, and Revolutionary patriot. Seixas was among the city's first philanthropists and for many years was a regent and trustee of Columbia University."

Young Captain Pieter Praa, Jr.

Maria married three times, losing two of her husbands prematurely. She married Phillip Johns
LIEUW in 1668, followed by a marriage to Joost Adriaensen MOLINAER in 1681. To the Molinaer marriage was born one daughter, Sarah. Finally, Maria married Pieter PRAA, a captain in the militia and of Huguenot extraction. They had five daughters, including Catarina, referenced in the will.

Christina was a rare woman of her day. She was able to read and write and signed her various estate documents with a full signature. After she married her second husband, David JOCHEMSEN, they would leave some of the most interesting documents behind - their joint will, which left their estates to the other. Typically, husbands left their estates to their male progeny. Christina's will left her estate to David and her daughter Maria. David died before Christina and Christina died after her own daughter's third marriage, so she provided a detailed codicil to ensure that her two elder granddaughters were treated equally by the father of Catarina, Pieter PRAA. When Christina died in 1693, her will read in part:

"I give and bequeath in particular to my daughter Maria Hays, married to Peter Praa, first my small house with the land from the front to the rear, as far as my right extends, with the lane, except eight inches in said lane, which is to remain to my great house from the front to the rear, which shall be the parting line between my great house and lot and my small house and lot from one street to the other. Which said line (except the aforesaid eight inches), my said daughter shall and may build upon, as to her may seem meet. Provided that my said daughter Maria shall not dispose of the said small house by will or otherwise, but only to receive the rents during her life, and after her death to go to her children or their lawful heirs, and in default of such heirs, then to the next of my kindred in blood, but not to the children of Joost Adriansen, deceased. I also leave to my daughter Maria the use and income of my land and meadow and Bowery, lying at Maspeth Kills, and which is now in possession of herself and her husband, and after her death it is to go to her two children, Sara Molenaer, procured by Joost Adriansen Molenaer and Catrina Praa, procured by her present husband Peter Praa and such other children as she may leave. The said Peter Praa to have the use of the same during his life, but if he remains there after the death of his wife then he shall pay to the children for said Bowery, 10,000 guilders in wampum value."

 She later states:

"If my son-in-law Peter Praa opposes this will, or if he misbehave himself as to the children, he shall be debarred from all benefits." 

The land legacy of the purchases by the long-deceased Jacob Hay and additional purchases made by David Jochemsen, and Pieter Praa and later yet, the union between the MESEROLE and PRAA families, left the family owning much of Greenpoint, Bushwick, and 40,000 acres of New Jersey. I'll cover the vast land ownership of the family in the next post, along with some of the details of their slave ownership.