 | Part #4 of 12 (so far): NYCHS presents excerpts from The Rikers: Their Island, Homes, Cemetery and Early Genealogy in Queens County, NY by permission of its author, an 11th generation Abraham Rijcken vanLent descendant, Edgar Alan Nutt. |  |
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Members of the Riker family, in identifying themselves in terms of their
branch’s origin or reference, speak of such as New York, Queens County, New Jersey,
Closter, Indiana, or Jefferson County. When looking back still further individual
Rikers frequently refer[red] to themselves as having some sort of a connection with
Riker’s Island.
With family ownership of that island having extended for some two
hundred years, the memory passed down from generation to generation may relate to
a connection that existed down to as late as the end of the two centuries of ownership,
or only to the beginning of the ownership, or to some time in between.
However, not
all Rikers, regardless of the spelling, have or may credibly claim such a connection.
As shown in the previous chapter, there are Rikers who belong to Riker families that
descend from distinctly different progenitors than the first Riker owner of the
island, whether a contemporary of that progenitor, even possible cousin of some
degree, or whether a later immigrant.
An example of the former is the family of
Hendrick Rycken who immigrated in 1663 and whose sons adopted the Suydam
surname in place of Rycken. An example of the latter are Rikers who have the Riker
spelling as a permutation of a very different surname: such as those descending from
Joseph Reichert, a 1710 German immigrant who settled in Rhinebeck, New York, later
adopting both the Rikert and the Riker spellings.
It is clear that the Rikers, by
whatever spelling, who can legitimately claim a connection with the ownership of
Rikers Island are only those who descend from the first Riker owner.
That person is
Abraham Rycken, of undetermined parentage, who reportedly emigrated from
Holland in 1638 and settled first in New Amsterdam near the east side of the lower end
of Broadway, possibly then on Long Island [Brooklyn] at Wallabout, and finally in Newtown’s
"de Armen Bouwerie," the Poor Farm of the New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church.
At present Rikers Island is the location of New York City’s complex of
correctional facilities and is connected with the mainland of Long Island by a 5,500
foot causeway-bridge opened in 1966.
In spite of that connection and its proximity to
Long Island and Queens County. of which it was long a part as well as of that
county’s Village of Newtown, in 1884 subsequent to its acquisition by the City of New
York, it was transferred to [New York County and later, in the Greater New York City Consolidation of 1898, it became part of one of that county's then two boroughs,] The Bronx.
Currently the island
consists of five hundred and eighty acres in contrast to early estimations of from
forty to eighty-seven acres, with the vast growth in size resulting from the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ use of it as a dump for much of New York
City’s coal ashes and cinders, as well as a depository for the material produced in the
excavation of the city’s subway system,
Through the island’s enlargement nothing
of its original shape remains, and as a result of the various correctional buildings
and related features, its original contours and surfaces are no longer evident.
Elevated land comprised both ends of the island with a narrow waist between, There
was meadow land and orchard, and there was at least one house plus a number of
farm buildings: all are now long-since gone.
The first individual owner of record of Rikers Island was Abraham Rycken.
Reportedly having come from the Netherlands to New Netherland in 1638, he over
time obtained title to several parcels or land.
In the year of his arrival he obtained
from Director General William Kleft a grant of land that James Riker reports as
having been in the Wallabout. Two years later, on August 8, 1640, Kleft formalized
the grant with a patent defining the parcel or parcels as
"situate on the Long Island, opposite Berrien garrick (?) where Gysbert Rycken on one
side and the Highway, extending from the Kill in the wood East north East & West south West, and Hans Hansen on the same is situated. Contains along the Kill in the
straight breadth five hundred treads, to which parcel of land is attached a third
part of High Valley, situate next behind the land of George Rappaljie & Gysbert Rycken. . . ."
Whether or not or to what extent Abraham Rycken utilized this grant is not
apparent, but by 1640 he was living in New Amsterdam on either the Heeren Gracht
(Broad Street) or Prince Street.
On February 25, 1654, he obtained a second grant for
which no document has been located; [James] Riker states that this was in the Armen
Bowerie (Poor Farm) area, an area which now is included in the present LaGuardia
Airport.
His reason for acquiring and settling on this tract can not be known for
certain, but it is worth noting that it was adjacent to the farm of Harck Siboutsen who
earlier had lived on the Heeren Gracht next to Abraham Rychen’s house and that
some years later the former’s daughter Catrina married the latter’s eldest son Ryck
Abramsen. Siboutsen’s sons changed their surname to Krankheit and Ryck's sons
adopted Lent as their surname. The two families were close over the course of many
years and their closeness may well have motivated Abraham Rycken to settle where he did.
While not relevant at this point it is also worth noting that the Siboutsen
farm became the farm of a Lent grandson of Abraham Rycken, the farm that later
included the Riker Cemetery and the Lent-Rapelye House, both of which are to be
considered later.
From his farm Abraham Rycken could look out across the mile of Bowery Bay
between the Long Island shore and the small island that became Riker’s Island. For
some reason the island was attractive to him, and on August 19, 1664, he obtained a
patent for it from Director General Peter Stuyvesant who on September 8, 1664, was
forced to capitulate to English authority. The patent specifies
“a small island lying beyond Hellgate, named Hulett’s Island, north of the farm of the
poor (i.e., 'de Armen Bouwerie' or the Poor Bowery), with the valley or meadow thereunto
annext, which valley contained three morgen and two hundred rods.”"
The designation of the island as Hulett’s will be looked at below.
Perhaps the valley’s area was cited because it was considered the
more arable part of the island and hence an indication of the island’s worth. Three
morgan are six acres and the two hundred (square) rods amount to an acre and a
quarter, totaling seven and a quarter acres.
Although the transition from Dutch control to English control might have
generated questions as to land titles and even to their abrogation, the latter did not
occur, no doubt in large part because the Dutch settlers were fed up with both the
West India Company and the corrupt administration of its succession of Directors
General, and they welcomed the English authority.
Consequently the Dutch settlers
were treated generously, not as defeated enemies, and land titles granted by the
Dutch authority were respected as having been legitimately given and received. In
Abraham Rycken’s case he received a confirmation of his earlier patent: on
December 24, 1667, Governor General Richard Nicolls ratified that patent specifying
“a certain small island, lying and being without Hell-gate, to the North of poores Bowery,
commonly called and knowne by the name of Huletts Island, with the Meadow Ground or
Valley annext; which said Meadow contains the quantity of six Acres, or three Morgen,
and two hundred Rods.”
Abraham Rychen’s being given the 1664 patent was not the first event
involving the island, nor was Abraham the first of the family to be associated with it.
[James] Riker reports that certain Indians on August 1, 1664, sold to William Hallett, Sr., a
large tract of land that was roughly triangular in shape comprising the land
northerly of a diagonal line running from a point on the East River southerly of
Hellgate to Fish’s Point between Bowery Bay and Flushing Bay, together with "an
island which is commonly called Hewlett’s Island, which island the aforesaid Hewlett did formerly live upon."
It is not evident who the “aforesaid Hewlett” was, but
presumably he was identified in the now missing sale document. Hewlett of course is
the modern spelling of the name Hulett as in the Stuyvesant patent or as in its
variation Hulet.
On December 5, 1664, the chief of the Indians, who apparently were
of the Canarsee tribe, confirmed the sa1e, and subsequently Governors Richard
Nicolls and Thomas Dongan both confirmed Hallett’s title in general but excepted the
grants of parcels within the tract that had already been made to other individuals.
Abraham’s patent was thereby protected, and [James] Riker further states that Hallett at the
time of the sale did not recognize Dutch authority and therefore had not consulted
with Stuyvesant with the result that the island specified in his purchase was
otherwise assigned eighteen days later.
The references to Hulett/Hewlett in relation to what became Riker’s Island
carry the matter back before both Hallett’s purchase and Abraham Rycken’s patent.
Two versions of the connection exist. One, the earlier, [James Riker] states that
“the island was so-named in honor of the ancestor of the Hewlett family of Long Island
(probably Lewis Hewlett) ... who at an earlier day had been driven from it by the Indians,
who destroyed his house and other property.”
The later version [Henry I. Hazelton, Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens , vol. 2, p. 1025; 1925] is similar but identifies a different Hewlett and introduces new
details:
“The first Hewlett settlement, it is believed, was on Riker’s Island, George lived there with
his first wife, widow of Guisbert Riker, until the Indians becoming troublesome they made
their escape one afternoon. The redmen the following day destroyed their home and all
their belongings. They settled at Hempstead.”
Which version is correct can not be determined with certainty, but although
the literary principle favoring a simple account over a more elaborate one as an
indication of primacy would endorse the first version, two elements peculiar to the
second version are verifiable, are not simply later embellishments, and hence give
greater credibility to it.
George Hulet was in fact the son of Lewis (or Louis), and
George together with wife Mary Baylis (Bayless) are buried in Hempstead, Long
Island’s, Old Town Burial Ground as #268 “G.Y.H. 1722 ae 88” and #269 “M.H. 1733 ae
78.”
There is no record of a Hewlett having owned the island, in fact the 1664
Hallett purchase indicates that until that date it was Indian land such that any
Hewlett who lived there was a squatter.
The date of the Indian attack is another
undeterminable factor, but there were attacks on Long Island in 1643, 1655, and 1659.
. . . . The existence of Gysbert Rycken is not open to question, rather it is his
relationship or lack of it with respect to Abraham, as discussed in the previous
chapter, that is undetermined; however, the fact of a relationship of some degree
might have been the basis for Abraham’s acquisition of the island. The two men in
1640 were Wallabout neighbors and hence contemporaries. . . .
Remaining is the possibility that Abraham and Gysbert were of the same
generation and approximate age, that they were cousins of some degree, even first
cousins. In this scenario the resulting dates fit more easily with Gysbert’s widow
marrying George Hewlett. . . .
The reason for George Hewlett settling on the island cannot be known.
Perhaps there is truth in the version in which his father Lewis settled on it, such
that he succeeded his father as squatter. If this was what happened, with Lewis
leaving the island for an unknown reason, and with George then taking up residence
for a few years before being evicted, in a sense, by the Indians who had not yet ceded
their rights to the Europeans, it makes sense although as with most of this discussion
it is pure speculation.
There is another possibility, still speculation, for George
settling on the island with Gysbert’s widow: perhaps Gysbert had gone there first and
had started settling a pioneer farm before dying and leaving his widow whose new
husband joined her there. If either of the latter two scenarios were the case then
Abraham’s interest in the island may have derived from its having earlier been his
relative’s settled farm, albeit a squatter’s farm, which he took steps to acquire after
Gysbert’s successors were forced from it.
The date of Abraham’s death is not recorded and the place of his burial is not known, but he executed a will on March 9, 1688/89. Notable details of the will
include its being in English, not Dutch; his validating the will by “his mark” rather
by signature thus indicating his illiteracy; his being identified as both Abraham
Rick and Abram Rick; and his omitting references to his wife. No doubt his wife had
predeceased him. The bequeathal portion of the will is as follows:
“. . . I Give & bequeath all ye rest of my Estate Viz Lands Goods
& Chattels unto my Sonn Abraham Rick.”
The will was proved on April 10, 1689, just a month after it was made . . . . Abraham Jr. was the eighth child in birth order and it may seem strange
that he was made principal heir (and also the estate’s administrator) rather than
either Ryck Abramsen as the oldest son or the six heirs in an equal division.
Possible reasons might include favoritism, the fact that Abraham was the only
son remaining on the homestead farm, prior distributions to the other children, and
Rick Abramsen’s and Hendrick’s rejecting the Rycken surname in favor of
Lent.
Whatever the reason, and even though the properties were not specified in the
will, it is certain that Abraham was the sole heir and owner of Abraham’s
entire or remaining real property, the latter including both the homestead farm in
the Poor Bowery as per the 1654 grant and Hewlett’s Island, which became Riker’s
Island, as per the 1664 patent.
There is no indication that Abraham ever lived on his island any more
than that his father ever did so, but probably both farmed the meadow land in its
middle section. It appears that in his latter years sons Abraham and
Andrew with their families continued to live in or near their father’s house....
John [Ryker]’s residence after his marriage is not recorded but in or by 1744 he moved to
Closter in New Jersey’s Bergen County, Hendrick lived in New Amsterdam, and
Jacob had a bakery on New Amsterdam’s Beekman Street and probably lived
there as well.
A family legend reports that in his old age Abraham’s house was filled
with family including great- grandchildren; these probably were the families of the
brothers Abraham and Andrew. When he died on August 20, 1746, in his ninety-first year, he had been blind for some years.
Perhaps his deteriorating eyesight and his
decreasing ability to work his farm and to oversee his property, together with his
advanced age and the presence of the two sons, constituted the reason why he sold
properties, including the island, to sons Abraham and Andrew on November 10, 1733.
The deed states that the brothers paid £300 to their father who, as his father before
him had done, made his mark instead of his signature. The properties conveyed by
the deed [included] as follows:
“(2.) with also a certain island lying and being in ye sound northward of ye poor Bowry
aforesaid, commonly called and known by ye name Huletts Island, containing in
quantity both upland and meadow, by estimation forty acres. . . .”
Plainly the two brothers together bought and owned undivided shares of the
several properties including the island, and six years later they had come to an
agreement as to a division of them.
Presumably each brother by deed ceded to the
other his claim to the others half; Andrew’s deed is missing but its provisions may be
assumed by the terms of Abraham’s deed which, as in the case of the two previous
documents, was made not by signature but by the grantor’s mark,
This deed is dated
May 11, 1739, and it grants to Andrew the first tract, as specified above except that its
acreage is given as about forty-nine acres rather than fifty-one, plus two and a half
acres of another tract and half of the island. The division of the island was as follows:
“half of a certain island lying & being in ye sound northerly of ye Bowery aforesaid to
begin at a certain black oak tree marked on all four sides & standing near ye edge of ye
bank at ye northernmost end of said island & so to run through ye middle thereof, and ye
said Andrew Rtcken to have that half on ye easter side.
”
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Correction History Society |
Queens Historical Society |
Island was 'Camp Astor' |
Astoria Historical Society |
Ridgewood Historical Society |
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Rikers Island's role in NY correction history warrants our providing material on its "pre-Correction" background that is so bound up with Rikers family history. Bishop Nutt's book serves as an excellent vehicle for doing that. His approach is not exclusively or narrowly genealogical. More than simply tracing lineage, he places his family history in wider chronological and geographic contexts through which his exhaustive research tracked it, thus reflecting much other history -- of the island, county, city and country. Strictly genealogical citations, notes, and codes in the printed book have been reduced or dropped in these excerpts. This presentation includes a book print copy information page. NYCHS retains and reserves all rights to images of photos it took during the June 5, 2005 homestead tour and the September 1998 Samuel Perry Center dedication and their captions as well as captions of inserted images not taken from the printed book. | ||||
