JOHANNES REMSEN HOUSE



5741 Kings Highway

	Rem Janszen VANDERBEECK emigrated from Jeveren to New Amsterdam where he 
married Jannetje Jorise RAPALJE on 11 December 1642. After their marriage they 
lived for a time in New Amsterdam, then moved to Fort Orange and finally settled 
at the Waalboght where Rem bought land in 1661 near the property of his father-in-law. 
He and his wife belonged to the Breuckelen Church in April 1662, but were members of 
the Flatbush Church in 1677. 
He died in February, 1681. 
His sons, many of whom took the surname of REMSEN, were :
Jan, 
Joris, 
Rem, 
Jacob, 
Jeronimus, 
Daniel, 
Abraham, 
Isaac and Jeremias.

	Rem REMSEN (born 1 December 1651, probably in Fort Orange) married Marritje, 
daughter of Jan Aertsen VANDERBILT, about 1679 and settled in New Lots where he was a 
farmer. He was a member of the Flatbush Church in 1677, was on the Flatbush assessment 
roll of 1683 and took the oath of allegiance in 1687 as a native of the Province of 
New York. 
His will was probated 7 December 1742.
His son, John REMSEN of Cow Neck, Hempstead (about 1683­1715-16) previous to 
10 April 1705 married Elizabeth, who was probably the daughter of Thomas Willemsen KOECK 
and Harmptje DIRCKS. He had a son Dieck who was baptized in Jamaica on Tuesday, 6 April 1708.

	Dirck REMSEN married Catharine (born 11 October 1719), daughter of Johannes LOTT and 
Antje RAPALJE, in Flatbush on 14 April 1744. He owned a large tract of land on Flatlands 
Neck, not far from New Lots, on which he built his farmstead. 
His will was proved 17 October 1789. 
His sons were :
Johannes (b. 14 July 1745 - d. 14 December 1826) and 
Derrick (b. about 1747 - buried 31 October 1810), who inherited his father's house.

	Johannes married Cornelia RAPALJE in 1770 and about that time built the house that is 
now 5471 Kings Highway and in which he made his home. As he had no children he left the 
house and his farm to John, the son of his brother Derrick and Elizabeth DURYEA who received 
a license to marry on 31 August 1775.

	John married Catharine SCHENCK and had ten children. 
His son Peter, who was born in the house on 17 March 1831, inherited the property .

	Peter married Carolyn SUYDAM. He enlarged the house and added a wing to it. He and his 
family played a prominent part in the affairs of his neighborhood. As the distance from 
his farm to the Flatlands Church, of which he was a member, was considerable, he and his 
neighbors erected a chapel on Flatlands Neck in 1868. For years this was used for a 
Sunday school by the children of the Neck, of the eastern outskirts of Flatbush and of 
the adjoining farms of New Lots.

	When he died on 2 April 1912, Peter's passing was mentioned in the Flatlands Church 
records as "a great loss." 
His children were :
William, 
Tunis, 
Catharine Ann, 
Charles and John.

	Miss Catharine Ann. was the last REMSEN owner of the house. Since she sold it, it has 
been so very much altered that one would never know that it had been a comfortable old farmhouse.

	Jannetje, the wife of Rem Janszen VANDERBEECK, was the daughter of Joris Jansen RAPALIE 
(RAPALJE) and his wife Catalyntje TRICO who arrived in New Netherland with the first group 
of settlers in the spring of 1624.

	The RAPALJES went to Fort Orange where their first child Sarah, who is reputedly the 
first white girl born in the Dutch province, was born 9 June 1625. In 1626, they moved to 
Manhattan Island where Joris kept an inn or tavern on The Strand (Pearl Street). 
On 16 June 1637, he received a patent for 167 morgens of land on Long Island at 
the Waal-boght. In 1641, he was one of the twelve men chosen to represent New Netherland 
in an effort towards better government for the province.

	After the birth of his youngest child, he moved to his Long Island farm on which the 
United States Naval Hospital now stands. 
He was a magistrate of Breuckelen in 1655, 1656, 1657, 1660 and 1662. 
He died about 1665. 
His children were :
Sarah, 
Marritje, 
Jannetje, 
Judith, 
Jan, 
Jacob, 
Catalyntje, 
Jeronimus, 
Annetje, 
Elizabet and Daniel.

	Jan Aertsen VANDERBILT, father-in-law of Rem REMSEN, was the son of a man named Aert 
who came from the Bilt (a certain hill in the province of Utrecht). Jan was in New Amsterdam 
as early as 1650. 

His first wife was Anneken HENDRICKS from Bergen in Norway whom he married on 6 February 1650. 
His second was Dierber CORNELIS and his third, whom he married 16 December 1681, was Magdalena 
HANSE, widow of Hendrick Jansen SPIER of Bergen, New Jersey. He settled in Flatbush but 
later moved to Bergen, where he died 2 February 1705.

	Jan VANDERBILT's children were :
Ares, 
Geertje, 
Jacob, 
Marritie and Jan Jr.


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