Roeloff Swartwout ★
Descent: Meghan Jane Leineweber ← Catherine Raye Lobb ← Ray Stewart Lobb ← Gladys Myrtle Kipp ← Edgar Allen Kipp ← Isaac Kipp ← Benjamin Kipp ← Isaac Kipp ← Leonard Kip ← Isaac Kip ← Rachel Swartwout ← Roeloff Swartwout
In brief
1630s–1650s
Born in Amsterdam and baptized there on 1 June 1634. Graduated in theology from Groningen University on 17 September 1655, then joined his father Tomys in New Netherland, farming at Midwout (Flatbush) before moving to Beverwijck (Albany) around 1656. Married Eva Bradt, the widow of Antoine de Hooges, at Beverwijck on 13 August 1657.
1660s–1680s
Went back to Amsterdam in 1659–1660 for farm tools and farmhands, then settled around 1660 at Wiltwyck (later Kingston, New York), serving as its schout and later as commissary and justice. Money trouble and a long feud with a neighbour marked these years. Represented Ulster County on New York's Committee of Safety in 1689.
1690s–1710s
Jacob Leisler's chief organizer in Ulster County; shipped grain to Albany's defenders in 1690. Sentenced to death with his son Anthony when Leisler's government fell in 1691, and formally cleared in 1699. Married again in New York City on 8 October 1691. Died on 24 March 1715.
Family
Children
- Thomas Swartwoutb. 1660 in Beverswyck (Albany), New Netherlandm. Elizabeth Gardiner around 1682d. Abt. 1723 in Orange County, New York
- Hendrica/Hendrickje Swartwoutb. Abt. 1660m. Hubert/Huybert Lambertsen Brink, March 16, 1679
- Anthony/Antoni Swartwoutb. January 1662 in New Netherlandd. abt. 1663
- Cornelia Swartwoutb. March 1667 in New Netherlandm. Hendrick C. Schoonhovend. Before 1714
- Rachel Swartwout · in this lineb. April 10, 1669, in Kingston, Ulster County, New Netherlandm. Jacob Kip, 1695 in Albany, New Yorkd. c. 1765
- Eva Swartwoutb. 1671 in Hurley, Ulster County, New Netherlandm. Jacob Dingman, October 9, 1698, in Kingston, Ulster County, New York
- Bernardus/Bernardus Swartwoutb. April 26, 1673, in Kingston, Ulster County, New Yorkm. Rachael Schepmoes, May 19, 1700, in Kingston, Ulster County, New York
Siblings
Full siblings — children of Tomys “Thomas” Swartwout and Hendrickjen Barenszen Otsen
- Barent Swartwoutb. July 1638 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Trijntije “Catrijna/Catryna” Swartwoutb. December 1639, in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Jacomijntje Swartwoutb. February 1646, in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Half-siblings — children of Tomys Swartwout and Adrientje Sijmons
- Jan Swartwoutb. December 17, 1630, in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Life story
A Theology Graduate on the Hudson
Roeloff Swartwout was born in Amsterdam and, on September 17, 1655, graduated from Groningen University in the Netherlands with a degree in theology — an unusual credential for the frontier trader and official he would become. He crossed the Atlantic to New Netherland to join his father Tomys, an advocate of independent, village-centered farming communities rather than the great manorial estates ruled by patroons, and Roeloff carried the same conviction throughout his life. He lived first on his father's farm at Midwout (Flatbush) on Long Island before moving to Beverwijck (Albany) around 1656, where he met and married Eva Bradt, recently widowed by the death of her first husband, Antoine de Hooges.
Founding Wiltwyck
Around 1660, Roeloff and Eva moved with his children to Wiltwyck, the settlement that would become Kingston, New York, in the fertile Esopus valley — of which Roeloff reportedly said, “Here, indeed, Eden must have been. You have but to spill the grain to get a bountiful crop.” He traveled back to Amsterdam in 1659–1660 to secure farm equipment and farmhands, mortgaging his own property in Beverwijck to afford the trip, and returned with three hired workers and a shipment of agricultural tools. He served as schout (a combined sheriff, prosecutor, and local administrator) of Wiltwyck, and later as commissary and justice, though his tenure was marked by conflict: a bitter, long-running feud with fellow settler Tjerck Claeszen de Witt over a botched horse sale escalated to threats of violence, and in 1667 Roeloff was accused of selling liquor to Indigenous people in quantities exceeding his recorded supply — a charge ultimately dismissed when his accuser was found unfit to testify. Financial trouble dogged him throughout this period: by 1667 the court described him as “a man without means, and all his property having been mortgaged, he is on that account, poor,” with even his cows and horses mortgaged, and he spent years trying to recover money his late wife's first husband had owed at his death.
Rebellion and Redemption
Roeloff became active in provincial politics as tensions rose in the English colony of New York, serving as Ulster County's representative to New York's Committee of Safety in 1689. When Jacob Leisler seized control of the colonial government that year, Roeloff became his chief political organizer in Ulster County, and Leisler appointed him in quick succession as chief justice, justice of the peace, tax collector, and collector of excise for the county. In April 1690, tasked with supplying grain to British forces defending Albany against the French during King William's War, Roeloff gathered all the corn he could find and shipped it upriver himself. When Leisler's government collapsed in 1691, Roeloff and his son Anthony were sentenced to death for their role in the rebellion; the sentence hung over them for nearly a decade before they were formally declared innocent and indemnified in 1699. In his March 1714 will, written, in his own words, with more religious penitence than was common for his time, Roeloff divided his Ulster County estate among his children and prayed that his repentance would be “enough to justify his body being returned to the ground in a Christian manner.” He died leaving behind a reputation as an independent-minded frontier official who quipped, in a letter to Maria van Rensselaer, that “he who wishes to become rich, blessed and healthy must rise early in the morning.”
Gallery
Sources (10)
- Frederic Ellsworth Kip, History of the Kip Family in America (Boston, Massachusetts: Hudson Publishing Company, 1928), pages 335.
- William Ingraham Kip, Historical Notes of the Family of Kip of Kipsburg and Kip’s Bay, New York (Albany, New York: Joel Munsell, 1871), pages 13.
- Edwin R. Purple, Contributions to the History of the Kip Family of New York and New Jersey (New York: Self Published, 1877); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/contributionstoh1877purp/page/n9/mode/2up : accessed 16 January 2025).
- Charles Howard Burnett, The Chipp Family in England and America (Los Angeles, CA: United Printing Company, 1933, page 153-154; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/chippfamilyineng00burn/mode/2up : accessed 20 January 2025).
- “Kip Correction,” The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 12 (July 1881): 146; digital image, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/online-records/nygb-record/566-059 : accessed 21 January 2025).
- Arthur James Weise, The Swartwout Chronicles 1338-1899 and the Ketelhuyn Chronicls 1451-1899 (New York, NY: Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Co., 1899 digital images, Library of Congress (https://lccn.loc.gov/00000989 : accessed 23 January 2025).
- Cynthia Brott Biasca, Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt (Wolfe City, TX: Henington Publishing Company, 1990); digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/279355-descendants-of-albert-and-arent-andriessen-bradt : accessed 26 January 2025).
- “Anthony de Hooges, Secretary of Rensselaerswyck and his Descendants,” The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 67 (January 1936): 4-15; digital image, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/online-records/nygb-record/566-334 : accessed 3 February 2025).
- Andrew Brink, Invading Paradise (USA: Xlibris Corporation, 2005).
- Wikipedia contributors, "Roeloff Swartwout," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roeloff_Swartwout : accessed October 26, 2026).