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The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

A tale of survival, the eternal quest for belonging,

and the origins of American culture.

In 1625, Manhattan is a wilderness at the edge of the known world

and the center of the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

Inspired by the real life of the first child born there—Sarah Rapalje is confronted with upheavals of war, navigating love and destruction amid shifting allegiances.

One peril leads to another until Sarah must choose between

what is most important- her identity or her homeland?

It's a coming-of-age story for a frontier woman,

but also for the city that would become New York.

COMING SOON - SPRING 2025

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THE SPOTCH BLOG

Oct 222 min read

Historical Fiction set in New Netherland

Browse all titles here on my bookshop.org page where you can buy from independent booksellers. Historical Fiction: Catalyntje Trico: A...

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Aug 137 min read

Jessé de Forest: Forefather of New York

In 1620, Jessé acutely felt the weight of expectations and a pang of jealousy in his heart as he watched the Mayflower depart. He and his...

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Aug 83 min read

Best non-fiction books about New Netherland

1. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto Narrative non-fiction at its best. Pre-recquosite reading. It tells the...

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Jul 93 min read

Meet the supporting cast

My novel revolves around Sarah Rapalje, but at times, the story follows people connected to Sarah and their experiences of New Amsterdam...

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Jul 42 min read

The Revolutionary War and the Rapaljes

What do the Revolutionary War, the founding of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Brooklyn records from the Dutch days going missing have in...

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Jun 287 min read

Meet the Mother: Catalyna Trico

Catalyna is an iconic OG (original grandmother) to millions. I don't know if a single blog post can scratch the surface. A whole book...

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Jun 192 min read

Happy Juneteenth!

Did you know the oldest African American holiday dates back to Dutch NY? Pinkster or Pentecost was a gathering when African Americans...

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Black and white photo of Fawn Brokaw Doyle, a young woman with wry smile and dimples

My name is Fawn. I'm a history nerd, flatware designer, toddler mom, nature lover, and travel enthusiast who is writing a novel!

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Goodreads end of year summary- but I’m not done!! Closing out the year with some 5⭐️ bangers that aren’t on here! Do you want to know my favorite top 5 books I’ve read this past year?

Ice skating was a popular pastime among 17th-century Dutch men, women, and children in the home country and New Netherland. I love these paintings by Hendrick Avercamp- there’s so many little scenes within each painting.

While researching the genealogy of early Dutch/Walloon New Yorkers I found Isaac Irving Brokaw, champion figure skater, is my 5th cousin 3x removed. Irving, as he was known, was the first American figure skater to compete in the Winter Olympics in 1908 and in 1910 wrote the “bible” of figure skating.

He’s not directly related to Sarah, but the Rapalje and Brokaw families intermarried, as they both descended from early NYC Walloon families.

Do you like to ice skate? When I was little, my family would skate on our pond if it was frozen enough, but I was more often falling on my butt than doing pirouettes!

Happy Eve of Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas! Don’t forget to lay your clogs by the hearth with some carrots, parsnips, and hay for Sinterklaas’ white horse. If you were good, he’ll leave you an orange from Spain and some other sweet treats like kruidnoten (shortcrust cookies spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, and cardamom, white pepper, and molasses) or chocolate coins.

St Nicholas of Myra was a bishop during the Roman Empire in the 4th-century and patron saint of children, known for gift giving and helping the poor.

Santa Claus as we know him was born out of a resurgence of pride in Dutch heritage in the early 19th-century, made popular by Washington Irving and his “Knickerbocker’s History of New York.”

This marriage medallion belonged to Sarah Rapalje, the main character of my novel and my 8th great-grandmother. Sarah received it from her first husband, Hans Hansen Bergen, in 1639. The medallion was later set into a silver tankard lid by her descendants. It was donated to the Brooklyn Museum in 1926 but, unfortunately, is not available for public viewing.

Hans perhaps presented the medallion to Sarah in a knottedoek or knot cloth (see last slide). It was a piece of embroidered linen tied up with a loose knot. Sarah would have tightened the knot, accepting the marriage proposal.

From the Brooklyn museum: The medal has a design of a man and woman holding hands while the figure of Christ with a halo stands in the background, blessing them. The medallion is encircled by an inscription in Dutch, translated as: “Behold this young woman whom I love and none other. She is my true one, my love and is next to God alone.”

On the underside of the lid the reverse side of the medallion is exposed. It depicts nude figures of a man and woman beside a river with a dog at their feet. A Dutch inscription encircles this scene as well: “May my Creator create us, whole flesh and bone into one.”

The tankard has a spiral corkscrew thumb-piece and a three-piece hinge attached at the handle. The handle is decorated with a rat-tail motif and on the flat oval terminal button is engraved the initial “R” over “I,” which probably stands for Jeromus and Jane (his cousin) Remsen, the owners of the tankard.

The tankard was made by Nicholas Roosevelt (American, 1715–1769). Tankard: 1735–1769; Medallion: ca. 1639. Silver, 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (14 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Tunis Johnson.

Today is National Native American Heritage Day. Here’s a brief overview of a research trip I took to the NY National Museum of the American Indian. It’s an amazing (free) museum I highly recommend. It’s located at the site where Fort Amsterdam once stood.

The Lenni-Lenape (Delaware), Muhhekunneuw (Mohican), and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes inhabited the land that the Dutch colonized. In the forgotten Dutch chapter of American history, unfortunately a lot of information is also lost on the people who inhabited the land before them for thousands of years.

I’ve done a lot of research on smaller clans within the Lenape in particular to put their names in print and dispel the monolithic thought that all Natives could be broadly summed up as a group. Documentation is often scant, contradictory (especially in how tribes are identified), or written in a time when recorded “history” was closer to propaganda.

One of the most interesting facts I found was that a female Native leader, sunksquaw Quashawam of the Montaukett, warned Peter Stuyvesant of the English conquest. Her warning was disregarded and the English conquest took place just months later.

Happy Thanksgiving friends🦃

I’m thankful for the community of people I’ve met since starting this journey of writing a novel🧡

In New Netherland, I’ve found a few days of thanksgiving. These were often observed by fasting and prayer, not feasting. They were held in response to a battle during Kieft’s War, when a treaty ended that war, and when there was a “dreadful” comet.

If you’re interested in learning Native American traditions of thanksgiving, please look up/ listen to the Haudenosaunee #thanksgivingaddress
(Easily google-able)

Painting by Abraham Mignon ca. 1675

Fun fact Friday: I work as a flatware and cutlery designer as my day job. I have designed over 1,000 forks and knives- some of which are sold at Target, Pottery Barn, Krogers… basically wherever you would buy flatware.

So it’s been a particular interest to see and imagine what flatware Sarah Rapalje and her family would have used.

Back then, people did not go out and buy service for 12. If you went to dinner at a friend’s house, you had to bring your own knife and spoon—or use bread as a trencher. Forks were uncommon for eating with until the late 17th century. Most often they had 2 tines with a wood or bone handle. Sarah’s spoon, noted as having acanthus and shell motif, was likely a marriage gift. Spoons were also a popular baptismal gift. Spoon racks were typical in Dutch homes to display their precious flatware.

Happy Halloween!🎃👻🍂

Here’s parts of my 17th century outfit I’ve been working on. I hand sewed the linen chemise and skirt but I’m not done with the bodice, apron, and coif bonnet. I bought this bodice (aka “smooth covered stays” or later called a corset) as a reference for the one I’m making.

🍁The fall leaves are here and gone already🍂

New mug from @boldandqueer just in time for spooky season👻

Check out my blog for more books and short descriptions.

Tomorrow night @newamsterdamhistorycenter is hosting a talk with Lana W Holden, author of Catalyntje Trico.

Lana’s YA novel is about the mother of my main character. She and I connected this summer, just before her book was published. It’s been a delight talking with her and seeing how similar and differently we’ve interpreted our research, with the mother or daughter’s perspective in mind. Can’t wait for her presentation tomorrow!

Have you read any of these books? Know of one that I missed? Let me know if the comments!

Built in 1728, 48 Hudson is the oldest building in Albany and one of the last Dutch buildings remaining in the city.

The house has undergone several renovations over its nearly 300 year history but its Dutch “bones” remain and are thoughtfully being restored by @thehistoricalbanyfoundation to its original appearance.

The west wall has been largely preserved (including original clapboard siding) where it had been shielded against the building next to it.

What will the house be used for after restoration? There will be space for HAF’s workshops, lectures, research library, and offices. Some space will be open to the public for rental.

@thehistoricalbanyfoundation runs an Architectural Parts Warehouse and Tool Lending Library- amazing resources if you’re in the area!

Special thanks to Executive Director @pamela.howard for showing me around!

Apparently, the Dutch way to smoke a pipe is with the bowl facing down?

From the exhibit Delights of the Senses: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life @albanyinstitute

Also pictured- etched tobacco boxes

Dutch textiles from the exhibit “Delights of the Senses: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life” @albanyinstitute

I knew the Dutch (and Walloons) were famous for fabric- but wow- to see it in person was amazing!
The linen was so beautiful, how the light caught the patterns. The complexity in each of these pieces was impressive.

Fort Orange artifact exhibit @nysmuseum

This is where Sarah Rapalje was born, her parents Joris and Catalyna being among the first 18 families to settle there in 1624. They lived there until 1626, when Director Pieter Minuit ordered all settlers to concentrate their population to Manhattan.

From the exhibit:
“One West India Company official described the outpost as “a small fort, which our people call Fort Orange, round which several colonizers have settled themselves.” French Jesuit Isaac Jogues provided a rather grim picture of a “wretched little fort...built of logs, with 4 or 5 pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivel guns.” Contemporary documents describe some of the buildings, but archaeology provides more detailed information. Excavations suggest that Fort Orange was constructed with horizontally stacked logs. A portion of a dry-laid brick wall uncovered near the eastern gate of the fort is believed to be the remnants of the original guardhouse constructed in
1624. The remains of three dwellings constructed after 1648 and part of the fortification wall and surrounding cobble-lined moat were also uncovered.

Centuries later, Fort Orange on the surface had long disappeared. But in a six-month period in 1970 and 1971—just ahead of Interstate 787 construction—a small archaeology team from the State Historic Trust (predecessor to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, or OPRHP), headed by Paul Huey and composed mostly of volunteers, made remarkable discoveries about life in the Dutch colony at Fort Orange. In 2016, a collection of 36,000 artifacts from Fort Orange was transferred from OPRHP to the New York State Museum.”

Slide 1: “Fort Orange, 1635” by L. F. Tantillo
Slide 2-3: Corning Tower Observation deck
Slide 4-20: from the exhibit

Today is #indigenouspeoplesday

New York was once New Amsterdam but before that it was Lenapehoking, the land of the Lenape. Though my novel is about Sarah Rapalje, her interactions and relationships with the Native people play a large role in her story.

There are some documented interactions. Joris Rapalje, Sarah’s father, made a land agreement with Kakapoteyno and Pewichaas, chiefs of the Keskaechquerem, part of the Canarsie Lenape. One source noted Sarah Rapalje served as an interpreter with the Native people for Peter Stuyvesant. There’s family lore that a Native nursemaid ferried Sarah in a wash basin across Buttermilk Channel to Governors Island to forage for nuts when she was a child.

I fictionalize that Native nursemaid was named Weenjipahkihelexkwe, meaning “touching leaves woman.” I imagine she helped Sarah and her family learn how to plant Native crops like corn, beans, and squash. The name was inspired by a Lenape descendant also known as Nora Thompson Dean (1907- 1984). Her cultural revitalization efforts kept Lenape traditions alive. Recordings of her speaking can be found in the Lenape Talking Dictionary at DelawareTribe.org. The current exhibition at the Albany Institute of History and Art features a score by Brent Michael Davids that honors Nora Thompson Dean. Her Native name, Weenjipahkihelexkwe, is sung with birdroars to represent the seasons. It’s beautiful. Have a listen on slide 2.

I acknowledge that the Dutch (and English after them) caused catastrophic damage to the Lenape people. They were driven away from their ancestral lands but their descendants still have ties to Lenapehoking.

How should we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day? Learn about the Native land you live on. Acknowledge uncomfortable history. Speak to your legislators when tribal sovereignty is being threatened. Plant Native plants. Attend Native celebrations. Read books by Native writers.

Happy #newnetherland day! I just got home from 24 hours spent in NY’s state capital. Here’s a teaser of the 🌪️tour.

More in depth posts to come for the following places visited:

New Netherland Research Center
New York State Museum
Corning Tower Observation Deck
Albany Institute of History and Art
Crailo Historic Site
Van Ostrande–Radliff House

@nyslibrary
@nysmuseum
@albanyinstitute
@crailo_historic_site
@thehistoricalalbanyfoundation

#NYSHistoryMonth #newyorkhistory #earlyNY #colonialny #newnetherland #nydutch #newnetherlandday

Fun fact: My first job out of college was leading a group of teenagers bikepacking from NYC, up the Hudson Valley, through Vermont, to Montreal. (Bikepacking is traveling by bike and camping at night.)

It was a wonderful way to see the Hudson Valley!

The wildest/ most thrilling part was “phantom camping.” We biked until it was dark, hastily put up our tents in some farm field, and were gone before the sun fully rose. We mostly stayed at campgrounds but had to do a few phantom camps to make up for time lost to a flat tire or other mechanical issues.

I’m headed to Albany for a research trip later this week- looking forward to spending some more time along the Hudson!

Today is #NationalLaceDay

Lace trims on cuffs, collars, caps, and table linens were very fashionable in the 17th century, worn by men, women, and children. Lace was very expensive and therefore displayed a person’s wealth and status.

Lace plays an important role in my novel. Young women were taught sewing and needlework, regardless of background. It was thought to instill domesticity and virtue. Some of the Walloons that emigrated with Sarah’s parents were recorded as working in Valenciennes Passementerie- an early French bobbin lace. In my novel, Sarah hates learning lacework as a young girl, but it later becomes an important way to provide for her family. As New Amsterdam grew, more wealthy families immigrated and the demand for lace grew.

Happy International Podcasts Day🎧🤍

What are your favorite podcasts? Let me know in the comments!

@vulgarhistorypod
@historyiscool_
@boweryboysnyc
@theexploresspodcast
@queens_podcast
@historyispod
@artofhistorypodcast
@historythroughfiction
@rexfactorpod

Is the antagonist in my novel based on a real life villain?

Willem Kieft was Director of New Netherland from 1638-1647. He was the baptismal sponsor of Sarah Rapalje’s first child. Her father served on his Council of Twelve, the first elected council in NY state. But he ignored their advice, and under his command, a terrible war was waged against the Native Americans, known as Kieft’s War.

Dr. Willem Frijhoff published an article this year which delved into his background. Kieft was well educated and connected to elite families in Amsterdam. He had been a wine merchant and negotiated the release of Norwegian and Icelandic captives from the Turks. Interesting resume but no governing experience. Insights include the note that he prioritized building a city tavern to entertain foreign merchants before he built a church in New Amsterdam. It wasn’t noted in the article, but he granted manumission “half freedom” to a portion of enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.

One anecdote that’s telling of his character- Domine Bogardus openly criticized Kieft during church sermons, so Kieft brought all his soldiers outside the church to drum and cause such a racket that the Domine couldn’t be heard.

“Over time, Kieft was accused of many failings: lack of competence, excess of ambition, pride, anger, and want of faith or humanity—indeed, he never was a capable negotiator with the Indigenous people of New Netherland.”

Note: No portraits exist of Kieft from the time. This portrait of Wybrand de Geest has been misattributed as being Kieft and it stuck in my mind.

Sound on for cute toddler commentary. I’m deep in editing my novel but here’s a little research snippet:

Beaver pelts are made of 2 layers: the outer, coarser “guard hairs” and an undercoat of shorter, soft “wool.” The guard hairs would be pulled out and the wool shaved off, agitated in water, and form a dense, pliable felt for hats. This was a time intensive process. Fur traders preferred “Castor gras,” pelts trapped in winter and worn by Native Americans through the trapping season, which made a good portion of the guard hairs fall out. “Castor sec” were pelts not worn or exposed to sweat and skin oils, therefore stiffer and more labor intensive to process.

Mercury salts diluted in nitric acid were used in the 18th century to make removing the guard hairs easier. Hence where the term “mad hatter” came from because they suffered from mercury poisoning.

I was surprised beaver pelts are soft as a baby bunny! I assumed it would feel scratchy like sheep’s wool. I’ve never touched a beaver felt hat but if it’s this soft—plus durable and water resistant—I understand the obsession and reason d’être of the New Netherland colony.

Wyckoff House Museum is the oldest structure in NY state! It dates back to the Dutch colonial period ca. 1650.

I took a research trip there last December and it was so helpful for my imaging how the people in my novel lived!

Tomorrow, it’s part of “Building Brooklyn: Dutch-American Historic House Shuttle Tour”

More info @hhtnyc

On September 8, 1664, New Amsterdam became New York.

Director General Peter Stuyvesant surrendered the city to 4 English warships under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls. He wanted to fight, but a petition with 93 names of the most prominent citizens begged him to surrender rather than imperil their lives.

From 1624-1664, the Dutch laid the foundations of New York City. The English, appreciating the profitable port city, changed very little (other than the name) after the takeover.

Land ownership, religious freedom, and inheritance laws were upheld- even the pubs stayed open without disruption.

What cute, industrious, oversize rodent fueled the 17th-century Dutch trade empire in North America and was the reason NY state was first settled by Europeans? 🦫

Let’s celebrate #nationalwildlifeday by remembering the value of beavers to New Netherland, to the point they nearly went extinct.

Beaver hats were a practical and fashionable necessity in Europe. Beaver undercoat fur provided a warm, water repellant, and long-lasting material. Beaver pelts were often used in place of currency in the coin-deprived Dutch colony. In 1626, Peter Schagan reported in a letter to the Dutch West Indies Company that a ship newly arrived from New Netherland brought 7,246 beaver pelts.

Before European arrival, it’s estimated the beaver population was 60 million. By 1890 a zoologist declared them extinct in most of NY state. Beavers and their dams became protected and through conservation their population has rebounded to 50-75,000. Their dams provide wetland habitat for many other species of birds, fish, and amphibians.

Have you seen beavers where you live? We have a Greenway Trail where I’ve seen gnawed trees but haven’t seen any of the beavers responsible.

Slide1 : Seal of New Amsterdam proposed circa 1630
Slide 2: Seal of New Amsterdam 1654
Slide 3: Seal of New Netherland 1623
Slide 4-5: Taxidermied beaver at the state fair

Old New York was once Nieuw Amsterdam… but before that it may have been Nouvelle Avesnes.

According to Ruud Bruijns in the @hollandsocietyny latest edition of De Halve Maen, the assertion that New York’s first founders were not Dutch, but Walloon, was first postulated nearing the 300th anniversary by Charles Dozy (an archivist in Leiden, Netherlands) and debated by several others.

In 1924, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the US were all very eager to take pride and credit for those earliest settlers at the tricentennial. It’s revealing when a monument is made, saying more about how in their time they chose to see and remember history and its significance. New Yorkers were eager to claim their old Dutch heritage to distinguish themselves from new immigrants, but also as a show in support of Belgium after invasion during World War I.

It’s thought that the first settlers may have called their colony Nouvelle Avesnes, after their leader Jessé De Forest’s hometown (now in France). The Latin name of the colony was Novi Belgii and many of the Walloon families were from the (now) Belgian province of Hainaut. The name New Amsterdam was officially only used from 1659-1664 when Netherlanders were the majority in the colony and it was recognized as a municipality by the Dutch government.

The complicated layering of history is what makes New York so interesting and makes it New York.

Comment “Walloon” for the link to my blog post about where Walloons came from and how war drove them from their homeland in the 16-17th centuries.

Happy International Dog Day! I learned about the American Dingo or Carolina dog during my research of the Lenape. The first I read of them called them “canoe dogs.” I got to meet some at the New Amsterdam Marketplace event at Historic Huguenot Street this past spring.

American Dingoes have been called North American Native Dogs, Indian Dogs, Carolina Dogs, Dixie Dingoes, and “yaller dogs.” They’re often tan or ginger-colored but can also be white or pie-balled.

From the American Kennel Club:
American Dingoes are descended from the canines that accompanied the Paleo-Indians who traveled from Asia to North America over the Bering land bridge. Today, they can still be found living wild near the Georgia-South Carolina border, but have also been seen as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania and as far west as Arizona; rural areas are the common denominator. The typical Carolina dog has pointed ears, a fox-like snout and a tail that curves like a fishhook when it is raised. They look similar to Australian Dingoes but, taxonomically, they fall under canis familiaris. Hesitant with strangers, they will sound the alarm when unaware of who’s at the door, but once they see their people, they are ecstatic. Carolina Dogs have an extreme pack mentality, as this was a necessity for survival in the wild.

The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals (1624)

The identity of the man is unknown but thought to be Dutch cloth merchant, Tieleman Roosterman, age 26.

Undoubtably, he is very mindful of how he conveys his wealth in this portrait.

Historical marker in Albany, erected to the memory of Sarah Rapalje. Photo by F.P. Kimball. Colorized by me.

This marker was erected in 1940 and stood maybe until the 1990s (?) but is no longer there, to my knowledge. If anyone knows more details, please share!

This photo is from the book “The Bogart Family,” by John Albert Bogart (1889-1969).

Slide 1: colorized photo
Slide 2: original photo
Slide 3: The Bogart Family: TUNIS GYSBERT BOGAERT And His Descendants
Slide 4: text about the marker
Slide 5: John Albert Bogart

Marker: FORT ORANGE
SITE OF WEST INDIA COMPANY
COLONY 1624. HERE WAS BORN
SARAH RAPELJE FIRST WHITE
CHILD IN THE STATE 1625
FORT STOOD S. E. BY THE RIVER

I’ve been under the weather the past few days🦠 but at least I got a new book in the mail from @new_netherland_institute

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The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

COMING SOON - SPRING 2025

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ABOUT ME

FOLLOW ME

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Contact

© 2024 by Fawn Brokaw Doyle

The Story of Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan

COMING SOON - SPRING 2025

Never miss an update.

THE SPOTCH BLOG

ABOUT ME

FOLLOW ME

@spotch_novel

​

FOLLLOW ME

© 2024 by Fawn Brokaw Doyle

The Story of
Sarah Rapalje and Dutch Manhattan