By Jared L. Olar
May 2019
The surname Cuvellier or Cuvelier is of French origin, being an occupational surname indicating genealogical descent from a cooper (i.e. a maker of barrels), being derived from the French word cuve, a vat or tun. Our Cuvellier ancestors were French Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) from Valenciennes in Hainault, which today is in France but for a while in the 1500s and 1600s was controlled by the Habsburg Catholic Holy Roman Emperors. The genealogy of our Cuvellier ancestors is only known as far back as the mid-1500s, about the time the Calvinist religion was first brought to the Catholic regions of Picardy and Hainault. Conflict between the Catholics and the Calvinists led to the flight of Huguenot families from Valenciennes to Holland, where some are known to have joined the Walloon Reformed Church in Leiden. That is the case with our Vigne ancestors, who intermarried with the Cuvelliers (a natural match, for the Vigne surname means "vitner" or vineyard worker -- one family made wine, the other family made vats and barrels to hold the wine). In Holland the Vignes then intermarried with Dutch Calvinists and with them emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands in North America.
The following account is chiefly based on the information and speculations that are compiled at the WikiTree biographies of Ghislain Vigne (erroneously called there "Guillaume") and of his wife Adrienne Cuvellier (her surname misspelled there as "Curvellier").
1. JEAN CUVELLIER, ancestry unknown, born circa 1550 in St. Vaast La Haute, Valenciennes, Hainault (today Nord-Pas-de-Calais), France. Nothing is known of Jean beyond his name, place of birth, approximate year of birth, and that he had a daughter named Adrienne and a son named Jean. Besides those facts, it is probable that he was a French Huguenot (Calvinist Protestant), like his children who certainly were Huguenots who moved from Catholic Valenciennes to Calvinist Holland.
2. ADRIENNE CUVELLIER ("Ariantje Cuveljeers"), born circa 1588 in St. Vaast La Haute, Valenciennes, Hainault, France.
-- JEAN CUVELLIER ("Jan Janszen Cuveljeers"), born circa 1592 in Valenciennes, Hainault, France.
2. ADRIENNE CUVELLIER ("Ariantje Cuveljeers"), daughter of Jean Cuvellier, born circa 1588 in Valenciennes, Hainault (today Nord-Pas-de-Calais), France, died May 1655 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands (New York). Adrienne married circa 1609 in St. Vaast La Haute, Valenciennes, France, to GHISLAIN VIGNE ("Guillain Vienje" or "Guleyn Vienje"), born circa 1586 in St. Vaast La Haute, Valenciennes, Hainault (today Nord-Pas-de-Calais), France, died before 30 April 1632 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, son of Jean de la Vigne of Valenciennes. Adrienne and Ghislain had five daughters and three sons. Adrienne and her family later emigrated to the colony of New Netherlands, where her son-in-law Cornelis van Thienhoven held several important colonial offices. Six years after Ghislain's death, Adrienne remarried on 7 May 1638 to JAN JANSZEN DAMEN, born 1610 in Holland, died 18 June 1651 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands. Adrienne and Jan had no children together, however.
In the years just prior to Adrienne Cuvellier's birth, Valenciennes and its environs were inhabited by French Huguenots (Calvinists), but Catholic Christians regained control of Valenciennes in 1585. If Adrienne was herself born of a Huguenot family, she likely would have had to flee Valenciennes about the time of her birth. On the other hand, Adrienne could have been born of Catholic parents and later converted to Calvinism. Henri IV, King of France, had formerly been a Huguenot and had a policy of toleration of the Protestants in his realm, but that policy ended with Henri's assassination in 1610, after which many Huguenot families fled to the Calvinist haven in Holland where Catholicism was forbidden. It seems likely that Adrienne fled with her husband Ghislain from Valenciennes to Holland during these years.
Be that as it may, by the autumn of 1618 Ghislain and Adrienne were certainly members of the Walloon (Belgian/French Calvinist) congregation at Leiden, Holland, where five of their children were baptised. The Register of Baptisms in the Walloon Church in Leiden includes these entries:
2 Sept. 1618 Rachel, daughter of Ghilain Vignier and his wife. Witnesses: Antoine Hardewin and his wife, Ghilain Hardewin and Gertrude Quinze. 26 Sept. 1619 Abraham and Sara, children of Gileyn Vinoist and Adrienne Cuvelier. 26 Dec. 1621 Abraham, son of Guillain Vivier and Adrienne Cuvelier. Witnesses: Charlie Bailieu and Jean Collas and the wife of Jean Adam. 19 March 1623 Rachel, daughter of Guillain Vigne. Witnesses: Henri Lambert, Pierre de Fache and Marguerite Vigne.
Prior to the births of the children listed in the Leiden baptismal register, Ghislain and Adrienne also had two daughters, Christina and Maria, who were born, respectively, circa 1610 and circa 1613, probably in Valenciennes (though Maria may rather have been born after her parents' flight to Holland). Of the children of Ghislain and Adrienne who were born in Europe, only their daughters Christina, Maria, and Rachel survived to adulthood.
Adrienne with her husband Ghislain and three daughters were one of the thirty Walloon families chosen by the Dutch West India Company to establish a permanent settlement in the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, which was made up of territory in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut. Earlier writers claimed the Vignes were among the colonists who arrived on the Tiger, which caught fire off shore in New Netherlands circa 1613, but the Vignes were still living in Europe at that time. In fact the Vignes emigrated from Amsterdam to New Netherlands in 1624, sailing aboard either the Nieuw Nederland or De Eendracht. If it was the latter ship, they would have left Amsterdam on 25 Jan. 1624 and arrived in America in April of that year.
It is unknown whether the Vignes spent their first year at the Albany, Connecticut River or Delaware River settlements, but by 1625 Ghislain was a farmer on land north of what is now Wall Street in Manhattan along the East River. Ghislain built his cabin on an East River beach at the spot where Wall Street now intersects with Pearl Street. His farm was one of the first six on Manhattan Island, and the New York Stock Exchange today sits on land that had been owned by Ghislain's widow Adrienne and their children.
Ghislain and Adrienne had additional children after their arrival in New Netherlands, but only four adult children are ever named in colonial records -- Christina, Maria, Rachel, and a son Jan. Their son Jan (Jean, i.e. John) was born shortly after their arrival, probably on Manhattan or perhaps at Albany or in New Jersey or Connecticut. Jan is noted in New York history as the firstborn male child of the New Netherlands colony -- this fact was recorded in The Journal of Jasper Danckaerts (edited by Bartlett Burleigh James and J. Franklin Jameson, New York, 1913). Danckaerts' journal includes this entry on 24 Sept. 1679 (translated from Dutch): "We conversed with the first male born of Europeans in New Netherland, named Jean Vigne. His parents were from Valenciennes and he was now about sixty-five years of age." (In fact, Jan would have been closer to 55 years of age in 1679.)
Ghislain Vigne's date of death is unknown, but he must have died in New Amsterdam (New York) before 30 April 1632, which is the date of his widow Adrienne's prenuptial deposition that she made as she was about to marry Jan Jansen Damen, a wealthy citizen of New Amsterdam. In her deposition, Adrienne refers to her daughter Christina as a married woman. Adrienne ("Ariantje") married Jan Jansen Damen on 7 May 1638. Damen, sometimes referred to as "Old Jan," was a warden of the Dutch Reformed Church and owned a large tract of land west of the Vigne's land. As step-father of Ghislain's children, Damen oversaw a household that included his step-daughter Christina and her husband Dirck Volkertszen with their two young daughters, along with Christina's sister Maria and her husband Abraham Ver Planck with three or four children. The number of persons in the household thus includes six adults, seven or eight children, and possibly some slaves. Damen's relationship with his step-daughters' husbands was marked by discord, however, and on 21 June 1638 Damen sued to have Abraham Ver Planck and Dirck Volckertszen "quit his house and leave him the master thereof." Dirck retaliated by bringing a charge of assault against Damen, bringing witnesses to testify that Damen had tried to "throw his step-daughter Christina, Dirck's wife, out of doors."
The historical essay "While He Flatters He Bites" mentions an episode in Adrienne's life that speaks extremely poorly of her character. According to the essay, in 1643, "after a successful (and again brutal) Dutch raid against the Canarsie tribes on Long Island, the severed heads of several victims were carried on sticks back to the fort. When one of the heads tumbled to the ground, [Cornelis] Van Tienhoven’s mother-in-law [i.e. Adrienne Vigne Damen] gave it a gleeful kick."
Adrienne Vigne died in May of 1655 in New Amsterdam. Most of her property was divided among her children and their families. On 8 March 1658, Dirck and his sister-in-law Maria Ver Planck were sued by Claes Van Elstandt, an elder of the Dutch Reformed Church, for not paying for her grave. They claimed they had given the money to Adrienne's son-in-law Cornelis Van Thienhoven, who had disappeared 16 months earlier. All of the remaining heirs were then ordered to pay for the grave.
The children of Adrienne and Ghislain were:
-- CHRISTINA VIGNE, born circa 1610 in St. Vaast La Haute, Valenciennes, France, died 21 Feb. 1663 in Bustwyck, New York, md. Dirck Noorman Volkertszen.
-- MARIA VIGNE, born circa 1613 in France or Holland, died 1689 in New York, md. 1st Jan Roos, md. 2nd Abraham Isaacsen Ver Planck.
-- RACHEL VIGNE, baptised 2 Sept. 1618 at the Leiden Walloon Church, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, died in infancy.
-- ABRAHAM VIGNE, baptised 26 Sept. 1619 at the Leiden Walloon Church, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, died in infancy.
-- SARA VIGNE, twin sister of Abraham, baptised 26 Sept. 1619 at the Leiden Walloon Church, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, died in infancy.
-- RACHEL VIGNE, baptised 19 March 1623 at the Leiden Walloon Church, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.
-- JAN VIGNE ("Jean"), born circa 1624 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, died 21 Dec. 1689 in New York City, married twice.
-- GULEYN VIGNE ("Ghislain"), born circa 1625 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands.
Cuvellier Genealogy Resources:
"While He Flatters He Bites," profile of Cornelis van Theinhoven published in The Morning News - with information of his family. We Relate: Adrianna Cuvellier