Abraham RIKER ^3648,4798

   Other names for Abraham were Abraham DE RYCKE ⁴⁸⁰² and Abraham RYCKEN.⁴⁸⁰²

  General Notes:

"He is presumed to have emigrated in 1638, as he received in that year an allotment of land from Gov. Kieft, for which he afterwards took out a patent, dated Aug. 8, 1640." (Ricker, 1852:301).

All information on this line through late 1700's is from the
"Annals of Newton"
by James Riker, Jr.
Publication: D. Fanshaw, New York, NY 1852
Some records state that Abraham was born in 1615 instead of 1619.
He came to this country about 1630 A. D.
After Abraham's death his wife remarried and nothing more is known of her.

Sources:
Grenville Mckenzie, Families of Colonial Philipsburg
Lent/Van Lent Newsletters Jun 90 and Dec 90
David M Riker, Common Progenitor of a Riker and Lent Family

...was given a patent in 1640 for land on Long Island, granted to him in 1638. Six years later he received a grant for a house and garden on the Heeren Gracht (canal) in New Amsterdam which he sold in 1652. By 1655 he was back on his Long Island bouwery (farm), known as the "poor farm", near present day Astoria, Queens, and later added an island in the East River which became known as Rikers Island. For a short time in 1656 Abraham was engaged in the fur trade on the South (Delaware) River and visited Fort Casimir (New Castle Delaware).

1638 awarded grant of land by Director, General Kieft for which he later took out a patent dated 8 Aug 1640. (#29)

20 Nov 1642 received the 1st ground brief inside the walled city for lots at Numbers 82 and 86 Broadway.

8 April 1643, for a lot in New Amsterdam (#45)

14 Feb 1646, another lot in Manhattan (#45)

26 Feb 1654 received lands south of the above which belonged to his wife's father. This was called Middleburg, later named Newton.

Aug 29, 1664, he purchased Hewletts' Island north of his Long Island holdings. It was about one mile from the main island of Long Island and contained more the 50 acres. RIkers Island stayed in the family 200 years, and was purchased by the City of New York. It is still known by Riker's Island today. Confirmation of the purchase was one of the last official acts of Governor Peter Stuyvesant; and was also confirmed by the first English Governor, Richard Nicolls, 24 Dec 1667.

He and Grietje (Margaret) were members of the Old Dutch Church (the first) by the Fort (Fort Amsterdam) and most of their children were baptized there.

He died leaving his farms to his son, Abraham.

Abraham Rycken or de Rycke, as his name is indiscriminately written in our early records, was the progenitor of the present Riker families in New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Union; his descendants, in the third generation, having assumed the present mode of spelling the name. Hi is presumed to have emigrated in 1638, as he received in that year an allotment of land from Gov. Kieft, for which he afterwards took out a patent, dated Aug. 8, 1640. This land was situated at the Wallabout, and now either joins, or is included within the farm of the Hon. Jeremiah Johnson. In 1642 Riker is found in New Amsterdam, where he continued to live many years upon premises of his own, on the Heeren Gracht, now Broad-street. He was probably engaged in trade, for it appears that in 1656 he made a voyage to the Delaware River for the express purpose of purchasing beaver skins, then a leading article of traffic. The voyage proved an unlucky one, for, as they were ascending the Delaware at night, the bark stranded near the falls of that river. She was unloaded and after some time got afloat, during which operation the passengers abode in tents on shore. Riker visited Fort Casimir, near the present New Castle, and returned, unable to get any peltry. He and his wife, Grietie, a daughter of Hendrick Harmensen, were members of the Dutch church, as appears by a list dated 1649, and most of their children were baptized in the church within Fort Amsterdam. In 1654 Riker obtained a grant of land at the Poor Bowery, to which he subsequently removed, afterwards adding to his domain the island known as Riker's Island. (See pages 36, 64, 65.) Having attained to more than three score years and ten, he died in 1689, leaving his farm by will to his son, Abraham. His children were Ryck-Abramsen, the eldest, who adopted the name of Lent, (see Lent genealogy); Jacob, born 1640, died in infancy; Jacob, born 1643; Hendrick, born 1646, died young; Mary, born 1649, married Sibout H. Krankheyt, afterwards of manor of Cortlandt; Abraham,2 born 1655, and Hendrick, born 1662. The latter also adopted the name of Lent. John married in 1691, Sarah Schouten, widow of Paulus Vanderbeeck, and their son, Abraham, born 1692, settled in Essex County, N. J., where his descendants are to be found. Jacob united with his brother Ryck and others in buying Ryck's Patent, in Westchester County but sold his interest in 1715 to his nephew, Hercules Lent. He was then living at "Upper Yonkers", and is said to have died without issue.
The European progenitors of the American Rikers were originally Germans, resident at a very remote period in Lower Saxony, "where they enjoyed a state of allodial independence at that day, regarded as constituting nobility." The name had various form, Rycken, de Rycke, de Ryk, Riecke, etc. One branch descends from Hans von Rycken, who perished in the First Crusade (1096). The original arms of this branch are described as follows: "The color of the shield(azure) is emblematic of the knighthood, the horns indicate physical strength, the golden stars a striving for glory, and the white roses are symbols of discretion and fidelity." In 1225 the descendants of Hans adopted as a new coat of arms the escutcheon of their fee farm, Barrenhop, signifying in Lower Saxon a heap of bears; and hence there were bears' heads in their arms and crest. The ancestor of another branch was Melchior yon Rycken, a cousin of Hans; and to a patrician of this line resident in the city of Spire the Emperor Louis V in 1325 presented, for self-acquired honors, a new armorial device, the shield bearing crossed spears and a fish. This branch is known as Ricker.
Abraham Rycken or de Rycke: It is supposed (see Riker's "Annals of Newtown") that he sprang from a branch of the family which for two centuries was prominent and wealthy in Amsterdam, Holland, subsequently meeting with reverses in consequence of its devotion to the cause of its country in the gigantic war of independence with Spain. Others of the name who emigrated to New Netherland in the first half of the seventeenth century were Gysbert, Rynier and Hendrick Rycken; the only one of these who left descendants being Hendrick, "who was the ancestor of the Suydam Family, his sons assuming that name." Abraham Rycken in 1638 was granted land in the Wallabout by the Dutch Director-General Kieft, for which he took out a patent August 8, a640. In 1642 he was a citizen of New Amsterdam, residing there many years on the Heeren Gracht (now Broad Street), and it is supposed was engaged in trade. February 26, 1654, he received the ground-brief of a farm near the Armen Bouwerie or "Poor Bowery", Long Island(?), a tract owned by the corporation of the Dutch Church of New Amsterdam, and so called because it was kept under cultivation by them for the benefit of the poor. August 19, 1664, Governor Stuyvesant, as one of his last official acts, conferred on Abraham Rycken the patent for the whole of Hewlett's Island in the Sound (?), an act which was confirmed by the first English Governor Nicolls on the 24th of December, 1667; this island has ever since been known as Riker's Island. He was named as one of the proprietors of Newtown in the charter granted by Governor Dongan, November 25, 1685. He died in 1689, aged more than seventy years; married Grietie, daughter of Hendrick Harmensen, who was the first settler of the "Poor Bowery", and they had nine children, most of whom were baptized in the old Dutch Church within Fort Amsterdam. The oldest of these was Ryck Abramsen, who took the name of Lent, becoming the ancestor of the Lent Family. With another brother, Jacob, he purchased a t4racat in Westchester County on which the village of Peekskill now stands.
^4793,4802

  Noted events in his life were:

• He owned land now known as Riker's Island on 19 Aug 1664 in New York, New York Co., New York, USA. ⁴⁸⁰³

Abraham married Grietie HARMENSEN, daughter of Hendrick HARMENSEN and Unknown.⁴⁷⁹⁸