THE VIGNES
In France, a cuvelier was a barrel-maker. The name Vigne means "vine" in French, and is most often associated with vineyards for making wine. Vigne is pronounced VIN-YEH , with neither syllable accented. However, if you just can't help yourself, go ahead and pronounce it VIG-KNEE .
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WALLOONS, VALENCIENNES AND LEIDEN
The Walloons were French-speaking Protestants from the southern Netherlands region that is now Belgium and northern France. In the 1500's and 1600's it was subjected to protracted wars involving Holland, France and Spain. A 12-year truce beginning in 1609 provided some respite, but the truce was not renewed when it expired in 1621. Another unsettling factor in that region was the desire of the Catholic French monarchy to convert or kill the Protestant population living within and along its borders. Many non-Catholics fled after having their property confiscated.
Guillaume and Adrienne were born in Valenciennes about 1586-1590. They married sometime around 1610, and emigrated to Holland by 1623. In that year they were in the city of Leiden, which was a protective and tolerant haven from war and prejudice. After they began living among the Dutch, the Vigne name was changed to Vienje. Guillaume became known as Willem Vienje and Adrienne as Ariantje Vienje. [The "-je" ending in the Dutch version of their name was also pronounced as "-yeh."]
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WHY DID THEY GO TO AMERICA?
The Vignes were one of 30 Walloon families selected by the Dutch West India Company to establish a permanent settlement in New Netherlands [New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut]. The original Company plan was to send only five or six men to set up a fur trading post on Manhattan Island. The addition of the Walloon families may have been a late change to the plans. Perhaps the families volunteered when they heard of the colonization plans. After all, the Walloons were a displaced people who had become refugees in crowded little Holland. There was no land available to them - the Dutch had run out of land and had just started to reclaim land from the sea. It is possible that Adrienne and Guillaume may have had advance information about the New Netherlands region:
"Nancy Fulkerson Hill wrote to the Algemeen Rijksarchief in the Hague [to find] whatever documents exist in The Netherlands about the ship Tijger [Tiger] known to be in New Netherland waters in 1614 under the command of Adriaen Block...[they referred her] to notarial documents held by the Gemeentearchief in Amsterdam."
"Pim Nieuwenhuis investigated these notarial documents only to discover that they had already been translated into English and published in 1959 by the City of Amsterdam Press under the title, The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson by Simon Hart ..."
On page 22 Dr. Hart asks rhetorically, Who were the merchants in the [Van Tweenhuysen Company] which sent Adriaen Block on his voyages? Besides Arnout Vogels and Francoys Pelgrom, there were Leonard, Paulus and Steffan Pelgrom -- brothers of Francoys ... [The] four Pelgrom brothers were children of Gheeraert Pelgrom ...[whose] first wife Anthonia van Dijcke died...[and who]... remarried to Susanna Cuvelier. From this marriage Paulus and Steffan Pelgrom were born..."
If Adrienne Cuvelier was related to Susanna Cuvelier, she and Guillaume could have had first-hand information about the Hudson River area through her relatives.
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ATLANTIC CROSSING
The Vignes are believed to have sailed from Holland in April of 1624 on the "Nieuw Nederlandt" [or possibly on the "Eendracht," which means "Unity"]. Some of the other colonists, including Joris Janszen Rapaelje, were also from Valenciennes. The Vignes had three daughters, Christine, Maria and Rachel, when they sailed to America. Most of the 30 families must have had children, as the total number of new colonists was about 120. Upon reaching the Hudson River in mid-May, they found a French ship that was trying to claim the territory for the king of France. With the help of a smaller Dutch ship that arrived from the West Indies, they politely aimed their cannons and escorted the French ship out to sea. Cornelis May, captain of the "Nieuw Nederlandt," became the first Director of the New Netherlands colony.
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FIRST SETTLEMENTS
Eight men were left at Manhattan to "take possession." A dozen families were deposited at the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers, and 18 families were taken up the Hudson to a site near present-day Albany. The first news back to Holland was that, "Everything was in good condition. The colony began to advance bravely, and to live in friendship with the natives." However, most of the families began their residence in the new land by digging seven feet into the ground to make wood-lined, bark covered shelters. They did not begin to build wooden homes until 1625. We don't know whether the Vignes spent their first year at the Albany, Connecticut River or Delaware River settlements.
In 1625, the Company sent over another ship with 103 head of cattle and off-loaded them on Manhattan Island. Along with the cattle came some home builders and more settlers, who were directed to establish six bouweries [farms] on Manhattan. Engineers began constructing Fort Amsterdam near the southern tip of the island, and laying out the streets for the town of New Amsterdam. The colonists who had been deposited at the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers were brought back to Manhattan Island. They were too few in number to be in such isolated locations. Over the next three years, all of the Albany settlers trickled back to Manhattan. In 1626 Peter Minuit [also a Walloon] arrived as the new Director. He brought more colonists and bought the rest of Manhattan Island from the Indians for 60 guilders' worth of minor trade items. By the end of 1628 there were roughly 275 people in and around New Amsterdam.
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THE FAMILY FARM
The Vignes established their Manhattan farm north of what is now Wall Street, along the East River. In 1624 or 1625, not long after their arrival, their son Jan was born. He was the first European male born in New Netherlands. [The first European girl born in New Netherlands was Sara Rapaelje, in June 1625.] Guillaume died about 1632. His two oldest daughters had already married by that time, Christine to Dirck Volckertszen , and Maria to Jan Roos. He left his wife with two minor children.
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THE END
Jan Jansen Damen died in 1651. Adrienne Cuvelier died in 1655. Most of their property was divided among the Vigne children and their families. On March 8, 1658, Dirck and his sister-in-law Maria Ver Planck were sued by Claes Van Elstandt, elder of the Dutch Reformed Church, for not paying for her grave. They said they had given the money to Van Tienhoven, who had disappeared 16 months earlier. All of the remaining heirs were then ordered to pay for the grave.
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Meanwhile, back in the Old Country...
Two other Vignes are mentioned in Leiden Walloon Church records. Margrite Vigne, wife of Jacques Collet, was listed as a member of the church in Leiden in 1652. Richard Vigne and his wife Susanne Lambert joined the church at Leiden, by certificate from the church at Mets, in Oct. 1648. If you look back up the page at Rachel's baptism record, you'll see these Vignes probably were relatives of our Vigne family.
One of our Vigne cousins searched an index of Baptisms at the Catholic Parishes of Valenciennes, France, looking for records of the Vigne family. There are four or five parishes, but only one [St. Nicholas] has records extending back into the Sixteenth Century [it starts in 1567, and may be incomplete]. The only Vignes listed were two children of a Piere Vigne [Jacque and Marie Joseph], both baptized 7 July 1694.
