Van Westervelt, with his wife and six children, and Lubbert Lubbertsen Van Westervelt, with his wife and four children, who became the progenitors of the Van Westervelt-Westervelt family in America, and at one time the second largest family in Bergen County, New Jersey.*
The ship Hoop made a succussful voyage and arrived at New Amsterdam on the 24th of May, 1662. These brothers were
natives of Meppel, a mere hamlet in the middle of the seventeenth century, but now a considerable town, having 7,500 inhabitants in 1866, situated a few miles from the eastern shore of the Zuider Zee, in the province of Drenthe, Holland, and three miles east of Zwolle, where Thomas ý Kempis wrote his famous book, In Imitation of Christ, and died in 1471.
To the east of Meppel the country was then a desert waste of lowland, but in late years it has been purchased by humanitarian societies to secure from beggary able bodied laborers and their families. These lands have been brought to a state of productiveness by their efforts. South and west of Meppel were rich
green pasture lands.
These two men were agriculturists and cattle raisers, as many of their descendants have been until the present time. On their arrival New Amsterdam was suffering from a prolonged drought,
which commenced in April, no rain falling for eighty consecutive days.
The name was known in Holland at a very early period, and although the family were not of nobility, had been extensive property holders for many generations. Some of the name appear to have been early inhabitants of Zwolle, and still are to be found there, being known as Westerveld, and all along the eastern shore of the Zuider Zee this family have resided at various periods.
Johan van Westervelt in 1643, Daniel van Westervelt in 1630, Guillaume van Westervelt in 1655, and Johannes van Westervelt in 1683, were among the students of Utrecht. In 1676 Johan van
Westervelt was Sheriff of Amersfoort. A Maria van Westervelt was buried at The Hague on May 8, 1673. In 1666, Paulus van Westervelt was a Doctor at Leyden, and subsequently at Amsterdam; in 1776 Jan van Westervelt, and in 1797 Johannes van Westervelt, were both inhabitants of Rotterdam.
The earliest mention of the family that has been obtained begins with one Dirk van Westervelt, and the following pedigree, quite incomplete, gives his descendants, who have resided for
many years in and about the town of Harderwyk, in the Netherlands.
*Willem married Dirkje Roelofse, and Lubbert married Geesie Roelofse, presumably sisters, but as the Book of Marriages in Meppel (1636 to 1662) does not include their marriage dates, they must have been married at some other place, possibly at the town where
their wives resided.