Roosevelt (surname)
Encyclopedia
The name Roosevelt is an American surname
originally derived from the Dutch
place-name spelled variously as Van Rosevelt or Van Rosenvelt, meaning "from rose field." The most famous bearers of this name come from the Roosevelt family
, a merchant and political family descended from the 17th-century immigrant to New Netherland
Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt.
, the surname ranked as the 15,060th most common surname in the 1990 U.S. Census, accounting for 0.001% of the American population. By the 2000 U.S. Census, the surname was ranked as the 24,406th most common family name. There were 961 individuals recorded at that time using the surname Roosevelt, and of these, 64% identified as being white, 27.26% black, 1.87% Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.77% American Indian and Native Alaskan and 1.66% as Hispanic ethnic origin.
granted amt fiefdoms north of Tholen
to six lords. An amt fief was a grant of land, by William III of Bavaria in this instance, to lesser vassal lords
where the land stipulated in the grant had been or needed to be dyked
and reclaimed from the sea. Also, the vassal lords held several powers from their position, such as appointing the steward and alderman that governed the municipal area, inflicting corporal punishment
and even pass death sentence
s by hanging
in several situations.
One of the first amt lords was Marijnus van Rosevelt, whose lordship dates back to 1697. Johan Willem van Rosevelt, LL.M
, was also an amt lord from 1731 until 1790, and also held the prominent positions of steward of Vossemeer, councilor, alderman and pensionary of Goes
, Steward of the Count's Domains to oversee clerical goods, common means and taxes in Biervliet
, deputy councilor of Zeeland and admiralty councilor. The Van Rosevelt name holds a place of prominence in the Oud-Vossemeer House of Amt Lords, which was constructed in 1767, even amongst the other amt lords.
It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt was related to the Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, and evidence suggests that Claes van Rosenvelt indeed came from the Tholen
region where the Van Rosevelts were land owners, but no records exist that prove any relation of the two families.
(present day New York City
) some time between 1638 and 1649. Around the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh comprising twenty-four morgen
s (48 acres (194,249.3 m²)) in what is now Midtown Manhattan
, including the present site of the Empire State Building
. The property included roughly what is now the area between Lexington Avenue
and Fifth Avenue bounded by 29th St. and 35th St.
Claes' son Nicholas was the first to use the spelling Roosevelt and the first to hold political office, as an alderman
. His children Johannes
and Jacobus were the progenitors of the Oyster Bay
and Hyde Park
branches of the family that emerged in the 18th century, respectively. By the late 19th century, the Hyde Park Roosevelts were generally associated with the Democratic Party
and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts with the Republican Party
. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, was President Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin. Despite political differences that led family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly. James Roosevelt, Sr.
met his wife at a Roosevelt family gathering in the home of Theodore's mother, and James' son Franklin married Theodore's niece Eleanor.
associated to everyone of a common surname, when, in fact, a coat of arms is property passed through direct lineage. This means that there are numerous families of Roosevelt, perhaps under various spellings, that are related, but because they are not the direct descendants of a Roosevelt that owned an armorial device do not have rights or claims to any arms themselves.
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones. Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute.
The Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, in the Tholen region of Zeeland, have a coat of arms that is divided horizontally, the top portion with a white chevron between three white roses, while the bottom half is gold with a red lion rampant. The upper portion is simply a cant of the Van Rosevelt name, which means "from the rose fields". The lower portion was likely added to the heraldic achievement after the family gained the amt lordship, as a representation of their land ownership. The coat of arms of the province of Zeeland has a red lion rising from waters on a gold field, while the town of Oud-Vossemeer use similar arms but with a red wolf, so the red lion of the Van Rosevelts is either directly taken form the Zeeland arms or an allusion to both Zeeland and Oud-Vossemeer. A traditional blazon suggested would be, Per fess vert a chevron between three roses argent and Or a lion rampant gules.
The coat of arms of the Dutch burgher Claes van Rosenvelt, ancestor of the American political family that included Theodore
and Franklin D. Roosevelt
, were white with a rosebush with three rose flowers growing upon a grassy mound, and whose crest
was of three ostrich feathers divided into red and white halves each. In heraldic terms this would be described as, Argent upon a grassy mound a rose bush proper bearing three roses gules barbed and seeded all proper, with a crest upon a torse argent and gules of Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent. Franklin Roosevelt altered his arms to rid of the rosebush and use in it‘s place three crossed roses on their stems, changing the blazon of his shield to Three roses one in pale and two in saltire gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved proper.
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
originally derived from the Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
place-name spelled variously as Van Rosevelt or Van Rosenvelt, meaning "from rose field." The most famous bearers of this name come from the Roosevelt family
Roosevelt family
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones...
, a merchant and political family descended from the 17th-century immigrant to New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt.
Statistics
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the surname ranked as the 15,060th most common surname in the 1990 U.S. Census, accounting for 0.001% of the American population. By the 2000 U.S. Census, the surname was ranked as the 24,406th most common family name. There were 961 individuals recorded at that time using the surname Roosevelt, and of these, 64% identified as being white, 27.26% black, 1.87% Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.77% American Indian and Native Alaskan and 1.66% as Hispanic ethnic origin.
Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer
In 1410, William III, Duke of Bavaria, Count of Holland and of ZeelandWilliam III, Duke of Bavaria
William III , was Duke of Bavaria-Munich , together and in concord with his older brother Ernest, Duke of Bavaria....
granted amt fiefdoms north of Tholen
Tholen
Tholen is a municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen has lent its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality....
to six lords. An amt fief was a grant of land, by William III of Bavaria in this instance, to lesser vassal lords
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
where the land stipulated in the grant had been or needed to be dyked
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
and reclaimed from the sea. Also, the vassal lords held several powers from their position, such as appointing the steward and alderman that governed the municipal area, inflicting corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
and even pass death sentence
Death Sentence
Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...
s by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in several situations.
One of the first amt lords was Marijnus van Rosevelt, whose lordship dates back to 1697. Johan Willem van Rosevelt, LL.M
Master of Laws
The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...
, was also an amt lord from 1731 until 1790, and also held the prominent positions of steward of Vossemeer, councilor, alderman and pensionary of Goes
Goes
Goes is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands in Zuid-Beveland, in the province Zeeland. The city of Goes has approximately 27,000 residents.-History of Goes:...
, Steward of the Count's Domains to oversee clerical goods, common means and taxes in Biervliet
Biervliet
Biervliet is a town in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Terneuzen, and lies about 16 km South of Vlissingen.Biervliet received city rights in 1183. It is originally a fishing village...
, deputy councilor of Zeeland and admiralty councilor. The Van Rosevelt name holds a place of prominence in the Oud-Vossemeer House of Amt Lords, which was constructed in 1767, even amongst the other amt lords.
It has been suggested that Claes van Rosenvelt was related to the Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, and evidence suggests that Claes van Rosenvelt indeed came from the Tholen
Tholen
Tholen is a municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen has lent its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality....
region where the Van Rosevelts were land owners, but no records exist that prove any relation of the two families.
Roosevelts, the American political and business family
Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family, arrived in Nieuw AmsterdamNew Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
(present day New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) some time between 1638 and 1649. Around the year 1652, he bought a farm from Lambert van Valckenburgh comprising twenty-four morgen
Morgen
A morgen was a unit of measurement of land in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the Dutch colonies, including South Africa and Taiwan. The size of a morgen varies from 1/2 to 2½ acres, which equals approximately 0.2 to 1 ha...
s (48 acres (194,249.3 m²)) in what is now Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, including the present site of the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. The property included roughly what is now the area between Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue (Manhattan)
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
and Fifth Avenue bounded by 29th St. and 35th St.
Claes' son Nicholas was the first to use the spelling Roosevelt and the first to hold political office, as an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
. His children Johannes
Johannes Roosevelt
Johannes Roosevelt , known as John Roosevelt, was a New York City businessman and alderman and the progenitor of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts, including Theodore and Eleanor Roosevelt. Johannes was a linseed oil manufacturer....
and Jacobus were the progenitors of the Oyster Bay
Oyster Bay (town), New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is easternmost of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County that extends from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the town population was...
and Hyde Park
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
branches of the family that emerged in the 18th century, respectively. By the late 19th century, the Hyde Park Roosevelts were generally associated with the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and the Oyster Bay Roosevelts with the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. President Theodore Roosevelt, an Oyster Bay Roosevelt, was President Franklin Roosevelt's fifth cousin. Despite political differences that led family members to actively campaign against each other, the two branches generally remained friendly. James Roosevelt, Sr.
James Roosevelt, Sr.
James Roosevelt, Sr. was a businessman and father of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States...
met his wife at a Roosevelt family gathering in the home of Theodore's mother, and James' son Franklin married Theodore's niece Eleanor.
Coats of arms
It is a common misconception that there is one coat of armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
associated to everyone of a common surname, when, in fact, a coat of arms is property passed through direct lineage. This means that there are numerous families of Roosevelt, perhaps under various spellings, that are related, but because they are not the direct descendants of a Roosevelt that owned an armorial device do not have rights or claims to any arms themselves.
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones. Also, grassy mounds or fields of green would be a familiar attribute.
The Van Rosevelts of Oud-Vossemeer, in the Tholen region of Zeeland, have a coat of arms that is divided horizontally, the top portion with a white chevron between three white roses, while the bottom half is gold with a red lion rampant. The upper portion is simply a cant of the Van Rosevelt name, which means "from the rose fields". The lower portion was likely added to the heraldic achievement after the family gained the amt lordship, as a representation of their land ownership. The coat of arms of the province of Zeeland has a red lion rising from waters on a gold field, while the town of Oud-Vossemeer use similar arms but with a red wolf, so the red lion of the Van Rosevelts is either directly taken form the Zeeland arms or an allusion to both Zeeland and Oud-Vossemeer. A traditional blazon suggested would be, Per fess vert a chevron between three roses argent and Or a lion rampant gules.
The coat of arms of the Dutch burgher Claes van Rosenvelt, ancestor of the American political family that included Theodore
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, were white with a rosebush with three rose flowers growing upon a grassy mound, and whose crest
Crest (heraldry)
A crest is a component of an heraldic display, so called because it stands on top of a helmet, as the crest of a jay stands on the bird's head....
was of three ostrich feathers divided into red and white halves each. In heraldic terms this would be described as, Argent upon a grassy mound a rose bush proper bearing three roses gules barbed and seeded all proper, with a crest upon a torse argent and gules of Three ostrich plumes each per pale gules and argent. Franklin Roosevelt altered his arms to rid of the rosebush and use in it‘s place three crossed roses on their stems, changing the blazon of his shield to Three roses one in pale and two in saltire gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved proper.