Early History The Bogert family (originally Boogert, sometimes Van den Boogaert or Bogardus) was of Dutch origin and among the early settlers of New Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. The name derives from the Dutch boogerd, meaning “orchard” or “enclosed field.” The progenitor of most New York Bogerts was Jan Laurensz Bogert (1624–1703), born in Schoonrewoerd, Holland, who emigrated to New Netherland about 1652. He married Cornelia Everts in 1654 at the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam. Their descendants settled in Manhattan, Harlem, Bergen County (New Jersey), and later in Westchester and Long Island.

Jan Laurensz served as a smallholder and carpenter in New Amsterdam and was later one of the patentees of Harlem in 1662. His sons and grandsons were active in the civic and religious life of the Dutch Reformed congregations of Harlem, Hackensack, and Schraalenburgh. Over the eighteenth century, the family Anglicized its name to Bogert and became part of the English-speaking mercantile and professional class of New York.

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Descendants By the late eighteenth century, several branches of the Bogerts were established in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bergen County. Among them was Nicholas Bogert (1746–1823), a merchant and vestryman of Trinity Church, whose descendants intermarried with the Lawrence and Bowne families—two of the most prominent Quaker and mercantile families of New York.

Later Members and Legacy The Bogerts produced lawyers, clergymen, and scholars who were active in New York civic life well into the twentieth century. Members of the family were associated with Columbia College, Trinity Church, and the New York Historical Society. Henry Lawrence Bogert, noted for his long legal career, served as a trustee of the Collegiate Reformed Church. His descendants continued to intermarry with other distinguished New York families, including the Bownes and Schieffelins.

Character and Reputation Throughout their history, the Bogerts maintained a reputation for education, public service, and refinement. Their successive alliances with the Lawrences and Bownes illustrate the enduring cohesion of New York’s early Dutch and English colonial elite, whose descendants formed the backbone of the city’s nineteenth-century professional and philanthropic class.