Early life Derick op den Graeff was born to Isaac Herman op den Graeff (1616–1669) and Margaret 'Grietgen' Peters Doors (around 1620–1683). Former
Mennonite leader
Herman op den Graeff was his grandfather. The
Op den Graeff family were originally Mennonites. , Derick and Abraham op den Graeff
Quaker missionary work in the lower and middle Rhine River valley during the 1660s resulted in the conversion of a number of Mennonites in and around
Krefeld. Among these converts were Derick op den Graeff and his family. The Quakers were not as readily tolerated by the people of Krefeld. In 1679 five of them, including Derick's brother
Herman op den Graeff, were forcibly exiled from Krefeld. It's possible that Derick belonged to those people. In 1682 Derick married to Nölken Vyken from
Kempen in a Quaker wedding in Krefeld. The opportunity to follow their Quaker beliefs without fear of persecution was undoubtedly a major factor in their decision to emigrate from Krefeld. Derick became the leader of the first 13 families, the so-called
Original 13, leave, The three Op den Graeffs had another brother, Adolphus Op Den Graeff (* 1648), who did not join the emigration but settled near
Koblenz before 1680. His grandson John William (Johan Wilhelm) op den Graeff (1732 - between 1800 and 1804) immigrated in 1753 to Pennsylvania as well. Their descendants joined their name into Updegrove.
Germantown Settlement . It was also one of the first written public declarations of universal
human rights. Derick op den Graeff and his family were one of the original thirteen families which founded
Germantown. In 1688, five year after their arrival, Derick along with his brother Abraham,
Francis Daniel Pastorius and
Gerrit Hendricksz signed the first organized religious petition against slavery in the colonies, the
1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery in the house of
Thones Kunders. He signed the petition with
derick op de graeff. Like his brother Herman, Derick op den Graeff was a member of the Germantown Quaker meeting. He was a burgess and in 1689 he was appointer as one of the eleven charter members of the Germantown corporation by William Penn, and together with three others to the first burgesses. The Krefeld Quaker advocates were the brothers Abraham and Herman op den Graeff who sided Keith. Their opponent was their brother Derick op den Graeff who sided the conservative Quakers and also co-signed the judgment against Keith, which excluded him from the Quaker community. He was fined five pounds by a secular court. Herman on the other hand was one of a group of 69 men who wrote a letter defending Keith. In 1692 Derick op den Graeff was one of the town's six "committeemen", and in 1693-1694 he was the
bailiff == The Pennsylvania Pilgrim ==