Op den Graeff

Op den Graeff, also Updegraff, Updegrave, Updegrove, Uptegrove, Ubdegrove, was a German and American family.

The earlist known Op den Graeffs lived in Aldekerk (Kleve), near the border to the Netherlands. During the 17th century the Op den Graeffs were a family of linen weavers in Krefeld and continued this occupation later in Germantown, although the family purchased jointly 2,000 acres of land in Germantown. In Krefeld the family belong to the Mennonite circle, which turned Quaker in part ca. 1679-1680. In the end of the 17th century some of the Op den Graeff`s descendents migrated to the United States. They are among the thirteen families (Original 13) often referred to as the Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Founders, who arrived on the ship Concord on October 6, 1683. One of these was famous Abraham op den Graeff, a cousin of William Penn, who signed along with three others the first organized religious petition against slavery in the colonies, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery.

Abraham op den Graeffs descendants named Opdegraf(f), Updegraf(f), Uptagraff(t), Updegrave, Updegrove, Updegraph and Upthegrove. Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was the fourth great-grandson of Abraham. Some of their descendants continued in or returned to the Mennonite faith and were found in the Montgomery County congregations of Skippack and Boyertown until modern times.

During the earlier 19th century David Benjamin Updegraff of the Updegraff branch of the family was a conductor (one of the leaders) of the Underground Railroad. He was one of the first outspoken anti-slavery men, and voted with the first liberty party from conscientious convictions. His house was the home of antislavery advocates and temperance lecturers also a station on the Underground Railroad.