[1] He was the first Roosevelt to hold an elected office in North America, as an alderman, as well as the first to use the familiar spelling of the family name.
He was the son of Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt (c. 1626–1659), the immigrant ancestor of the Roosevelt family in America, and Jannetje Samuels Thomas (1625–1660).
During his time in Esopus, he was a fur trader on friendly terms with Native Americans.
Politically active, he was a supporter of the party of Jacob Leisler, who had led an insurrection in 1689 in support of the succession of Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau to the English throne in the Revolution of 1688.
[6] He married Heyltje Jans Kunst (1664–1730) in the Reformed Dutch Church of New York on December 9, 1682.