History
The Man Behind the Name: Baron de Bastrop
Bastrop County is named for Felipe Enrique Neri — a Dutch man who called himself Baron de Bastrop and helped Stephen F. Austin secure land grants from Mexico.
The county and its seat are named for a man who was not actually a baron. Philip Hendrik Nering Bögel was born in 1759 in Dutch Guiana. He was accused of taking tax money in Holland. He fled, gave himself the title 'Baron de Bastrop,' and made his way to Spanish Texas by the early 1800s.
In San Antonio he built connections with Spanish and later Mexican officials. When Stephen F. Austin came looking for permission to settle colonists on the Colorado River, Bastrop used those connections to help Austin get his land grant from Mexico in the 1820s. Without Bastrop's help, the Austin colony might never have gotten off the ground.
A Spanish fort stood at the Colorado River crossing — the spot where Bastrop now sits — as early as 1804. The town of Bastrop was founded around 1830. In 1837 the Republic of Texas named the county in the baron's honor. The Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas has a full entry on Bastrop if you want to read more.
Source to confirm: TSHA – Baron de Bastrop