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Christina, wife of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber

Page history last edited by Liz Johnson 11 years, 12 months ago

Identity of Christiana, Wife  of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber

 

By Elizabeth A. Johnson and Cor Snabel  

November, 2006 / April 2012

 

 

Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, the father of the American Van Bebbers, was born about 1640 in Krefeld, Muers, a region close to the border between the Netherlands and Germany. Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber was a son of Isaac Van Bebber and Hester Op den Graff. Jacob and his wife emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1687, living first at a settlement called Germantown, near Philadelphia. After living there for several years, they moved to the Bohemia Manor area of Cecil County, Maryland, where some of their children also settled. Jacob died in 1705, and his wife Christina died in 1711. Both were buried at St. Stephen's Church, in Earlville in North Sassafras Hundred, Cecil County, Maryland. In America, Jacob Van Bebber's wife was known as Christina or Christiana. The inscription over her grave reads:

 

“Christiana Van Bebber Wife of Jacob Van Bebber Senr. of Bohemia River was buryed on fourth Day of Sept. A. D. MDCCXI." 

 

Who was “Christiana”? Her surname and the home of her family have remained virtually unknown for almost three hundred years. But thanks to some excellent archives which have been kept for hundreds of years in the Netherlands, her name was never lost... only misplaced for a while. Now, after nearly three hundred years, she has been identified. Here is what has recently been discovered of “Christiana” and her family.

 

 

Background:

 

Around 1660, Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber married Styntje Van Dulcken. Their marriage likely took place in or near Krefeld, an area in which members of both his and her families lived. But these families were Mennonites, and Krefeld had become an uncomfortable place for them to live. In the 1680's, William Penn, an English Quaker who obtained a large grant of land from the King of England, began offering opportunities for people to emigrate to his new colony, a place in which persons of dissenting religions could own land and live in peace. Jacob Van Bebber and his wife, along with their sons Isaac and Matthias Van Bebber, were among those who took up this opportunity. Later, another son, Hendrick Van Bebber, and some of his own children, left Holland and joined them in the Pennsylvania colony.

 

There is evidence showing that business relationships had existed for some time between residents of Krefeld and residents in Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands. It may be that Jacob Van Bebber and his wife Styntje brought or sent at least part of their family to Utrecht sometime before 1685. In that year, their son Hendrick Van Bebber and his fiance posted banns (marriage intentions) in Utrecht, shortly before their marriage. Records of Jacob Van Bebber and his wife still exist in church records and in handwritten notarial documents on file in Utrecht.

 

Two notarial documents have been found which give Styntje Van Dulcken's name along with her husband's name, along with names of some of their children, and with names of Styntje's siblings and other close relatives. Thanks to the precise attention to detail by the notaries of Utrecht, creators of these documents, we can see the structure of Christina's family, and we can learn about various aspects of the lives of this extended family.

 

The first document that mentions the name of Jacob Van Bebber's wife is a testament made in 1701 by Mathijs Van Dulcken. This man was the brother-in-law of Jacob Van Bebber –the brother of Jacob's wife. Probably about sixty years old when he wrote his will, Mathijs Van Dulcken had been married twice, but apparently had no heirs from either marriage. Therefore, in his will, Mathijs Van Dulcken left sums of money and property to his surviving siblings, and to several of their children, his nieces and nephews. Styntje Van Dulcken's name and status as Mathijs Van Dulcken's sister, along with the name of her husband, and along with the names of two of their children and one grandchild, appear three times in his will.

 

 

The Van Dulckens

 

Who were these people? In some time past, the Van Dulcken family could possibly have originated near the town of Dulcken, located only a few miles from Krefeld, County of Meurs, now in western Germany. Likewise, an earlier generation of the Van Bebbers may have originated in the village of Bebber, in the adjacent Dutchy of Kleve. Krefeld and Kleve, both known to have been home to communities of Mennonites, are 32 miles apart, and close to the modern-day border between Germany and the Netherlands.

 

Mathijs Van Dulcken of Krefeld, Meurs, later of Utrecht, Netherlands, was a merchant who lived near the Tollesteegpoort, one of the ancient gates entering into the city of Utrecht. He was probably born in the 1630's. He was a member of the Mennonite faith. He was a successful merchant and a charitable man, for in his will, in addition to leaving sums of money to his siblings and to several other relatives, he left five hundred guilders each to the Mennonite Churches of Utrecht and of Krefeld, designated for the use of the poor.

 

 

Mathijs Van Dulcken's Testament

 

Persons named in Mathijs Van Dulcken's testament were:

 

  • His present wife, Anna Ortman.
  • A niece, Tryntje Van Dulcken, the unmarried daughter of his brother Arent Van Dulcken, both living in Arent's house in Krefeld.
  • The children of Hester Van Dulcken and her husband, Cornelis Van Heuven, of Utrecht. Hester is identified as the daughter of Matthijs' brother, Pieter Van Dulcken, deceased.
  • Nephews, Abraham and Hendrick Pietersson Van Dulcken, sons of his brother, Pieter Van Dulcken.
  • Nephews Mathijs and Hendrick Van Dulcken, sons of his brother, Hendrick.
  • A nephew, Mathijs Van Bebber, son of his sister Styntje and her husband, Jacob Van Bebber, living in “Pensilvanien.”
  • A grand-nephew, Mathijs Van Bebber, son of another nephew, Hendrik Jacobssen Van Bebber, a son of his sister, Styntje and her husband, Jacob Van Bebber.
  • A nephew, Andrew Oortman, son of Jan Oortman (both of Utrecht), his brother-in-law and his son.
  • His living brother Hendrick Van Dulcken, living in Krefeld.

 

In his will, Mathijs Van Dulcken named as his three universal three heirs, who will equally share the bulk of his estate:

 

  • His sister, Styntje Van Dulcken, the wife of Jacob Van Bebber, who live in Pennsylvania, inherits one-third;
  • His brothers Arent and Hendrick Van Dulcken, both of Krefeld, each inherit one of the other two thirds.

 

Here is the text and translation of the part of Mathijs Van Dulcken's will that pertains to Christiana, wife of Jacob Van Bebber:

 

Nog aen Mathijs Van Bebber, soon Van syne Comp't suster Stijntie Van Dulcken, in egt geprocreert by Jacob Van Bebber, woonende in Pensilvanien, eens d'somme Van twee hundert en vyftig gulden.

[To Mathijs Van Bebber, son of the Testator's sister, Styntie Van Dulcken, procreated in marriage by Jacob Van Bebber, living in Pennsylvania, one sum of two hundred and fifty guilders.]

 

Nog aen Mathijs Van Bebber, soon Van syne Comp't neve Hendrik jacobssen Van Bebber, d'somme Van twee hondert en vijftig gulden, eens.

[To Mathijs Van Bebber, son of the Testator's nephew, Hendrick jacobssen Van Bebber, once the sum of two hundred and fifty guilders.]

 

An additional passage confirming the identity of Styntje Van Dulcken, Jacob (Isaacs) Van Bebber's wife appears later in the same testament:

 

Hij Comp't vorder op d' lagt Vande voorschre[] gemaekt er legaten ende prelegaten tot syne eenige ende universele erfgenamen syne Comp~ suster Styntje Van Dulcken huisvrou Van Jacob Van Bebber wonende in Pensilvania voor een derde part.

[He the Testator, to the last above written, further makes, bequeaths, and pre-bequeaths to the following, his sole and universal heirs the Testator's sister, Styntje Van Dulcken, wife of Jacob Van Bebber, living in Pennsylvania, a third part.]

 

 

Further proof of the identity of Styntje Van Dulcken is found in a second document, a record of a meeting which took place on June 1, 1724 before an attorney in Utrecht. Mathijs Van Dulcken had died about 1716; this document contains administrative details pertaining to the settlement of debits to his estate. Although this document is dated thirteen years after the death of Styntje Van Dulcken and eight years after the death of her brother Mathijs, it refers to each one of Mathijs Van Dulcken's heirs, including his sister Styntje and her sons. The list of heirs, by name and relationship, is found on the first page. That page reads (in translation):

 

Present on the first of June this year, seventeen hundred twenty four, appeared before me, Hendrik Van Hees, Notary etc. And testified the below named, here on request of ...Margareta Oortman, sole instituted heir of Anneke Oortman, in her life [the] widow, estate holder, and survivor of Sr. Matthijs Van Dulken who was a merchant of ironwork here, --of the first [part], and the Misters Abraham Van Dulken and Dionys Oortman, merchants here, as executors of the testament of the before-named Matthijs Van Dulken; also the same Abraham Van Dulken, both for himself and as special representative of Mattheis, Christiaen, and Hendrik Van Dulken, Johan Van Emmerart, Johan Kroets, and Hendrik and Tryntje Arets Van Dulken, and empowered by proxy of September 1723 before Adolph Becker, Notary and attorney, filed at Krefeld. Item: Hester Van Dulken, widow of Cornelis Van Heuven, and Hubertus Van Bebber --for and in name of his father, Hendrik Van Bebber and his own brothers Isaac and Matthijs Van Bebber, children of Stijntje Van Dulcken, for whom he will in this firmly represent and ratify, and also the same invested heirs of the first-mentioned, called Matthijs Van Dulcken.

 

While the name of Styntje Van Dulcken's husband (Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber) is not mentioned in the above, their relationship is define in the 1701 testament. But three of Styntje Van Dulcken's sons are clearly identified here as her children. Hendrik Van Bebber, the youngest of the three Van Bebber brothers mentioned here, was referenced ahead of his elder brothers, Isaac and Matthijs (Mathias), because he had remained longer in Utrecht. While Isaac and Mathias Van Bebber had emigrated to Germantown before 1690, Hendrik had stayed behind, choosing to raise his family in Utrecht. He had been a merchant and owner of a shop and several buildings in Utrecht, finally emigrating to Middletown, Delaware, in 1720. Hubertus Van Bebber, a resident of Utrecht, representing the Van Bebber family there, was a son of Hendrick Van Bebber. Margareta Oortman, the first party mentioned in the 1724 document, was the sister (and heir) of Anneke Oortman, who was the second wife of Mathijs Van Dulcken, Styntje's brother. They married in 1694.

 

From these two documents, written about three hundred years ago, we have learned a great deal. We now know that Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber's wife was Styntje Van Dulcken, whose brothers lived in Krefeld, and whose nephews lived in Utrecht. From this and from other documents found in Utrecht, part of three generations of the Mathijs Van Dulcken family tree can be constructed, and is shown below. Christina-Styntje and her siblings appear in bold case. The patronym, or father's name, is shown as the middle name of the sons.

 

Family of Styntje Van Dulcken, wife of Isaac Jacobs Van Bebber (partial family tree):

 

Mathijs Van Dulcken. Married 1. Janneken Bongaerts; 2. Annika Oortman

Styntje Van Dulcken. Wife of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber              

    Isaac (Jacobs) Van Bebber

    Mathijs (Jacobs) Van Bebber

          Hendrick (Jacobs) Van Bebber

                   Mathijs (Hendricks) Van Bebber

                   Hubertus (Hendricks) Van Bebber

Arent Van Dulcken [wife unknown; died before 1724]

         Tryntje Arets Van Dulcken

Hendrick Van Dulcken. His wife was Niesje Abinga.

          Mathijs (Hendricks) Van Dulcken

          Hendrick (Hendricks) Van Dulcken

Peter Van Dulcken, deceased before 1701. His wife was Anna Woestenraedt.

          Hester Pieters Van Dulcken. Her husband was Cornelis Van Heuven.

          Abraham (Pietersson) Van Dulcken. His wife was Wilhelma Mack.

                   Anna Van Dulcken

          Hendrick (Pietersson) Van Dulcken

 

Now the identity of Christiana van Bebber, wife of Jacob Van Bebber (the elder), buried in St. Stephen's Church in Cecil County, Maryland, is known. Styntje Van Dulcken, who had journeyed with her husband to the american colonies, was the mother and grandmother of a family whose descendents have spread far and wide. Thanks to the notarial documents of Utrecht, some of those descendents are now learning her name for the first time  We like to think Styntje is pleased to finally be recognized.

 

 

Sources and Acknowledgements

 

Oud Notarieel Archief van Utrecht

Doopregisters, Doopsgezinde Kerk, Utrechts Archief

Huwelijken voor het gerecht, Utrechts 1661-1690.

Begraafregisters, Utrechts Archief

Register of Marriages, Births, and Burials Vol. I - North Sassafras Parish: St. Stephen Church.

 

Transcription and translations of documents from Dutch to English by the authors, Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson

 

 

© 2012 Cor Snabel and Elizabeth Johnson. Free use can be made of the above for personal genealogical research, but commercial or for-profit use is strictly prohibited. Contact the authors for further informatiuon.

 

Contact the authors:

Cor Snabel, Netherlands. e-mail: cor.snabel@gmail.com

Elizabeth Johnson, USA. e-mail: iris.gates@gmail.com

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