No 8 - March 2005
Editor of this issue: Carsten Berg Høgenhoff, Oslo, Norway.

Contents

• The year 2004
• NST XXXIX-4 - English version
• Schepen and schout in 's-Gravenzande
• Huguenot refugee or work imigrant?
• About Ahasverus and his siblings' children
• Sweris Sweris Laroche - Ahasverus' illegitimate child in Monster
• Petronella Arctander
• Corrigenda
  
  
• For other SIEC Newsletters, see contents in Chapter 1 of the The SIEC-pages.

The year 2004
Although still quiet on most fronts, 2004 brought some achievements. Below follows an extended translation of my article on page 452-454 in Norsk Slektshistorisk Tidsskrift (NST) Vol XXXIV-4 (2004), with updates of the 2003 article in the same publication (see a short, English summary of that article in Newletter # 7). The 2004 article is titled Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche - family history in The Netherlands and Norway - Addenda et corrigenda.

Already while in print, Gerard reported about Ahasverus' hitherto unknown son in Monster, and the update article quickly was in need of a little updating itself. This is included below, together with some other information not included in the printed version.

NST XXXIX - 4 / Addenda & Corrigenda
Gerard, SIEC's contact in Monster, reports that Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche had a high position in the village of 's-Gravenzande in the time shortly before he emigrated to Norway.

Schepen and schout - member of the city board and sherrif in 's-Gravenzande
Documents dated 2nd May 1656 mention Ahasverus as schepen. This was a public office that could include many responsibilities, from judge and administrative authority to member of the city council. On 4t July the same year, he is mentioned as shout, or sherrif in English, and the next year, on 25h March 1657, he was a substituut schout. Two months later, on 29th May 1657, he is again mentioned as schepen.

This means that Ahasverus was among the ruling class in 's-Gravenzande.

s-Gravenzande 1650. Click on image for larger map. From the history site  http://www.lwkoppenol.nl/sgravenzande.htm. Click here for main page of the same site.

More or less at this time he must have been hired by Danish-Norwegian authorities as a captain in the New Trondheim National Infantry Regiment, and from 15th June 1657 he is listed in Norwegian military service. His artillery skills must have counted most, but his experience as a shout and a schepen may be some of the reason why this artillery expert was hired as a captain. Partly, it may also explain why it was Ahasverus who was given the trust and the financial funds to return to The Netherlands to buy weapons for the planned Jemtland war.

's-Gravenzande lies south of The Hague and approximately 4 km south-east of Monster, where Ahasverus' mother and other family members had lived since approx. 1641/42. Ahasverus' own, known addresses in the same period is first in The Hague, in 1647, and later in 's-Gravenzande.

Image to the right: s'Gravenzande 1793. From Cobie and Leendert Koppenol's website http://www.lwkoppenol.nl.

Huguenot refugee or work emigrant?
In the text to an illustration on page 79 in the 2003 article, I write that we upon all judgement may count the de Créqui dit la Roches among the Huguenot refugees. This was not my exact meaning. The family were Huguenots, and they may have been refugees - but one cannot be certain. Because Ahasverus' father, Jean de Créqui dit la Roche, is known from Dutch (military) sources no earlier than 1607, he may just as well have been one of the many French mercenaries who stayed behind and continued their careers in The United Netherlands after its independence from Spain was secured in 1609. We cannot say for sure if they were refugees or plain work emigrants, in other words, but the evidence may count in the way of work emigration.

About Ahasverus and his siblings' children
See also SIEC Newsletter # 3, January 2001.
There are a few new pieces of information to add about two of Ahasverus' children:

1. ALIDA, baptized in 's-Gravenzande on 22nd October 1651. Witnesses: The father, Geertruijt de Créqui and Jannetje Cornelis.
2. CATHARINA, baptized in 's-Gravenzande in 1st January 1654. Witnesses: The father and his brohter-in-law, Parcevael.

On page 59 in the 2003 article, Olaf Jæger's information in his 1934 NST article that Ahsverus should have four more - and named - children, is proven wrong.  Further information confirm that these were the children of Ahasverus' broter, Jean de Créqui dit la Roche:

1. JOHANNES, baptized in Monster on 23rd May 1655
2. ARADINA, baptized in 's-Gravenzande on 21st January 1657. Witnesses: The father and Barentje Hendricks Aelbrinck.
3. ARADINE, baptized in 's-Gravenzande on 30th June 1658. Witnesses: The father and Barentje Hendricks Aelbrinck.
4. JOHANNES, baptized in 's-Gravenzande on 5th November 1659. Witnesses: The father and (his sister), Ms. (Judith) Parcevael.
   

The church records of 's-Gravenzande state the name of the father only at baptisms, while the Monster church records state both parents. From these records, we know that Jean was married to Clara van Nuwlant. An unnamed child was buried in Monster on 7th February 1657. The father is stated as jonker Johan dit Laros. This child may have been Aradina, but one cannot say this with certainty.

Judith de Créqui, Ahasverus' sister, and her husband Sierius de Parchevael buried two unnamed children in Naaldwijk, the first on 7th July 1639 and the second on 13th January 1644. The church bells rang for the last one in the village of Monster.

Sweris Sweris Laroche - Ahasverus' illegitimate child in Monster
Our source to the follwoing is SIEC's contact in Monster, Gerard. This chapter is expanded as compared to the 2004 article in NST. See also Chapter 11-3.

The archives in Monster inform us about a Sweris Sweris Laroche - or Swerus Sweruszoon Laroche - first mentioned in militia list for the year 1672. While NST XXXIX-4 was in print by December 2004, the ties between the de Créqui dit la Roche family and Sweris were not yet certified. Thus, the article merely mentioned him due to a name which certainly hinted a connection. New information soon surfaced:  

Swerus Sweruszoon Laroche was first mentioned in militia list for the year 1672. The list is an inventory of able bodied men between 16 and 60 years of age - indicating that Swerus was born no later than 1656. He must have been born no earlier than 1641/42, which was the time the de Créqui dit la Roche family settled in Monster. Ahasverus denied any connection to the baby boy, but based upon the court records we must acknowledge his fatherhood.

Undated court record show that Sweris was the illegitimate child of Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche. The mother was Elisbeth [Betje] Adriaens, born in 1620. She came from a respected family in Monster, on the other side of the Vaart, and close to where the de Créqui family lived. Elisabeth was the daughter of Adriaen Claesz Vooijs and his first wife Trijntje Willems.

Betje's insinuation was that she and Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche had bodily conversation on several occasions, and that there was no other man. One of the midwives' obligations were to ask during labour for the father's name, and Betje confirmed while giving birth that Ahsverus was the father.  

In such situations, customary obligations for a mother were to:

• A: send the child to the father immediately after giving birth, thus forcing him to ackowledge or reject the child, or
• B: take the father to court for alimony and costs of defloration of the mother
  

Betje took the case to court, demanding alimony for the child, payment of birth costs and a sum for her defloration; a total of 600 Guilders, which was a considerable sum of money. Three hearings appeared where the father or his solicitor was ordered to appear. Ahasverus had rejected her claim, but did not appear in court. After this, with the child by then 20 weeks old, she handed the case to the court to take action. Alas, there is no date or year on these documents, they simply describe the situation until the hand-over [to the court]. However, the fact that Swerus carried the patronymicon and family name after Ahasverus, must mean that the court has decided in her favour and declared him as the father.

There is no proof that Betje ever got married, but she was still alive in 1685. At her grandchildren's baptisms, she were not listed as a witness, but her niece witnessed on two occasions.

Since we have no date or year, we cannot know whether Swerus was born before or after Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche got married to Judith Sweers in 1648. There is no mentioning of broken wedding vows in Betje's insinuations, but on the other side no mentioning that Ahasverus should already be married to another woman.

Sweris Sweris Laroche married in 1685 and had at least five children born between 1686 and 1698. He is absent on most tax lists, and seems to have been quite poor.

Bartholomus de Créqui Chevalier, Sr. de la Roche
The artillery officer Bartholomeus de Créqui, Chevalier, Sr. de la Roche is presented on pages 81-85 in NST XXXIX-1. Despite the fact that he was dismissed from his position in 1642 because he had been absent for twelve years, we have found him in a Dutch source in the year 1638. I refer to SIEC Chapter 5-2 for further comments. The fact that Bartholomeus was in The Netherlands in 1638 does not necessarily influence on the analysis made in the 2003 article in connection with his probable daughter Jeanne, born in London in 1646.

Petronella Arctander
The NST 2004 article updates the 2004 article with some new information about Petronella Arctander, dead before 1631 There is a deeper analysis of this subject in SIEC Chapter 11-2-2 (in Norwegian).

Corrigenda
A few mistakes in the 2003 article are corrected:

• In note 155 in the 2003 article, it is stated that Sweers Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia, was named after a Cornelis Sweers. The name appears in many texts about the naming of Sweers Island. However, Robert Logan Jack shows that this island was named after the advisor at the VOC, Salomon Sweers. He was Judith Sweers' uncle, and had close contact both with his niece and with Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche. An short explanation is given in the NST 2004 article, but an even closer presentation of these facts may be read in the Comments to Chapter 12-2: Sweers Island and Salomon Sweers. The text there will be even further updated in due time.
  
  
• On page 28, under the year 1612, there is a reference to note 28. The correct reference should be to note 18.
  
  
• On page 56, which is the ahnentafeln for the Sweers family, the years "Abt 1577 to after 1623" should not refer to Willem de Vinck, but to his wife Maria, cfr. 2nd column page 58.
  
  
• On page 54, 17th generation, it is stated that Ahasverus de Créqui dit la Roche and his wife Judith Sweers were married on 1st August 1648. This was the date for the publication of their coming wedding, in her parish church in Amsterdam. The couple got married on 1st October 1648, according to Jæger (1934).

• The actual seal referred to on page 56 (Sweers Ahnentafeln) in connection with Vice Admiral Isaac Sweers, did not belong to him but to his grandson of the same name. However, the two carried the same coat of arms, even though the Vice Admiral may have used two.

• In note 207, fifteen lines from the bottom, it is said that Gudve Larsdotter was born in 1797. However, the woman who married the carpenter Nicolay Castberg Jæger in 1817 was another Gudve Larsdotter, born 1785 as the daughter of Lars Knutsson from Bø in Rundalen (1750-1813) and Brita Eilivsdotter from Skiple (born 1754). Olaf Jæger seems to have been confused by the fact that two women named Gudve Larsdotter got married at Voss in 1817. According to the Norwegian census 1801, 72 girls and women were named Gudve in all of Norway. Among these, 66 were in the county Hordaland and among these again, 62 lived at the Voss community - and as many as ten of these had the name Gudve Larsdotter!

All material written in this newsletter has been compiled by members of SIEC and is believed to be correct, but is not guaranteed in any way. Use at own risk if copied or used for personal research.

The SIEC newsletter No 8 - March 2005

Carsten Berg Høgenhoff