Chapter 9: The Tentenier Family


 

The Tentenier Family

 

by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson

 

 

Judith Tentenier, the wife of Caspar Varlet, was a child of Abraham Tentenier and his first wife, Jenne du Pont. At least one other daughter from this marriage is known: Jannegen Tentenier, also called Jeanne. [1] Both daughters were probably born in Cologne, before the family came to Utrecht. [2]

 

Jannegen Tentenier married Hendrik de Heusch in the Geertekerk in Utrecht on 25 October 1608. [3] Hendrik de Heusch was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, and died of the plague in November 1636, in Utrecht. [4] Jannegen Tentenier died after January 1640 when she was sponsor at the baptism of her niece Catarina Tentenier. [5]

 

After the death of his first wife, Abraham Tentenier married Magdaleine Sanders van Os. Their marriage intention was registered in Amsterdam on 8 August, 1598; she was assisted by her mother, Isabelle de Heusch. [SAA DTB 408, p. 374]. Their banns were also posted in Cologne, where Abraham then resided. He amd Magdalena had at least 9 more children. Probably four of these children were born in Cologne, then around 1605 the family moved to Utrecht, where the younger five were born. Abraham died between November 1615 and October 1616, and Magdaleine died in De Bilt on 8 April 1667, and was buried in the Catharina Kerk in Utrecht. [6]

 

Children from this second marriage were:

 

i. Abraham Tentenier, probably born in Cologne about 1600. He married on the 28th of November 1626 in the Geertekerk in Utrecht to Antonia Tijnagel. [7] She died in Wijk bij Duurstede on 22 September 1691, [8] and he died there on 19 August 1693. [8]

ii. Isaac Tentenier, probably born in Cologne about 1600. He first married Maria Helena Schot and second to Sabina Edmond.

iii. Catharina Tentenier, probably born in Cologne. She married in 1633 in the French Church in Utrecht to Gijsbert de Wijkersloot. [9] She died in July 1640 and was buried in the Catharijne Kerk in Utrecht. [10]

iv. Ester Tentenier, probably born in Cologne. She married Arnoldus Lus.

v. Jacob Tentenier, baptized on 11 August 1605 in the Walloon Church in Utrecht. [11] He married Anna Warmonts, who died in July 1649 and was buried in the Catharijne Kerk in Utrecht. [12] He remarried Reijnburch van Beaumont in December 1653 in Dordrecht. [13] Jacob Tentenier was buried on the 25th of January 1683 in the Catharijne Kerk. [14]

vi. Maria Tentenier, who married Johan Frederick Schleitzer. She died in April 1648 and was buried in the Catharijne Kerk in Utrecht. [15]

vii. Anne Tentenier, baptized on 14 February 1613 in the Walloon Church in Utrecht. [16] Died young, as there was a later daughter called Anne.

viii. Pierre Tentenier, baptized on 6 March 1614 in the Walloon Church in Utrecht. [17] He married in September 1661 Elisabeth de Coninck, Vrouwe tot Letterbert, widow of NN Wijfferinck. [18] He died in April 1673 and was buried in de Bilt. [19]

ix. Anne Tentenier, baptized on 1 November 1615 in the Walloon Church in Utrecht. [20]

 

Several of Judith's half-brothers and sisters became prominent in the Utrecht region. Isaac Tentenier became a member of the City Council of the town Utrecht. He first married Maria Helena Schot, with whom he had at least one daughter, Elisabeth Sabina Tentenier, baptized in the Dom Kerk in Utrecht on 16 May 1653. [21] His second wife, Sabina Edmond, had inherited the country estate Vrijheidslust in De Bilt from her first husband Adolff van Ruytenbeeck, who died before 1670. On 19 April 1680 Vrijheidslust was sold, together with the 'desolate estate and goods' of Isacq Tentenier en Sabina Edmond, so they both must have died shortly before that date. Sabine Edmond was the daughter of Sir Willem Edmond and his wife, Agneta Berck. [22] Sir Willem Edmond, colonel of the Old Scottish Regiment in the Service of the United Netherlands, had been knighted in 1599 by King James VI of Scotland.

 

Catharina Tentenier married Gijsbert de Wijkersloot, another member of the City Council of the town Utrecht. [9] Maria Tentenier's husband was Johan Frederick Schleitzer, councilor to the King of Brandenburg. Abraham Tentenier became Mayor of Wijk bij Duurstede, [23] a town east of Utrecht.

 

Mayor Abraham Tentenier and his wife Antonia Tijnagel had at least seven children.

 

i. Aeltgen/Aletta/Aleyda Tentenier, baptized on 20 March 1628 in the Dom Kerk in Utrecht. [24] She married Lodewijck de With, [25] and with him had a daughter Amelia who married Salomon Goossens.

ii. Abraham Tentenier, baptized 14 March 1630 in the Dom Kerk in Utrecht. [26]

iii. Francina Tentenier, born about 1632; died unmarried on 2 July 1710 in Utrecht, and was buried in Wijk bij Duurstede. [27]

iv. Anna Tentenier, baptized on 2 September 1634 in the Geertekerk in Utrecht; [28] died unmarried after 1722. [29]

v. Magdalena Tentenier, baptized on 28 June 1637 in the Walloon Church in Utrecht. [30] She married Johan Melchior Kohl, son of Johan Kohl, merchant of Luebeck, and of Catharina van Harseel. [31] Johan Melchior Kohl died in Schalkwijk and was buried in December 1721 in the Nicolai Kerk in Utrecht. [32] Magdalena died after 1722. [29]

vi. Catarina Tentenier, baptized in January 1640 in Utrecht. [5] She married Dirck Dirckszen de With. [33] She was buried on 28 June 1706 in the Nieuwe Kerk in Rotterdam. [34] They had two daughters, Catherina and Aletta de With, of whom more follows below.

vii. Agneta Tentenier, baptized on 12 May 1644 in the Nicolai Kerk in Utrecht.[35] She is probably the Tentenier daughter who married Jacob Kohl, brother of Johan Melchior Kohl.[36]

 

Of these Tentenier siblings, two of the daughters never married. Two married merchants. One of these families left an unusual glimpse into an often invisible darker side of human existence, as seen through documents found in the Rotterdam notarial archives.

 

Catharina Tentenier, born in 1640 in Utrecht, [5] married Dirck Dirksz. de With, a wood merchant. They had two daughters, Catharina and Aletta. Apparently, Dirck had a terrible temper, which he regularly exercised upon his wife and daughter. According to a notarial act filed in Utrecht in 1692, a maid who had served in the de With household between 1683 and 1686, and from 1689-1690 describes his fits of "duyvels boosheyt" (devilish malice), in which he beat Catharina quite badly, "day upon day and night upon night." During these episodes, the maid feared that de With would cause his wife's death. [37]

 

Other depositions reveal that Catharina Tentenier herself may have been more than a little unbalanced. On 21 January 1687, Catharina had her will made up by notary Daniel de Olijslager. One daughter Catharina de With clearly had been the apple of her mother's eye, while the other daughter had been rejected. The will specified that the daughter Catharina would inherit 5000 guilders, in addition to moveables such as clothing and jewelry, while the daughter Aletta was left entirely without an inheritance. [38]

 

Documents filed in 1704 reveal the reason why Aletta was not named in her mother's will. Then in her twenties and married to Willem Blom, she returned to the same notary her mother had used 17 years previously. Aletta was accompanied by Geesje Brinkmans, who had been a servant girl in her mother's household some ten years earlier, when Aletta was about twelve years old. Geesje testified that Aletta had been badly treated by her mother, who even went as far as accusing Aletta of trying to poison her. [39]

 

The girl in the box

 

One month later, on the 1st of August 1704, four women who for many years had been neighbors of the De Withs also testified about the bad treatment Aletta had received from her mother, which had been quite opposite to the way her sister Catharina was treated. [40]

 

On the 30th of August of that same year, Aletta de With appeared again before notary de Olijslager. This time she was accompanied by Catharina Velthuijsen, who some twenty years before had been a servant girl in the Amsterdam household of Aletta Tentenier, Catharina (Tentenier) de With's older sister. This witness narrated a tale in which Aletta de With at the age of five had been packed into a box by her mother, and shipped from Rotterdam to her aunt Aletta Tentenier's home in Amsterdam. The former servant also stated that Catharina (Tentenier) de With had often stated that her daughter Aletta de With was not her own child, but had been secretly exchanged for another by her wet-nurse. [41]

 

In a later deposition, the story of the substituted child was confirmed by another woman, Maria Jans, who once had spent the night in the house of Aletta Tentenier. While there, Amelia, the daughter of aunt Aletta Tentenier, a first cousin of Aletta de With, had told Maria the story of the little girl in the box. [42]

 

Dirck de With died some time after 1690, probably in Rotterdam. Catharina Tentenier, his widow, never did remarry. She died two years after the series of depositions were made on behalf of her daughter Aletta, and was buried on the 28th of June 1706 in the Nieuwe Kerk in Rotterdam. [43]

 

Aletta resorted to the courts in trying to obtain a fair share (half) of her parents' estate. Several documents in the Utrecht notarial archives prove that she fought her disinheritance from her mother's estate in the High Court of Holland. In 1716 her brother-in-law, professor Cornelis van Eck, attempted to withdraw some from his wife's share of the inheritance, but that was denied, depending resolution of Aletta's case, which was still in motion in the High Court. [44]

 

Coats of arms

 

Another interesting document, dated the 6th of March 1682, was found in the Old Notarial Archives in Utrecht. [45] It contains the descriptions of the coats of arms of all four grandparents of Maria Tentenier. Jacob Tentenier, then 77 years old, a son of the earlier Abraham Tentenier, testified that his sister Maria, who died in 1648, had been married to Johan Frederick Schleitzer [Sletser], councilor to the King of Brandenburg. The Schleitzers had at least two children: Magdalena Lucretia Sletser, who married Franciscus Sylvinis, professor of medicine at Leiden, and Jean Abraham (Johan) Sletser. In 1682, Johan Sletser, then living in Edinburgh, Scotland, apparently wanted to register the coats of arms of his mother's ancestors. Jacob Tentenier of Utrecht, Johan's uncle, and another relative, Hendrick de Heusch, postmaster in Utrecht, provided the details of these coats of arms. They described the four coats of arms as follows [translated]:

 

The father of Maria Tentenier was Abraham Tentenier, whose coat of arms was a silver tent on a blue field, her mother was Magdalena van Osch, whose coat of arms was three red ox-heads on a golden field. Her paternal grandmother was Catharina del Beeck, whose coat of arms was a silver rams head on a red field and the name of her maternal grandmother was de Heusch, whose coat of arms was a red flying arrow on a golden field.

 

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NOTES AND SOURCES

 

1. At the baptism of her son Guillaume Heusch on the 22nd of September 1612 the sponsors are Abraham Tintenier and his brother Guillaume Tintenier. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p16.

2. In their marriage intentions they are both "from Cologne." Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 91p264 and akte 90p391.

3. Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 90p391.

4. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 122p294.

5. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 3p345.

6. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 125p150.

7. Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 94p192. He is "from Cologne."

8. De Nederlansche Leeuw 1966, col. 408 (footnote)

9. Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 95p113.

10. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 122p530.

11. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p8.

12. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 123p273.

13. Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 97p481.

14. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 126p421.

15. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 123p180.

16. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p17.

17. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p23.

18. De Navorscher 1889 page 215

19. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 125p731

20. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p25.

21. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 5p85

22. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 122p645.

23. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U80a6, akte 438 dated 16 December 1681. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

24. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 2p104.

25. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U78a3, akte 196 dated 15 September 1681. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

26. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 2p222.

27. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 128p771.

28. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 3p115.

29. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U162a4, akte 56 dated 5 May 1722. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

30. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p92.

31. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U80a5, akte 241 dated 14 January 1679 and inv. nr. U118a3, akte 306, dated 8 June 1713. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

32. Utrechts Archief: begraafregister, akte 130p193

33. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U80a2, akte 96 dated 28 September 1671. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

34. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: begraafregister, inv. 44.

35. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 4p178.

36. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U80a6, akte 438 dated 16 December 1681, Jacob Kohl is mentioned as the son-in-law of Abraham Tentenier. He probably married Agneta Tentenier. In inv. nr. U118a4 akte 99, dated 16 May 1716 his grand-daughter was called Agneta Jacoba, probably named after her grandmother.

37. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U83b15, akte 25 dated 26 February 1692. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

38. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: Notarial archives, inv. nr. 1241, akte 2/4 dated 21 January 1687.

39. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: Notarial archives, inv. nr. 1246, akte 76/254 dated 3 July 1704.

40. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: Notarial archives, inv. nr. 1246, akte 82/283 dated 1 August 1704.

41. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: Notarial archives, inv. nr. 1246, akte 84/288 dated 30 August 1704.

42. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: Notarial archives, inv. nr. 1246, akte 89/314 dated 30 September 1704.

43. Gemeentearchief Rotterdam: begraafregister, inv. 44.

44. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U118a4, akte 95 dated 15 May 1716, inv. nr. U118a4, akte 99 dated 16 May 1716, inv. nr. U118a4, akte 102 dated 22 May 1716 and inv. nr. U118a4, akte 113 dated 20 August 1716. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

45. Utrechts Archief: Notarial archives, inv. nr. U80a7, akte 34 dated 6 March 1682. (transcription from digital image and translation by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson)

 

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© 2008, Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson