The family of Nicolaes Varlet and Francina Jacobs
by Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson
On the 12th of January, 1590, Nicolaes Varlet of Douai, France, married Francina Jacobs (Jacques) in Cologne, Germany. [1] Francina was a widow with a child from her previous marriage, Johannes Gelles, or Jillis, baptized on 31 January 1589 in the Dutch Reform Church of Cologne, Germany, as the posthumous child of his father, Robert Jilles. [Dutch Ref. Church Cologne 225:4a]. Nicholas Varlet married the widow Francina a year later. They were probably members of the Walloon Church in Cologne, although records of this church before the year 1600 are apparently lost.
The children of Nicholas Varlet and Francina Jacques, all born before 1600, were probably baptized in the Walloon Church of Cologne. Nicholas and Francina Varlet appear as baptism witnesses in the Walloon Church several times:
1603 Apr 26; Piere Cagnon; N.N.; Daniel; David Cousenaer, Nicolas Varle, the wife of Jean Breine [Walloon Church Cologne 221/6a]
1604 Oct 19; Venant de l'Eau; Barbe de Rancour; Marie; Jehan de Ninoue, Marie d'Oresmieux, Francoise Jacques widow [sic, = wife!] of Nicolas Varlet [Walloon Church Cologne 221/9a]
1605 Jul 28; Martin de Bernicourt; Rachel Madere; Isaac; Nicolas Varlet, Marie Cauchie, wife of Jehan Mouchon [Walloon Church Cologne 221/12]
1605 Oct 15; Jehan Scaops; Marguerite Ponton; Francoise; Samuel Guechier, Francoise wife of Nicolas Varlet; [Walloon Church Cologne 221/13a]
The above four baptism records were extracted by Cor Snabel in January, 2012.
Nicholas Varlet probably had a sister Catherine, who also moved to Cologne. Evidence for her existence also appears in records of the Walloon Church in Cologne:
1608 Apr 12; A Catherine d'Espenod fille de Rombeau et de [blank] tesmoinges Nicolas le Bouril et la fille de la vefue [de N (lined out)] Catherine Varlet. [Rombaud d'Espenol; N.N.; Catherine; Nicolas le Bouril, the daughter of the widow Catherine Varlet] [Walloon Church Cologne 221/20a]
1608 May 11; A Anne et Catherine Cornille filles gemelle de Jean Cornille et d' Anne Allart, tesmoings Jean Dou_?_er et Simon Allart son beaufrere et Elizabeth du Mortier et Catherine Varlet [Jean Corneille; Anne Allart; Anne + Catherine; Jean Dou_?_er, Simon Allart his brother-in-law, Elisabeth du Mortier, Catherine Varlet] [Walloon Church Cologne 221/20a].
The above two baptism records were transcribed by E Johnson in January 2012; English rendition by Cor Snabel in Jan., 2012.
It is unknown who this Catherine Varlet had married; also unknown is the name of her daughter.
The children of Nicolaes Varlet and Francina Jacobs were:
i. Caspar Varlet, born about 1593 in Cologne, died 1662 in Hartford, Connecticut. [2]
ii. Catrijna Varlet, born about 1595 in Cologne, died on the 18th of May 1652 in Amsterdam. [3]
iii. Daniel Varlet, born about 1597 in Cologne, died on the 3rd of January 1642 in Dunkirk, Flanders. [4]
iv. Pieter Varlet, born on the 18th of August 1598 in Cologne [5], died on the 29th of October 1661 in Amsterdam. [6]
Nicolaes Varlet died on the 18th of December 1605 in Cologne, [7] leaving behind his widow with at least five under-aged children. Francina Jacobs and her children moved north along the Rhine to Wesel, where she died only a few years later. Her son Pieter made the following entry in his family register. [8] He writes (translated):
Francina Jacobs, my mother, died in the year 1612, at 6 o'clock in the evening of Friday the 19th of October in Weesel, and was also buried there in our own grave; her age was 53 years.
When Francina died, her older son, Johannes Jelles, must have been 24 years old, and Pieter Varlet, the youngest was only 14. Soon after her death the children moved to Holland, settling in Utrecht. In October 1615, when Caspar Varlet married Judith Tentenier, he was described as "from Cologne and residing in Utrecht". [9]
Catrijna Varlet's husband was Severijn Hack. Their marriage is said to have taken place on the 30th of January 1618 in Cologne, and their first son, Joris, is said to have been baptized in Cologne on the 20th of March 1620, although documentation on these marriage and baptism dates are lacking.[10] Catrijna Varlet can first be placed with certainty in Utrecht on the first of November 1615, when she witnessed the baptism of Anna Tentenier in the Walloon Church there, [11] then appears in Amsterdam on the 19th of April 1622, at the baptism of her second child, Daniel [12] and thereafter.
In the 1620's, all four children of Nicolaes Varlet and Francina Jacobs, as well as her older son, Johannes Gelles, moved to Amsterdam.
Daniel Varlet was already living in Amsterdam when he married Sara Stafmakers in January 1623. [13] When their marriage intentions were filed in Amsterdam, he was accompanied by his half-brother Johannes Jelles, who died in Amsterdam less than two years later, on the 9th of November, 1624. [14]
Pieter Varlet was married in Utrecht in December 1626 to Machtelt Jans van Bree, but their marriage record states that he was living in Amsterdam. [15] All their children were baptized in Amsterdam.
Caspar Valet married Judith Tentenier, a daughter of Abraham Tentenier, on 17 October, 1615, in Utrecht. He was the last of his siblings to move from Utrecht to Amsterdam. In 1625 he filed a request with the Amsterdam authorities, requesting permission to move his silk factory to Amsterdam. [16] The first proof that the family was actually living in Amsterdam is found in the baptism records of Amsterdam, when his daughter Marija was baptized on the 7th of November 1627. [17]
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NOTES AND SOURCES
1. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014 (in Dutch, here translated): "Nicolaas Varlet & Francina Jacobs, my father and mother, were married in the year 1590, the 12th of January in Cologne." Marriage record in Registers of the Dutch Reformed Congregation in Cologne, Edition Brühl, Vol. 11 Köln - niederländ.-ref. Gemeinde (50667 Köln), by Patrimonium Transcriptum Verlags GmbH. page 16: "Den 12 Juny 1590 sijn ondertrouwt Francois Varle, soon van Pieter Varle van Doway, jongman, & Francyntge Jaque, weduwe van Robert Gele & naer gedane proclamatie sijn sij ehepardt bevestigt door Hermannes Faukelius, dienaer der Kercke alhier". NOTE: this record contains a large error! The bridegroom is Nicolaes Varlet, son of Francois. His father, Francois Varlet, may have been son of an earlier Pieter.
2. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. 1650 to 1663. Page 170 Name: Casper Varlett. (Inventory on File.) & Judith his wife, both decd. Invt. 02 05-14-00. Taken 22 September, 1662; p. 179, Court Record, 11 October, 1662: Invt. exhibited. Admin. granted to Nicholas Varlett.
3. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014: Cataarina Varlet, widow of cousin Hak, my dear sister, is resting in the Lord around 1 o'clock in the night between Saturday and Whit Sunday, the 18th of May 1652, after suffering from fever for 16 [days] and she was buried on the 22nd of May following in the Heiligesteegskerk next to her husband, in the grave of Jaques Hak. [note: Jacques Hack, owner of the grave, was Catrina's brother-in-law]
4. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014: 1642. Daniel Varlet, our brother, is resting in the Lord in Dunkirk at the home of Squire Franciscus Hiel, at half past one in the night between the 1st and the 2nd January, of sound mind, in the presence of cousin Jaques J. van Keulen, and is buried on the 3rd ditto outside Dunkirk at the Geuzenkerkhof. God grant him a holy resurrection.
5. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014: Pieter Varlet was born in the year 1598, the 18th of August at 6 o'clock in the evening, in Cologne. His sponsors were: Jacob Jacobs and Pieter Cangon.
6. Stadsarchief Amsterdam: begraafregister, akte 1047p87.
7. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014: Nicolaas Varlet, my father, died in the year 1605, at two o'clock at night on the 18th of December in Cologne, and was buried at the Geusenkerkhof, outside [Cologne], in our own grave.
8. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014.
9. Utrechts Archief: ondertrouwregister, akte 91p264.
10. In USGenweb archives for Accomack County, Virginia, is an entry entitled, "Survey Report, Hacks burying ground. Mason's property: 1938." This report gives the location of the Hack burial ground near Craddocksville, Virginia, and gives descriptions of the monuments and and inscriptions of those thought to be buried there. In the 1930's, then-owners of the property erected an obelisk in the memory of the earliest members of the Hack family, but the inscriptions contain inaccuracies.
11. Utrechts Archief: doopregister, akte 20p25.
12. Stadsarchief Amsterdam: doopregister, akte 40p166.
13. Stadsarchief Amsterdam: ondertrouwregister, akte 427p938.
14. Aantekening der Familie der Varletten. Drents archief, access nr. 0604, inv. nr. 014: Johannes Jelles, my brother, died in the year 1624, the 9th of November, in Amsterdam; his age was 36 years.
15. Stadsarchief Amsterdam: ondertrouwregister, akte 764p18.
16. Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van het bedrijfsleven en het gildewezen van Amsterdam, by J.G. van Dillen, publ. Nijhoff 's-Gravenhage 1929, Part 2, page 584-585, item 991.
17. Stadsarchief Amsterdam: doopregister, akte 6p189.
Next: The Caspar Varlet Family
Or, read about the Tentenier Family
© 2008, 2012, Cor Snabel and Elizabeth A. Johnson