Honor where credit is due.

Let's start this website about Willem de Vlamingh not immediately with new information on our hero and protagonist, but about his wife Willempie. Until now we only knew her name: Willempie Cornelisdochter, sometimes also written as Willempje or Willemtie Cornelis. Let us now give her a face and a family. After all, she is the backbone of the whole family when the enterprising sailor went off to sail the seas. Without a strong home front Willem de Vlamingh might never have set sail to find the unknown South Land?!

Willempie's father

Willem and his Willempie got married in november 1668. Only five months later Willem applied for burgership in the city of Amsterdam. This registration states he is married to Willempie Cornelis, daughter of Cornelis Albertsz, and that is how we know the name of Willempie's father.

The fact that Willem Hesselsz Vlamingh officially registered himself as burgher of Amsterdam on April 3, 1669 does not mean he actually had to live there. 

Years earlier, in 1640, when Cornelis Albarts himself became a burgher of Amsterdam (on August 11), he is registered as a "Lichterman" (someone working at a special ship in the docs) from Vlieland. So originally Willempie's family - at least from her fathers site - was also from the isle of Vlieland!

Photograph from the Poorterboeken in the Stadsarchief of Amsterdam of April 3, 1669

On this occasion it is said about Cornelis that he was a lighter man. This means he had made his profession out of lightening ships. With special boats - called lighters - goods were unloaded from larger seagoing vessels in the harbor of Amsterdam. Willempie's father worked on one of them. In Holland this group of workers even had their own guild.

When Cornelis Alberts once registered himself as a burgher of Amsterdam, in 1640 (the year Willem de Vlamingh was born), he called himself a lighterman "near Vlieland". Perhaps this meant he did his work near Vlieland, for we know for a fact he himself was not from that island.

A year after his burghership, on December 28, 1641, bargeman Cornelis Alberts (1)  was able to buy his own "lighter". The ship was called De Jonge Bestevaer and was moored at the Damrak (now Damsquare). The Rokin used to be a canal and you could sail straight through from the IJ to the Dam.

Willempie's father has been able to make a good living with this profession. This became evident from the last deed we encounter about him in the notarial books. On December 5, 1672, Willem and Willempie enter the office of Salomon van der Sluijs in Amsterdam.

He describes Willem Hesselsz Vlamingh not only as a commander on Greenland (which means he sails as a captain with his ship to Greenland to catch whales). The notary also states, Willem came along in his capacity as the husband and guardian of Willempje Cornelisdaughter. Did Willempie need a guardian? Maybe this is because she is still underage, for you became an adult at 25 years of age in those days. Or maybe the reason goes deeper: for centuries, women were not seen as competent to act, they were way too emotional!

Anyway, Willempie is the legal heir of the late Cornelis Albarts Craachom and inherits two bonds, together wurth about twelve hundred guilders. A lot of money!

Unfortunately there is nothing more to be found about the meaning of this strange addition “Craachom”. All new information we find brings more questions along :-)

Willempie's mother

In the year 1668, on November 10, the two lovers, Willem and Willempie, registered in Amsterdam. The groom is 28 years old and his bride-to-be is 20 years old. An age difference of eight years. So Willempie must have been born somewhere around 1648, sadly nothing about her birth can be found in Amsterdam or on the Wadden Islands.

If we take a close look at the marriage certificate, we read that Willem Hesselse Vlaming van Vlieland is assisted by his mother Tryntie Cornelis and that someone called Tryntie Christaens from the Lindengracht has come to assist Willempie Cornelis, who was born in Amsterdam (2). Would the lady who assisted Willempie be her mother, we wondered? However, that is not stated in the record. The relationship between the bride and Mrs. Christiaens is not specified. The record also does not state that her parents died either, as is customary when both parents are dead and cannot testify at a marriage.

So we as laymen first assumed Trijntje Christiaens would be Willempie's mother, but fortunately there are observant and cooperative archivists who can protect us from these kinds of mistakes and in this case the unsurpassed Harmen Snel of the Amsterdam City Archives put us on the right track.

The solution to this problem lies in the street name mentioned in the marriage certificate:

The marriage certificate of Willem en Willempie.

Stadsarchief Amsterdam, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 492, page 460

This certificate tells us Willem de Vlamingh originally comes from Vlieland and still lives there. And Willempie is said to be from Amsterdam. She lives there on the Lindengracht.

On the day of her marriage, Willempie was not assisted by her mother, but simply by a neighbour!

Still, the question remains: who was Willempie's mother?

The answer can simply be found in the marriage registers of Amsterdam, where on January 3, 1637 Cornelis Alberts of Terschelling marries Evertje Gerrits of Vlieland (aged 24 and 18 respectively). So both Willem de Vlamingh's parents-in-law originally came from the Wadden Islands and his wife Willempie has roots on Vlieland through her mother's side!

Stadsarchief Amsterdam, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 647, blad 89 (pag.177)

None of the birth registers (neither in Amsterdam nor on the Wadden Islands) mention the names of other children of this couple. If they were Anabaptists that is exactly what you can expect. In this religion people allowed themselves to be baptized at a later age. Large groups of Anabaptists lived on both Vlieland and Terschelling, where both Willempie's parents came from. So we were unable to find siblings.

In spite of this, we did discover a brother of Willempie!

Willempie's brother

On November 20, 1669, a man named Willem Blamingh (with a B) entered the office of notary Anthonij van de Ven in Amsterdam. At first we did not think this person had anything to do with our Willem. Until we saw his signature. The man signs the deed with “Willem Vlamingh” (with a V). Take a close look at the attached photo, it is clearly a V!

Stadsarchief van Amsterdam: archiefnummer 5075, inventarisnummer 3609, blad 213 verso (pag. 227)

Our Willem often called himself in official documents by his full name, Willem Hessels de Vlamingh, so the question arises whether this is our adventurous voyager?

The deed mentions a sad incident. The socalled Willem Blamingh says he is the brother-in-law of Gerrit Cornelis. A sailor who had recently fell overboard into the sea and drowned.

As we know, Willem de Vlamingh's wife was named Willempie Cornelis. The man who drowned was called Gerrit Cornelis and could therefore well have been her brother. So the statement that Gerrit was Willem Blamingh's brother-in-law could perfectly fit with our Willem de Vlamingh. Moreover, Willempie's mother was called Evertje Gerrits. This means Evertje had a father called Gerrit and it is therefore only natural she would name a possible son Gerrit, after her father.

If this is true, Willempie has just lost her brother and everyone in the family must be in deep mourning. That could explain why Willem Hesselszoon de Vlamingh shortens his name to Willem Vlamingh. In times of grief, man limits himself to the essentials. Moreover, we will see both their children Cornelis and Evertje usually only call themselves Vlaming and only seldom De Vlamingh.

Another clue that convinces us the man in the office of Anthonij van de Ven is our Willem, is the name of Louis Quickelenbergh (a merchant in Amsterdam) popping up at the end of the text (this passage has something to do with the money Gerrit earned on the ship). As will become clear from the next chapter, this Louis Quickelenburg is an old acquaintance of our Willem de Vlamingh.

All in all, the B in Willem Blaming turns out to be just a typo and we are dealing with the real Willem de Vlamingh here in our opinion! We are moved to realize Willem's nose may have been blocked with tears or maybe he had a lump in his throat from grief, so therefore the notary probably did not hear his name properly.

Because of this unfortunate accident, we now know Willempie had a brother named Gerrit who drowned at sea! During that time Willem and Willempie have been married for only one year and they just had their first son (Hessel) a month ago. Willempie is about 21 years of age, so her brother could not have been very old either. What a family tragedy and how afraid she must have been - like any other skipper's wife - for the lives of her husband and son Cornelis during that great expedition to Terra Australis Incognita!!

Willempie's grandfather

It was only because of the detective skills of Harmen Snel - senior archivist of the city archives in Amsterdam -  we now know the names of Willempie's grandfather and an aunt. He found a deed from notary Arnoldus Commelin dated May 14, 1725 (long after all the main players had died) in which a second cousin of Willempie sold two bonds. One bond worth 1,500 guilders was in the name of Cornelis Alberts Kraaghzom (Willempie's father). The other bond was worth 1,000 guilders and once belonged to a certain Gerrit Cornelis Mot. The deed also states how the second cousin obtained these bonds. This way we could follow the long family line back in time and it shows Gerrit Cornelis Mot was Willempie's grandfather. Her sister's name was Lijsbeth (6).

Provisional family tree of Willempie's family

Harmen Snel also conjured up some other interesting facts about Gerrit Cornelis Mot. He found out Willempie's grandfather (like her dad) had been a lighterman and that on March 24, 1642 he sold a house on Oost-Vlieland to the local baker for 700 guilders (7).

On January 21, 1633, grandfather Gerrit Cornelis Mot also bought a house and yard on the south side of the Lindengracht (9) for 713 guilders.

Willempie's profession

We know about Willempie's profession, because in the reports of the church council of 1692 she is classified among the suppliers of beer to the old men's house. It literally says (in Dutch):

On Februari 15, the nobel Church Council - united in fear of the Lord - has decided to prevent all disturbances in the future regarding the supply of beer to the old men's house. From now on, these deliveries will be made by the persons listed below in order:

This list made us very happy for it is telling us a few things. Firstly, Willempie was not the only woman on the island who occupied this profession (someone with the name of Swaentjen is definitely also a woman). What pleases us most, is that Willempie will only be appointed in two years' time; from the whole course of events we get the strong impression Willempie and her family simply lived permanently on Vlieland (and not in Amsterdam, where they were registered as burghers).

Something else strikes us looking at the list: Willempie is called by her husband's surname. Nowadays it is quite common practice, but in that time married women would usually keep their own last name. In the official documents presented earlier in this chapter, she is consistently called Willempie Cornelis (in all kinds of spelling variaties). Here, in the report of the church council and in the vernacular, she apparently is also known as Willempie Vlaminghs.

One can imagine our surprise when we saw her name - Willemtie Cornelis housewife of Willem Vlaming, biersteekster on Oost Vlielant - all the way in Amsterdam in the books of a notary Simon van Sevenhoven (11). She did not make the trip herself. Instead she asked two sailors to testify on her behalf in the capital. Independently of each other, the men responded to her request.

On July 22, 1690 Marten Cornelisz of Terschelling, 26 years old, arrived at the office of this notary in Amsterdam. Marten claims he has been sailing with the Vlieland skipper Ide Gerritsz since June, on the galleot the Scholler (which he tenderly calls schepie - like maybe shippy in English). On their way to Trondheim they moored at Vlieland.

On the island, a man called Alof Pietersz (12) has summoned young Marten and his fellow boatman Age Jansz to come to the house of the secretary in Oost-Vlieland (13), who is keeping an inn there. 

Apparently Alof Pietersz had several functions on Vlieland, because Marten tells us he later found out the man was the local impost master (someone who collected tax). For some basic necessities of life - such as grain, beer and salt - taxes had to be paid. Apparently the tax collector did not trust the business of the bierstekers in general or of Willempie in particular? In any case, Marten reports he and his shipmate were generously treated to heavy beer and wine by Alof and were deliberately made drunk. Then the impost master persuaded them to tell him how many barrels of beer had been delivered to the galliot they sailed on.

Marten now claims in front of the notary in Amsterdam he was actually no longer able to make a truthful statement. Unfortunately he did so anyway due to his drunkenness. In normal life the boy could not read or write at all, let alone under those circumstances. That is why his mate Age Jansz eventually put a mark under the statement in Marten's name. Afterwards, Marten no longer knew what he had done and to this day he declares he still does not know what he said to the impost master that night.

We too do not know what was in that original statement. We can guess though. The drunken young man probably mentioned a higher number of beer kegs delivered than on which Willempie had paid tax to the impost master. We can imagine Willempie got into a lot of trouble because of this. Instead of leaving it, she fights for her right. She tracked down Marten and after she had questioned the boy, she apparently asked him to have his story officially recorded at the office of a notary.

In order to clear her name against the suspicion of fraud, Willempie also needs a statement from the skipper to whom she had delivered the barrels. More than two weeks after Marten gave his testimony, the skipper of the Scholler also arrives in person before the same notary (11). His statement is added to Marten's deed.

Skipper Ide Gerritsz Scholler of Vlieland states he was indeed in that period with his galliot - the Jonge Scholler - moored on Vlieland to go to Trondheim. The skipper also confirmed he himself took a number of barrels of beer from Willempie, even before the ship's crew arrived on board. This first amount of beer was consumed by the carpenters and other members who came on board to work on the ship.

Later on the skipper bought more kegs of beer from Willempie and consumed them with his crew members. He received a total of seven and a half barrels from her and he paid the bill. All in decent order. The skipper declares loud and clear he has not received more kegs than he has stated. We may therefore conclude the suspicions of embezzlement by Alof the impost master were unfounded.

This story gives us a wonderful insight into Willempie's life and her profession. She was suspected of deceit, yet she turned out to be in good faith. She fought for her rights and clearly stood her ground, because she got two tough sailors to testify for her all the way in Amsterdam!

Willempie's personality

Which brings us to Willempie's character. All documents show she was an independent and enterprising woman (14). In addition to working as a beer merchant and having leased the right to collect beer excise, she single handedly invests money and makes large purchases herself. On January 27, 1694, for example, she buys what we call a pilot boat from skipper Foppe Obbesz and Neel Pieters (15) for the generous sum of no less than 355 guilders, while Willem had sailed to sea just three weeks earlier. The year before they had bought a whole house in the Achteromstraat together for 219 guilders, so a barge for 355 was a serious purchase. Who knows, maybe this pilot boat was intended as a retirement investment and maybe Willem  thought about a new carrier of guiding ships through the dangerous Dutch waters instead of always being away from home for so long. In 1696, Willempie also personally sold one of their properties at number 165 Groote Straat (the main village street) to whaler Cornelis Jansz Boodt.

Also in matters of faith, Willempie does not let herself be fooled. In the winter of 1683, the island needed a new pastor. The church council proposed two candidates from the mainland. The residents of Vlieland revolted, because they preferred someone from the island itself. Willempie is sometimes believed to be one of the three leaders of this protest, although we are not quite sure (16).

The church council appointed one of their own candidates anyway, without any consultation: Mr. Backer - an unemployed minister from Suriname. They used an illegal and secret ballot behind the backs of the islanders. Leaving the residents of Vlieland no other choice than to appeal to the High Court of Holland. The day the new pastor arrived on Vlieland, a summons from this court is waiting for him on the island. He has to report to The Hague because of the wrongfully conducted procedure and eventually pastor Backer is appointed as a minister in the Dutch East Indies.

The church council still did not learn their lesson and again appointed single-handedly a minister for the Nicolaas church on Vlieland. So the islanders took to the streets with kettles, making noise as loud as they could in protest. Can you imagine them walking through the village, shouting in anger and banging their kettles?

Although Willempie didn't get her way this time, this incident shows she certainly stood her ground. Willem de Vlamingh's wife comes across as a sturdy, resolute lady. An independent woman who rolled up her sleeves, stood up against injustice and helped others by lending them money or standing surety. Really the type of woman a tough sailor could use as a wife!