Jan Aertz Schipper (ca 1605 – ?)

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   1. His childhood

The earliest progenitor of our branch was known only as Jan Aertz Schipper, the son of Adriaan Janz Schipper (1580 – ?). He was born in ca 1605 at Zeist, Utrecht Province in the Republic of Seven United Netherlands, also known as the Dutch Republic (now Kingdom of the Netherlands).1,2

Jan was born during the Eighty Years’ War, that lasted from 1568 to 1647.2 One wonders how he was affected by the war, whether he was siding with the revolutionists or the Spanish royalists, and what his thinking was on the members of the two ruling Houses and their struggle for power over the established Dutch Republic provinces.

By the end of 16th century, the Low Countries (corresponding mostly with present-day Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) consisted of 17 provinces under the rule of Roman Catholic Spain. The war was triggered by the Dutch Revolt of 1568 executed under the leadership of William I, Prince of Orange, who was the governor (Dutch title: Stadtholder) of the northern provinces Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland of the Low Countries (or Larger Netherlands).2-5 The revolt was directed against King Philip II of Spain “because of high taxes, persecution of Protestants by the government, and Philip’s efforts to modernize and centralize the devolved-medieval government structures of the provinces”.3 By 1581, the Northern Provinces declared their independence and established the Republic of Seven United Netherlands. The initial provinces included Frisia (Friesland), Guelders (Gelderland), Groningen & Ommeland, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland. Drenthe had such a low Dutch population that it was administered as part of Overijssel. The Dutch Republic existed until 1795 when Napoleon Bonaparte I of France invaded the republic and replaced it with his Batavian Republic.2-4 Read more on the history of the Netherlands. The provinces in the Dutch Republic were governed coherently by stadtholders who were members of the House of Orange-Nassau and the House of Nassau (the latter ruling mainly over Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen).4

   2. His wife

Jan married Gerridje NN (ca 1606 – ?) and together they had four children (as found in one secondary source).1

   3. His career

By the 1630s, Jan Schipper was living in the Utrecht Province1 of the Dutch Republic near Zeist which was surrounded by forests with no major dams or rivers in the surrounding area. The village is about 8.5 km east of Utrecht.6,7 Jan might not have been a skipper himself but most likely his ancestors were skippers of larger sailing ships, or of fishing or similar boats on a Dutch lake or river, or at sea. This may explain the origin of his occupational surname.

   4. His death

The date of the death of both, Jan and his wife, Gerridje, and where they died, are not known.

   5. His children

The couple had four children, namely Adriaan Jansz “Arie” (ca 1630, Zeist – 1681), Evert (1631 – 1728), Joannes (1635 – ?) and Cornelia (? – 1678).

  • Our family line continued with the eldest son. READ MORE on Adriaan Jansz “Arie” (Schipper) van Smorenburg.
  • Evert had two sons; Cornelis (who married Hendrieckie Lubberts in 1709, married a second time on 8 Oktober 1712 to Annechien “Annetje” NN) and Jan Evertsz (who married in 1717).1 

The children and their offspring started to use the surname Van Smoorenburch/Van Smoorenburg.1,8 The reason for this and the origin of the surname is not known. It was only after the French invasion and annexation of the Netherlands that Emperor Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte) decreed in 1811 that all Dutch families were required to have fixed surnames. At that time civil authorities began the mandatory practice of recording births, marriages, and deaths and each family was forced to adopt a distinct surname. Many Dutch surnames, however, developed much earlier, even as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.9

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  1. Smorenburg Web Site by Martin Smorenburg. https://www.myheritage.nl/site-family-tree-395529131/smorenburg
  2. History of the Netherlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Netherlands
  3. Dutch Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Republic
  4. List of monarchs of the Netherlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_Netherlands
  5. William, the Silent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent
  6. Zeist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeist
  7. Zeist, Netherlands. https://www.google.co.za/maps/place/Zeist,+Netherlands/@52.0863494,5.1875419,12z/data
  8. Arie Schipper (van Smorenburg). http://search.ancestry.com
  9. The Origins of names and their effect on genealogical research in the Netherlands (1975). https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/img_auth.php/5/54/Names_in_the_Netherlands.pdf

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