Willem Brouwer, Lysbeth Drinckvelt: Further Update

The marriage of Willem Brouwer and Elizabeth Aertsen Drinckvelt occurred in November 1648 at the Grote Kerk in Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. An online posting of the marriage record can be found on the Digital Resources Netherlands and Belgium website. (In the column on the left you will want to scroll down to Noord-Brabant and then find Breda Church books and search under there, using BROUWER or DRINCKVELT). I first discovered this record with the aid of a posting at the Dutch-Colonies-L list at RootsWeb, posted in 2004 by Frans Gouverneur, "Brouwer-Drinckvelt/Rinckhout at Albany."

This was Lysbeth's second marriage. She was recorded as the widow of Cornelis van Hal. Her marriage to Willem Brouwer was therefore her second marriage and her later marriage to Jan Rinckhout, her third. Also found are the baptism records of twins, Arnoldus and Eva, 20 October 1649 (search using BROUWERS with an S, or DRINCKVELT).

In addition, there is a record of Willem Brouwer, schoenmacker (shoemaker) who is made a Poorter (Freeman) at Niekerk (Nijkerk) in 1643. This info helps to push back the estimated birth date of Willem Brouwer to (probably) in the decade between 1610 and 1620. The reasoning being that he would not have been able to master a trade until he was in his 20s or early 30s. As Lysbeth was already a widow when she remarried in 1648, we can make an educated guess that she was likely born prior to 1625.

The marriage and addition of two children adds more clues to work with when trying to recreate the early household of Willem Brouwer and Lysbeth Drinckvelt. It is also known that Willem Brouwer, with a wife and three children came to New Netherland in 1655. In addition, it is known that their daughter, Elizabeth, who married Claas Andriesse de Graaf, named her first two children, Arnout (an equivalent of Arnoldus) and Eva. It's likely then that the three children who came with Willem and Lysbeth were Arnoldus, Eva and Hendrick (who was baptized in 1652 at Amsterdam), and that daughters, Elizabeth and Maria (married Isaac du Trieux and named her first daughter, Eva) were born, probably at Beverwijck, in the decade of 1655 to 1665 (no record of their baptisms has been found). It is probable that the twins, Arnoldus and Eva died before reaching adulthood, at Beverwijck. There is no confirmed further record of either, and Elizabeth and Maria named their own first children for their brother and sister.

In addition, as I look at this family more and more, the argument that William Brouwer (married Rebecca Vedder) is not a son of Willem Brouwer and Elizabeth Drinckvelt, gains more traction. At this point in time, I would have to describe William's placement as a son of Willem Brouwer and Elizabeth Drinckvelt as, at best, "possible." More on this, and William Brouwer (the younger) will be forthcoming in a future post.

Finally, in the Breda records mentioned above, there are also records for a probable brother of Elizabeth Drinckvelt, and we can take from her marriage record which gives her patronymic as "Aertssen," that she was the daughter of an Aert Drinckvelt.

BGB 90

Grote Kerk, Breda (by Celeste Hutchins)