Pieter Tryon, a Mennonite of Ghent, Belgium, was arrested on 17 March 1585, when he and other brethren were in the home of Jan de Cleercq to divide the money collected from the members for the poor of the church. After much correspondence between the city magistrates and Alexander Farnese, the Spanish governor of Belgium, the whole group was banished for 50 years on 20 September 1585. This event took place during a period of relative toleration of the Mennonites at Ghent. The other persons arrested and banished were Pieter Haesbaert, Jacques de Cleercq, Jacob de Joncheere, Bauwens Tyncke, Joost Bouckaert, Jan de Backere, Manasses de Bats, and Jacques Houtermans. Some of these names probably are garbled. Jacques Houtermans may be identical with Jacques Outerman, who was a Mennonite preacher at Franeker in the Netherlands in the next year, 1586. I venture to surmise that Tryon is a corruption of Tirion and that Pieter Tryon is an ancestor or a relative of the Dutch Mennonite Tirion family.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 752. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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