Vermeersch family
Vermeersch (see also van der Meersch and van der Mersch), a Dutch family of refugees, emigrated from Poperinghe in Flanders, Belgium, for the sake of their faith, moving to Leiden and Haarlem, Holland, in the 1580s. They were probably Mennonites. Among them was Gillis Vermeersch, banished from Poperinghe in 1568. There were Mennonite Vermeersches at Haarlem and Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Haarlem Gillis Vermeersch, married to Maria de Haan, was a trustee of the Waterlander Mennonite orphanage at Haarlem from 1583, and some Vermeersches were deacons of the Mennonite church at Amsterdam during the 17th and 18th centuries.
An outstanding member of this family was Gillis Vermeersch, b. ca. 1654 at Amsterdam, d. 1722 at Harlingen, Friesland, a son of Willem Vermeersch. Gillis moved to Harlingen about 1678 where he was married to Marijke Fontein. At first he was a tinsmith, but later he came to great prosperity as a merchant trading with Prussia and Russia, and shipowner, also participating in the West Indian (Caribbean) Trading company. He was for many years a deacon of the Harlingen congregation and the first treasurer of the Friese Societeit, founded in 1695, serving as its treasurer 1696-1721. These families all died out in the 18th century.
Bibliography
Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Friesland. Leeuwarden: W. Eekhoff, 1839: 187.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1878): 90; (1895): 30.
Jaarboek van het Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie IX. The Hague, 1955: 179, 186, 188.
Wumkes, G. A. Stadsen Dorpskroniek van Friesland I. Leeuwarden, 1930: 1, 2.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Vermeersch family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Vermeersch_family&oldid=110172.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Vermeersch family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Vermeersch_family&oldid=110172.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 816-817. All rights reserved.
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