From Merkelbeek to Märckelbach:
A Social History with Deep Roots

being cobbled together by Henry K van Eyken
for Elisabeth H., Marc, Elisabeth G., Eric, Adriana, & whomever may come ...
in memory of Adriaan Märckelbach (1896-1965)

         A story has
            a beginning,
            a muddle,
            and an end.
         and the aim
            of the muddle is
         to reach beyond
            the enD  0A 0

Revised: November 18, 2011
Chapter 1.  The First Märckelbach*  2 0

Once upon a time, December 21, 1374 to be exact, one of four sons of the knight Vaes Huyn, a vassal of Wenzel, Duke of Brabant, acquired a fief known as the Bovenste Hof van Merkelbeek which formerly belonged to his father. A merkel is a staked-out piece or a measure of land; beek is Dutch for stream, as is the German word Bach. This Bovenste Hof consisted of the Douve, which probably meant De Hoeve (the farmstead) or else Hof (Manor), and four subsidiary fiefs.* Merkelbeek is the name also of a parish situated on a small stream that has eventually been endowed with the name Merkelbekerbeek. The parish is said to have evolved there since the eighth century.*  3 0

The name of the beneficiary was Reynart van Austenroede. Austenrode could be taken to mean from the Rode in reference to Amstenrode, his father's abode.* A roede or rode is a piece of land cleared for agriculture. After acquiring his fief, Reynart took the name Reynhart Huyn van Merckelbach–or, as it is found written elsewhere, Reynert Huyne von Merkelbeich.* Eventually, the name was shortened to Reynhart van Merckelbach (or variations thereof), pure and simple. The van Merckelbach part served to distinguish this Reynhart from other Reynharts by associating him with a property, a practice that preceded today's mostly legally established custom of inheriting one's father's family name. The Dutch van (German Von) can be taken to mean of or from.  4 0

Jumping from 1374 to the year 1982, Merkelbeek, situated at 50° 57' N 50° 57' E in the Dutch province of Limburg, becomes merged with the villages Bingelrade, Jabeek, and Schinveld to form a single municipality named Onderbanken. The Bovenste Hof lies along the Mgr Mannestraat and the Akkerweg, on the border of Merkelbeek and the municipality of Brunssum. Its present owners are the horse breeders Guido en Mayke Reumkens.* Previously, it was owned by the Dutch government's Department of Agriculture which used it as a model farm for horse-breeding. The name Douve still survives. Below is an 1867 map of Merkelbeek that names both Douve and Bovenste Hof. As for the stream, it is still there, but hardly noticeable.  5 0

An 1867 map of Merkelbeek and environs. Left of center is Douve. (Credit.)  6 0

A 1923 map of Amstenrade and Merkelbeek. Douve appears as Houtendouve. (Credit B. Quaedvlieg.)  6A 0

Reynart was born probably around 1330, according to one source, that is; around 1350 according to another.* A notation in Sammlung Oidtmann,* a compendium of genealogical and heraldic information, tells us that Reynart Huyn von Merckelbach took as wife Catharina von Dodenroede (Doenrode).* He thereby acquired, as what we might call a wedding present, half of the Doenrade fief at Oirsbeek; but we better suspect that his father-in-law may not simply have been in a generous frame of mind because acquiring a fief comes with obligations as we may learn from an upcoming chapter about the feudal system. Another compendium, Crassier's Dictionaire historique,* gives the date of the marriage as February 2, 1321, which probably should be read as 1371, handwriting in much of the source documentation being what it is.  7 0

Reinart had an older brother, Jan Huyn van Amstenrade, who had a son by the same name. To tell them apart, father and son were referred to as de Oude (the Elder) and de Jonge (the Younger). In the year 1371, Reinart took part in a bloody battle near Baesweiler which was fought between the dukes of Brabant and Jülich. More about this in Chapter 15 except to say that Reinert was accompanied by his young cousin Jan or by his brother or by both.*  8 0

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Seal of Johan Huyn van Amstenrade the Elder on a document dated January 25, 1385. (Coloration by Elisabeth G. van Eyken.)  9 0

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Reinart's name has been found in a number of documents. A 1381 document recognizes him as man von den Duve mit allen seynenen toebehooren (man of de Douve with all of its belongings*). The archives of the municipality of Sittard contain a document dated January 25, 1385, that has been witnessed by Reinart, his brother, Johann Hune von Amsteroide, as well as by his cousin of identical name, and that bears the seal of the older brother.* This cousin is referred to as his father's squire (shield-bearer), and, considering the stages of a knight's training, we assume that he was not very many years older than 10 years of age at the time.  10 0

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Not long ago, near a place where there used to be a castle, Prickenis, a hobbyist with a metal detector found the silver matrix of a seal. It measured 28 mm across and bears the arms of the family Prick along with the legend: peter•prijck va(n)•geijsbach. Experts dated the seal to early 15th century. (Source.)  11 0

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When we began this project, it was intended to be about people named Merckelbach, but since that time we have learned a fair amount about those who went before them under different names. Hence, space is devoted to forefathers named (Von) Ballenstedt and (van) Anstel who lived during medieval times. And inasmuch our story is meant to be a social history as well as recognizing that the Roman Catholic church was the institution with the most profound impact on the mindsets of these people, it became felt necessary to devote some chapters on the interaction of secular and ecclesiastical states of affairs from about the year 300 onward. Well did we realize that medieval thinking was quite different from our own, but hardly did we grasp just how different! Notes in our Minipedia that will be referred to in due course may come in quite handy.  12 0

It is said that Vaes Huyn–also referred to as Servaes van Anstel (named: Hunne)–was the first to refer to himself as Huyn. Branches of his offspring (Van Amstenrade, Van Merkelbeek, Van Hoensbroek, Van Rivieren, and Van Geleen) were very influential in the region around Sittard in the province of Limburg. Servaes's son Reynart was a schepen (a word variously translated as sheriff, magistrate, and alderman) of Maastricht.  13 0

"Puthuuske" on De Douve: A sheltered well from times immemorial. (Credit.)  13A 0

We have divided the family tree into three parts, Roots, Trunk, and Branches. In this chapter we concern ourselves with some early Merckelbachs and it is well to refer back and forth to Trunk, in particular that page's first part. Observe the differences in genealogical hypotheses proposed by different researchers.* The names on that page are linked to a database that gives some details about the individuals listed.  14 0

The first Merckelbach, Reinart, had a daughter, Bela, who was married twice (at least twice we know of). In 1395, Bela married Goswin von Cortenbach, Statthalter (E: governor, proconsul) of the Valkenburger Mannkammer (a local council of sorts with judicial powers*). On this occasion, Reynart transfers the fief Passerts-Nieuwenhagen to his new son-in-law.*  15 0

In a book published in 1995, family researcher Rudolf Merkelbach asserts that Reinart had, besides his daughter Bela, two or more sons. In the part Scenario 1, they are referred to as NN, short for nomen nescio (I don't know the name). The oldest stayed on Douve; the youngest probably moved to Köln (Cologne). This youngest son, Rudolf Merkelbach wrote, had two sons; one was Heynrich, the other Leenart or Leonard. Heinrich got married twice, the second time to a Drüntgen, a daughter of a Peter van Baer. Heynrich was then about 60 years of age. As for Leonard, he is probably the Leonard who was born around 1425 and married Grete (Von) Palant, an illegitimate child of Reinalt (Reinart) Von Palant. This particular Leonard occupies a key position in our story and we shall return to him in Chapter 17, Serving the Von Palants. It needs to be emphasized that in other accounts Leenart [Leonard] is not Heichrich's brother, but Heynrich's son. Things are not always clearly discernible when we peer into the mists of time.  16 0

The immediate descendants of Vaes Huyn van Amstenrode according to Rudolf G.F.M. Merkelbach in "De afstammelingen van Gregorius (Goris) Mer(c)kelbach. 350 jaar familiegeschiedenis" (1995). Because of the width of extensive line diagrams, we need follow a different approach for showing family relationships, see Trunk.  17 0

The immediate descendants of Vaes Huyn van Amstenrode according to Max Dechamps, Die Ursprung des Geschlechtes Merckelbach. Whereas Heinrich von Merckelbach was the grandson of our first Merckelbach, here he is shown as the son.  18 0

Rudolf Merkelbach's book tells us that in the years 1435 and 1442 Heynrich was a schout (dictionary translation: sheriff, bailiff) serving under Werner van Palant, Grete's grandfather. This does not mean that Heynrich did not hold that position during the years in-between, it simply means that for those two years records exist that tell us so explicitly. It also appears from existing documents that Heynrich was not an easy man to get along with for he was involved in several court cases. Mostly these show that his marriage with Drüntgen was not a happy one; we shall go into further detail later, in Chapter 16, The hapless Heynrich.  19 0

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For cities and towns where the Merckelbach family
originally used to dwell, click on Google maps.  20 0

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An officially unpublished manuscript by Max Dechamps gives us a fair amount of detail about the early Merckelbachs. I received a portion of it from a Peter Kreutzwald, who himself maintains a website that includes an extensive version of much of the Merckelbach family tree along with a related database. Kreutzwald's genealogy and historical annotations are largely drawn from Deschamps' manuscript, Der Ursprung des Geschlechtes Merckelbach.* The first page of the manuscript mentions a case entered in the records of Cologne dated May 25, 1442 that concerns litigation between Heynrich and a Tilman zom Huetlyn, or Tilman van Hotelen. Most interesting at this point is the list of witnesses who testify to Heynrich's character. They are: (1) Johann dominus in Wynantzroide, who is Johan van Mascherell, the second husband of Heynrich's aunt Bela von Merckelbach*, (2) Johan Hoin to the Broich, Lord at Velleruys and at PlenevaesC, and cousin of Heynrich, (3) Johann of Withem, drost of Valkenburg and, according to one of Fahne's family records,* a son of Katharina Hoen zum Broek, and (4) Johann Hoen von Amstenrode, another cousin of Heynrich. I don't know just how far the reach is of the word cousin, but this list does suggest that among Vaes Huyn van Amstenrode's offspring there was a Van Withem and a Van Hoensbroek.  21 0

A fragment of the family tree found in Trunk also lists a Reiner Merckelbach married to a Lybernoy along with three sons. Reiner, whose name shows up in the year 1434 in the archives of Maastricht, is, if our genealogy is correct, a grandson of the first Reynart Huyn von Merckelbach. The sons, Johan, Werner and Thonis, lived in Eys in 1451. Gerard A. Merkelbach (a distant relative of genealogist Rudolf Merkelbach) wrote a paper, Voorlopig overzicht van Het Geslacht Huyn van Amstenrode tot en met de afsplitsing van de zijlinie Huyn van Merckelbach in which he defends his opinion that this threesome were Reynart Huyn van Merckelbach's only male descendants in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg. But another amateur genealogist, Ger de Vries, arranged things differently as shown here. All of which goes to show just how murky our genealogy is around this time.  22 0

Bibliography
Principal literature of which original copies consulted:

Sergio Boffa, Warfare in Medieval Brabant (The Boydell Press, 2004)
Max Dechamps, Der Ursprung des Geschlechtes Merckelbach (Manuscript, 1967)
Peter Kreutzwald, Ahnenforschung Kreutzwald: Stammbaum des Leonard (von) Merckelbach (Backup Nov. 19, 2011)
R.G.F.M. Merkelbach, De afstammelingen van Gregorius (Goris) Mer(c)kelbach, 1645–1995 (350 jaar familiegeschiedenis) (Self-published, Dec. 1995)

Backups of external webpages  23 0

Footnotes

There are numerous variations of the name. Most common are Merckelbach and Merkelbach. Two others are, in the order of appearance in this story, Märckelbach and Merkelbeich. Still others are Merkelbag, Merckelbagh, Marckelbach, Merkenbach, Mer(c)kelenbach, Markilbach, Merkelback, Merkelbacq, Merkelabach, and others still. Near the end of the branch of our particular interest we have a father, Adriaan, and three daughters, all of whose family names have been officially recorded in the Civil Register of their place of birth, Bussum in the Dutch province of North Holland, as Märchelbach even though they themselves not ever deviated from using the name Märckelbach. The father inherited from his parents a printing and publishing business named De Wed. G.M. Märckelbach N.V.    fn1 0

A fief is a form of loan, usually of land, estates, or buildings. I imagine that Bovenhof (boven, E. upper) is so named because it has subsidiary fiefs, among them Neuenhof. Creating a fief from an existing one is termed infeudation. More about vassals and fiefs in Chapter 11, Medieval feudalism.    fn2 0

A record of the year 1234 mentions a parish named Merkelbeek. Merkelbeek and its immediate surrounding became an independent town in 1796 (Ref.)    fn3 0

The village Amstenrode (in the local dialect Austroa) may for some time have been called Ostenrode, which sounds about the same as Austenroede (Ref.)    fn4 0

Reynart van Merckelbach is the name found in R.G.F.M. Merkelbach, De afstammelingen van Gregorius (Goris) Mer(c)kelbach, p. 3. The name Reynert Huyne von Merkelbeich is found in Max Dechamps (1911–1985), Der Ursprung des Geschlechtes Merckelbach, p. 1. This chapter is just about entirely based on these two sources. They do diverge on many a detail as indeed they are bound to. Notably, it is common that original records consulted by historians give different spellings of names; after all, record keepers either copied names or spelled them by how they sounded. Accordingly, this history does not even begin to aim for a consistent spelling of names.    fn5 0

The Dutch Telephonebook for the year 2008 lists: Reumkens G A J, Akkerweg 5/A, 6441 LG Brunssum, Tel. 045 5257273.    fn6 0

The difference of about 20 years becomes quite important as our story unfolds, in Chapter 16, The hapless Heynrich.    fn7 0

Sammlung means collection. Ernst von Oidtman (1854–1937) was a Prussian officer highly regarded for his extensive genealogical research of over 230 mighty families in Rhineland. Oidtman recorded that in 1429, after his father's death, the knight Johann Maschereil, Herr zu Herwinandsrode, married Bela, the widow of Goswin von Cortenbach in Helmont. Bela was a daughter of Reynart Huyn von Merckelbach and Catharina von Dodenroede (Doenrode). Johann died near 1456. His daughter Catharina became the wife of Goedert von Vlodorf, Herrn zu Leuth. He had a son as well.    fn8 0

A genealogy assembled by Ger de Vries gives the name Catharina van Dobbelstein, ref. The van (German Von) in a family name points to a place of present or former residence. We should not be surprized, therefore, that a single person may be referred to by two different names. Tot (German: Zu) means that the name holder still is in possession of the named good.    fn9 0

Louis Baron de Crassier, Dictionnaire historique du Limbourg neerlandais, de la période féodale a nos jours or Valkenburg aan de Geul in Dictionnaire historique du Limbourg Néerlandais de la période féodale à nos jours. It appears that these works are available as Google books.    fn10 0

R.G.F.M. Merkelbach uses the word oldest, not older. Reynart had more than one brother older than he, cf Scenarios 1 and 2 in the first part of Trunk.    fn11 0

Rudolf Merkelbach's De afstammelingen van Gregorius (Goris) Mer(c)kelbach mentions it was the son who accompanied him; Max Dechamps, in his Der Ursprung des Geschlechtes Merckelbach, states that it was Reynart's brother, De Oude, not his brother's son, De Jonge, who participated in the battle. Yet another source puts all three on the scene: "The oldest documented mention [of the family Huyn] dates from the 14th century. After the 1371 Battle of Baesweiler, a Johann der Ältere and a Johann der Jüngere (father and son) as well as a Reiner Huyn von Anstenraidt (ancient spelling for the community Amstenraedt), and after their release, used a seal with an "Ankerkreuz" (anchor-cross) showing eight serpent heads. The three family members served in the supply unit of the Drossaard of Valkenburg." We found that a number of sources have the battle taking place a year later, in 1372; such are the perils of secondary sources, especially when errors get copied and compounded! According to an authoritative work, Warfare in Medieval Brabant, 1356–1406 by Sergio Boffa, the year is 1371 (pp. 21, 22).    fn12 0

The word man carried a different meaning in those days than it does today. He was not merely a male person. A man was someone who had assumed obligations in return for a fief, a means of income and, hence, status. We sense this feudal meaning of the word in such current expressions as "a man's man" (an empowered personal attendant) and "the best man" at a wedding.    fn13 0

The document they witnessed was an arrangement between Wynrich von Wildroide and Heinrich van dem Berghe that concerned the property of a Dietriech von dem Berghe. Just in case you like to know.    fn14 0

Living, as I do, far removed from where original source material is found, I cannot very well create hypotheses of my own. Henceforth, I will record various views and point out where I find them to be conflicting, as in Chapter 3, Bones of contention.    fn15 0

A Mannkammer (D. mankamer) handled the financial and administrative affairs in a lord's relationship with his vassals. It is discussed more fully in Chapter 17.    fn16 0

In 1394 also, a Petersse van Cortenbach was prioress of the Norbertinessenklooster of Saint-Gerlach in Houthem. The record shows a number of relatives of the Merckelbach family having taken vows to commit themselves to religious life.    fn17 0

A few years later, I received a complete copy from Prof. Dr. Harald Merckelbach, a contributor to a compendium of the Dutch patriciate.    fn18 0

Or, as we shall see later, his sister. This is one of the uncertainties that still in need of resolving.    fn19 0

Translated from "here zo Vellsuys ind zo Plenevaes."    fn20 0

Found on the internet that Anton Fahne wrote many works about upper-class families. I have not yet zeroed in on the particular volume that contains the information referred to. See webpages about Anton Fahne and about his publications.    fn21 0