Schoolmasters in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch 1648-1795

The file 'Schoolmasters in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch 1648-1795' contains all schoolmasters officially appointed by the Council of State or Nassau Domain Council during the specified period. The file is based on the impressive study by H. Th. M. Roosenboom, "The village school in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch from 1648 to 1795 [TR]," Tilburg 1997. It is also based on the work of Kooistra-Kruyf & Smit, "Schoolmasters in the Generality Lands [TR]" Genealogical Journal for East Brabant [TR]1990 (4) 3: 193-196, and Leget-Kuylen & Leget in an article of the same name in the same journal (1989 (4) 3: 129-134). Source editing of the Heeze-Leende Aldermen's Protocols [abbreviated as "vA"] by the late Mr. A. F. N. van Asten was also used, which he kindly made available.

Although predominantly Protestant schoolmasters were employed, Catholic schoolmasters are also included, provided they held an official appointment. The starting and ending points are formed by The specified region and period, as well as other schoolmasters, are included. The same applies to the villages involved; in some cases (kinship), appointments from outside the Meierij region are also included, particularly from the border area with Gelderland, Utrecht, and Holland.

The file is part of an ongoing study of kinship relationships among schoolmaster families in the Meierij region. A first publication appeared in 1999 under the title "Meesterlijke verwantschap" (Masterly Relationship), Brabants Heem 1999 (51) 3: 88-99. Because the file has been edited on different computers and with different programs over the years, some translation problems have arisen, for which I apologise. The degree of kinship clustering is high: the dominant cluster (Box-Fabri) includes 58% of the individuals involved.

Data is taken from the aforementioned sources and edited for kinship relationships. Priority was originally given to local Brabant-based families, such as Box, Bijnen, Danckers, Deckers, Fabri, Roessingh, Wijnands, and Zijnen. Immigrant families such as Bell, Ente, and Feylingius followed. Finally, an attempt is made to establish possible connections with other schoolmaster families [such as in Zeeland] and thus gain insight into the kinship networks that united this small Protestant community which formed a 'colonial' link with the rest of the Republic.

By 2025, more than 60% of the schoolmasters has been genealogically identified, i.e., parents [with emphasis on ancestors in North Brabant], partners [with emphasis on ancestors in North Brabant], and children [up to the second generation] have been identified. The files or search engines of BHIC, De Nederlandsche Leeuw, FamilySearch, Google, GOTB, OpenArchieven, RHCe, SALHA, and WWW played a significant role in this. Schoolmasters and mistresses who were employed in 's-Hertogenbosch were also included. The total includes approximately 10,200 individuals from around 3,800 families in 2800 sources.

The database is constantly being developed, partly based on feedback from fellow researchers. Comments and suggestions are therefore very welcome!

Louk Box
Leiden, 1 x 2025