Jan ten Bruggencate (a 1685-1738)

Jan ten Bruggencate/kate (dutch link) died 20 Mar 1738 somewhere in Asia, probably in the Bengal region. He was at that point a a house carpenter, contracted by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), possibly to help build new outposts in Asia. He had shipped out (as Jan ten Bruggekate) from Texel on “The Fish” under Master Lukas Semeyns. The ship was sold in Lisbon because it was in bad shape, but a new ship was acquired in Lisbon, and the voyage went on.^(1),(2)

Before Jan mustered with the VOC, he had already quite a life behind him. He had married Geesje Houtman/Holtman in 1716, she was from Delden, he from Almelo (banns were pronounced both in Almelo and Delden, and they married in Enter). Actually, she was from Zeldam, a place within Delden, where her father had a farm, which still exists! They must have gone to Amsterdam within three years after the wedding, as their first child id baptized there in 1719. But he or his wife still must have owned the farm, as in 1721 Jan’s brother Lambert bought the stone window frames of the old St. Antonius monastery in Albergen, and these were used in the farm in Zeldam.⁽³⁾

All Jan’s children are baptized in Amsterdam, except Geesje, for whom I have not been able to find a baptism. She was 37 at her marriage in 1757, so born in 1720.  Her brother Hermanus is her witness at the banns, and she is twice a sponsor at the baptisms of her sister Alijda’s children; she is from Amsterdam at her marriage; but the baptism cannot be found. Was she baptized in Delden? There are many gaps between 1720 and 1723 in the Delden baptismal books.⁽⁴⁾

When Jan leaves in 1732, he leaves his wife with five young children. She is entitled to part of his salary, and does receive 12 guilders every September, with a sum of 105 guilders in May 1743.  Interestingly, this money gets paid out to a Dirk Bartelink (dutch link), as representative of Geesje Houtman, wife of Jan ten Bruggenkate, who himself was in 1717 in service of the VOC (and who was from Vriezenveen, very close to Almelo.)

I will need to transcribe the image from the ships book, (which I recently found) to get a handle on the relations between Geesje and Jan, and Dirk Bartelink. And so we keep busy.

(1) Nationaal Archief, Prins Willem Alexanderhof 20, ‘sGravenhage, info@archief.nl. Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), toeg.#1.04.02, inv.#14722. Index and/or images online at http://vocopvarenden.nationaalarchief.nl/. Jan’s page (scan 84-85) can be found here.
(2) For information about the ships themselves, see The VOC Site (in dutch only)
(3) Twentsche Courant/Tubantia, 28 Mar 2001
(4) Dopen in Delden (in dutch only)