1659 Confession

Ariaantje Jans van Dijssel ende haar dogter
Jannetje van Stratenj ongedochter op 't hoekje van de Langedijk

Dear Anne, these page show two types of entering into full church membership, met belijdenis, with confession, and on the other page met attestatie, with attestation.

Many thanks Geert that's very helpful.

If I read the entry correctly this is mother and daughter being received into the church? (They are both definitely aged over 21yrs).

Otto- what was the difference between being received with a 'confession' versus an 'attestation"?

I have a feeling Ariaantje and Jannetje were Catholics. 

very best wishes

Anne

You could do your belijdenis (confession) in person from the age on this was permitted. Those with an attestation are presumably people who had done this already elsewhere. In that case these attestations confirm their earlier entrance into full membership. Attestations, official statements, were also issued to confirm marriages outside a town. No doubt René can expand thee examples!

A great way to encounter seventeenth-century (legal) documents with transcriptionsm translations and commentary is visiting the website of the Rembrandt Documentation project (RemDoc), see http://remdoc.huygens.knaw.nl/

Many thanks Otto.

I appreciate your explanation and also the link to the Rembrandt documentation project. I'll certainly look into that. Could prove very useful!

very best wishes

Anne

It crossed my mind to look for you for a general introduction to ordinary life in the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century: There is an English translation, Plain lives in a golden age : popular culture, religion and society in seventeenth-century Holland (Cambridge, etc., 1991) by Maarten Ultee of the study by A.Th. van Deursen, Het kopergeld van de Gouden Eeuw (fifth ed., Amsterdam 2006 with a new title, Mensen van klein vermogen). 

Hi Otto

That sounds absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for alerting me to this publication. 

I'll see if I can get hold of an English copy.

I have  "The Embarrassment of Riches, An interpretation of Dutch culture in the Golden Age" by Simon Schama, but it would be great to have a book written by a Dutch author.

very best wishes.

Anne

I suppose you use Jonathan Israel's The rise and fall of the Dutch Republic for general reference, in particular for political history. Schama looked at the mentalities behind Early Modern Dutch art and culture. Van Deursen focused in his study on the lives and daily business of people outside the ruling classes. He also wrote the handbook De last van veel geluk [The burden of much luck (2004)]  about the history of the Golden Age, covering the years 1555 to 1702.  He also wrote a splendid monograph on the villages Graft and De Rijp, Een dorp in de polder, Graft in de 17e eeuw (1994).