Sale of property- 1654, Delft

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Dear Anne, Barbara acts her as the widow of her late husband. The sale concerns the boedel, the estate which she holds with the legal status of a boedelhouder, estate trustee. Her father acts as an official legal assistant. This documents gives both the sale conditions of objects in this estate and it mentions also a number of objects. I guess a full transcription would be useful. The amounts of money mentioned suggest a sale of a house was involved as well. In the end a physician acting for a woman - probably his sister -  is mentioned as the buyer.

Dear Otto

Many thanks for your swift reply which gives an idea of what of the document was about.

If anyone has the time or is interested to give a little more detail I'd be really grateful, for example what 'objects and their conditions are involved'? Is it possible to establish if it was a house Barbara sold and where it was in Delft? 

The last point you make Otto is very interesting. Is it correct that a women could not purchase a property legally- although she could sell property in 17th century Holland?

This would be very useful to establish as in 1671 Barbara Rotteveel bought a pottery factory in Delft, but it's been suggested her brother in law purchased it on her behalf.

Thanks again.

best wishes

Anne

Dear Anne, I checked rapidly in the famous Inleidinge tot de Hollandsche rechts-geleerdheid by Hugo Grotius (1631; critical edition, 2nd ed., Leiden 1965)) for the legal capacities of women. A woman could run a business on herself. A married woman had to be authorized by her husband to act legally (ch. I,4-5).  Grotius deals extensively with marriage conditions in ch. II,11-12, the estate trustee is explicitly mentioned in ch. II, 13 (Van boedelhouders ende boedelhoudsters). A crucial point is the existence of marriage conditions and/or a will favoring the longest living partner. Ch. III, 14 deals with sale. Grotius mentions that in contemporary practice women could act more free than earlier on, I suppose the guardian had only to appear in court. The 1965 edition lacks a good index.

It concerns the rear part of a house, ground and garden called De Groote Gecroonde Spiegel [the Large Crowned Mirror] with its access path one could access from the Jacob Gerritsstraat at Delft.

This house stood next to the ground and house of Mr. Joris Corvils to the north and the ground and house of wine merchant Pieter Huijgensz de Blois as well as other lots and houses to the south.The house stretched from the streetside on the front until the garden that once belonged to Cornelis Simonsz Decker in the back.

The property was sold for 600 carolus guilders; the buyer however could pay the money in three annual portions of 200 guilders each year to be paid on the first of May and also had to pay an interest of 5 percent.

Dear Otto

Thank you for such an informative reply. My husband (a lawyer) knew straight away the name of Hugo Grotius! 

Rene, on this site, had earlier translated the will of Sijmon Mesch, Barbara Rotteveel's husband, who was a notary himself, and had died in January 1654. They mutually appointed each other as sole and universal heir. 

I wonder if that would have made a difference to Barbara's ability to carry out legal transactions?

very best wishes

Anne

Dear Rene

Thank you as always for all the extra facts included in the legal article.

I've heard of the 'Large Crowned Mirror" before. I found the following on a website about the history of Delft houses:

In  January 1655  Elisabeth J Roscam bought a property in Delft: the rear part house, yard & garden known as ‘Large Crowned Mirror’. Elisabeth Roscam and co-heirs of her husband notary De Graeff (who had died in 1648) sold the secret annex in 1655 to her daughter-in-law Barbara Cornelisz Rotteveel, who had recently become the widow of Elisabeth's son, Sijmon Mesch. Barbara sold the secret annex in May 1655 after only three months for a small profit. 

It makes me wonder if this is correct or not?

Are you able to see the name of the buyer of the house? That could prove very interesting.

with grateful thanks as always.

Anne

Dear Anne

Women in the Low Countries were allowed to be the owner of property such as houses and land, but were not allowed to perform legal transactions; they needed a male companion acting on her behalf.

This returned in another form in the Netherlands in 1838, when it was stated that a woman who married, from the moment she was married became 'legally incapable' ; this lasted until 1957 (!), until then women were not even allowed to open a bank account themselves, they did require a written autorisation by their husbands. Unmarried women in the 20th century who had reached majority of age were however allowed to perform transactions autonomously.

Regarding your question about the buyer: this is not mentioned here as the deed involved only states the conditions under which the house should be sold; it does not concern the actual sale itself

Dear Anne, the buyer is mentione don the third scan, right page, last paragraph; it was a Sr. Jacob Chydreus, doctor in de medicjnen, als man ende voocht van Lutje Geertruydt Jacobs, a physician acting as a guardian for his wife. I am not sure of both names, I really got to practice more capital letter forms in seventeenth-century handwriting...

@René, if the Jacob Chydreus is not the buyer, what role does he have here? Perhaps a full transcription would clarify matters.

Otto and Rene

So I've found the doctor- Jacob Thijerens. In 1656 he remarried and was recorded as a doctor of Jacob Gerritsstraat. He was a widower. 

The quote I put above about 'Large Crowned Mirror' was from the website: 

www.achterdegevelsvandelft.nl

This is what they go on to state about the property after Barbara sold it:

The next owner, Jacob Thierens, was named after his grandfather who had fled from Ghent to Delft "for the sake of religion". Thierens himself had been sent to Brazil as a doctor by the West India Company and had been an alderman of Mauritsstad (part of present-day Recife). Back in Delft and a widower for the second time, he married the wealthy widow Catharina Arents van Lodesteijn in 1656. They moved into the back house, where he died in 1664.
Thierens son from his first marriage, Jan, continued to live in the back house until his marriage (1663). In 1687, an arrest warrant would be issued for him on suspicion of fraud in his function as forty-court. He fled and lost his job.
Catharina van Lodesteijn sold the back house in 1668 to Levina van der Hulst, widow of Wilhem Claesz Brughman, silversmith in De Crabbe on the Marktveld corner of Bonten Ossteegje. Did Levina continue to live there?

Dear Otto and Anne

I stand corrected; the deed indeed mentions the offers made and the final sale. Jacob Thijerens,  doctor of medicine, bought the house on behalf of his wife Geertruijdt Jacobs van den Heuvell for the amount of 2700 Carolus guilders, 1000 guilders to be paid at once and the remaining 1700 guilders to be paid in three annual portions including 5 percent interest.

In addition also part of the inventory was bought for an amount of 100 Carolus guilders more specifically: two large cupboards standing in the largest room, the coat/clothes hangers in the room where clothes were hung out to dry, the floor mats throughout the house, the hearth irons, 6 curtain rods, the shelves in the basement, the shelves to store bottles, the chimney shelves, the oak writing desk standing in the front part of the house, the stove made out of copper,

Rene

Thank you!

Once again a wonderful insight into the life of Barbara Rotteveel. I assume 2700 Carolus guilders was a lot of money in 1654?

So she would have been quite well off, even as a widow with 3 young children.  The fact that she never remarried suggested to me she was not in financial difficulty.

Of course we know she went on to purchase her own pottery factory in 1671- but that's another story.

I'm really grateful Rene of you taking the extra time to shine even more light on this legal document.

warmest best wishes

Anne

Hi Anne

2700 (2800 when including the inventory) guilders was indeed a considerable amount in those days

It is best to compare this with the annual income level: a skilled workman would earn about 250-300 guilders annually so the value of this property was about ten times a workman's year wages

That's really useful information Rene. Puts all the amounts I read about in wills into context.

Many thanks as always.

Anne