Simon (Claesz) Bakker (bef. 1683 - 1765)

Born before 24 Nov 1683 in Andijk, West-Friesland, Noord-Holland, Nederland

Ancestors

Husband of Brecht (Jans) Prins — married 20 Jan 1709 in Andijk, West-Friesland, Noord-Holland, Nederland

Husband of Geertje (Jacobs) Keijser — married 1 Jun 1738 in Andijk, West-Friesland, Noord-Holland, Nederland

Descendants

Died 2 Feb 1765 after age 81 in Andijk, West-Friesland, Noord-Holland, Nederland

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Sijmon (Claesz) Bakker is geboren in Noord-Holland in 1683 Join: Netherlands Project Discuss: netherlands

Biography

Children: Claas (Oct 30 1709), Ijtje (July 19 1711), Cornelis (March 5 1713), Leentje (1715), Pieter (died Oct 6 1717), Pieter (died Nov 22 1718), Trijntje (died March 28 1721), Trijntje (1722), Pieter (Nov 21 1723 - July 2 1724), Aaf (Oct 21 1725 - July 16 1726). Baptism records of Andijk are missing from Dec 1714 to May 1723. Several children were obviously born to Simon and Brecht during this time - many things prove each of the children above. We just don't know the exact dates they were born or baptized.

Married 2 Geertje Jacobs Keijser / Boon on June 1 1738. Geertje married 1 Willem Willemsz Posthumus.

Simon's name is spelled many alternate ways: Sijmon, Sijmen, Zijmon. His last name also appears in various records as Backer, Bakker, Backers, de Backer. Since he didn't join his brothers in running the bird sanctuary (Kooi), he did not go by the last name Kooiman.

Profession of Faith

Simon made profession of faith in Andijk on November 29 1705. He was living east of the Boede at that time. Brecht Jans, wife of Simon Claasz Backer, is listed as having made profession of faith in Grootebroek and switching her membership to Andijk August 25 1709.

Making profession of faith meant that as a member you could partake of the Lord’s Supper and vote in church elections. The Lord’s Supper was particularly important to a lot of people. There are records in some areas of people making profession of faith as early as age 16. But in Andijk the earliest age seems to be 19 or 20. People were divided as to when they made it: some as soon as they were adults, some around the time when they were married, and some after having 2 or 3 children. Many never made profession of faith at all. There were some people living in Andijk who didn’t, but overall church membership was a lot higher than in many areas of the Netherlands.

The marriage and membership records often list towns people were from at the time they married or made profession of faith. This listing of a town does not mean that this was where they were born. It means they were living there at that time. There are several cases of a man or woman being born in Andijk, then working for a friend or acquaintance of the family in another town, then getting married or making profession of faith in Andijk, being listed there as coming from the other town. In this case, Brecht probably spent a few years working as a dienstmaagt (maid) for a wealthy farmer in Grootebroek. Unfortunately we don't have the membership records for Grootebroek so we can't see the date she originally made profession of faith. In her marriage record she is listed as coming from Andijk, showing they were inconsistent in writing down where they were living at the time of marriage.

But why would they go somewhere and work? In the Andijk area men usually married between the ages of 21 and 30 while women usually married between 20 and 25. It was looked on as both a privilege and a responsibility. Sijmon was 26 and Brecht was 23, falling into this general pattern. The wealthier farmers and businessmen of Westfriesland would hire young men as farm hands or house servants and young women as “dienstmeids”, or house servants, until they had saved up enough money to buy a house and start their households.

Early Events

Simon's father Claas bought a vogelkooi (bird sanctuary) in 1687. Class then died in 1696, when Simon was 13 years old. Simon very likely worked in the vogelkooi as a child, but he isn't ever mentioned as being a part owner. His brothers Reinder and Pieter took care of that family business.

Sijmon is one of the most colorful characters from old Andijk. There’s a place by the dike that it seems has always had a bakery as it’s been called “Bakkershoek” for centuries. It was the second most important place in what was to become Andijk. It was in the Broekoort, including some homes, a boat building area, a school and a tavern as well. Since most people around 1700 did most of their own baking the bakers had a rather difficult life and did many other things to earn money as well. Sijmon is considered the first baker in the area. His father was nicknamed Tentman; his two brothers took on the nickname Cooyman. Pieter, being a baker, took on the nickname Bakker. Simon and Brecht had 10 children; 5 of them died in childhood. In 1717 he hired a cousin, Pieter Jansz Tent [1] as an employee, but that only lasted a few months. One gets the feeling Sijmon was hard to get along with. Then, because of a disastrous case of veepest (a plague that wiped out a lot of cattle), in 1718 he rented his bakery out and bought a flock of sheep which he sold in 1735 to his wife’s family. In 1723 he started working in his own bakery again.

Excommunication

Excommunication seemed to happen fairly regularly back then over issues such as a continual argument with another person in the congregation, being an alcoholic or not coming to church for over 2 years. Those who were excommunicated were often shunned by church members. And that could be very hard on the individual since “everyone” went to church. We have only one example of excommunication in old Andijk.

In 1727 Sijmon got in trouble with his church, the Buurtjeskerk in Andijk. He had refused to come to church when there was the Lord’s Supper, and in those days everyone was required to go to church every Sunday. Dominee Joliannes van Heyck brought three elders and 2 deacons with him to visit Sijmon on February 21, 1727: Dirk Pietersz Meulen, Pieter Jansz Swagerman’s son Herman, Sijmon’s brother Reijndert Claasz Cooyman and Nanne Pietersz Kok. Maerten Kruijer was his elder. Sijmon had 2 big problems. First, he wasn’t getting enough business as a baker and he blamed that on the Dominee. Secondly, he had some major problems with the school teacher next door, Barent Nansz Verwer. Barent had said something Sijmon didn’t like, and therefore he shouldn’t be allowed to take Communion. The consistory discussed the issue with Sijmon and told him to have a better attitude. Stubborn Sijmon refused to forgive Barent or to admit he himself had done anything wrong. After a few more meetings, Sijmon was excommunicated in 1732. That meant he couldn’t take Communion (which he wasn’t doing anyway) or vote in church matters. He lost a good number of his clients through this (probably including the church, which needed bread for Communion which had been refusing to take).

In an attestation over taxes dated Oct 6 1731, Dirk Pietersz Koning, the baker in Grootebroek, was told by the tax collector Kornelis Wiggersz Bakker that the bakers of the area had to pay a tax that he didn't want to pay. He sent the collector to Simon Klaasz Bakker's bakery in Broekoort. Simon's son Klaas was working in the bakery at the time he arrived. Kornelis handed Klaas the bill and demanded that he pay with 24 sacks of wheat or 30 sacks of rye. He figured Klaas and Sijmon had used about 297 sacks of rye to make bread since there were, in his estimation, 187 and a half people who ate only rye bread. He said that Dirk Koning used only 30 sacks of rye, and some other bakers only 25, making a total of 352 sacks that needed to be taxed. They paid it, of course.

However, it must have irked Simon greatly. He went one step further and in an attestation dated Oct 27 1731, he brought in two magistrates from Hoorn, the impostmeester (tax master) and deurwaarder (bailiff), to hear his case against Dirk Coning. Dirk had paid no taxes and Sijmon had to pay them all. Besides Dirk, a wittebrood bakker (white, or wheat bread) had several customers in Sijmon's area which meant that he was profiting off of Sijmon. Sijmon wanted Dirk to stop being allowed to sell bread in his territory, and then he could make white bread as well as rye bread (roggebrood) to sell to customers. I think it was agreed that Dirk had to pay 18 sacks of wheat in taxes.

Sijmon's wife, Bregt Jans Prins, died in 1735 and Sijmen sold the bakery to Jan Prinsz. his uncle. So he became a farmer. He married Geertje Jacobs in 1738. She was the widow of the schoolteacher Willem Posthumius. She seemed to have more influence on him than Bregt Jans as he made peace with the church leaders. On November 30 1738, Domine Johannes van Wena wrote a notice saying Simon Bakker had repented and was now restored to membership in the church.

Later Years

In 1742 he was nominated to be an elder, but he wasn’t chosen to become one. In spite of not earning much money through the bakery, he apparently had a “chaise” (a gig, drawn by horses) in the inventory that he kept for traveling. Maybe he bought it after he went into full time farming. The bakery had 9 more bakers after Sijmen: first his son Cornelis who later became the baker at Wervershoof, then Jan Gerritsz. Prinsz. until 1763 and his son Gerrit for some time after that. This Jan was the son of Brecht’s sister Trijn and her husband Gerrit Freeksz Pan (he was named for his mother’s side of the family). Since the bakery was still small, Jan Prins also raised cows. An attourney document dated May 28, 1758 says he testified before lawyer Cornelis ran de Deure of Grootebroek that he owed his uncle Sijmen Backer 800 guilders for a piece of grassland for his cows. He promised to pay 24 guilders interest per year, beginning May 1 1760. Soon afterwards the bakery passed out of the family’s hands. The bakery was destroyed in the 1916 flood and the owner Cornelis van Otterloo built a new bakery on the Hoekweg instead.

There was a Brecht Jans, a member of the Andijk church, who was denied the Lord’s Supper for a while because she had a child with a married man when she wasn’t married. Most likely this wasn’t our Brecht Jans. There were others in Andijk. ^[1]

Sources

• Baptism: 1702-03_2 DTB Andijk 2. Gereformeerde doop- en trouwinschrijvingen en lidmatenlijsten, 1667-1788 (met hiaten). as found at [2]

• Marriage 1: 1702-03_2 DTB Andijk 2. Gereformeerde doop- en trouwinschrijvingen en lidmatenlijsten, 1667-1788 (met hiaten). as found at [3]

• Marriage 2: 1702-03_2 DTB Andijk 2. Gereformeerde doop- en trouwinschrijvingen en lidmatenlijsten, 1667-1788 (met hiaten). as found at [4]

• Kistemaker Netwerk: Proza en Poëzie, PRINS aan een zijden draad as found at [5]

• Kistemaker Netwerk: Groei en Bloei van de geschiedenis van Andijk as found at [6]

• Kistemaker Netwerk: Het Westfriese Geslacht Kooiman as found at [7]

• Tax Attestation dated Oct 6 1731 as found at [8]

• Attestation dated Oct 27 1731 (complaint by Simon Klaasz Bakker) as found at [9]

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Bertram Sluys.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Bertram Sluys for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Bertram and others.