1. Familie Herlin / Heerlien / Herlijn / Herlyn

S. 599 "Elizabeth Zeghers was born in Lier to Aerts Zeghers and Anna van Eynde. Both of her parents had died by the time that she married Jan. In her marriage contract, her guardians were Willem van Eynde, her uncle on the mother’s side and her brother-in-law, Jan de Hoest de Oude. Elizabeth, like all merchant wives, must have been essential help to her husband in running her mercantile business. At the death of her husband in 1563, Elizabeth took over the family capital and traded on her own. As her sons grew older, her sons joined in the family trade, working under the auspices of their mother. Under Elizabeth’s lead, the family capital continued to expand, so that by the time of her death, the Van der Meulens counted among the mercantile elite of Antwerp."

"Jan van der Meulen de Jonge, geb. Antwerpen vóór 1520, + Antwerpen 1563/1564, begr. Antwerpen Borchtkerkhof; tr. Antwerpen juli 1543 Elizabeth Seghers, geb. Lier ca 1520, + Bremen 17 juni 1587, dr van Aert Seg(h)ers en Anna van den Eijnde."

S. 598 "Little is known about Jan van der Meulen. Like Jan de Oude, Jan came from humble origins. Born in Antwerp, his father was at first a shoemaker and then became a merchant. Jan married Elizabeth Zeghers in 1543. The marriage contract that the couple signed on 2 July 1543 shows that Jan agreed to bring £83.6.8 to the marriage, while Elizabeth brought £60. From these origins, Jan increased the family’s wealth significantly over the next twenty years. Jan’s trading activities involved connecting Antwerp to the fairs of Frankfurt and Strasbourg, which would make up the main line of the trade of the Van der Meulen family well into the 1580s. On 15 October 1556, the couple signed a testament that stipulated that the surviving spouse would have full control over the mercantile capital of the family to continue the business. By June 1564, the testament was put into effect. Jan must have died before 25 December 1563, when a state of the capital he left was drawn up. At his death, he possessed a capital of £2,000, over twenty times what he had brought to the marriage. A seventeenth-century document that described the history of the Van der Meulen family claimed that Jan had converted to Calvinism by the time of his death. However, this might simply have been an attempt to augment the Calvinist lineage of the family."

S. 599/600 "With the troubles from the beginnings of the Dutch Revolt stirring around them, Elizabeth sent her three daughters and youngest son to Cologne in 1572. She joined her children two years later, as her two oldest sons took greater responsibility in the family’s trading activities. From Cologne, Elizabeth directed the activities of her sons between the metropolis of Antwerp and the biannual fairs at Frankfurt and Strasbourg, acting as middlemen in the exchange of goods between northwest Europe and the Italian peninsula. After an abortive attempt at creating a company with her son-in-law, Severijn van de Corput in 1575, Elizabeth formed a company with her son-in-law François Pierens in 1581. Elizabeth constituted the senior partner in the so-called “Oude Compagnie,” bringing two-thirds of the capital with François contributing he other one-third. The company continued to trade along the same lines as Elizabeth had previously pursued, though they also expanded their trade to Nuremberg. With the failure of the peace talks in Cologne in 1579 and the declaration of the Calvinist Republic in Antwerp, Elizabeth returned to Antwerp in 1582. It is unclear when the Van der Meulen family converted to Calvinism—and conversion does seem to have been a united family affair for the Van der Meulens—but if the conversion occurred before 1579, the Van der Meulens must have been clandestine Calvinists.51 By 1581, the family had clearly adopted Calvinism and stood firmly on the side of Revolt. Elizabeth remained in Antwerp until she was forced into exile after the fall of Antwerp to Farnese on 17 August 1585. Elizabeth retreated to Bremen, which possessed a small enclave of Calvinist exiles, along with her sons Andries and Daniel and their families.52 There, under the watchful eyes of her two sons, Elizabeth died on 17 June 1587."

Grafschrift 1,