Margrietke Jacobs van den Berch
Daughter of a brewer and member of the Veertigraad, Margrietke married basketmaker Philips Thonis in 1622 at age 29. She bore seven children, Antony when she was 38 and the last, Catharina, when she was 43. After Philips died in 1638, leaving her with five children under 15, Margrietke married a 66-year-old Jacob Jans de Molijn, who had been a minor city official (deurwaarder) and painter. He died nine years later in 1649, leaving her a widow again for the last decades of her life.
In addition to Antony, Margrietke and Philips had six children, another son and five daughters. Two died as children, two died in their early 20's, and Antony's two sisters, Margrieta and Catharina, lived to have children.
Margrietke died in 1664, when Antony was 32. On 1664 11/25, Antony and the husbands of his two surviving sisters received 5,000 guilders from the estate of her aunt Aeltge Sebastiaans van den Berch. Margrietke had living on the interest since aunt Aeltge's death in 1649.
The Delft notary archives of Johannes Ranck show that Margrietke and Jacob Molijn testified on 1658 02/26 (ONA Delft inv. 2115A, fol. 31) for a summons or warrant (insinuatie) by Jan Strick. Strick was the husband of Margrietke's niece Maria Elsevier and the official of the magistrate's court who Antony replaced two years later.
Her siblings
Margrietke had an older sister, two younger brothers, and three younger sisters. They married in the same order. Aeltge married Hendrik Daniëls Gellinckhuysen and lived in den Briel. Next came Cornelis, who lived in Leiden and Benthuizen, and Johan, who lived in Rotterdam. Cornelia married Symon Elsevier, from Rotterdam, but they seemed to have lived in Delft. The two younger sisters also left Delft. Catharina married Pieter Maurits Douchy and lived in Amersterdam. Annetje married Maerten Tersyden in Leiden and lived there and in Benthuizen.
All five of Margrietke's sisters, then, seem to have married well, better than Margrietke, at any rate, who married a basketmaker from the wrong side of town and upon his death, a man who painted bridges and buildings for the city.
Where did Margrietke live?
When her parents married, her father Jacob Sebastiaans van den Berch was living in de Bel D0399 and D0400 now Koornmarkt 72. He owned D0263 now Oude Langendijk 22, just off the central Markt. The Delft DTB records indicate that she was living on Oude Langendijk when she married, so perhaps that is where she grew up. Her father, a brewer and a member of the Veertigraad, also owned D0060 now Beestenmarkt 8 on the corner of corner of the Burgwal.
Her mother was Margriete Cornelis Verburch, from the prominent regent family. Three of Jacob and Margriete's five daughters and both sons left Delft to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Daughter Margrietke stayed at home and married down – Antony's father, a basketmaker. When they married in 1622, she probably moved to his house, E0073 now Oosteinde 56, where Antony grew up.
After 1632, Philips Thonis and later his widow Margrietke (Grietgen) paid a tax (verponding) of 36 stuivers for property on the north side of the gate by water "in 't Slop" (in the alley). In 1638, the widow of Philips Thonisz., living on the east side of the Oosteinde, paid a hearth tax (haardstedengeld) of 3 guilders. Both of those taxes were paid on Oosteinde 56.
If Margrietke moved from Oosteinde to Molijn's house C0272 now Choorstraat 38 in 1640, did she stay there until she died? Who lived in the house on the Oosteinde after 1640? What about the five children? In 1640, eight-year-old Antony left to attend school in Warmond. His four-year-old brother Jacob had just died, in 1639. By 1643 when she married at age twenty, his older sister Margrieta was living in Amsterdam. That left four girls at home in 1640, Geertruijt, age 14, Neeltge, 12, Maria, 10, and Catharina, 3. Perhaps little Antony was just as happy to get out of there.
