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On the webpage concearning the origin of our name we came to the conclusion that de origin of our family name and therefore also the original whereabouts of our earliest ancestors could be located near the toponym roke in south-west Flobecq.
We discribed the history of this place in the topic about the toponym roke in Flobecq.
Here you can find a chronological overview of the namebearers de le Roke in Flobecq and Ellezelles.
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Flobecq in Hainaut Ellezelles in Hainaut
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In the Veil Rentier, the in 1275 redacted book of returns of sir Jehan van Pamele-Oudenaarde, published by Léo Verriest, we find the oldest mention of a family de le roke in Flobecq.
On folio 41 recto we can read in Picardian :
C' est li rente de Florbiert, à commenchier à Baneginpont, à destre main si comme on vient por venir d'Audenarde, à venir aval vers le moustier.
Wicars, li fix Colart de le Roke, et Jehans, ses freres, tienent demi journal de pret, dedens le bos de Portebech, por venir aval, si a une fontaine, encosté Baneginpont, s'en rendent 2s. et 2 capons.
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Translated literaly :
This is the return of Flobecq, beginning at the Banegin-bridge, on your right as if when you come from Oudenaarde, to go down in the direction of the convent.
Wicars, the son of Colart de le Roke and Jehans, his brother, are holding as fief half a journal of pasture in the Pottelberghe-forest, to go down, where the fountain is, next to the Banegin-bridge, and therefor they pay 2s. and 2 capons.
In this passage we find an incredible treasure of data!
We learn that the brothers Wicars and Jehans, sons of Colart de le Roke were holding in fief a pasture in the Pottelberg-forest.
This could imply they had a small livestock.
This pasture however, was only half a journal big, that's approximately 1600 m2, or 0.4 acres, which is completely unsufficiant to let cows graze on.
Since there was a fountain, this pasture might have been suitable as drinking place for the animals, as a complement to adjoining land.
Since the pasture was situated in the Pottelberg-forest, this hypothesis seems unlikely.
The Pottelbergh-forest was situated 6 km north-east of the masure de le Roke, that's a walk of more than an hour!
The land nearby the masure de le Roke, the farm where the de le Roke family lived, was probably too rocky and not fertile enough to produce grass.
The heights south of the de le Roke-forest were designated with the toponym "bruyère", heath, and must have had poor soil as well, only suitable to keep a few sheep on.
A masure is per definition a farm with sufficiant adjacent land to provide in the livelihood of one family.
Further more, we can without doubt deduct that the de le Roke family, who lived close to a roke, a quarry, will have been involved in the exploitation of that roke. We may even have found proof of this in the archives :
In the account of the county of Hainaut, dated 1446, we found the following passage:De la despouille dune haye a Florbiec, appllee la Rocquette, tenant au bois le seigneur de barbenchon au Rieu de banesurpont et au chemin, vendu à Jehan Zuittre le 26 mars 1446.
This fragment proves that exactly on the spot where the brothers Wicars and Jehans de le Roke held a pasture in fief in 1275, one and a half century later the toponym "la Rocquette" existed.
A "rocquette" is of course a small roke.
We could make the same constatation in Tournai : the place "ultra Bruleum" where Johannes de le Roke rented a garden from the St.-Martinsabbey in 1227, 10 years later was referred to as "ad rupem ultra Brulium", in this the Latin word "rupe" means quarry.
These are two strong indications that the de le Roke family was in both places actively involved in the exploitation of rokes, or quarries.
The name Colart is a linguistic variation, an augmentative, of the name Nicolaes.
As we will discuss in the page concearning the de le Roke family in Tournai, the given names of the de le Roke families in Flobecq and Tournai were identical.
Nicholès de le Roke, who was one of the 7 aldermen of the city of Tournai between 1221 and 1228, was probably the same person as father Colart de le Roke from Flobecq in 1275. In 1359 a Colars de le Roke from a next generation registered his last will in Tournai.
Approximately in 1227 we meet the first Johannes de le Roke in Tournai, and this first name reappeared generation after generation.
Even the very rare name Wicars was found in Tournai : in 1349, a year of bubonic plague, Wiart Roke redacted his testament in Tournai.
In origin, the first name Wicars was a Germanic callname, composed from the elements "wîga" and "hardu", which mean "battle" and "strong"...
We know that in our regions the first christian names appeared around the first millennium, and in the 13th century almoast all the Germanic names were pushed out.
We could establish that the habit of passing on first names from generation to generation was undoubtably present in the de le Roke family, so we can conclude that this name Wicars must have been given in this family for a very long time...
Further research concearning this Germanic first name can maybe provide us with more information on our ancestors before they had a hereditary family name...
We could also make the constatation that a lot of people who were mentioned in the Veil Rentier as fiefholder of sir Jehan van Pamele-Oudenaarde, resided in Tournai.
We could find the Gargate, d'Encre, de l'Ewe, Beausire, de Baudrenghien, Flamecourt, de Robertmasure, de l'Estree, Boukine, li Vesques and de le Roke families as citizens of Tournai.
In cartularium B, a polyptic of the Great Office of the Cellier of the capitle of the Tournai cathedral, dating from the 13th century, we even discovered Arnulphus de Aldenarda, who payed a rent for a house in the St-Piat parish in Tournai. He was the father of Jehan van Pamele-Oudenaarde.
Since 1103 the Tournai based St.-Martinsabbey was the keeper of the tenths of Flobecq.
This abbey owned land in Flobecq, and had a curtis there.
When in 1164-'66 an allodium in Flobecq was given tot the St.-Martinsabbey, Evrardus de Vinea was present as a whitness. In 1159 he was the first alderman of Tournai.
In a list of revenues of the Géron farm in Flobecq, dating from 1175, Walterus Rufus was mentioned. In 1199 Walterus Rufus was one of the 30 jurymen of Tournai.
The dean of Geraardsbergen declared in 1238 that Thierry d'Orke gave all his claims he possessed in Flobecq to the St.-Martinsabbey. The d'Orke family was one of the most important patrician families in Tournai in the 12th and 13th century.
The Flobecq families Tucman, de Renartcamp and van de roke were citizens of Gent.
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In 1283 sir Jehan van Pamele-Oudenaarde donated to the friars Willemieten a piece of land he owned in the parish of Florbiert, situated near the forest near the roke, on a spot called the masure "in this way".
Here we may have found the reason why the de le Roke family can not be found in later archives of Flobecq : the owner of the masure de le Roke decided to donate the piece of land where our ancestors lived to a congregation of monks, ... and the de le Roke family had to find another place to live.
In Goy, a nabour village of Flobecq, the de Sorbruec family held a few fiefs from sir Jehan van Pamele-Oudenaarde.
One of these de Sorbruec familymembers was registered in the Veil Rentier as Sare, li vesve de le Roke. This Sare de Sorbruec was the widow of a de le Roke and after the death of her husband she probably returned to her family...
In the burgersbook of Ath, Baudès Roke, who lived in Buissenal, was registered as foreign burger of the city of Ath.
Buissenau is a nabour village of Ellezelles!
We found two records concearning a Baudes Roke and a Bauduin de le Roke in Tournai in 1275.
Once again we notice the same first names in the Tournai and Flobecq de le Roke family, and there probably was a direct lineage (grandfather, grandson) between these Baudouins.
The wife of Gilliart de le Rocque was convicted because she got into a fight with haneete du bos.
In 1407, Gilliart de le Rocque killed two sheep who were grazing on his land.
In 1418 Gilliart de le Rocque was under suspicion of trespassing the court of Daniel Sauchoit.
We found the name Egidius de le roke in 1232 and Gilles de le Roke in 1260 in Tournai and in the obituary of the St.-James-parish of Tournai a Gilliart le Rocq was mentionned in 1407, perhaps this was the same Gilliart...
In the same accounts we can read that in 1404 Maigne de le Rocque was convicted and locked up in the Flobecq jail for a fight with lison gallie.
In 1407 Cathérine de le Rocque was banned out of the city of "Flobiecq" because she was suspected of adultery, "contre a sen maeris"...
Because she had trespassed somebody's court twice, Maroie de le Rocque, living in Ellezelles, was convicted in 1407.
We found another registration of the de le Roke family in Ellezelles in 1407 in a different source.
Mister Gadeyne, the archivist of the Ronse archives, redacted the inventory of the regests of the capitle of the St.-Hermeschurch in Ronse.
"In dorso", on the back-side, of a chirograph dating from 1407 was written : Jehans de le Roke, Elzele.
In this chirograph the hairs of Estiévenart dou Mahuiel confirmed that they donated a house with courtyard, situated in Ellezelles at the Grand Kemin le Seigneur, next to Camp de le Court, to Lievin de Skelveghem.E. Degand-Dopchie mentions the place Camp de le Rocq in 1413 in his article "Ellezelles, Lieux-dits Anciens et Modernes".
The author noticed that in 1895 the toponym Delrocq still existed in Ellezelles, close to the bois des Prêtres in the cadastral section E.
Due to a conflict with Jacquemon Hanicke, in Flobecq in 1418, Caisin de le Rocque had to pay a fine of 1/5 of 13 small écus.
In the same year Caisin de le Rocque, living in "Ellesiele", injured Jehan Gadissier.
Again in 1418, Caisin de le Rocque was convicted for a fight with Gilliart Sadosne in Ellezelles.
In 1419, Caisin de le Rocque had to pay a fine of 60 sous because of a conflict with Jacquemart Rasse.
In 1452 sire Jehan de Robertmasure payed 1/5 of 25 £ over the hairs of Nicaise de le Rocque in Wodeke.
Apparently, the de Robertmasure and the de le Rocque families were related to each other.
In the Tournai town accounts of 1495, a Jehan de Robertmasure is mentioned, and several members of this family redacted their testament in Tournai.
In 1454 the widow of Nicaise de le Rocque payed a fine of 12 s. because she had a conflict with gillain le latteur.
The names Caisin and Nicaise were local variations of the name Nicolas.
As we will see this name was given to de le Roke familymembers generation after generation, starting with Nicholès de le Roke who was one of the seven Tournai aldermen in 1221.
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In the list of baillifs of "la terre des débats", the "land of conflicts", as the region of Flobecq and Lessines is often refered to, redacted by Lesneucq in his "histoire de Lessines", we can read that knight Gilles de Grandmetz was baillif in Flobecq and Ellezelles in 1425.
Without any doubt, he was closely related (a son, or a nephew) to knight Gilles de Grandmez (†), the third husband of Cathérine de Bruyelles, daughter of Jehenne de le Rocque from Tournai.
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In 1426 Hakinet fil. Guillt. de le Rocque was convicted and imprisoned in Flobecq because he had damaged the posessions of a carpenter.
In 1441 Haquinet de le Rocque had bought an "ottel" in Wodeke, a house where you can live in with one family.
The name Hakinet is a linguistic variation of the name Johannes.
In 1440, Jan de le roke, priest in Schorisse, a nabour village of Flobecq, was registered as a member of the St.-George's ghilt of the city of Oudenaarde.
This St.-George's ghilt was the most important archersghilt in every Medieval city.
The city guards were chosen among the members of this ghilt, and it was responsable for the defence of the city when it was under attack or under siege.
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Jan van Schorisse gezeyt Chamblin, a bastard son of Arend VI van Gavere-Schorisse was involved in forestry in Flobecq.
Arend VI van Gavere-Schorisse was maried to Marie d'Aumont, of the French noble family from the region between Beauvais and Paris.
The French speaking, and probably bilingual priest Jan de le roke must have been very welcome in Schorisse.
All members of the family of the lords van Gavere-Schorisse, including their bastardsons, ware members of the St.-George's ghilt of Oudenaarde, and evidently the priest in Schorisse was introduced in this prestigeous ghilt.
This Jan de le roke is probably the same person as priest Johannes de Roqua who was the confessor in the bishop's jail in Tournai in 1462 (see the de le Roke family in Tournai)
In "Het kapittel van St.-Hermes binnen Ronse", a booklet from 1892 printed by the van den Daele company in Ronse, we learn more about the canons of the chapter of the St.-Hermeschurch in Ronse.
A canon is a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter.
The number of priests is limited and fixed per chapter by papal decision and each "seat" is called a "prove".
When a new member was accepted in this ecclesiastical assembly, he was expected to donate a decent gift to the chapter.
Most of the canons came from very welthy families, and most donations were important sums of money, pieces of land, or rents, so the chapter could build a steady incoming flow of cash and goods.
In 1436 Jan de Atrio, priest of Kerkhem, received the "prove" out of the hands of the pope.
He died on august 1452, and Lieven de Floerbeque, magister artium, is the next name on the list.
In 1452, on the day before Christmas, Lodewijk de la Roche took over the "prove" which was free because Jan Kerckhof passed away.
In 1453 Lodewijk was found "the peacefull possessor" of this prove, and he was still alive in 1484.
In 1490 Marcus Steenbergh was in possession of this "prove".
In this list we notice that the names of the canons are frequently translated, from Dutch to Latin, and then again from Latin to Dutch.
We also notice small changes in the names during this proces, for example : Jan de Atrio is translated into Jan Kerckhof, in stead of into Jan van de Kerkhove.
Was the name Marcus Steenbergh the translation of the hypothetical Picardian name Maercq de le Roke ?? (see : the meaning of our name)
A very strange coincidence puts "Lieven de Floerbeque", obviously coming from Flobecq, Lodewijk de la Roche and Marcus Steenbergh together in one list, chronologicaly one after an other...
Whether and how these priests can be connected to our genealogy, is not clear at all.
The names Lodewijk and Marcus were frequently used in the de le Rocque family in the 16th century.
E. Degand-Dopchie in his article "Ellezelles, Lieux-dits Anciens et Modernes", published in the "Annales du Cercle Archéologiques de Mons" in 1897, made mention of a place called the forest Jehan de le Roque in 1469.
We haven't found the document from 1469 yet, but if it still exists we will certainly find it!
It is quite obvious there couldn't have been a forest Jehan de le Roque without a person called Jehan de le Roque...
In 1471 Nicaise de le Rocque, living in Ellezelles was registered in the baillif's accounts of Flobecq and Lessines.
He was convicted for chopping aldertrees in the forest of Jehan Lourette and had to go on a pelgrimmage to Warogneville in France.
In spite of the fact that he was described a poor man, Nicaise bought off this pelgrimmage by paying a sum to the baillif.
In medieval jurisdiction a pelgrimmage was frequently imposed as a sentence.
The convicted person will initially have had to fulfill this pelgrimmage, and bring back sealed and signed letters as proof of the fact that he had actually been in the place.
Later on it became a habit that these pelgrimmages could be bought off.
If we consider Nicaise's given name, it is quite striking that we yet again meet another linguistic variation of the name Nicolaes.
It would be very surprising if this Nicaise was not the sun of the previously mentioned Caisin de le Rocque!
In 1479 Maigne de le Rocque had to pay an indemnification to Ghienin Mesquin.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Armand du Chastel de la Howarderie, a famous historian from Tournai, searched and published several genealogies of Tournai families, among others the Thiebegot family.
This Thiebegot family possessed a fiew fiefs in the northwest of Hainaut, for instance the "la Cucquière"-fief in Celles-Molembaix and the "Chinaumont"-fief in Ellezelles, held from the feodal court of Leuze.
We found in E. Degand-Dopchie's article that the toponym Guinaumont still existed in Ellezelles in 1895, and even in 2005 there still is a street named Guinaumont in this village...
Guinaumont is situated one mile west of the de le Roke forest, on the other side of the nabouring heath.
In Paul Armand du Chastel de la Howarderie's genealogy of the Thiebegot family, we find the 3 children of the then already deceased Jehan de le Rocque and the also at that time already deceased daughter of Jacquemart Thiebegot, in the testament of his widow Jehenne Prevost.
F. Desmons made an almost litteral transscription of this will, but he didn't copy the names of these three children de le Rocque either.
Thrice alas, mister Desmons was only interested in the possessions of the testators.
Quadruple squared alas, this testament went up in flames during the fire caused by the bombing of Tournai in may 1940...
This Jehan de le Rocque can also be found in the de le Roke family in Tournai, and the fact that this Jehan de le Rocque married the daughter of Jaquemart Thiebegot and Jehenne Prevost, a family we traced in the rue de le roke in Tournai, is another "piece of evidence" which proves that the de le Roke families in Tournai and Flobecq are identical.
Recently an old chest was discovered in a barn in Ellezelles...
In it, according to mister Playgin, an old book was found in which the widow and hairs of Jacques de le Rocque are mentionned in 1540.At the moment, this book is being restored and rebinded, so we don't have any further information on this family (yet).
In 1540 the authorities organized a census in the county of Hainaut.
In Ellezelles Pierre de le Rocq and Loys de le Rocque, a poor man, were registered.
In 1552 Loy Rock fs Pieters, born in "elseele" was enlisted als foreign burger of the city of Oudenaarde.
In 1560 Loys was still living in Ellezelles.
The poor man Mahieu de le Rocq who lived in Ellezelles in 1540, was convicted in 1567 and '73 in the town of Mesen.
He was probably involved in the iconoclastic troubles.
In the "documents concearnig the strangers in Emden", regarding the period 1560-'76, published in the "publications of the Marnixvereniging", we find a list of names, redacted during an "extraordinairy distribution".
During these distributions, the members of the Emden reformed diacony donated bread to the poor.
One of the names on the list is de la Rocke or de la Roche Mathieu.
Emden is a town now situated in Germany, and at the end of the 16th century was part of West-Friesland.
Thousands of religious refugees found assilum there between 1550 and 1650.
Mathieu de la Rocke was probably one of these religious refugees.
The family of Marcus vander Roecke left Ellezelles at the end of the 16th century, because of religion.
In Ellezelles, he was probaly called Maercq de le Rocque, but we haven't found him in any document there yet...
You can read all about this family in the the genealogy of Marcus van Roocke.
Although in 16th century South-Holland the names of foreigners were often written down phonetically, and fiercely mutilated, I couldn't find another family name that was translated.
Therefor I think we can conclude that this de le Rocque - van Roocke family was bilingual, and translated their family name themselves...
Any way, we notice that for the fourth time the name de le Rocque was translated in van de roecke, exactly in the same way as Jac de le roke became Jac van de roke in Gent in the third quarter of the 14th century, as Willem vander roke from Tournai was registered in 1379 in the town accounts of Brugge, and as Jehenne de le Rocque from Tournai was registered as Jehane van der roke in the town accounts of Kortrijk in 1392!
On top of this, a Lowijs van Roockelen was registered in Leiden, when one of his children died of the pest in 1604.
In 1648 a child of Pieter van Roocken was burried there.
In 1664 Lodewijk van Roockem died in Leiden.
These people were probably descendents of Pierre and Loys de le Rocq(ue) from Ellezelles.
Especially in the van Roocke family from Leiden and Ellezelles it was customary to give the first name of the grand-parents to the baptized infants.
We did not find a Maercq de le Rocque in the Ellezelles archives yet.
We did find a "staat van goed" ,a summary of the goods, of the in 1653 deceased Maercq de la Roche fs in the city of Oudenaarde.
Following the example of historian J. Decavele, we interpret "fs" not followed by any name as son of a father with the same first name Maercq.
Possibly we are dealing here with the same person as the bookseller Marcus Marcusz Rocquius who had a shop in Amsterdam in 1646 and '47.
One of the children of this Maercq de la Roche was -of course- called Maerc as well (see : the descendents of son Marcus in the genealogy of Marcus van Roocke).
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With the data we have at the moment, we are unable to redact a 100%-proof genealogy for the de le Roke family from Flobecq and Ellezelles.
Further research will possibly bring us new data and help us to generate the father-son connections for this branch of the de le Roke family.
We can however certainly assert that all the persons mentioned in this article undoubtably were very closely related to each other, and if they weren't always necessarily fahters and sons, they may have been uncles and nephews.
We can also claim without too much doubt that these people are the ancestors of the Delrocq family.
You can click here to see a schematic model of the Flobecq de le Roke family
click here to go to the beginning of this document.
continue to the de le Roke family in Tournai