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the first generation of migrants
in the south of Holland

at the end of the 16th century
from Elsylle bij Ronse to Leiden

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           We found the oldest mentions of relatives of our ancestors in the south of Holland when Marcus or Morick van der roecke was registered in Leiden in 1590 and 1591 as best man for the grooms when his sons Jaecques van der roecke and Bartelmeeus van Roucke were getting married.

Since his sons who got married in Leiden were registered as originated from "Elsylle bij Ronse" and "Henegoue bij Ronse", Marcus van der roecke certainly belonged to the Ellezelles de le Rocque family.
Marcus was probably born there around 1550.
You can find more information concerning his descendants in the the genealogy of Marcus van Roocke.

At the end of the 16^th century there were several persons living in Leiden who did not belong to thsi family :

• Gerardt vander Roocke was a member of the van de roke family who lived in Berchem next to Oudenaarde.
• The child of Lowijs van Roockelen died of the plague in Leiden in 1604. Lowijs lived at the Uyterste graft, the same street were Marcus lived with his family.
  In 1648 a child of a Pieter van Roocken died, and in 1664 Lodewijk van Roockem died in Leiden.

When we compare these names with the names of the de le Rocque family from Ellezelles where we encountered in 1540, '60 and '70 a Loys de le Rocque son of Pierre de le Rocque, it's hard to imagine these people would not be related.

The presence in Leiden of Lowijs and Pieter van Roocken is a supplementery indication that Marcus van der roecke was a close relative of Loys and Pierre de le Rocque.
Maybe persevered research in the Ellezelles archives will bring us a mention of Maercq de le Rocque.

In the city of Delft we found the registration on the 21^st of june 1602 of the marriage of sayeworker Jacop van Roqus, from Waterwijck in Flanders and living in the Pieterstraat, with Grietge Willems, widow of Jan Ambrosius.
It's not clear yet whether and how this Jacop was related to the Leiden van Roocke family.
This Jacop van Roqus is probably the same person as Jaymes Vanrocus, alien, who was registered in the lay subsidy role of 1593 in Surrey next to London.
He had to pay 5 shillings of tax "for his pole".
On the 17^th of march 1625 a Hester de Rock died in Delft, we haven't been able to find more information concerning this possible relative yet.

We will also have to find an answer to the question whether these first migrants went directly from Ellezelles to Leiden or first tried to find a better life in Germany or England...
As our investigation progresses, we indeed seem to find more and more indications that the Leiden van Roocke family had more than average connections with the Flemish congregations of refugees in Norwich and Colchester.
In aligning our search in this perspective, we stumbled on the registration of a Jan van Rooke in 1582 in Colchester, who was a witness at the redaction of the will of Henry Ozell !
So maybe this first generation of migrants wasn't exactly the first generation of refugees after all...
In this context I made a number of interesting discoveries which you find on the page concerning a van Roken family on the run.

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