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Marcus or Morick van der roecke was registered in Leiden in 1590 and 1591 when he was the best man for the grooms when his sons Jaecques van der roecke and Bartelmeeus van Roucke were getting married.
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Except for these two registrations as best man at the marriages of his sons, we were unable to find an other trace of Marcus van der roecke in the Leiden archives.
When Marcus's daughters Adriaentgen vande rouke and Lurens Rocque got (re)married in Leiden in 1592 and 1596, he wasn't a witness. Marcus probably died in the mean time.
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.
We haven't found a Marcus, Morick or Maercq de le Rocque in the Ellezelles archives yet. A lot of documents have been looked into, but the search is far from over ! (see the de le Roke family in Flobecq).
Sometimes the fact that you can nót find someone somewhere can be reveiling too : maybe the searched for person actually wàsn't present there...
I do have to mention here that a lot of the old archives of this region -la terre des débats- have been lost by warfare and fire.
A plausible candidate who could have been the father of Marcus van der roecke seems to be Jean de Rocq or le roch who was emprisoned in Tournai in 1568 because of his religion and had all his goods and properties confiscated.
Jehan de Rocq was married to Geneviève Varlut, daughter of the in 1531 for religious reasons expelled Raimond Varlut, and sister to the famous Tournai religious reformer François Varlut.
Jean le Roch's wife was emprisoned in 1564 for giving shelter to her brother. (see the de le Roke family in Tournai).
It is possible this Jehan le roch or Jean de Rocq was the same person as the religious refugee John Vanrock we found in London in 1549 (see a van Roken family on the run).
This family seems to hev been very mobile :
In 1550 François Varlut studied in Geneva. In 1559 and 1560 he lived in Orléans with one of his sisters and her husband (Jean de Rocq ?) and some good friends.
In 1561 he returned to Tournai to instruct the youth in the religious points of view of Jean Calvin.
In 1562 François Varlut was apprehended and executed for heresy.
J. Briels tells us that after the repression of 1567 an '68 a hughe migration occurred from the Netherlands to Germany and England.
A bit later on, most of these refugees returned to their home cities and succeeded in organizing Calvinistic gouverning there. After the recapturing of these cities by the duke of Alva in 1581, they left their native country again, and never returned.
This passage seems to be remarquebly appliquable to the branch of our family we are studying here :
With probability close to certainty, it was this Jean de Rocq who was a witness in 1582 in Colchester when Henry Ozell redigated his will, where he was registered as Jan van Rooke.
We can read in "the Essex Wills" by Frederick George Emmison in collaboration with the Friends of Historic Essex, published by the Essex Reord Office that Henry Ozell's will was proved on the 26th of october 1582.
Henry Ozell, "alien", gave 10 s. to the poor people of the Dutch (i.e. Flemish) congregation in Colchester and a same sum to the poor people of the Dutch congregation in Halstead.
Henry left 10 s. to every one of his children he had in Colchester.
The rest of his goods he donated in three equal parts to his three daughters Jakemynken, Gaengen and Maykin. Henry chose his daughter Mayken and her husband Christian de Frend as executors of his will.
The witnesses were the scribe Willem Vigerus, Edmond Smythe, Jan van Rooke and Joos Myner.
Dr. Raingard Esser tells us in her book about the "Niederländische Exulanten im England des 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhunderts" that in the Dutch congregation in Norwich, often "Politijcke Mannen" were chosen as witnesses to the redaction of a will.
They were asked to translate the will from Dutch or French into English and sometimes they were appointed to make an inventory of the goods of the deceased.
In the Dutch refugee communities in other English towns, these "Politijcke Mannen" did not exist, and their tasks were performed by the elderlings.
Dr. Esser calculated that in 45% of all wills redacted by refugees the witnesses were preachers, deacons or elderlings.
Maybe Jan van Rooke was elected as elderling in the congregation at Colchester or Halstead.
Further investigation in the archives will maybe bring us more certainty about this...
The Dutch refugee community in Colchester started around 1565 when 30 Flemish textile manufacturors and their skilled, highly trained personell and their families were invited by the city council to settle in Colchester.
In 1571, 185 "Dewchmen" lived in Colchester, in 1573 there were 431, in 1586 1291 and in 1616 1571.
They specilized in weaving baize of very high quality, mostly woven white, and used as dress cloth.
The strict quality control was performed in the Bay Hall under the authority of the Dutch congregation.
The production of textile of very high quality by the Flemish refugees created direct employment for the empovered locals, and gave a real boost to the Colchester economy through higher activities in supplying primary goods and the increase of (oversea) trade in these "new draperies".
The Dutch congregation in Halstead was formed when a group of 11 families who lived in Colchester, were invited to move to Halstead by the town council.
In Halstead however, a flourishing baize industry already existed, and the Dutch were compelled to have their products examined by the local authorities, which caused multiple conflicts.
This migration wasn't successful and in 1588 the Dutch left Halstead again. Some of them returned to Colchester, others emigrated to the city of Leiden in Holland.
We know for a fact that François Varlut, brother in law of Jean de Rocq, worked as a weaver in Tournai.
His father Raymond Varlut, banned as a heretic, was a mercier, a merchant of among other things luxurious textiles.
We also know that Bartelmeeus van Roocke, the son of Marcus van der roecke had a medium large weaving-loom in his house in Leiden in 1602.
The in laws of Jean de Rocq in Tournai (and probably Jean himself), as well as the Dutch religious refugees in Colchester were involved in weaving, as were many of the descendents of Marcus van der roecke in Leiden.
We already mentioned in the chapter about the de le Roke family in Tournai that the Varlut family emigrated to Hanau near Frankfurt in Germany at the end of the 16th century. We could find a registration in Leiden as well :
On the second day of november in 1674, sayeworker Jacob Varlus from Leiden was married to Maria Fix from Orsie.
The witness for the groom was Jacob Varlus, his father.
We found more connections :
In the city of Leiden, on november 28 1586, Matheus van Reu(r)lo from Belle, who lived in Emmerick, was married to Catalina de Heere from Belle (a town in the north of France).
Catalina was the widow of N.N. Ouzeel.
The witnesses of the groom were his cousin Willem Endt and Huybrecht van Aelst, the witnesses of the bride were Tanneken and Proentgen Verstrassele.
Hester, the daughter of Bartelmeeus van Roocke was married to Jan Enten from Colchester...
At the end of the 16th century, the Van Rooke, Ozell and Enten families lived together in the Dutch refugee community of approximately 1300 people.
A few years later we find the Enten, Ouzeel and van Roocke families together in Leiden... a firm connection !
At the end of the 16th century, members of the Buket family from Eeklo in Flanders, the in laws of Marcus's oldest son Jacques van Roocke, were living in the Dutch congregation in London.
His son Marcus Jacobsz van Roocke was married to Judith Braems from Norwich.
Marcus's daughter Anneken van Roocke and his daughter-in-law Elijsabeth van Roocke-Buket were witnesses in Leiden at the marriage of Hester Moreels from Norwich.
Grietgen van Roocken, Marcus's son Bartelmeeus's wife, was a witness at the marriage in Leiden of Jan du Moleyn from Norwich. Her daughters Hester and Judith van Roocke were married to Jan Enten and Samuel Blare from Colchester.
These are all strong indications that the Leiden van Roocke family unmistakebly had connections with the Dutch refugee congregations in Norwich and Colchester in England, and probably didn't come directly from Ellezelles to Leiden.
At the end of 1576, the Leiden city council started negociations with the Dutch refugee communities in Norwich and Colchester to try and convince a number of textile manufacturors to establish themselves in Leiden.
They were offered free citizenship and other advantages. The successive expansions of the city of Leiden at the end of the 16th century proved the city council didn't want to take the risk that the foreign textile manufacturors would establish themselves in a neighbouring town because there wouldn't be enough habitation facilities for their labourers.
In 1577 the first refugees from Norwich and Colchester were listed as citizens of Leiden.
There were no members of the van Roocke family registered in the Leiden citizens lists.
The usual way of name giving in the Ellezelles and Tournai de le Rocque and the Leiden van Roocke family followed a classic pattern : the oldest son was named after the father of his father, the second son was given the same first name as the father of his mother's, the first born daughter had the same name as her mother's mother and the next one this of her father's mother.
Afterwards often the first names of the father and mother themselves were passed on to the next generation.
Besides this tradition, the religious refugees from the Netherlands often chose names from the Bible.
They practised intens Bible lectures and the parallels in the adventures of the Biblical Jewish people and their own experiences during their voyage were probably not far fetched.
This explains names as Salomon, Abraham and Isaac - and without doubt the first Marcus as well- for the boys, and Judith and Hester for the girls.
By choosing the name of the Bible writer Marcus for his son, Marcus's father has provided us proof that he practised the reformed religion.
In almost every van Roocke family we can witness this classic habit of name giving, and although it's not real proof, it gives us a strong indication concerning the first name of Marcus's father... where we can suppose he had the same name as one of Marcus's oldest sons Jaecques or Jan.
The youngest (and only) mentions we found in the baptesimal registers of Ellezelles were these of Jacques and Jan de le Rocq in 1598.
Jacop van Roqus who was registered in Delft in 1602 probably belonged to the family as well.
Considering their first names, we would dare to conclude all these Jans and Jacques or Jacops were very close relatives.
If we take a closer look at the name Bartelmeeus, this might seem a strange choice.
I think that Marcus van der roecke (or his father, because choosing a name for a new born was often the task of the grandparents) must have been quite chocked by the killing of 20000 Huguenots during the night of St.-Bartholomew in 1572 in France.
As a lasting commemoration of this event I presume the around that time born son was called Bartremieu or Barthélémy.
All these discoveries are big and small indications which certainly do not contradict that Jean de Rocq, member of the Tournai de le Roke family who was convicted in 1568 because of his religion, could be the same person as Jan van Rooke who lived in the Dutch refugee congregation at Colchester in 1582 ... and that he may have been the father of Marcus van der roecke from Ellezelles who lived with his family in Leiden in 1590.
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Ellezelles in Henegouwen / a° 1601
The origin of the de le Rocque family can be found in Flobecq, a neighbouring village of Ellezelles, where she was present since the middle of the 12th century. (see the de le Roke family in Flobecq).
The de le Roke family owes her name to the toponym "roke" in the south-western part of Flobecq, next to the bos de le Roke, near the border with Ellezelles. (see the toponym roke).
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Flobecq in Henegouwen / a° 1601
Erik Verroken has shown in "de genealogie van de familie Verroken 1379-1993" members of the de le Roke family saw their names translated to van de Roke when they migrated to Gent and Berchem at the end of the 14th century.
This premise is confirmed by late 14th century registrations in Kortrijk and Brugge where the de le Roke family name was translated to van de Roke as well.
Apparently a similar situation occurred in Leiden at the end of the 16th century.
The oldest form of the family name in Leiden is van der roecke, and the "oe" in this name is to be read as [o:], as the "ue" in Verchueren as [y:] and the "ae" in Verstraeten as [a:].
Th name van der roecke is obviously the litteral translation of the name de le Rocque.
In the South-Holland archives I've often encountered fonetic interpretations of registered foreign family names, but never translations.
Two nice illustrations are the registrations of the marriages in Leiden in 1602 of Jan de la Roche from Reims and Jenne Mahieu from Armentiers and in 1627 of Emanuel Philib. de la Roocka from Torino, Piedmondt and Marytgen Willems from Leiden, where it is quite clear that the names of the grooms were nót translated.
I therefore think the members of the van Roocke family were bilingual and translated their family name themselves.
After all their place of origine, Ellezelles, is situated on the linguistic border and Jaecques van Roocke was a teacher in 1625.
We found several children of Marcus van der roecke in Leiden : Jaecques van der roecke, Bartelmeeus van Roucke, Adriaentgen van de rouke, Lurens Rocque, Jan van Roocken en Anneken van Roocke.
Jaecques and Bartelmeeus were registered as from "Elsylle bij Ronse" and from "Henegoue bij Ronse", Adriaentgen was from Alcksielant, and Jan and Anneken were from Leiden.
In Amsterdam we found a Marcus Marcusz Rocquius, probably the son of Marcus's son Marcus. He was a "Mosel lantsberger".
Maybe these places of origin will help us trace the path Marcus van der roecke and his family followed during their migration from Ellezelles to Leiden.
Jaecques is the forfather of the Delft branch of the van Roocke family.
Bartelmeeus is the forfather of the Leiden branch of the van Roocke family.
Jan was the forfather of the Warmond branch of the van Roocke family.
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