GRIEP of Yerseke
More then two centuries, descendants of skipper Griep are living at 'Iese'

> [Nederlands]

 
 
  In 1776, the 40 year old Adriaan Griep moved with his family from Hoedekenskerke to Yerseke, a village at the shores of the Oosterschelde river. From the Lord of the Manor of Yerseke he leased the right to operate the ferry to  Gorishoek, on the island of Tholen, an important link in the postal service in those days.

Nowadays there are no postal routes using ferries anymore, and also in most other ways everything has changed. But there are still people by the name of Griep living at Yerseke. Here is their story.

 
 

THE FIRST GENERATION

 
 
  Adriaan Griep (1736-1792)
Ferryman from Yersekendam to Gorishoek

Adriaan Griep was born at Hoedekenskerke in 1736. His father was the skipper Abram Janszoon Griep and his mother Johanna de Bats was a shopkeeper.  Around 1759 he married Neeltje Remeijn. They had, at Ellewoutsdijk, two sons.
After the death of his first wife, Adriaan remarried in 1768 to Johanna Wissekerke from Heinkenszand. They settled in Yerseke and had another 8 children.
In 1777 he leased from the lord of the manor of Yerseke the right to operate the ferry service from Yersekendam to Gorishoek. In 1785 he acquired the ground to build a ferry-house at Yersekendam.
In 1786 he married for the third time: to Catharina de Looze, widow of Willem Wolse from 's-Gravenpolder.
On December 21, 1792, a disaster occurred during stormy weather. Adriaan's ship went down, and he and two of his sons lost their lives.

THE FERRY SERVICE
FROM YERSEKENDAM TO GORISHOEK

The ferry service at Yersekendam is first mentioned in 1351, when Count Willem V granted the right to operate it for the first time. From 1479 on, the Lord of the Manor of Yerseke is the one that grants the right. According to his records, the ferry service was granted to Adriaan Griep from 1777 till he died in 1792. Starting in 1805 his son-in-law Jan van Zweden leased it, at a yearly charge of £15,-.
For many years the ferry service Yersekendam-Gorishoek was an important link for the mail between the provinces of Zeeland and Holland. The stagecoaches went from Vlissingen and Middelburg to Yersekendam. After they sailed across the Oosterschelde, they continued over the island of Tholen further on to Rotterdam. The ferry existed until 1962, when ferry-man G.M. Larooy suspended the service due to lack of passengers.

 
 


The crossing from Yersekendam to Gorishoek, in 2004

 
 

THE SECOND GENERATION

 
 
  The second generation Griep's at Yerseke is living through turbulent times. In 1795 the French conquered the country and from 1810 to 1815, many Dutch man were enlisted to serve in the armies of Napoleon.

This second generation was made up by the ten children of Adriaan Griep: two from his first mariage and eight from the second. About five of them there is little information. From the other five, the sons became skippers and his daughter married the one that would finnally proceed him as skipper of the ferry.

 
 
  • Jan Griep (1763-1827) was a skipper and married to Maatje Jans Wiskerke from Kapelle. Between 1805 and 1809 they lived at Woensdrecht and Ossendrecht, after that they returned to Yerseke.
  • Christina Griep (1774-1853) married Jan Quinten van Sweeden and had six children. In 1805 became the operator of the ferry service to Gorishoek, that was prior to 1792 operated by his father-in-law. Jan van Zweden must have died around 1825, because after that year his son, also named Jan van Zweden, leased the right to operate the ferry.
  • Cornelis Griep (1777-1838) married Cornelia Ossewaarde, had seven children and, until 1811, he worked as a barge hand at. Later on he is skipper the ferry service. At the conscript for the Napoleontic army in 1811, he was noted as the owner of a 'hengst'-type sailing ship.

  • Abraham Griep (1779-1834) married Helena Bijlo from Kapelle and had five children. At the conscript for the Napoleontic army in 1811, he was noted as fisherman and owner of a 'hoogaars'-type sailing ship. In later years he is noted as barge hand and ferryman. In 1828 he sold the ferry house at Yersekendam.
  • De twins Johannes en Paulus Griep (1780-1792) drowned, two days before their 12th birthday, together with their father on their way with the ferryboat between Yersekendam and Gorishoek.
 
 


The ferry house at Yersekendam, around 1900 and in 2004.

 
 

THE THIRD GENERATION

 
 
  Jan (*1763), Cornelis (*1777) and Abraham (*1779), with respectively eight, seven and five children, were the ones that provided Yerseke with a third generation of Griep's. The ferry service was in the hands of their uncle Jan van Zweden and his son. So, as far as the third Griep generation worked as a skipper, they did so on their boats or elsewhere, in the nearby village of Wemeldinge for instance. Others did earn their living as laborers.

These are the seven children -- four daughters and three sons -- of Jan Griep (*1763):

  • Neeltje Griep (1788-1828) married the farmhand Jan Minnaard and had eight children. She died at the age of 40.
  • Johanna Griep (1790-1859) married the laborer Adriaan (de) Witte and moved to Kapelle.
  • Adriana Griep (1791-1816) had a son when she was 23, and died one year later.
  • Adriaan Griep (1794-1858) was a laborer and married Anna van Noorden. The had one son that only lived for two months.
  • Pieter Griep (1796-1856) was a laborer and married Janna van Loo, who died in childbirth with their first child. Pieter remarried Maatje Everse and had with her eight more children. Out of these nine children, only three did grow up to adulthood.
  • Pieternella Griep (1800-1821) married Cornelis Griep from Hansweert. She died, 21 years old, in childbirth with her second child.
  • Jan Griep (1803-1857) married Adriana Schouwenaar and had five children. He worked as a barge-hand at Wemeldinge. Most of his descendants stayed to live at Wemeldinge and Yerseke, but some of them moved to Brabant, Rotterdam and even to America.
  • Abraham Griep (1806-1811) died, 5 years old, at Yerseke.
  His younger brother Cornelis Griep (*1777) also had three sons, plus five daughters:
  • Johanna Griep (1798-1880) married the laborer Pieter van Loo and moved to ’s-Heer Arendskerke.
  • Cornelis Anthonie Griep (1799-1852) married Hendrika Kosten from Kapelle and had three children. He worked for his uncle as skipper on the ferry service to Gorishoek. In February 1830 he and four other bargees, took part in a rescue operation on the Westerschelde River, as Cornelis Griep and his barge hand were captured in an ice field.
  • Adriaan Griep (1800-1818), a barge hand, died at Yerseke at the age of 17.
  • Jacob Griep (1801-1822) also died at a young age: 21 years old.
  • Pieternella Griep (1803-1834) married the laborer Cornelis de Waard and left for Biezelinge. She died at the age of 31.
  • Christina Griep (1804-1839) married the farm hand Jan Glerum. She died 35 years old at Yerseke.
  • Maria Griep (1806) died within half a year.
  From only two of the five children of Abraham Griep (*1779) some information is recorded:
  • Adriaan Griep (1802-..) married Hélèna Françoise de Lié from Sluis in Flanders. When their daughter was born they lived at Kapelle, at the birth of their son at Tholen and when their youngest son was born the family lived at Katwijk aan den Rijn, in the province of Holland.
  • Janna Griep (1817-1850) married Jacobus Jacobusse and left for Krabbendijke.
 
 

THE FOURTH GENERATION

 
 
  Generation four of Griep at Yerseke was made up by the nine children of Pieter (*1796) and the five of Jan (*1803). During this period, the last one lived at Wemeldinge, but most of his descendants did return to Yerseke after a while.
There were also new Griep's that came to live here: Jacob Griep from Hansweert settled at Yerseke to start a market boat service. More about him later on.

Out of the nine children from Pieter Griep (*1796), only three grew up to adulthood.

  Jan Griep (*1803), living at Wemeldinge, had five children, from which two did grow up to adulthood:
  • Geerard Griep (1835-1862) married the tailors daughter Jannetje Karstanje. Before Geerard died at Wemeldinge at the age of 28, they had three children.
  • Maatje Griep (1841-..), also called Maike, married the laborer Johannis Oranje, who died in 1900. In 1909 she joined her daughter Adriana and husband Pieter Priem (married in 1899) when they emigrated to America with the vessel Noordam from Rotterdam. They settled in Chicago.

Maatje Griep, Johannis Oranje and daughter Adriana >

 
 

THE FIFTH GENERATION

 
 
  Among the fifth generation of descendants of Adriaan Griep, who came to Yerseke in 1777 to be the ferryman, there were not so many skippers anymore. Pieter (*1854) and Johannis (*1859) were the last ones. Many others found a living in the strongly expanding oyster farming.

The fifth generation was at first made up by the following children of Jan Griep (*1823) and Maria Paauwe:

  • Nicolaas Griep (1848-1925)  married the maid servant Johanna de Mul, lived at Yerseke and had eight children.
  • Janna Griep (1851-1932) married the bricklayer Adriaan Steenpoorte and left for Kruiningen.
  • Pieter Griep (1854-1911), skipper, married in 1882 to Cornelia de Bokx and had eight children. In 1900 the family moved to Rilland-Bath. Their sons became all policemen or soldiers. 
  • Adriaan Griep (1856-1928) married the laborer Jacoba Schaalje and had two daughters and two sons.
  • Johannis Griep (1859-1939) was a skipper and married Maria Minnaard. They had one son.
  And there were also these descendants of the family branch that lived at Wemeldinge for a while:
  • Adriaan Griep (1860-1922), laborer and oyster farmer, married the seven years older Cornelia Duivewaarde and had four children. At Sundays he acted as the sexton in the Free Evangelical Church of Yerseke.
  • Jan Griep (1861-1922) was a fisherman at Yerseke. He married the maid servant Adriana Potter and died at the age of 38, leaving behind four children.

Adriaan Griep and Cornelia Duivewaarde >

  Beside both these families, Griep-reinforcements from elsewhere came to Yerseke...
 
 

SKIPPER GRIEP FROM HANSWEERT

 
 
  In 1829, Jacob Griep (1798-1876) from Hansweert married Apolonia Sinke at Yerseke. There he started to operate the regular market boat to Rotterdam. His wife was a shopkeeper, and sold the products that her husband transported. Among their ten children were:
  • Joos Griep (1834-1885), skipper at Yerseke, married Neeltje Stroosnijder and had six children. He died at the age of 50.
  • Jacomina Griep (1838-1902), stayed single and died at the age of 64 at Yerseke.
  • Cornelis Griep (1839-1912), skipper at Yerseke, married Maria van den Bosch, and after she died  Jacoba Kopmels. In 1896 he and his family emigrated to America and settled in Lodi, New Jersey.
  • Pieter Griep (1841-1921), working as a barge hand at the Yerseke river police, married Anthonina van den Boomgaard. They had thirteen children.
  • Jan Griep (1846-1927), skipper at Yerseke, married Adriana Dankers and had eleven children. After she died he remarried Cornelia Lavooij and had two more children.

SKIPPER OF THE REGULAR MARKET BOAT SERVICE FROM YERSEKE TO ROTTERDAM:

From of old, the right to operate a boat service was granted by the Lord of the Manor. A skipper had to pay him rent to operate the service.
In 1816 the guilds, that ruled the economic life for many centuries, were abolished. Also the operating of boat services became a free trade. Only for the regular services some regulations remained.
In the regular boat services from Zeeland to Dordrecht and Rotterdam, sailing boats stayed long in use. Only after 1905 the first steamboats appeared.
In Rotterdam the regular boat services all had their own separate quays. The services to and from Zeeland were situated at the Haringvliet. They sailed once a week, starting their return journey from Rotterdam on Wednesday. Almost every harbor in Zeeland had his own, and sometimes several, services.
The wife of a market skipper often had a shop, in which she sold the goods that her husband brought in.

 
 

LATER GENERATIONS

 
 
  Around 1900 there are Griep's living at Yerseke from many different families: the children of Nicolaas (*1848), Adriaan (*1856), Johannis (*1859), the children from those that returned from Wemeldinge: Adriaan (*1860) and Jan (*1861), and also the descendants of the newly arrived 'Hansweert branch'. All of them are listed on separate pages.

The name Griep is still present at Yerseke. The latest telephone directory has four of them. But the fast majority of the descendants of 'Griep from Yerseke' now live elsewhere: scattered through the Netherlands, and also as far away as Australia, Canada, California, New York and South-Africa.

 
 

Do you have any information about this Griep family from Yerseke, or are you
one of them yourself? Please send your information to: jan.griep@planet.nl.

Home -- Sitemap -- Introduction -- How to participate? -- Griep of Hoedekenskerke -- Griep of Hansweert
Griep of Waarde en Krabbendijke --  Griep in New Jersey -- Griep in Michigan
Griep uit Rilland -- Genealogie Jan Adriaenszoon Griep
Last update of this page (http://home.kpn.nl/artrako/Zeeland/Yerseke-EN.html)
on November 20, 2005, by ©
Jan Griep, Katwijk aan Zee, Nrtherlands.