In the
sixteenth century, many merchants had their flourishing trade businesses in
Antwerp; well known are the merchants of cloth.
In
genealogical perspective, this period is interesting, because of the
international movements these merchants made.
One
interesting merchant family forms the family around Jeronimus Coymans
(1503-1580), son of a purse maker from Wuustwezel, started a trade in Antwerp,
where goods like "lywaet" (linen), sugar and cinnamon are part of. He
also traded in marine insurances.
It was around
1540 he married Constantia Spinelli (1516-1581), daughter of Thomas.
Together, they conceived 10 children, had 37
grandchildren, and 109 great-grandchildren, most of whom eventually could be
found in the merchant elite at Amsterdam; it seems to me not dangerous to
state, that by the 1800's many people of the Amsterdam elite either descended
from Coymans, or married a descendant.
Today,
there might be a few thousands, maybe even ten thousand descendants of the
couple Coymans-Spinelli. Quite some of them, I included, will descend them
twice or more; intermarriage in elites was till the 19th century quite normal.
The surname
"Spinelli" intrigued me, as it was not a very Antwerpian or even a
Walloon name. When having looked the Coymans-file at the CBG (Centraal Bureau
voor de Genealogie) in The Hague, one of the many hand-drawn pedigrees in it stated
that Constantia Spinelli was born in 1516 as the "natuurlijke dochter van
Thomas Spinelli en van ... de Cordes". The notion of "natuurlijke
dochter" thus meant she was not born in marriage, but in an illegitimate
relationship.
The only
Thomas Spinelli, who we find in the Southern Netherlands at that time, was the
Florentine agent of Henry VIII of England. Some research on google teaches us
that "Tommaso" Spinelli could be found in the Low Countries as early
as 1507, when he visited an Antwerpian notary as "Tommaso di Guasparre
Spinelli". Later on, in 1513/4 he could be found at Ghent, Brussels, and
Bruges.
The Spinelli
Archives show a description of his testament, made in september 1522.
About his
children, I did not found an awful lot; he presumably had a son Guasparre, who sent
letters in 1518 and 1520 from Antwerp to his uncle Leonardo Spinelli, who
served under the pope. Guasparre (or Gasparo) was also known as secretary of the
Venetian ambassador in London, so he did have a position similar to his father.
Tommaso Spinelli
was born in 1472 as the son of the Florentine Guasparre di Niccodemo Spinelli
and Alessandra di Pietro Gualterotti.
On google
books, a large excerpt of "The Spinelli of Florence" can be viewed.
The genealogies in the end give Tommaso Spinelli as his wive Marietta
Alamanneschi.
Titles of
files in the "Spinelli Archives" show Tommaso as having married
Daniela di Mattheo Frederighi.
Though it appears Tommaso did marry twice, the
Coymans-file gives him a illegitimate daughter "Constantia", with
mother a De Cordes, a family also known in the trade between the Low Countries
and Italy.
More is to
be said about the families "Spinelli" and "De Cordes".
The Spinelli of Florence, google books
Thank you for this informative posting!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI descend from this family from the Coeymans- Constantia Spinelli pedigree who came to New York. I am quite surprised to see this history in my family!
Ik stam ook af van deze familie van de Coeymans en Constantia Spinelli. Ik kom uit nederland, en heb een nederlandse vader en een zuid afrikaanse moeder. Deze komt uit de van Eeden kant.
VerwijderenThanks for your message, it is certainly an interesting family history.
VerwijderenYes, thank you so much! I am also descended from this family at my fathers side (Coymans x Spinelli). I am also Dutch, but my father's ancestors went to Indonesia around 1700 (which was a colony of the Netherlands when my ancestors lived there). They stayed there until 1956.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI have this ancestry as well. Many subsequent generations of Dutch merchants in the line, mostly in Amsterdam, but also Leiden, Antwerp (Coymans, van Collen, Uffelen, de Haze, Commelin, Veeckens, von Berg, and others. My great grandfather from this line came to New England in 1907. His daughter (my grandmother) married a Plymouth Mayflower descendant in 1935. Very odd for me to observe that in the first decade of the 17th century the ancestors of my grandparents (Pilgrim Separatists and Leiden drapiers-- Veeckens) were direct competitors in the production of decorative ribbon...
BeantwoordenVerwijderen