The NOE family from the Meetjesland in East-Flanders, Belgium

B I Matthias Noë

° ?
x Lembeke 20/10/1647 Marie Van Acker
† Eeklo 25/3/1676

We know very little about Matthias' early years. We may assume Matthijs, as he was called, grew up in Assenede in a big family. He undoubtedly saw more than enough misery as a consequence of the Eighty Years' War.

On 20 October 1647 he was married in Lembeke to Marie Van Acker. She gave him at least 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls. Quite possibly none of his children died in infancy which was a great exception in those days.

Septima augusti 1647 contraxerunt de
futuro Matthias Noë et Maria van
Acker iuncti matrimo[nio] 20 octobris spon-
salibus Petro Catelijn et Georgio Deck.

On the seventh of August 1647 Matthias Noë and Maria van Acker
gave notice of intended marriage.
They were married on the 20th of October
with Petrus Catelijn and Georgia Beck as witnesses.

We are most grateful to Mrs. Mary Gardner-Karcher for finding this marriage record
and for sending us a copy.
The priest's fours look like nines but Mary compared both and
showed us how easy it is in fact to differentiate between them.

Matthijs and Marie farmed in the Oostveld (meaning Eastfield) district of Eeklo.

The Noë family remained in Eeklo until the end of this difficult 17^th Century but would return 50 years later.

The farm they came to lease was the property of Master Jan Van Urssel (or Van Urssen) and some of the fields had typical names such as "the lost farmstead" (verlooren hofstede), "the apple orchard" (het appelaerestuck) and "in the Clayssens forest" where they grew wheat and buckwheat. The livestock consisted of 4 cows, 2 heifers in their third year and 2 heifers of a year younger and also a flock of sheep. The cows and heifers were estimated at 14 pounds and 10 shillings and the sheep at 60 pounds and 10 shillings. That meant Matthias had quite a big flock of sheep.

On 5 June 1661 he sold 36 sheep for 27 pounds and 15 shillings to one Lieven De Zutter, fs. Michiel, who 2 years later still hadn't paid more than 12 pounds. And in the meantime he had emigrated and now lived about a mile from "Dunckercke". Would it be right to suggest our Matthias never saw the colour of the rest of that money ? Even though he had scrupulously kept his part of the bargain ("... niet jegenstaende alle devoiren daertoe ghedaen...").

Marie Van Acker, usually called Maeyken, died in Eeklo on 3 May 1663. Her estate reckonings ("Staet ende Inventaris...") closed with a positive balance of 121 pounds and 14 shillings. Half of which was due to the surviving spouse while the other half was shared among the children. In this case each child received 10 pounds, 2 shillings and 10 grootten as "wezenpenning" orphans' pennies. Gillis van Acker and Henderic Nowe were the guardians of the 6 children. This Henderic was the brother of Matthijs. He lived in Assenede.

After almost 7 years as a widower, Matthias remarried on Candlemas (2 February) 1670. His new bride, Marie Willems fa. Jan Willems was the widow (with 2 sons) of Joos De Bruyne. They had 2 more children, but they both died shortly after the death of their father. At least that's what the estate reckonings of Matthijs teach us but we could only find the birth of one daughter.

Matthijs died in Eeklo on 25 March 1676. On 4/11/1676 the auction was held and the proceeds amounted to 238-5-5 pounds.

Here is the opening of the Inventory made after his death:

"Staet ende Inventaris van de Baeten ende comeren ghebleven ende bevonden ten sterfhuyse van matthijs nowe overleden op den XXV en dag der maent maerte 1676, wesende alsdan in hauwel(yck) met marie willems f(il)ia Jan daeraen hij heeft gheproceert (= verwekt) twee kinderen de welcke corts naer hunnen voorn.(oemden) vaeder oock sijn commen toverlijden ende sijnde den voornoemden overleden te vooren in hauwel(yck) gheweest met maeyken van ackere, daeraen hij gheprocreert heeft ses kinderen, ghenoempt Joos, Lieven, Jooris, Matthijs, Joorijntien ende Joosijntien, dan is te weten dat den voornoemden Lieven is commen t'overlijden eenighe jaeren naer sijne voornoemden moeder, welke jegenwordighen staet de voornoemde marie willems als besittighe ten voors(eyd)en sterfhuyse heeft doen maecken, ende is presenterende aende voornoemde audste kinderen van soverleden 1e bedde hun selfs wesende (= meerderjarig) ende aen heindrick noe als voocht vande joncxste kinderen wesende minderjaerich, voor Ul(ieden) mijne heeren Bailliu, Br (= burgemeester) ende schepenen van dese stede ende vrijhede van Eecloo."

And the translation:

"State and inventory of the goods and debts which remained and were found in the house of the deceased matthijs nowe who departed from this life on the XXVth day of the month of March 1676, while married then to marie willems filia Jan by whom he had two children who both also died shortly after the demise of their aforementioned father and the aforementioned deceased having been married before to maeyken van ackere by whom he had six children called Joos, Lieven, Jooris, Matthijs, Joorijntien and Joosijntien, then it must be known that the aforementioned Lieven has come to die a few years after his aforementioned mother, which present inventory has been ordered by the aforementioned marie willems as owner of the aforementioned house of the deceased and which she presents to the oldest children already mentioned of the deceased one bed and for heindrick noe, the gardian of the youngest children who are not of age, in front of you gentlemen, the Baillif, the burgomaster and the town councillors of this the city and freedom of Eecloo."

We may no doubt assume that this branch of our family enjoyed a certain standard of living. There was for instance a golden wedding ring valued at 16 shillings. His estate reckonings closed with a positive balance of 206-1-0 pounds. Marie Willems remarried later on with Jooris Meere who had already worked on the farm, for instance to spread manure on the fields. (Yes, that's right, you city slickers. Manure was carted off to the fields and left there on little heaps. And before being plowed under, this manure had to be spread out over the field—I won't say manually but there were no machines to do that. And that was just one of the many jobs that, until at least 1950 had to be taken care of on the farms of our ancestors.)

We don't know yet when or where Marie died. But she was widowed again when Jooris passed away in Eeklo on 16/4/1681.

The children of Matthijs Noë:

A. From his marriage to Marie Van Acker:

Judocus Noë (B II a)
° between 1645 and 1653
x 29/4/1673 Anna Beelaert
† Lembeke 22/11/1695
Georgia Noë
° between 1645 and 1653
x Eeklo 27/7/1677 Petrus Meire
Livinus Noë
° Eeklo ° 20/2/1653
† Eeklo 4/5/1669
Georgius Noë
° Eeklo 13/2/1655
x Joanna Mahieu
† Maldegem 10/2/1689
Matthias Noë (B II b)
° Eeklo 21/4/1657
x Eeklo 3/8/1677 Catharina Cromheecke
† Waarschoot 14/1/1696
Judoca Noë
° Eeklo 23-5-1659
x Eeklo 16-2-1681 Judocus Basselaer (° Eeklo 20/6/1658 - † Eeklo 29/9/1729), son of Gerardus and Petronelle Roegies.
† Eeklo 19-6-1734
Judoca brought 8 children into this world:
- Petrus Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 25/12/1681
  Married in Eeklo on 28/5/1710 with Joanna Ryckaert (° Eeklo 3/4/1677 - † Eeklo 12/5/1714, daughter of Judocus and Joanna Vande Kerchove.
- Petronilla Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 19/1/1684
- Livinus Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 23/3/1687
- Cornelius Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 16/6/1688
- Judoca Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 9/2/1690
- Maria Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 28/1/1693
- Judocus Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 2/5/1696
  † Eeklo 6/5/1696
- Joseph Basselaer
  ° Eeklo 10/6/1697

B. From his marriage to Maria Willems:

Elisabeth Noë
° Eeklo 12/5/1672
She died shortly after her father in 1676.
Petrus Noë
° Eeklo around 1674
† 1676

On 16/12/1676 the estate is divided among the children of Matthys and Jooris Meere. And thanks to this document we now know that the second child of Matthys and Marie Willems the name Pieter received and that he passed away in the period between the death of Matthys and the drawing up of the estate reckonings. Due to a hiatus in the parish registers of Eeklo we cannot give you his exact date of birth or death.
Below the settlement document followed by its transcription, followed by the translation.

Click on the image below to see a larger copy of it.

Liquidatie tusschen Jooris Meere als in huwelijck hebbende Marie Willems, dewelcke tevooren w(eduw)e was van Matthys Noe ende daer tevooren van Joos de Bruune ter eender, Joos, Joan(ne)s ende Matthys Noe dry sonen van(de) voorn(oemde) Matthys gheprocreert aen Mayken Van Acker, Pieter Meere als in huwelijck hebbende Jooryne Noe, ende Joosyne Noe twee dochters oock van voorseide Matthys, kinde(ren van de) selve Mayken Van Acker.

Settlement between Jooris Meere who was married to Marie Willems, who before this marriage was the widow of Matthys Noe and before that of Joos de Bruune on the one hand, Joos, Joan(ne)s and Matthys Noe three sons of the aforementionned Matthys procreated with Mayken Van Acker, Pieter Meere married to Jooryne Noe, and Joosyne Noe two daughters also of aforementionned Matthys, children of the same Mayken Van Acker.

Starting here we will call Judocus (B II a) and his descendents "the Eeklo branch" and the descendents of his brother Matthias (B II b) we'll call "the Boekhoute branch".

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