Calcar, van, family

Van Calcar (Calker, Calcker, Kalkar, Kalker, Kalcker) was a Dutch Mennonite family of Deventer during the 17th century. The archives of the Mennonite congregation of Deventer contain a genealogy of this family. Matheus van Calcar, married to Hendrikje van Delden, born at Burgsteinfurt in Westphalia in 1616, lived in Deventer. So he or his father may have migrated from Burgsteinfurt to Deventer. In Deventer the family belonged to the Old Flemish congregation. In 1711 Berend (?) van Calcar, a merchant and member of this church at Deventer, took care of seven Swiss Mennonite immigrants and sheltered them in his house. His son Jan van Calcar left the Old Flemish church and joined the Old Swiss Brethren congregation at Hoogezand. About 1720 a group of Old Flemish Mennonites left Deventer and migrated to Hoogezand, because they were dissatisfied with the worldliness and low doctrinal standards of the Deventer congregation, and joined the Swiss congregation in Hoogezand. Among this group were many members of the van Calcar family (Doopsgezinde Bijdragen 1919, 74-75). But other van Calcars remained at Deventer. Here most of the van Calcars were engaged in business. One of their descendants founded a distillery still existing at Hoogezand in the 1950s. Some of the van Calcar family lived in Groningen and were merchants and later on lumber dealers. They belonged here as in Deventer to the Old Flemish congregations. In 1695 Abraham Albertz van Calcker and Jan van Kalckar are named as contributors to this church.

A few members of this family served Mennonite congregations as ministers. Isaac van Calker served the Old Flemish congregation of Zaandam 1711-ca. 1756. Jan van Kalker (Calkar), not the man named above, was a preacher of the Swiss Brethren (Nieuwe Zwitzers) at Groningen and Sappemeer 1755-1772. Isaäk van Kalker (Calcar) served this congregation 1770-1796. Jan van Kalker was minister at Noordbroek 1776-1782, Neustadt-Gödens 1782-1788, and Knijpe (later called Heerenveen) 1788-1821; Pieter van Kalker at Sappemeer 1786-1807. Hendrik van Calcar served the congregation of Hindeloopen and Molkwerum 1863-1865, Veenwouden 1865-1880, Noordhorn 1880- 1886, and Zijpe 1886-1906; his son J. D. van Calcar was pastor of Warns 1901-1903, and Beverwijk 1906-1937. J. D. van Calcar was also for many years a teacher of Bible and church history at the state training college for teachers at Haarlem. He wrote a manual on religion called De Groote Lijnen (Groningen, 1927) and some Biblical plays: Job (1924), Verlaten ? (1926), and Michal (1927).

The present van Calcar family mostly descends from Peter Lienders (Oberhofen, Switzerland 1677-Sappemeer 1755), who immigrated to Sappemeer in 1711. His grandson Pieter Pieters Lienders (Lienderts, Leenerts) took the family name of van Calcar. He lived at Hoogezand near Sappemeer and is the Pieter van Kalker serving the church there as preacher from 1786-1807.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1953

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Calcar, van, family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Calcar,_van,_family&oldid=141064.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1953). Calcar, van, family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Calcar,_van,_family&oldid=141064.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 489-490; v. 4, p. 1142. All rights reserved.

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