Mersch, van der, family
Van der Mersch was a Dutch Mennonite family of Flemish descent. Lieven van der Mersch (born about 1545 at Lendelede, West Flanders, died about 1580 at Haarlem, Holland) fled to Vlissingen in the Netherlands about 1575; then he lived at Dordrecht for some time and thereupon settled at Haarlem, where he joined the Mennonites. It is not clear whether he belonged to the Mennonites before he left Flanders. Johannes van der Mersch, lord of Zuidland and Velgersdijk (Haarlem, 1679-Amsterdam, 1775), married to Petronella van Oosterwijk, was a descendant. He was a wealthy merchant at Amsterdam, a ship-owner and one of the principal wholesale dealers of the Dutch East Indies trade. A few members of this family served as deacons of the Mennonite church. Jan van der Mersch, a weaver, a native of Kortrijk, Belgium, who died there as a martyr in 1569, probably did not belong to this family. Since the name van der Meersch is often incorrectly written van der Mersch, it is sometimes not clear whether a person whose name is spelled van der Meersch really belongs to this family or to the van der Mersch family.
Bibliography
Nederlands Patriciaat 8 (1917): 298-302.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Mersch, van der, family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mersch,_van_der,_family&oldid=119595.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1957). Mersch, van der, family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mersch,_van_der,_family&oldid=119595.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 656. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.