Mol family

Mol, a former Dutch Mennonite family, many of whose members served the church as deacons and preachers. An important branch of this family lived at Jisp, province of North Holland. In the Waterlander congregation of Jisp (or Wormer-Jisp) Maarten Jansz Mol and Jacob Jansz Mol were preachers about 1675. Jan Maartensz Mol of Jisp, who died before 1697, apparently a son of Maarten Jansz Mol and preacher of the same congregation, was the author of a much-used catechetical booklet, Kort Onderwys des Christelyken Geloofs (Amsterdam, 1697, repr. 1698, 1710, 1723, 1740). His son Maarten Jansz Mol, of Jisp, was an elder of the Wormer-Jisp congregation, serving from about 1700 until at least 1731. He must have been a wealthy man, as most members of this Jisp branch were. He was the owner of an oil mill, at the same time participating in whaling; in 1701-1731 he sent 41 whaling boats to Greenland and 1732-1733 two vessels to Davis Street. Pieter Pietersz Mol, living about the same time at Jisp, and likely related to the former, became a deacon of the church in 1695 and was probably the author of Nutte Zamenspraak tusschen een Geestelyke en een Wereldling (Amsterdam, 1741). This Pieter Mol was also an important owner of whaling boats. In 1700-1708 he sent 34 vessels to the whaling grounds near Greenland, and in 1709-1719 together with his son Jan Mol 47. The members of this Jisp Mol family were rather conservative in their religious opinions, and though they were members of the Waterlander congregation they were much in sympathy with the Zonist principles.

There are, besides the Jisp branch of this Mol family, a number of Mennonite preachers bearing the same family name, of whom it could not be decided, whether and in what way they were related with the Jisp family.

Jan Pietersz Mol served at Alkmaar about 1720; Jan Pietersz Mol (the same person?) was preacher of the congregation of Almelo 1731-1741. In 1740 he was invited to Danzig, West Prussia, to reconcile the quarreling parties in the Danzig Flemish congregation and to restore peace. Mol, however, did not go (Inv. Arch. Amst. II, No. 2656). Other preachers of this name were Willem Mol, serving at Winterswijk 1739-1745 and Zuid-Zijpe 1745-1748 (?), whose father Nicolaas Mol also seems to have been a Mennonite preacher or elder. Cornelis (Jacobsz) Mol, a native of Wormer, was in 1743 an assistant preacher at Krommenie; Pieter Mol served the congregation of Enkhuizen 1787-1789 and Hoorn 1789-d.1804. Hendrik Jansz Mol, from about 1735 until about 1762 a preacher of the Old Flemish congregation at Blokzijl, was not related to the former.

These preachers were all lay preachers, not having received a special training for the ministry.

Bibliography

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1898): 88.

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: v. I, Nos. 918, 925; v. II, No. 1429.

Information from J. Aten at Wormerveer (descendant of Maarten Jansz Mol.)

Kühler, Wilhelmus Johannes. Geschiedenis van de Doopsgezinden in Nederland: Gemeentelijk Leven 1650-1735. Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1950: 8.

Naamlijst der tegenwoordig in dienst zijnde predikanten der Mennoniten in de vereenigde Nederlanden. Amsterdam, 1731, 1743, 1755, 1757, 1766, 1769, 1775, 1780, 1782, 1784, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1793, 1802, 1804, 1806, 1808, 1810, 1815, 1829: passim.

Schagen, Marten. Naamlijst der Doopsgezinde schrijveren. Amsterdam, 1745: 68, 69.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Mol family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mol_family&oldid=119539.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1957). Mol family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mol_family&oldid=119539.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 723. All rights reserved.

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