Koker, de, family

The de Kokers are a former Dutch Mennonite family. Originally they came from Flanders, Belgium. Many of its members belonged to the Flemish Mennonite congregation in Rotterdam after about 1640. Among the first of this family found in the Rotterdam records were Gillis de Koker and his son Daniel de Koker. Sara de Koker (1702-1758), Daniel’s daughter, was married to Petrus Smidt, preacher of the Zonist congregation of Amsterdam and professor at the Zonist Seminary. Johannes and Gillis de Koker of Rotterdam, visiting Jülich, Germany, in 1719, intervened on behalf of some Dompelaars from Krefeld, who were imprisoned. Three members of this family, viz., Peter (Pieter), Yellis (Gillis), and Michael (Michiel) de Koker, about 1725 were among the proselytes and adherents of Alexander Mack, the leader of the Dompelaars or Church of the Brethren; however, they remained in the Netherlands and did not join the exodus of the Brethren to Pennsylvania in 1729. Members of the de Koker family were also found at Haarlem. Whether the Mennonite Abraham de Koker, who lived near Aardenburg and in 1730 married Tanneken Slock, was related to this family could not be decided.

Nearly all the de Koker family in the 18th century favored the Collegiant movement; some of them, like Pieter de Koker, Sr., Gerrit de Koker, and Gillis de Koker, often delivered addresses at the Collegiant center at Rijnsburg. Most of them left the Mennonite Church; e.g., Gerrit de Koker, who in 1786 founded the old people’s home "Hofje van Gerrit de Koker" at Rotterdam, and Alida de Koker, died 1794 at Rotterdam, who founded another Hofje there, called "Uit liefde en Voorzorg." A Joris de Coocker was a member of the Mennonite congregation of Harlingen, Friesland, in 1612.

Bibliography

Brumbaugh, Martin Grove. A History of the German Baptist Brethren in Europe and America. Mount Morris, 1899.

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1861): 77 f., 80.

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: I, 539.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Koker, de, family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Koker,_de,_family&oldid=119554.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1957). Koker, de, family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Koker,_de,_family&oldid=119554.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 213. All rights reserved.

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