Voss, de, family
De Voss, a former Mennonite family at Hamburg-Altona, Germany. In the 16th and 17th centuries the name was usually de Vos, like that of the Dutch de Vos family. In Hamburg a Willem de Vos is found as early as 1569. Gysbert and Gilbert de Vos, probably his sons, lived here in 1605. They certainly were immigrants from Flanders, Belgium, and relatives of Jan de Vos, b. 1550, who was burgomaster of Hondschooten in Flanders, and whose son Pieter de Vos, b. ca. 1590, joined the Reformed and immigrated to Colchester, England. In 1627 Pieter (or Peter) de Vos was at Amsterdam and soon after he lived at Hamburg; by a privilege granted ca. 1639 by Otto, Count of Schauenburg, he became the founder of Hamburg's big industry and of the considerable wealth of the de Voss family. He conducted a number of businesses at the same time, among which was a brewery operated for two centuries by members of the de Voss family; he and his descendants were also engaged in Greenland whaling. His son Abraham de Vos (1627-1682), a merchant and businessman like his father, who apparently was baptized into the Baptist Church at Colchester, joined the Dompelaars at Hamburg in 1656 and became a preacher for this group. A few other de Vosses left the Mennonite congregation to join this group with him. Most of the family, however, remained Mennonite and until the 19th century many served as deacons. Jan Janssen de Voss, d. 1716, a deacon from 1706, was a preacher of the Hamburg Mennonite congregation 1712-d. 1716. Pieter de Vos Pz was an assistant pastor in 1727. Adriana de Voss, who immigrated to Germantown in 1700 with her husband, Harmen Karsdorp, and their children, may have been a member of this family.
Bibliography
"Geslachtsregister der de Vossen,” manuscript, by Gysbert van der Smissen in the 18th century.
Mennonite Quarterly Review VII (1933): 236.
Roosen, B. C. Geschichte der Mennoniten-Gemeinde zu Hamburg und Altona I. Hamburg, 1886. 8, 9, 31, 40, 43, 47, 63, 66, 72; II, Hamburg, 1887: 6, 7, 8, 11, 84, 85.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Voss, de, family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Voss,_de,_family&oldid=68991.
APA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1959). Voss, de, family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Voss,_de,_family&oldid=68991.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 856-857. All rights reserved.
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