See also:
Dutch emigrants
Introduction
The Origins of the Kloosterman Name and Family
Abbey of St. Victor, 1655
The Origins
The story behind the Kloosterman name reaches further back in time than the documented history of the family itself. To understand its origin, we must first go back to medieval France and to a religious tradition that would eventually find its way to Zeeland.
From Paris to Zeeland
Around 1113, during the reign of King Louis VI of France, the Abbey of Saint-Victor was founded in Paris. It became the centre of the Victorines, a community of Augustinian canons that developed into an important centre of religious scholarship and intellectual life during the Middle Ages.
Saint-Victor became particularly renowned for its school and library. Scholars associated with the abbey contributed to medieval theology, philosophy and education, and its intellectual influence extended far beyond Paris. By the thirteenth century, Saint-Victor had become closely connected with the academic world that developed around the University of Paris. The abbey possessed an important library containing theological, liturgical and scholarly manuscripts. Some books were kept for use in the choir or refectory, others for reading to the sick in the infirmary, while still others could be borrowed by canons and students. In an age centuries before the printed book, such collections were centres for the preservation and transmission of knowledge.
The abbey’s patron saint was Saint Victor of Marseilles, traditionally described as a Roman soldier who was martyred for his Christian faith during the reign of Emperor Maximian. According to legend, he endured imprisonment and torture and converted several of his guards before ultimately being executed. His tomb at Marseilles became an important pilgrimage site in medieval Gaul. His feast day is celebrated on 21 July.
The Jerusalem Convent at Biezelinge
The connection with my own family history begins much closer to home. In 1246, Wolfert van Maelstede founded the convent of Jerusalem at Biezelinge in Zeeland, establishing it on four parcels of land. The convent belonged to the religious tradition associated with Saint-Victor and over the centuries received gifts, privileges and support from prominent rulers and noble families. Among those traditionally associated with benefactions to the convent were King William II, Floris the Voogd, Count Floris V, Count John I, Countess Aleida, Count William III, Duke Albert of Bavaria and Emperor Charles V. Its most important local protectors, however, remained the lords of Maelstede.
Jerusalem was a relatively small community. At its height, perhaps fifteen to twenty nuns lived there; by the sixteenth century their number had declined to only six or eight. Many of the sisters came from noble families in the surrounding region, which explains why Jerusalem was sometimes referred to as a “Lady’s Convent.” Life within its walls was not always as peaceful or disciplined as one might expect. Historical accounts suggest that the noble background of some of the sisters occasionally resulted in conflicts with monastic discipline. There were disputes, visitors stayed overnight, sisters attended fairs and weddings, and obedience to the prioress was not always exemplary. One particularly serious incident even involved a killing in the church.
The convent also exercised considerable influence beyond Biezelinge. At Schore it possessed patronage and collation rights connected with the parish church, including influence over the appointment of its priest. In 1266 Jerusalem acquired land near Schore from the Cistercian Abbey of Saint Bernard near Antwerp, further strengthening its position in the region.
The End of the Convent
By the sixteenth century, however, the fortunes of Jerusalem were declining. During the religious and political turmoil of the Dutch Revolt, the convent was probably partly destroyed in 1572, traditionally attributed to wandering Geuzen. According to local legend, the sisters escaped through underground passages to Poucques Castle at Kapelle. Whether those subterranean passages ever existed is another matter, but the convent itself did not survive the upheavals of the Reformation.
With the official introduction of Protestantism in Zeeland in 1578, the religious community effectively came to an end. The remaining sisters lived for some time at Ostende Castle in Goes. Around 1609, at the beginning of the Twelve Years’ Truce, the last prioress departed for Antwerp, reportedly taking the convent archives with her.
- Take a look at the Foundation charter of the Jerusalem cloister
(original SA Antwerpen, Belgium, K122)
1246 mei 21
feria secunda ante
Vrbani pape
schenkt 25 gemeten land gelegen
tussen de heerweg van Byzelinge
naar Vlaka in het zuiden, de waterloop
genaamd Muluht in het oosten; de weg
van Maelstede naar Sparth in het noorden
en de weg van Maelstede naar Byzelinge
in het westen, aan het nonnenklooster
van de orde van Sint Victor, genaamd
Jerusalem, gesticht in zijn ambacht op
bedoeld land, vrij van schot en
korentiend en van de afdracht van
voedingsmiddelen.
Jerusalem Cloister, dated 1546, it is included in a description of Zeeland by Andries Schoenmaker.
1246 mei 21
feria secunda ante
Vrbani pape
Wulfardus, lord of the Maelstede,
gives 25 acres of land between
the high road of Byzelinge to Vlaka
in the south, the watercourse named Muluht
in the east; the road from Maelstede
to Sparth in the north and the road
from Maelstede to Byzelinge in the west,
to the nunnery of the order of Sint Victor,
named Jerusalem, founded on his manor and
named lands, free of taxes and corn tithe and
free of the obligation to provide food.
From the Jerusalem Convent to the Kloosterman Family
Exactly what the Jerusalem convent at Biezelinge looked like is no longer known. No buildings have survived, and much of its physical appearance has disappeared from history.There is, however, an intriguing illustration dated 1546, reproduced in a description of Zeeland by Andries Schoemaker, which may give us at least an impression of the complex.
The accompanying description reads:
“Het was een groot gebouw met flinken toren en omringd door e
en hoogen muur,waaromheen een vest of gracht.”
Or, in English:
“It was a large building with a substantial tower, surrounded by a high wall,
with a moat or canal running around it.”
Although we should be cautious about treating such an illustration as an exact architectural representation, it suggests that Jerusalem was a substantial enclosed complex rather than a small and isolated religious house.
Destruction and Disappearance
The sixteenth century brought a dramatic end to monastic life at Biezelinge. During the religious and political turmoil of the Dutch Revolt, the convent was destroyed or severely damaged in 1572, probably by Geuzen — Dutch Protestant rebels — traditionally associated in this episode with Jérôme Tseraerts.
Several Victorine nuns survived the destruction and found refuge elsewhere. Some years later, in 1578, they returned, but the community could no longer be restored to its former state. The prioress, Cathelina Meskens, having received permission from her Vicar-General, subsequently sold what remained of the convent property.The surviving buildings gradually disappeared and were finally demolished during the seventeenth century. Yet although the convent itself vanished from the landscape, its name remained attached to the land.
The former convent lands were subsequently leased out. The four parcels on which the convent had stood continued to be known collectively as “het Clooster” — “the Cloister.” And it is here that the history of a medieval convent begins to merge with the history of the Kloosterman family.
From “Op ’t Clooster” to Cloosterman
The earliest names connected with my documented family history appear in the sixteenth century. Around 1550, we encounter Claes and subsequently his son Jan Claesz. Claes lived and worked on or near the four parcels associated with the former convent at Kapelle-Biezelinge during the period around 1550–1580.By 1583, Jan Claesz. is associated with this same location, and the connection becomes particularly interesting in a surviving account of Floris van Schaek from 1579, in which Jan Claesz. is described as:
“wonende op de stede van ’t voorzeide clooster”
which can be translated approximately as:
“living at the farmstead of the aforementioned cloister.”
This is an important piece of evidence because it links a named individual directly with the former convent site. A farmstead probably stood on or close to the old convent lands, and members of the family continued to be associated with the location. In 1618, we encounter Cornelis Jansz. op ’t Clooster. The name itself is revealing. Jansz. is an abbreviation of Janszoon, meaning “son of Jan,” while “op ’t Clooster” literally means “at/on the Cloister.” At this stage, Op ’t Clooster was therefore not necessarily a hereditary surname in the modern sense. It was a geographical designation: it told people where Cornelis lived or with which property he was associated.
Over the generations, however, that geographical identification developed into a family name.
Cloosterman — Kloosterman
The meaning of the name is relatively straightforward:
Cloosterman / Kloosterman
literally:
“man from the cloister”
or, perhaps more precisely,
“man associated with the cloister.”
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the former convent lands continued to be referred to as:
“Den Houck daer ’t Clooster in staet”
approximately:
“The land where the Cloister stands.”
Later, the area was also known as Cloosterland.
People in earlier centuries were frequently identified by the place where they lived or worked. In this case, the association with het Clooster appears to have gradually become attached to the family itself. Descendants who no longer necessarily leased or worked the original convent land nevertheless came to be known as Cloosterman. By around the eighteenth century, the spelling increasingly developed into the modern form: Kloosterman. The old designation of the land eventually disappeared, but by then something much more enduring had emerged: the family name.
The Cloister Disappeared — the Name Survived
Even after the convent buildings had vanished, memories of the site survived in local place-names. The area remained known as Het Klooster and de Kloosterhoek, between the present railway and the Dankerseweg. Even the old moat appears to have survived for a considerable time. As late as 1703, records mention parcels of land belonging to the widow Orliens situated alongside the canal or former convent moat. Traces of the medieval site can still be recognised today. Building material associated with the former convent has been found in the soil, including distinctive bricks, some with a characteristic green-glazed surface.
A farm in the area still bears the evocative name Kloosterhoeve. Members of the Kloosterman family occupied this farm for periods of time, although not continuously. It is important, however, not to assume that everyone named Kloosterman in the Netherlands descends from this particular Zeeland family. Cloisters and monastic lands existed in many parts of the Low Countries, and similar surnames could therefore have arisen independently in different places.
For my own documented family line, however, the association with Biezelinge and the former Jerusalem convent is particularly striking. The sequence visible in the historical records — Claes, Jan Claesz., Cornelis Jansz. op ’t Clooster and the later Cloosterman family — shows how a geographical designation associated with a small piece of land in Zeeland gradually became a hereditary family name.
The convent disappeared.
The walls were demolished.
The moat eventually vanished.
Even the old name of the land faded from use.
But the name Kloosterman survived.
And more than four centuries later, it still lives on in me.
