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GRIEP from
Hansweert
For more than two centuries
the Griep's have Hansweert as their base of
operation
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[Nederlands]
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As early as 1474, records
mention the right to operate a ferry from
Kruiningen on the River Scheldt. The ferry-boats landed at Hannekijnswaard: a small polder, made
dry in 1325.  When
a ferry-house was build, with some surrounding
houses, the name of the place became
shortened into Hansweert.Around
1770, 33 year old Cornelis Griep moved with
his family from Hoedekenskerke
to Hansweert.
From the lord of the manor of Kruiningen he
leased the right to operate the ferry service on
the Scheldt and the regular market boat from
Kruiningen to Middelburg.
The
descendants of Kornelis stayed to live at Hansweert for more
then two centuries. In the beginning, all of them earned their
living as skippers. Later on a lot of them had to move elsewhere
to earn a living. In 1987, when most Griep's had already left,
the last one died at Hansweert. Here is their story.
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THE
FIRST GENERATION
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 Skipper
Kornelis
Griep (1737-1797) is the
first Griep that lived at
Hansweert. He was born at Hoedekenskerke. His
father, Abram
Janszoon Griep was a skipper and his
mother a shopkeeper, a combination that often
occurred: the wife sold the goods that her
husband transported.Kornelis and his family
moved to Hansweert around 1770. At that time
Hansweert was no more than a landing-place, a
ferry house and a few small houses. From the Lord
of the Manor of Kruiningen he leased
the right to operate the ferry to Walsoorden. Kornelis Griep
paid 22 pounds a year for that. Later he also
became operator of the regular market boat to
Middelburg.
In 1793 the family
suffered a hard blow, when their son Janus, 24
years of age, died. When in 1797 also his wife
died, this was apparently to much for him to
bear, because shortly after that he drowned
himself.
More about him on: Kornelis
Griep (1737-1797).
"April 13, Cornelis Griep
took his own life, leaving behind 3 children"
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THE
SECOND GENERATION
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In 1795 the French
conquered the Netherlands. In 1810 Napoleon even
made it a part of his empire and introduced
conscription for his army. In that same year a
heavy flood drowned the polder of Kruiningen.
 All this cannot deter the second generation of
Griep's at Hansweert, the four sons of Kornelis (Abraham,
Marinus,
Janus
and Jacob),
from continuing and enlarging the shipping
business of their father. |
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Oldest
son
Abraham Griep
(1764-1833) and his wife Maria
Goosen from Oudelande, had seven children.
Abraham worked for his father as a
barge-hand, and after his death he
operated his own barge. He also was a
tradesman in grains. After the death of
his wife he remarried in 1813 to Helena
Stevense and two years later they moved
to Waarde.
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The
second son,
Marinus Griep (1765-1800)
married to the widow Elisabeth
Daniëlsdochter and was a bargeman just
like his father and his brothers. In the
year 1800, after a heavy November storm,
this annotation is made in the Book
of the Deaths of Kruiningen:
"9 Nov.1800,
Marinus Griep is drowned in the Waarse
Kay, leaving behind his wife Elisabeth
Daniëlse from Kruiningen. And her two
children. And is buried here on November
15."
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About
son number three, Janus Griep (1769-1793),
little is known, except for the fact that
he died at the age of 24.
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Youngest
son
Jacob Griep (1771-1855) (Job)
married Tannetje Snoep and had eight
children.
According to the records of the Lord
of the Manor of Kruiningen he
started to lease the right to operate the
ferry
to Walsoorden
in 1807, and paid f 48,- a year for it.
The lease, at first for seven years, was
prolonged until 1855, when he died, 84
years of age. His son Johannes took over
the lease.
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THE
THIRD GENERATION
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 The third
generation of Griep's at Hansweert included the children of
oldest son Abraham and youngest son Jacob. Their brothers Marinus and
Janus both died without having children.
Oldest son
Abraham is ferry-skipper at Hansweert, but around 1815 he moved to
Waarde, where his descendants continued the
shipping business at
Fort Bath and Rilland.
Only his daughter Krijna and son Jan stayed to live at Hanweert:
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 Krijna Griep (1791-1853)
married the bargehand Joannes van
Saarloos. When Kruiningen was drowned by
the floods of 1808 this Van Saarloos
saved with his ship the lives of several
people. They had three
daughters.
Jan
Griep (1793-1863) stayed at
Hansweert and worked as a bargehand.
After a few generations his branch of the
family died out.
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From
every harbor in Zeeland there was a regular
market boat service to Rotterdam. They sailed
once every week and on Wednesdays they made their
journey back home. In Rotterdam every market boat
service had his own dedicated terminal. For the
ones from Zeeland this was the Haringvliet.
The Haringvliet at Rotterdam,
where the market boats from Zeeland had their
terminal (1883)
The sons of
Jacob Griep are the ones
that continued the shipping business of the
Grieps at Hansweert. They even enlarged their
field of operation: three of them started to
operate regular market boat services to
Rotterdam:
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Cornelis Griep
(1795-1892), working as a barge
hand, married in 1819 to Pieternella
Griep from
Yerseke. His wife
died two years later while giving birth
to their second child. In 1823 Cornelis
remarried the widow Anna Driesprong from
Kapelle. With her he had four more children.
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Jacob Griep
(1798-1876) married at Yerseke
to Apolonia Sinke. At Yerseke he became
the skipper of the regular market boat to
Rotterdam and his wife was a shopkeeper.Jacob and his descendants are on page:
<GRIEP
FROM YERSEKE>.
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Johannes
Griep (1802-1881), called Janus,
married
Tannetje van der
Plasse from Biezelinge. They had
seven
children. Janus Griep
operated the regular market boat from
Kruiningen and Schore to Rotterdam, and
he also operated the
ferry
on the River Westerschelde from Hansweert
to Walsoorden. In that quality he
inhabited the ferry-house at Hansweert,
until he died in 1881.
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Jan Griep
(1807-1858)
married
Josina van de Vrede from Yerseke. He
operated the regular market boat from
Kruiningen to Rotterdam and also
inhabited the ferry-house at Hansweert.
He died in 1858, 49 years of age, at
Kruiningen. None of his nine children
stayed to live at Hansweert.
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THE
FOURTH GENERATION
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 When
the fourth generation of Griep's took over
control, the times were hard. On the half the
19th century there even was a famine, caused by
the failure of several potato harvests.
Besides that, the ferry service suffered growing
competition from steamboat services. These
services became possible because if the opening,
in 1866, of the new canal through Zuid-Beveland.Members
of this fourth generation were in fact the
children of Cornelis (1795-1862) and
Johannes
(1802-1880). Brother Jacob did leave Hansweert
for Yerseke and the children of Jan also left
Hansweert. And, ultimately, the descendants of the oldest son Cornelis
didn't stay either:
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Jacob
Griep (1819-1906)
married in 1841 to
Johanna de Bak from Kruiningen and got
two children. He is a bargehand, later on
skipper, at Hansweert. In 1906 he died,
87 years old and widower, at Rotterdam.
Both his children also left Hansweert for
Rotterdam.
- Adriaan
Griep (1828-1898), a labourer,
married three times after twice becoming
a widower, and had six children. In 1862
he moved with his family to Yerseke.
There he died at the age of 70. More
about him on page:
Adriaan
Griep (1828-1898).
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 When,
in 1839, Belgium became an independent nation,
the Netherlands took the obligation to maintain a
proper waterway between Antwerp and Holland. As a result, a
canal had to be excavated from Wemeldinge to Hansweert. On
October 1, 1866, it was opened and it brought growth to Hansweert.
Personal to operate the locks, shipping-offices, shops and
cafés, they all came to the once small village. In the middle of
the heavily conservative region of Zuid-Beveland, Hansweert
became known as Wild
West.  The
opening of the canal also had another consequence: now
steamboats could moor in the newly made harbor. Stimulated
by the provincial government, a steam ferry started to operate
and it became a deadly competitor for the Grieps with their
sailing ships. Around
1880, the sons of Johannes had to look for other ways to earn
their living:
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The Hansweert locks, around 1910
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THE
FIFTH GENERATION
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 The fifth generation
now included three branches: the children of Jacobus,
those of Cornelis
and those of Jan.
The flourishing
time of the market boats were already vanishing. New laws had
ended their protected position and the steamboats and the
railway took over all the traffic.
For the first
time, other professions appear among the Griep family
members, like a fishmonger and a teacher: |
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Johannes Griep (1862-1928)
married Adriana Helena
Janse, daughter of a teacher. They lived at Yerseke and
had twelf children. He worked as a skipper and a
oyster-farmer.
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Matthijs
Griep (1863-1932) also was a skipper.
When he married Lucia de Roos from Ossenisse he adopted her
catholic faith They lived at
Hansweert and had four children.
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 Jacob
Griep (1867-1535) married Wilhelmina Polderman,
daughter of an innkeeper.
They had five children. Only
one of them,
Johannes Willem, stayed to live at Hansweert. Jacob
earned his living as a fisher and a fishmonger.
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Marinus
Griep (1868-1946) was a teacher at Burgh,
on the island of Schouwen. There he married the bakers
daughter Grietje Geelhoed. They had two children.
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Jan
Griep (1871-1949) worked as a barge hand
and married Jannetje Cornelia van
der Berge, daughter of a skipper from Oosterland. They
had six children; none of them stayed to live at. After his
wife died, in 1945, he went to live with his daughter at Anna Paulowna
in the Noth of Holland.
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The children of Cornelis
Griep (*1831), who stopped being a skipper and worked at the
Hansweert locks, also stayed 'ashore': |
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- The sisters
Tannetje Griep
(1861-1930) and
Jannetje Griep
(1865-1941) had a small grocery shop
at the Nieuwstraat at Hansweert. Tannetje kept the shop and Jannetje
was the one that took her coster's barrow (see picture below) to the locks to sell diary products to
the skippers.
- Johannes
Griep (1872-1941) was a teacher
at the Hansweert primary school. He married Cornelia Borgman
from Molenbeek-Saint-Jean
in Belgium. They had two daughters.
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 When the ferry service was
abolished and skipper Jan Griep was working at the locks, his
son Johannes started to use the former ferry boat -- a 'hoogaars'
type -- for his own living.
He used to buy
agricultural products, like potatoes, from the farmers in
Zeeland,
transported them with his ship to Antwerp, and sold them
directly to the city-dwellers: |
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THE
SIXTH GENERATIE
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 The generation
that was born around the turn of the former century and lived
through two world wars, also was the generation that witnessed
Hansweert when it really flourished. In its biggest year 1973
they see nearly 300 ships a day pass through the locks, and a
lot of them were in some way involved in helping them do so. In
those years, Hansweert is a very lively and bustling community.
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 This sixth generation
of Griep's at Hansweert included three family branches: the
children of
Jacob and
Johannes and the 'catholic
branch' of Matthijs:
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Jacobus
Augustinus Griep (1900-1938) (Ko)
married to Charlotte Antoinette de Jong from Antwerp,
the daughter of a tug boat captain. He worked at a
shipping-agency near the locks
(see
picture at right), owned by his nephew
Jan Griep
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At the age of 37 year, he was hit by a passing moped in
front of the office, and died because of thrombosis. They
had no children.
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Augustinus
Pieter Griep (Guust) worked for the
National Waterways Agency, stayed single and lived at
Hansweert
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Leuntje Pieternella Griep
married to a commission-agent in potatoes, Dankert Janse Rijk
and her youngest sister
Pieternella Tannetje Griep
married to Petrus Huisman from
's-Hertogenbosch. They lived at
Vlissingen, Rilland-Bath, Vlissingen,
Kruiningen and ultimately at Vlissingen again.
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From
the five children of the fishmonger Jacob Griep,
only one stayed to live at Hansweert: |
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Johannes
Willem Griep and his wife Maatje van
Eenenaam had one son. He was employed at
a contractors office and lived at
Kruiningen, Vlissingen and Middelburg.
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The
last bargemen among the Grieps of Hansweerts were
the five sons of Johannes (1862-1940). One of
them drowned while pursuing his profession, three
of them succesivily choose for a living at shore
and one of them retired as captain of a tugboat.
After them, 'Griep from Hansweert' stopped to
be a family of skippers: |
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Jan
Griep (1884-1970)
and his wife Elisabeth Bruggeman got five
children. After successively being skipper
and owner of a sailing boat and a towed
vessel, he settled around 1925 at
Hansweert to operate a shipping and
customs agency.
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Hendrik Griep (1887-1978) and
Maria Theresia van der Wege had two
daughters and a son. Hendrik worked a
while as a bargeman and was after that
employed at the Hansweert shipyard. Most
of her life his wife lived in a mental
home at Bergen op Zoom.
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Jacob Griep (1888-1985) and Paulina van de Kreeke
had two sons, and a daughter that only
lived for three days. He earned his
living at the Hansweert locks. His wife
died in 1933 and Jacob Griep, at 97 years
of age, in 1985.
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Marinus Griep (1892-1953)
and Janna Cornelia van
Poelje had one son. After having worked
as a bargehand for a few years, he became
disabled for the rest of his life.
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Johannes Griep (1894-1932)
and his wife both drowned
on November 1932 when their ship was
wrecked in a storm near Hoedekenskerke.
His wife Katharina Verfürden was saved
by a coaster.
- The only daughter
Elisabeth Johanna Griep (1895-1984)
stayed to live with
her mother, nursed her, and died single
in 1985 in an elderly home at Goes.
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Pieter
Jacobus Griep (1900-1974) and Tannetje Cornelia
Zoeteweij had two children. In 1929 they
moved to Dordrecht, where Pieter became
the captain of a tugboat.
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THE
SEVENTH GENERATION
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The seventh generation of
Grieps at Hansweert do not include anymore
skippers or bargemen. Three sons of Jan
Griep (1884-1970) had taken over his
shipping-agency, and a son of Jacob
Griep (1888-1985) was the last one
who worked oat the locks. Most of them lived at the eastern part
of the village, the part that had to be demolished when the
canal was widened. |
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1980:
There are still ships in the locks, but the
demolition of Hansweert-Oost (left) has already
started
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In 1978 it all ends for
Hansweert-East. The last Griep's leave Hansweert,
with two exceptions: Jacob
Griep (1888-1985) who
spends his last years in the home for the
elderly, and his distant nephew Augustinus Griep
(1901-1987) who died in the old part of Hansweert
in 1987. Hansweert itself is also dying a bit in
those days. The harbor and the old locks are filled with
sand and there are no ships anymore to moor at Hansweert. It means the end of most of the shops,
the cafés and the busy atmosphere. |
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