| Commentary | Jan van Gansepoel I was born in Embden in 1578. On 17 April 1604, Jan van Gansepoel, 26, living on the Nieuwen Dijck, assisted by his brother-in-law Lenert Luls, was betrothed to Judith Gabry, assisted by her mother Isabeau Baligan, widow of Jan Gabry. Lenaert Luls had married Jan's sister Magdalena van Gansepoel on 21 March 1598. When Luls went bankrupt (about 1601?), there was some question as to whether his wife Magdalena might still partake of Holy Communion. However, when the creditors decided unanymously that she was not involved in the bankruptcy, the consistory allowed her to resume Communion (Roodenburg, Onder het censuur, p. 379). Judith Gabry, born in Doornik, was the daughter of Jean Gabry and Isabeau Balligan. Lenaert Luls and Magdalena van Gansepoel were the parents of Gerrit Luls, probably identical with the buyer of R 27047 of Montias2. Nicolaes Cocques (or Cocque) married Ann Gabry, another daughter of Jean Gabry. Thus, Jan van Gansepoel(I), Lenert Luls, and Nicolas Cocques were brothers-in-law. The precise family relation between Jan van Gansepoel and Paulus van Gansepoel, three of whose daughters married into the Pelt famiy, is not known. In 1606, Jan van Gansepoel I, living in the Rockin in het Harthooft, bought lots in the Haarlem lottery for 3 f. 12 st. (GA 11/42 F 76). Lysbeth Gansepoel, also living in the Hartshoofd, who was probably his sister, bought lots for the same sum (GAA 127/4 F 922). On 13 November 1617, Jan van Gansepoel I and Daniel Horebecke, the uncles of the children of Govert Gaillard, were appointed guardians over these children by the Orphan Chamber (WK 5073/513, fol. 162). Govert Gaillard seems to have been the brother of Anthony Gaillard de oude of INVNO 662. Daniel van Horebecke was married to Martijntje Gaillard, the daughter of Anthony Gaillard de oude. In 1618, Jan van Gansepoel I transferred the contents of his silk cloth business to his mother-in-law Elisabeth Baligan, widow of Jan Gabry, as counterpart for 9000 f. that she had advanced him to cover some debts in Antwerp (Van Dillen, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van het bedrijfsleven R.G.P. 78(1933), p. 294). On 11 June 1622, Jean de Bari, merchant's employee (coopgesel), declared at the request of Jan van Gansepoel (I), that he had spent two years with the latter to learn the trade (Van Dillen, Bronnen, ibid., p. 453). In 1626, Jan van Gansepoel (I) was said to be insolvent (under curatorship) (Gelderblom, Zuid-Nederlandse kooplieden, p. 231). It was perhaps to avert bankruptcy that he had his household goods sold in the present sale. There is evidence that Jan van Gansepoel I was still alive in 1632 and 1636 (see the NOTES to R 20410 of Montias2). If so, the widow Gansepoel who was taxed 250 f. in 1631 was not Judith Gabry (Kohier, fol. 61v). She may have been the widow of Paulus van Gansepoel who signed an act on 5 March 1636 (Van Dillen, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van het bedrijfsleven R.G.P. 144(1974), p.112). On the relation between Gansepoel and the merchants Jan Gabry (his father-in-law) and Nicolaes Cocqu (his brother-in-law), see also Van Dillen, Het oudste aandeelhoudersregister, p. 149. David Beck, in his diary of the year 1624, mentions, in the entry for September 28, that he attended the burial of Jan Gabry, the father of Anneke Gabry, the wife of the engraver Chrispiaen van de Queborn, and the father of Jan Gansepoel's wife Judith Gabry. Beck tarried there in the company of the art-loving (constlievende) Sr. Jan Ganssepoel from Amsterdam. He had known Jan Gabry for 24 years in Cologne, where he (Gabry) sold candles and oil (David Beck, Spiegel van mijn leven, Haags dagboek 1624, edited by S. E. Veldhuijzen, Hilversum, 1993, p. 177.) In view of Gansepoel's interest in art, it is remarkable that he is not known to have bought any works of art at auction. The only item that he did buy (at the sale of Anthony Gaillart de oude of INVNO 662, which preceded the present sale by only a few months, was 1 deel rijlen for 4 f. 7 st. 8 pen. His son Jan van Gansepoel II was apprenticed as a dyer. He was said to be 23, thus born about 1616, in a deposition dated 27 December 1639 (NA 1021, Not. S. van der Piet). In an act dated 7 July 1637, Pieter Varlet, silk dyer, declared that, pursuant to an apprenticeship contract he had made with Jan van Gansepoel (I) on 13 May 1632, the latter's son Jan van Gansepoel (II) had served him appropriately for the next six years. Varlet had been paid 50 f. a year, presumably by the apprentice's father Jan van Gansepoel I (Van Dillen, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van het bedrijfsleven R.G.P. 144(1974), p.160). |
