Roelof Mensing 1798-1883

Early life 1798-1813

Roelof Mensing or Minses[Note 1] was born 1 July 1798 in Leeuwarden, the youngest child of Coenraad Mensing and Janna Temperley. He was presumably named after his Swiss maternal grandfather Rudolf Temperley, with Roelof being the Dutch equivalent of Rudolf. He may in fact have been known as Rudolf to family and friends, since two adult records gives him that name, which would seem unusual if it were not a name he sometimes went by. He was baptised on 8 July, at Leeuwarden's Jacobijnerkerk, with the official witness being a local woman named Freene Niglij[1], whose relationship to the family is not known.

Details on Roelof's family background are somewhat fragmentary. He had at least three surviving older siblings at the time of his birth - his brothers Christiaan (b.1785), Johannes (b.1787) and Marinus (b.1794). He may also have had two surviving sisters - Roelofke (b.1790) and Grietje (b.1792), but no record can be found of either of them beyond their baptisms, although it is somewhat likely that Grietje was alive until at least the late 1790s[Note 2].

I have not been able to discover how Roelof's parents made a living. His father may have been in the military, as several men on both sides of the family were. Roelof's paternal uncle Johannes was in the artillery during Roelof's childhood, and the aforementioned maternal grandfather was a soldier in a Swiss regiment. The family was evidently working class, with known non-military occupations among men in the family including peat carrier, labourer and servant. Roelof did not learn to write, and records from adulthood show that he signed his name with a "+" mark.

A single record dating from 1811 tells us that the family lived on Groot Gasthuissteeg (literally "Great Hospice Alley"). I have not been able to tell for certain exactly where this was, although it may well be the same place as Wijde Gasthuissteeg ("Wide Hospice Alley"), which a 1907 source describes as a row of slums[25]. The hospice in question was the St. Anthony Gasthuis, a medieval institution which would be rebuilt in 1864[26], so it may be that the surrounding streets including Groot Gasthuissteeg were restructured at the same time. While the 1811 record does not tell us how long the family were there for, it seems likely to have been for some time as it would also be Roelof's address for part of his adult life.

Roelof grew up in an unusual time in Dutch history. At the time of his birth the country was known as the Bataafse Republiek, a client state of the Napoleonic Empire founded in 1795. In 1806 it was converted into a monarchy under the rule of Napoleon's brother Louis, who became immensely popular in the Netherlands thanks to his alignment with Dutch culture and interests. This displeased the French Emperor, who in 1810 deposed his brother and brought the Netherlands under the direct control of the French Empire, imposing such unpopular policies as conscription, curfews and travel restrictions. It was during this dfficult period, in April 1811, that Roelof's father died. When Napoleon was captured and his government collapsed in 1813 the Netherlands once again became a monarchy, this time an independent one.

Leeuwarden had been one of the most radical cities of the revolutionary period, to the extent that it found itself out of step with the national government. A year before Roelof's birth troops had been sent in to assert order after the municipal council threatened to conduct a purge of local aristocracy and riots broke out in parts of rural Friesland[2]. This beligerance continued into the period of Napoleonic rule, and when French forces finally departed in November 1813, the celebrations in Leeuwarden lasted until dawn[3].

Military Service 1813(?)-1822

According to his death notice, Roelof was a veteran of Waterloo[4]. A certificate issued by the Ministerie van Oorlog (Ministry of War) in 1865 proves that Roelof was awarded a medal for service in the Napoleonic wars (which the Netherlands was involved in from 1813 to 1815)[5]. The Battle of Waterloo took place on 18 July 1815, when Roelof was three weeks past his seventeenth birthday. However, two reproductions of Roelof's military record created as supplementary evidence ("bijlagen") for his marriages both agree that his military service begins 1817[6]. A possible explanation for this is that the figure from the bijlagen states that he was in the militia, and it was quite common for volunteers to the standing army to transfer to the militia once their contract for the army expired. Since these contracts lasted four years[7], this could mean Roelof enlisted in late 1813 (recruitment for the reconstituted army having begun in November) when he was just fifteen years old.

However, firsthand sources from the period in which Roelof was supposedly in the militia (specifically the birth records of his first two children in 1820 and 1822) state quite specifically that he is a fusilier in the 2nd Company, 1st Batallion, 8th division of the national infantry, which is not the same thing as the militia. Interestingly these are also the two records which give his name as "Rudolf". Despite such anomolies, the references to other family members in these records are enough to indicate that they clearly all refer to the same person.

If we were to take the information in the bijlagen at face value, then we would have to believe that Roelof lied about being at in the Napoleonic wars, and pretended to be in the infantry at the time his first two children were born when he was in fact a militiaman. He would also have had to keep the lie going long enough to blag a certificate some four decades later, as well as succesfully convince his surviving family members that he had been at Waterloo. It is however worth noting that the militia records produced for the bijlagen are on a printed form with names, dates and other identifying information filled in by hand, so it may be that the standard "militia" form was here standing in for a general military service record if that was the only form available. Furthermore, the examples from his first and second marriage contain a number of discrepancies in the physical description given of Roelof, meaning they cannot both have been copied verbatim from the same original document.

With the veracity of the bijlagen record appearing somewhat shaky, and the children's birth records giving such specific information on Roelof's designation, I do believe it is more likely that he was in the infantry and not the militia. The bijlagen may be still be accurate in stating that Roelof's service began in 1817. However if it was incorrectly assumed that he was in the militia, the date of 1817 was likely selected since this would have been the year Roelof turned nineteen, the age at which young men became eligible for the "loting" by which militia members were recruited[8]. I also believe the certificate of 1865 is probably accurate and that he was serving in 1815 or earlier, since I assume the war ministry would not issue medals to just any claimant without some kind of reasonable proof. This still does not guarantee the posthumous claim that Roelof was at Waterloo, since the medal is for the entire conflict, and of some 30,000 Dutch-Belgian troops in the Coalition forces, only around 14,000 were actually present at the battle[9]. If Roelof had spent his entire military career without transferring divisions, then it starts to look unlikely that he fought at Waterloo. The 8th division was formed in late 1815 by merging the Amsterdam Regiment of the Line with the 1st, 2nd and 36th militia batallions. Some units of the 36th batallion had been present at the entry into Paris following the battle, but not at Waterloo itself[10]. This would however suggest that Roelof had begun his military career in the militia, since it is doubtful he would have joined the Amsterdam Regiment. This could explain why the bijlagen documents claim he was in the militia, perhaps only giving that erroneous date of 1817 on the assumption that he had joined via the loting at age nineteen, with the exact truth of the matter not having been especially important for the context in which these documents were created.

If Roelof did indeed take part in the Napoleonic conflict, he would have found himself joining an armed force that was woefully underequipped and underprepared. For decades, nationalistic British accounts of the battle would paint their own troops as the real heroes of Waterloo, and dismiss the Dutch-Belgian forces as incompetent cowards. However, more recent assessments have suggested this was far from the case, and that the Dutch-Belgian troops were in fact a crucial part of the Coalition victory[11].

One member of the Mensing family who definitely was serving in the military either during or shortly after Waterloo was Roelof's eldest brother Christiaan. We know this because he was arrested for desertion in November 1815, having left his post in France (where the Allied Army had headed following Napoleon's defeat) and returned to the Netherlands. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, but died less than a year into his sentence[12]. As for Roelof's middle brothers, Marinus had no military service listed on his own marriage bijlagen, and Johannes died in Leeuwarden in October 1815.

The two reproductions of Roelof's supposed militia record, plus two schutterij records from 1830 and 1834, give us a physical description of Roelof as an adult, although as previously noted there are some discrepancies. The table below shows the information given on each of the four records.

Feature	1823 bijlagen[6]	1830 Schutterij contract[29]	1834 Schutterij discharge[13]	1837 bijlagen[14]
Height[Note 3]	1.569m	1.58m	1.56m	1.58m
Face	Oval	Oval	Oval	Oval
Forehead	Pointed	[not on form]	Round	High
Eyes	Blue	Blue	Brown	Blue
Nose	Large	Ordinary	Small	Ordinary
Mouth	Wide	Ordinary	Ordinary	Ordinary
Chin	Pointed	Round	Round	Round
Hair	Brown	Brown	Brown	Brown
Eyebrows	Brown	Brown	Brown	Brown
Distinguishing marks	-	-	None	-

Since the 1823, 1830 and 1834 records disagree and thus cannot have come from the same original source, it seems likely that the descriptions were made at the time by whoever was creating those documents. Note however that the 1837 bijlagen give identical information to the 1830 contract (with the exception of forehead, which is simply not on the forms used for these contracts), suggesting the former may have been copied from the latter. The slight differences in height are not especially remarkable, as these could vary depending on how upright Roelof was standing, how careful the person taking the measurement was, and even the quality of the measuring equipment used. It could be down to the opinion of each given notary how big a mouth had to be before it was considered "wide" and not "ordinary", forehead shapes could change with a receding hairline, and the pointed chin of a young Roelof could appear rounded if his jawline filled out or he gained a little weight in his 30s. It is somewhat harder to explain how his nose went from "large" to "small" to "ordinary", or how his eyes turned from blue to brown in 1834, although the latter is presumably a clerical error. There are not known to be any surviving images of Roelof to confirm or deny any of these features.

During the peacetime years of Roelof's military service he was garrisoned in his home city of Leeuwarden. By 1819 he had begun a relationship with a local woman of about his own age named Grietje de Vries. Grietje worked as a merchant, as did her mother and several of her siblings in what appears to have been a family business, although what goods they sold is not clear. Her father had also been a soldier, and there is evidence to suggest that the her family had known Roelof's for several decades prior. Roelof and Grietje's first child was born in July 1820 on Groot Gasthuissteeg, the same alley Roelof is known to have lived on during his childhood, and presumably also Grietje's home address at this time. The child was named Jacoba, which was probably chosen as it is the feminised form of Grietje's father's name (Jacob). Although he and Grietje were not yet married, there was no secret made of the fact that Roelof was the father, and it was in fact he who made the declaration to the authorities for Jacoba's birth record, two days after it occurred. The official witnesses for the record were a mason named Jan de Jongen and a shoemaker named Sieds Poort, who were in their 50s and 30s respectively. My assumption is that they were neighbours of Grietje who could claim reasonable awareness of the relationship and birth.

Roelof and Grietje's second child was born in August 1822 and named Janna. This was perhaps in honour of Roelof's mother, but Grietje also had a sister of that name, and all Roelof and Grietje's other children have a name from her side of the family. Jan de Jongen once again acted as witness, this time with a shoemaker named Reijen Mutsleer. All other details other details are the same as before, including Roelof's military designation, and the address of Groot Gasthuissteeg.

Despite the confusion over the details of Roelof's military career, all sources agree that his service ended in 1822.

First marriage 1823-1835

It was perhaps not just Roelof's military obligations which caused him and Grietje to delay getting married. At the time Dutch marriage law still followed the Napoleonic Code it had inherited during the years of French rule, and as such any man under the age of twenty-five wishing to marry required parental consent[16]. The wedding would take place on 24 August 1823, less than two months after Roelof had turned twenty-five, which may or may not have been coincidental. As the surviving parent Roelof's mother could theoretically have been blocking the marriage, although whether she did or not soon became immaterial, as she died in April that same year. According to the Napoleonic Code, if both parents were deceased, the right of veto passed to the grandparents, and if they were also deceased (as was the case for Roelof) it passed simply to "the family"[17]. However, even for men over twenty-five, the disapproval of the designated family members could still delay the marriage by one month[18], and this could explain why the marriage happened in August and not Roelof's birth month of July. As such, the collection of the aforementioned bijlagen proved to be rather complex, as Roelof was required to prove that both parents and all four grandparents were dead. In the case of his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother no death records could be found, and so three individuals - Grietje's mother, the wife of Roelof's uncle Johannes Mensing, and a woman named Dirkje Johannes whose relationship to Roelof is not known - gave testimony as to those grandparents' years of death. The fact that Grietje's mother was giving evidence regarding the deaths of Roelof's grandparents supports my theory that the two families had been associated with each other for some time. There is no mention of whether any family member gave or denied consent. Roelof's uncle Johannes may have been judged the most "senior" living relative[Note 4], but he probably did not object since his wife had provided evidence for the bijlagen. Alternatively it may have fallen to Roelof's last suriviving sibling, Marinus, whose closeness to Roelof is difficult to guage. However the delay in the marriage may have simply been caused by the complexity of obtaining all the various proofs of death and not the objection of any family member.

The bijlagen also indicate that there was a "bewijs van onvermogen", a certificate issued by the Mayor of Leeuwarden's office stating that the groom was unable to afford the usual administrative costs associated with the wedding, and would therefore being exempted from paying them. According to this statement, given at the end of July, Roelof was currently out of work. However by the time of the marriage itself, Roelof was apparently back in work, under the generic designation of "labourer". Grietje was still working as a merchant, and would continue to do so throughout the marriage. She, Roelof and their two children were now all living together on Groot Gasthuissteeg, next door to Grietje's widowed mother, and younger sisters Janna and Rebecca.

The marriage record notes that Roelof and Grietje's children Jacoba and Janna, now aged 3 and 16 months respectively, were retroactively made legitimate. They were baptised immediately after the ceremony.

On an unknown date within 1823, but probably towards the end of the year, Roelof happened to be on the scene when a child fell into one of Leeuwarden's canals. According to later testimony, he did not hesitate in jumping into the water at the risk of his own life, and succeeded in bringing the child to safety[19]. On 18 February the following year he was presented with a gold ducat and a certificate by Leeuwarden's Maatschappij: tot nut van 't algemeen ("society for the benefit of the general public"), in recognition of his heroism[20]. The whereabouts of the ducat are unknown; it was presumably sold in short order since its monetary value (in terms of purchasing power equivalent to about €321 as of September 2025)[Note 5] surely outweighed any sentimental significance to an impoverished family with small children to feed. The certificate however is still in the possession of one of Roelof's descendents.

The day he received the certificate was a significant one for Roelof for another reason, as that morning he and Grietje's third child had been born. She would be named Rebecca, after the aforementioned sister. Having one extra mouth to feed probably gave Roelof all the more reason to convert his recently awarded ducat into spendable cash.

Rebecca was followed by Romkje, born in 1826 and named after Grietje's mother. She would be the last child born in Roelof's first marriage. On Romkje's birth record Roelof's occupation is described as porter, which may simply have been a more specific description of his previously noted status as a labourer.

In 1828 Grietje's sister Janna married Jan Jansen, a fusilier in the 8th division as Roelof had been. However as Jan had been born in 1805, it is less likely that Jan and Roelof had served together, or at least not for very long. Grietje does seem to have started a trend amongst her sisters, as youngest sibling Rebecca would have two children with a drummer in the 8th division.

Roelof himself was apparently not quite finished with the military lifestyle, and in November 1830 he applied to join the Frisian mobiele schutterij. The term "schutterij" had historically referred to voluntary organisations which functioned as civic guards in the early modern era[27], but the mobiele ("mobile") schutterij was more akin to a militia, and was formed in a burst of patriotic fervour in opposition to the Belgian revolution which broke out earlier that year[28]. Roelof however was in fact serving as a plaatsvervanger ("substitute") for an individual named Frans Hoekstra. This was an arrangement whereby an individual who had been drafted would pay someone else to serve on their behalf. Hoekstra, who does not appear to have had any prior connection to Roelof, agreed to give him 25 guilders upfront followed by four guilders for each week of service[29]. Thus Roelof's decision to join the schutterij may have been motivated more by financial gain than nationalist conviction.

For some reason Roelof's deal with Hoekstra appears to have almost immediately fallen through, as just two days later Hoekstra signed a new contract with another would-be recruit, this time for a higher upfront payment of fifty guilders, but only three guilders weekly thereafter[30]. It is not clear whether Roelof recieved his twenty-five guilders or served any time in the schutterij at this point. He was however able to secure another plaatsvervanger contract the following February, this time for a man named Duye Roekema, for a much more lucrative initial sum of seventy-five guilders and the same weekly payment of four guilders[31]. The contract with Roekema proved to be long-lasting, and Roelof became a drummer in the 1st Batallion of the 2nd Division of the schutterij. The designation of drummer is intriguing, contrasting with his position of fusilier a decade earlier. Contemporary accounts tell of jingoistic spectacle as troops departed Leeuwarden, and in April 1831 the five batallions of the Frisian mobiele schutterij were each presented with deocrative banners and guidons crafted by local women[32]. Despite scattered references to schutterij troops being posted to the front lines and fighting against Belgians with remarkable ferocity[33], the only contemporary mention I have found of Roelof's batallion is an 1833 reward notice for information leading to the arrest of a deserter[34].

This portion of Roelof's life would be marked by personal tragedy. In August 1831 he and Grietje's first born child Jacoba died at the age of eleven. As is standard on Dutch death records from this period, no cause of death is recorded, although the death is noted to have taken place at one o' clock in the morning. Roelof was almost certainly away from home at the time, as her death occurred during what became known as the "Ten Days Campaign", an ultimately unsuccesful last-ditch attempt by the Netherlands to prevent Belgian secession. At the start of this campaign, Roelof's batallion was stationed at the village of Stratum, near Eindhoven[35].

In July 1834 an official decision was made by the cash-strapped Dutch government to vastly reduce the size of the mobiele schutterij. All personnel would be placed on indefinite leave without pay the day after they returned to their home municipality, with plaatsvervangeren subject to the same conditions that the person they replaced would have been[36]. Roelof would be issued his leave pass in mid-September[38], which implies he had been away from Leeuwarden from at least July up until that time. His certificate of discharge is dated three weeks later, and notes that it was as a result of the decision of July 1834[13], although the government's decree does not explicitly state that those put on leave would automatically be discharged.

Almost a year later, in September 1835, Roelof's wife Grietje died. Her death occurred at 2 o' clock in the morning, and the official reporting parties were Roelof himself and a local police assistant. As was the case with Jacoba, the administrative details are very precise, but the cause of death is left mysterious. Grietje was 38 years old.

Second marriage and final years, 1836-1883

The woman who became Roelof's second wife was named Willemke de Vries, and was three years younger than him. Despite the shared surname, she was of no apparent relationship to Grietje, and was originally from Gorredijk, some way to the south of Leeuwarden. She was almost certainly a native Frisian speaker, as Gorredijk is in a predominantly Frisian-speaking district, and Willemke's parents bore names which were Frisian and not Dutch. At the time of her marriage she was working in Leeuwarden as a servant, although besides this we have no speicifc clue as to how she may have met Roelof. Unlike Roelof, she had not been married before, but she had given birth to an illegitimate daughter during her early 20s. The fate of this daughter, whose name was Sijbregjen, are unknown beyond her baptism.

The records for Roelof's second marriage would state that he was a koopman - a merchant, indicating that he had perhaps now become part of Grietje's family's business. References to him being a merchant actually appear earlier, starting with the 1829 Bevolkingsregister, but they are not consistent and some records from the early 1830s still state that he is a labourer. He may then have alternated between selling goods and performing casual labour depending on what work was available, or there may have been some confusion with the profession of Grietje, who is almost always described as a koopvrouw ("merchant woman") throughout her marriage to Roelof. However the description of koopman would now be consistently applied to Roelof for the rest of his life.

For the marriage bijlagen Roelof once again had to obtain evidence of the deaths of his parents and grandparents, as well as that of Grietje to prove he had been widowed. An extract of the relevant portion of the 1823 bijlagen was deemed sufficient evidence that his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were dead, and he did not have to once again go through the rigamarole of appearing in court with witnesses who had known them in life. There is no mention this time of Roelof being unable to pay the administrative costs[14]. Roelof and Willemke were married on 23 April 1837. Willemke's mother Durkjen Mients acted as official witness.

Roelof and Willemke's first child was born a year later, and named Coenraad after Roelof's father. Their address within Leeuwarden is not known, except that it was no longer Groot Gasthuissteeg where Roelof had lived during his marriage to Grietje. Roelof's two youngest children from his first marriage - Rebecca and Romkje - remained in the household, but eldest surviving daughter Janna had moved out by 1839. She had gone to Den Helder in Noord Holland, where she became a servant. Why Den Helder, which was a boat journey away across the Zuiderzee, is unclear.

Roelof and Willemke had two more children - Jacob in 1841 and Dirkje in 1843, named after Willemke's parents. Unlike Grietje, Willemke is never shown as having any occupation throughout her marriage to Roelof. At some point prior to 1848 second-eldest surviving daughter Rebecca followed her sister Janna in moving to Den Helder. She married there in 1851, becoming the only child from Roelof's first marriage to marry, although she would not have any children of her own. Romkje, the youngest child from Roelof's first marriage, would remain with her father and stepmother. She is shown to have worked as a merchant, presumably alongside Roelof.

The 1850s appear to have been a rather uneventful decade for Roelof and his family. The city of Leeuwarden however was changing rapidly during this period. In 1850 the heerengracht, a large canal running through the centre of the city, was filled in. In 1854 one of the city gates and part of the walls were demolished, and an iron bridge was built in their place[39]. Further changes would come in the early 1860s, perhaps most notably the coming of the railway line in 1863, which cut through an old playing field which had once been used as a training ground for the militia[40].

Roelof suffered another tragedy in 1860, when his eldest surviving daughter Janna died. Although she had lived away from Leeuwarden for her entire adult life, it seems she may have died while either travelling to or returning from a visit to the family in Leeuwarden. She died in Franeker which lies along the van Harinxmakanaal, the waterway which connected Leeuwarden to the Zuiderzee, but her residence at that time was in Hoorn, Noord Holland.

In April 1862 a notice was placed in local newspaper the Leeuwarder courant to announce the 25th wedding anniversary of Roelof and Willemke[41].

It was in 1865 that the Dutch ministry of war issued the approximately 5000 surviving veterans of the Napoleonic war with a medal and certificate, which as previously noted included Roelof. The medal was called the Zilveren Herdenkingskruis ("silver memorial cross"), and was a five-armed silver cross with "1813" inscribed on the front and "1815" on the back, hung from a yellow ribbon with white stripes[42]. The whereabouts of Roelof's Zilveren Herdenkingskruis are unknown, but the certificate has been passed down through the family and is currently in possession of an uncle of mine.

Roelof's younger son Jacob married in 1863, and two days later his daughter - Roelof's first grandchild - was born. She was named Maria. A year later Jacob's second child would be born and named Roelof. Sadly this latter child lived for only one year. Meanwhile Roelof's youngest daughter, Dirkje, had begun a relationship with a young soldier. She became pregnant and had a son in 1865, named Jan Frederik after the father. However since Dirkje was not yet married to the father, the infant lived with her in Roelof's household. We can probably assume that Roelof was understanding, given how closely this mirrored the situation almost forty years earlier when he had been the young soldier and Grietje had borne his child out of wedlock. One rather notable difference this time around was that the soldier in question was an officer from a middle class background, far wealthier than anyone in the Mensing family appears to have been. Dirkje married him in 1867, and they subsequently moved to Rijswijk in Zuid Holland with their young son.

Just two months after Dirkje and her son moved out, there would be another death in the family, when Roelof's second-youngest daughter Romkje died at the age of forty-one, having lived with Roelof her entire life. In 1868 Roelof's elder son Coenraad became the last to marry, and so in a few short years the once-busy household was reduced to just Roelof and Willemke. Coenraad and Jacob would however both remain within Leeuwarden.

Intriguingly, from 1870 onwards Roelof's occupation on the bevolkingsregister would appear as "koopman en kermisreizinger", meaning "merchant and fairground traveller". Whether this represented a change in the way Roelof conducted his business, or whether he had always been a fairground traveller and the bevolkingsregister recordings had simply become more specific is not clear. Either way, it leaves us with more questions than answers. We do not know how far he travelled, how long he was away for, and whether he travelled alone or if Willemke or any of the children went with him. If he did travel around the entire Netherlands, he may have taken opportunities to visit his daughters Rebecca and Dirkje, the former of whom was still in Den Helder and the latter in Voorburg. We still receive no clue as to what sort of goods Roelof sold. An 1860s bevolkingsregister entry for his son Coenraad, who was also a merchant, states "koopman in koek" - "cake merchant". However Roelof appears within the same household and is described only as "koopman". The implication is perhaps then that Roelof sold various miscellaneous items meaning the exact nature of his business could not be categorised.

In around 1876 Roelof and Willemke moved in with Coenraad and his wife. Coenraad had no living children, the only child born in his marriage having been a boy named Roelof who, like Jacob's child of that name, died in infancy. Despite his age, the elder Roelof was still listed as working as a merchant and fairground traveller. Coenraad was no longer in the same business, having taken on a job as a newspaper deliverer. Jacob, who still lived elsewhere within Leeuwarden, was a clerk working for the state.

In December 1881 Roelof lost family member, when Coenraad died at the age of forty-three, making him the third of Roelof's children to have died around that age. Roelof and Willemke remained with Coenraad's widow Grietje van der Meulen, at the same address. Willemke also died seven months later, at the age of eighty. She and Roelof had been married for forty-five years.

Roelof continued to live with Coenraad's widow Grietje. In March 1883 Grietje remarried, and when she moved in with her new husband Leendert Kamstra, Roelof came with her. She was presumably fond of her father in law.

Roelof would only be in this new household for a matter of weeks however. He died on 16 April at 8 o' clock in the morning. Three days later a notice appeared in national newspaper Nieuws van den dag which read:

Te Leeuwarden is in de ouderdom van 84 jaren overleden Roelof Minses, oud-strijder van Waterloo.

which means:

Died in Leeuwarden at the age of 84 years, Roelof Minses, veteran of Waterloo.

Notes

1. The family surname alternates between "Mensing" and "Minses", with occasional variations on the two such as "Menzing", "Mensingh", "Minzen" and "Menses". The name Mensing is of German origin, whereas Minses appears to derive from a Frisian patronymic indicating the child of a person named Minse. The family is almost always called Mensing in the eighteenth century, whereas Minses appears increasingly during the nineteenth century. However the spelling "Menses" (which I would regard as being closer to Minses than Mensing) can be seen as early as the baptism of Roelof's uncle Johannes in 1764, and the earliest example of Minses in Roelof's immediate family is the baptism of his eldest brother Christiaan in 1781. By the mid-nineteenth century, with family names becoming more standardised and most people being literate enough to spell their own names, different members of the family (including separate children of Roelof's) seem to have consistently settled on one or the other. As Mensing is favoured more on earlier records, the obvious assumption is that it was the original family name, with Minses being a later corruption. However it is also possible that Minses was the original, with Mensing being seen as a more "proper" and less Frisian name, with some members of the family reverting to Minses a few generations later. There was in fact a Minse Mensingh who married in Leeuwarden in 1722, but it is not clear how closely he was related to our Mensings, if at all. I have found no records from the era when Mensing was most prevalent on which the family member was writing their own name - in every case it is written by a clerk or notary of some kind - so it is difficult to know which name members of the family preferred or used amongst themselves. Below is a list of all the ways Roelof's surname is known to have been recorded throughout his life:

1798 Minses - Baptism (this was unusual however, as most of his siblings were baptised Mensing)
1820 Mensen - Birth of daughter Jacoba
1822 Mensing - Birth of daughter Janna
1823 Minzen - Declaration on huwelijksakte bijlagen regarding deaths of his grandparents
1823 Minses - Marriage to Grietje de Vries
1824 Minses - Birth of daughter Rebecca
1824 Minzes - Certificate awarded for saving the life of a child
1826 Mensing - Birth of daughter Romkje
1829 Minzes - Bevolkingsregister
1830 Minzes - Contract of substitution (schutterij)
1831 Minses - Contract of substitution (schutterij)
1834 Menzing - Schutterij leave pass
1834 Menzing - Certificate of discharge from schutterij
1835 Minses - Death of wife Grietje
1837 Minses - Marriage to Willemke de Vries
1838 Mensing - Birth of son Coenraad
1839 Mensing - Bevolkingsregister
1841 Minses - Birth of son Jacob
1843 Minzen - Bevolkingsregister. His daughter Romkje appears on the same record as Minsen
1843 Minses - Birth of daughter Wilmke
1848 Minsen - Bevolkingsregister
1859 Mensing, overwritten with Minses - Bevolkingsregister
1862 Mensing - 25-year wedding anniversary notice in newspaper
1865 Mensing - Certificate of participation in the Napoleonic wars
1870 Minses - Bevolkingsregister
1876 Minses - Bevolkingsregister. His son Coenraad appears on the same record as Mensing.
1882 Minses - Death of wife Willemke
1882 Minses - Bevolkingsregister
1883 Minses - Death certificate
1883 Minses - Death notice in newspaper

The bevolkingsregister entries in particular demonstrate a clear awareness that there were two possible names, and that different names were to be used for different individuals even though they were of the same family. Roelof's younger children appear to have been bound by their birth registrations, with Coenraad generally going by Mensing (or similar) throughout his life, and the other children going by Minses, even though at the time of their births there was presumably no special reason why some children were given one name and not the other. The children from Roelof's first marriage fluctuate between Minses and Mensing variants.

In Roelof's case I have opted for Mensing as his surname for this biography. Despite Minses appearing more often throughout his life, including on his baptism, I feel it is somewhat more likely that Mensing was his personal preference, whereas Minses was a name he was compelled to use in official circumstances owing to his baptismal record. In particular there is the 1863 anniversary notice, which is not an official document but one in which Roelof presumably had a choice in how his name was written. Another piece of evidence is the 1859 Bevolkingsregister where Mensing was written first, as if it was the default, then overwritten with Minses at an unknown later point.
2. Roelof's brother Marinus (b.1794) named his second daughter Grietje. The name does not appear to have come from his wife's side. It seems unlikely to me that he would have named a child after his sister if she had not lived long enough for him to remember her.
3. His height is given in el, palmen, duimen and strepen. These were originally the names of archaic measurements whose exact lengths could vary from one town to the next, but after the adoption of the metric system in 1817 the names were reused to mean "metre", "decimetre", "centimetre" and "millimetre" respectively[15].
4. Roelof did have three living aunts who were older than Johannes, but since the order in which family members had the right to stop the marriage placed the father above the mother, I assume that an uncle would be prioritised over an aunt, regardless of age. As previously noted however the exact order is rather vague, especially when it goes beyond grandparents.
5. The Netherlands ducat was a gold coin that was historically used for international trade, with a weight of 3.5 grams and almost 99% purity[21]. During the 1820s its exchange rate in the Netherlands was 28 guilders[22]. According to guilder price index figures kept by Het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, a single surviving figure for the year 1825-1829 allows us to calculate that 28 guilders in those years had a value equivalent to 431 guilders in 2002[23], which would have become €196 when the Euro was introduced that year. Finally the CPI inflation calculator (which derives its data from the European Central Bank's Harmonized Index of Consumer prices) tells us that the purchasing power of €196 in 2002 is equal to €321 at the time of writing (September 2025)[24]. Note that in order to give the most accurate idea of what the money would have meant to Roelof, the conversion from 1820s Guilders to 2020s Euros has been made in regards to purchasing power, not inflation. Even so, the tracking of purchasing power over time is not an exact science, so the end result of €321 should be taken as an extremely ballpark figure. Ultimately it should be safe to say that the value of the ducat was by no means a fortune, but would nevertheless have been extremely welcome to someone who six months earlier had been out of work and unable to pay the administrative costs for his wedding.

References

1. Doopboek, Leeuwarden 1788-1802, Allefriezen.nl
2. Schama, Simon (1977): Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780-1813, Fontana Press; p288-9
3. Kuiper, Jacques (2015): Einde van de Franse Tijd: de chaos van 1813-1815, in Fryslân Historisch Tijdschrift, 21ste jaargang, nummer 4, juli/augustus 2015
4. Het nieuws van den dag kleine courant, 19 Apr 1883
5. Original ceritifcate issued by the Ministerie van Oorlog 1865, in possession of a family member
6. Stukken behoorende tot de Huwelijksakt van Roelof Minses en Grietje de Vries, Nationaal Archief (Nederland)
7. Amersfoort, Herman (2013): The Dutch Army in Transition: From All-Volunteer Force to Cadre-Militia Army 1795-1830, published in Fighting for a Living: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000, Amsterdam University Press; p465
8. Nederlandse Grondwet van 1815: Achtste Hoofdstuk. Van de Defensie; 207
9. The Cowards at Waterloo: Performance and actions of the "sadly unreliable" Nederland (Dutch-Belgian) troops in June 1815, Napoleonistka; accessed 9 Oct 2024
10. Beknopt Overzicht van de geschiedenis van de onderdelen van de KoninKlijke Landmacht van 1813 tot 1947, Militarie Spectator 1947; p259
11. Baker-Smith, Veronica (2015): Wellington's Hidden Heroes: The Dutch and the Belgians at Waterloo, Casemate
12. Gevangenissen in 's-Hertogenbosch, Deel: 286, Periode: 1815-1816, Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum
13. Original document issued by the Department van Oorlog 1834, in possession of a family member
14. Stukken behoorende tot de Huwelijksakt van Roelof Minses en Willemke de Vries, Nationaal Archief (Nederland)
15. Docentenhandleiding Meten en maatkennis, Freudenthal instituut (2010); p3
16. Nielsen, Marilou (2021): Als je wil trouwen maar niet mag van je ouders, Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum; accessed 19 Jun 2023
17. The Code Napoleon, literally translated from the original edition by a Barrister of the Inner Temple, London 1827; p22
18. Van Poppen, Frans & Nelissen, Jan (1999): The Proper Age to Marry: Social Norms and Behaviour in Nineteenth Century Netherlands, published in The History of the Family, Vol. 4, Number 1; p64
19. Original ceritifcate issued by the Maatschappij tot nut van 't algemeen 1824, in possession of a family member
20. Leeuwarder courant; 2 Maart 1824
21. World Coins – A History of the Netherlands Gold Ducat: As It Began, CoinWeek; accessed 31 August 2025
22. The Atlas (London); 29 April 1827
23. De Waarde van het Geld, Neomagus Genealogie; accessed 1 September 2025
24. "Value of €196 from 2002 to 2025", in2013dollars.com; accessed 1 September 2025
25. Peters, W (1907): Wandeling door het het oud en nieuw St. Anthony Gasthuis te Leeuwarden Nijmegen; p28
26. Geschiedenis, St. Anthony Gasthuis; accessed 1 September 2025
27. van Meeteren, A.P.M. (2006): Op hoop van akkoord: Instrumenteel forumgebruik bij geschilbeslechting in Leiden in de zeventiende eeuw, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam; p105
28. Herinneringen van een Friesch schutterofficier 1831-1834, published in Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, Deel 57 (1936); p267
29. Contract van Plaatsvervanging, Notarieel Archief - Tresoar, Minuut-akten 1830 II, archiefnummer 26, aktenummer 420
30. Contract van Plaatsvervanging, Notarieel Archief - Tresoar, Minuut-akten 1830 II, archiefnummer 26, aktenummer 427
31. Contract van Plaatsvervanging, Notarieel Archief - Tresoar, Minuut-akten 1831 I, archiefnummer 26, aktenummer 66
32. Leeuwarder courant; 5 April 1831
33. van Nooijen, Ruud (2016): Boxtel en Brabant ten tijde van de Afscheiding van België 1830-1839, Heemkunde Boxtel; p30
34. Leeuwarder courant; 26 Feb 1833
35. Walthuis, W (1981): De Tiendaagse Veldtocht, 2 tot 12 Augustus, published in KVBK, 1981; p340
36. Besluit van den 25sten Juli 1834, Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden
37. Rijksmuseum; accessed 7 September 2025
38. Verlof-Pas, issued by the Department van Oorlog, in the possession of a family member.
39. Visscher, R (1908): Leeuwarden 1846 tot 1906, 's-Gravenhage; p3
40. Ibid; p14
41. Leeuwarder courant, 22 April 1862
42. Zilveren Herdenkingskruis, Nederlandse Ridderorden en Onderscheidingen; accessed 10 September 2025
43. Nieuws van den dag; 19 April 1883

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