The NOE family from the Meetjesland in East-Flanders, Belgium

A II Jan Noë

fs. Jan (A I)

° ± 1649
x Bassevelde 15/2/1681 Judoca Slock

He was born approximately 1649 and married on 15 February 1681 in Bassevelde with Judoca Slock 4 years his junior. They farmed in the Oude Boekhoutestraat (Old Boekhoute Road).

According to the 1698 Domesday book Jan exploited 12 acres and 160 rods in the 8th section of Bassevelde. This 8th section is between what is now the Oude Boekhoutestraat to the north, the Village to the west, the New Boekhoutestreet to the south and south-east and the Heulken to the northeast. Before 1704 he also had in lease-hold 3 acres and 175 rods in the same section and 6 acres in the 5th section, currently the Oosthoek (East Corner) and a little more than 3 acres in the 6th section which was between the Oosthoek, Dijkstraat (Dike Road) and St. Anna.

All that means that Jan used at that time more than 25 acres of land. And on 11/4/1706 that went down to 9 acres and 160 rods when he lost the lease-hold of most of the land he used before in the 8th section. In fact he had to be satisfied with an older, smaller farm perhaps badly in need of repair.

Bassevelde, merged with Assenede since 1976, was during the Ancien Regime part of the Corporation of Boekhoute, together with Oosteeklo and Boekhoute itself. In the late Middle Ages it was an important village within this Corporation.
To the north of Bassevelde there is the Graafjansdijk (Duke John's Dyke) built in the 14^th Century to try and protect the village against the violence of the sea. In 1394, but also in 1450, 1480, 1483 and 1488 terrible storms and inundations devastated the region. Then during the civil war at the end of the 15^th Century many dykes of the 4 Corporations were cut on orders of Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Many inhabitants of the Boekhoute Corporation then had to flee the menacing violence of war.

At the beginning of the Reformation in the second half of the 16^th Century, the iconoclasts appeared all of a sudden on the scene all over Flanders. They were against the worship of icons and sent armed gangs to destroy statues, books, paintings, stained glass windows etc. In less than 10 days they destroyed more than 400 churches, which according to Ortelius "the next day looked like the devil had housed there for a hundred years". Bassevelde suffered very badly by the Iconoclasts. Fortunately the church vestments and jewels were transferred to a safe place but, worst of all perhaps, the village priest became a preacher of the new doctrine.

The wars of the ambitious King Louis XIV didn't do Bassevelde any good either and the village was partially depopulated. In 1671-72 all the valuables of the church were transferred for safe keeping to the Great Beguinage in Ghent. In 1678 the tenants obtained a remission of their debts because of the excessive expenses of quartering the French soldiers.
Looting, exploitation and extortion were repeated as troops were quartered here: in 1696 there were the English Dragoons, in 1704 there were the Dutch under General Spar, in 1707 and 1708 the French were here again.

From 1713, the end of Spanish rule and the start of the Austrian period, things improved in our regions. There was more security. Manufacturing industry, commerce and agriculture flourished. And the population grew. In 1729 Bassevelde had 1809 inhabitants. At the beginning of the 19^th Century this had increased to 2800.

Joannes has surely not seen a lot of these improved conditions. In 1681 he had married Judoca Slock. The first years of their marriage had been a bit calmer. Those had been years of reconstruction. But while their family grew more misery came their way. When the peace of the Austrian Empire came they were both in their 60s. After 43 years together for better or worse Jan died in Bassevelde on 17 March 1724. He was 75.

Judoca, his widow, then went to live with her daughter Joanna in Boekhoute, together with her unmarried son Joannes. And there mother and son died on the same day, 14 December 1731. She was 78 and he was 38.

Their children:

Joanna
° Bassevelde 12/3/1681
She married around 1707 with Jan Grimmens, who was already the widower (with one son aged approximately 16) of Joosijntjen De Brabandere. From his uncle Andries Grimmens they inherited a farm with 3 acres of land in the St Jorispolder in the Waterdijk quarter (north of Boekhoute). They also bought 150 rods of land next to their farm. When Jan died in Boekhoute on 20/4/1709 they cultivated 8 acres of land, they had 1 cow, 1 calf, 1 pig and 9 chickens. He left one son, Joannes who was 16 months old.
Joanna then married Lieven Martens, fs. Jooris and Christoffelijne Haemelynck. He died in Boekhoute on 27/5/1716 leaving her with 4 children between 2 and 6 years old.
She had been a widow for 21 years when she married for the third time. The wedding took place in Boekhoute on 25/7/1737 and the new bridegroom, Abraham De Roo, was 14 years her junior.
Joanna died in Boekhoute on 25/1/1740 and Abraham followed her into eternity on 20/10/1741.
Petronella ° Bassevelde 14/2/1684
Her godfather was Hendrik Noë (D I) from Assenede.
Around 1710 she married Michael De Vilder and gave him eleven children. But when she died in Assenede on 26/11/1736 only her 18 year old son Petrus was still alive. Her brother Petrus from Boekhoute became his guardian.
They had no land but on 8 September 1732 they had lent 26 pounds at 5% interest to Joannes Pussemier. The estate reckonings of 1/1/1737 are kept in the State Archives in Ghent: they had 1 horse, 3 cows, 2 pigs, 5 chickens and 1 rooster. That means they had a below average farm.
Maria
° Bassevelde 4/1/1687
† Bassevelde 31/12/1688
Petrus
° Bassevelde 10/10/1689
x Boekhoute 18/5/1732 Joanna De Bast
† Boekhoute 20/2/1738
Joannes
° Bassevelde 29/7/1693
† Boekhoute 14/12/1731.
He didn't marry and died on the same day as his mother.
Catharina; ° Bassevelde 7/5/1698
She married in Boekhoute on 8/3/1721 with Lieven Dierick. He died there on 14/5/1740 at age 59 leaving her with 4 under age children. On 27/4/1745 she married in the same town with Frans Valeyn (or Van Leyn) from Bassevelde. (The priest in the marriage license called them Collan and Noee.) Arnoldus De Pauw and Anna Cornelia Luck were the witnesses.
She died in Boekhoute op 20/7/1749. In the estate reckonings we read that they owned no real estate.
At the end of her life she was regularly assisted by Doctor Frans Huyge whom they still owed 1-8-6 pounds for visits and delivery of medicines.

Doctors visits, considered expensive, have been about the same price for centuries, namely the price of 2 pounds of good quality meat. This is true even today. And until the end of the 19^th century that was approximately equivalent to the wages for a day's work of an unschooled worker. As the 20^th Century progressed that same worker could buy more and more meat for a day's work that counted less and less hours of labour. And this labour has become less heavy.

By far the worst negative item in the estate reckonings was the tenancy rent which was owed to the widow of Jan Beirnaert: 15-11-8 pounds. The estate reckonings of Catharina closed with a small negative total of 0-7-1 pounds. Which no doubt means they must have lived near the poverty line.
Frans De Boes, master brewer at Assenede was owed 1-15-0 pounds from the estate for his deliveries of beer.

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