Gijsbert Beijen, innkeeper and horse driver

Because the name Gijsbert is used for the branch as a whole, the name of this subbranch was taken from a first name that was given to many of its members: Arie.

Gijsbert was born in Lexmond in 1713. In 1738 he married Hilligje Speltenburg. After their wedding Gijsbert and Hilligje lived in Lexmond, Lopik, Benschop and other places. In 1754 they rented the farm De Witboom ('The White Tree') between the towns of Hagestein and Vianen. Alongside the signature Gijsbert put on the lease is shown. Gijsbert used De Witboom as an inn.

In 1767 Gijsbert bought the inn De Roode Leeuw ('The Red Lion'), just outside the Land Gate of Vianen, at the beginning of the old canal between Vianen and Gorinchem. A city map drawn by Jacob van Deventer in the sixteenth century did not yet show the inn. The place where it was built in later years is indicated with a red dot.
The location on an important road yielded customers for the inn, but also for another occupation of Gijsbert: he was a horse driver as well. We can assume that he transported both travellers and goods with his horse carts.

Gijsbert and Hilligje had ten children, one of whom died in infancy. The children are mentioned on the overview of the members of the Gijsbert branch at the numbers 9.1 through 9.10.
Gijsbert died in 1784; Hilligje in 1800.
Three of their children are discussed below.

Dirk Beijen: not very successful

Arie Beijen and his descendants

In other aspects Arie and his wife were not fortunate either: they had twenty children, but in 1813 only eight of them were alive, among which were three sons. Since the sons died childless in later years, it was to be expected that this part of the branch would become extinct in the Beijen line.
In 1847 however Arie's youngest daughter Nelligje (10.27),who was sometimes called Pieternella as well, gave birth to a son, Arie (11.3). Because Arie had no official father, his family name was Beijen.
Nelligje brought up her son alone. In 1864, when Arie was sixteen years old, Nelligje died. Arie was a painter's apprentice and moved in with his employer.
In 1871 Arie married Antje van Ooij. They had six children. After the passing of Antje, Arie married Maria van den Bosch. From this second marriage three other children were born. Arie, who remained a painter until his death, died in 1908 in Vianen.
Arie had three sons who reached adulthood: Arie (12.1), Pieter (12.6) and Frans Nicolaas (12.8). All three were painters. Arie Junior, who lived in Vianen for his whole life, had numerous offspring. Most of his present descendants live in the Utrecht area.

Willem Beijen and his niece