The Beijen/Beyen Family Site
by Laurens Beijen
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The Nieuwkapelle family

Remigius' family

Married to Johanna van Kempen

From 1751 to 1754 and from 1758 to 1761 the regiment of Remigius Beyen, who was mentioned on the previous page, was stationed in Nijmegen. In 1753 he married there the Nijmegen-born Johanna van Kempen. She was much younger than Remigius, perhaps only 16 years old.

Although the bride and groom were both Catholic, their marriage was to be performed in a Reformed church, according to the regulations at the time. The Dutch text reads: Remisius Beijns, bachelor, soldier in the Regiment of the Prince of Baden Durlach, with Johanna van Kempen, bachelor-girl, from Nijmegen.
After a month, the first child of Remigius and Johanna was born. It was baptized Catholic.

Four years later, the marriage of Remigius and Johanna was still concluded with a Catholic clergyman. The Latin text reads: In the month of February, on the 19th day, Remigius Beijen and Catharina van Kempen renewed the marriage according to the Catholic rites, with Vraun van Nesterick and Anna Helmes as witnesses, after a three-fold call at the non-Catholics four years ago. That's how it is.
It is striking that this time the bride was called Catharina instead of Johanna. That must have been a mistake, firstly because it referred to the marriage four years earlier, and secondly because all baptismal registrations, both before and after 1757, included the mother's name as Johanna.

Remigius and Johanna had seven children, born in 1753, 1756, 1758, 1761, 1763 and 1766 (the last two were twins). Even though Remigius served in different towns, all children were baptized in Nijmegen. The baptismal registrations never mentioned that Remigius was garrisoned elsewhere in the Netherlands. It was also not explicitly stated that Remigius himself was present at the baptisms.

Remigius was buried in Nijmegen in 1799, twenty years after the army retired him. Johanna was still alive at the end of 1799. It is not known when she died.

The adult children of Remigius

Only three of the seven children of Remigius and Johanna reached the marriageable age:
  • Joanna Huberta (3.3) (1758-1829) became a widow thrice. At first she was married to Johannes Peter Wassing, afterwards she married Philips Christiaan Hartman and next Gijsbert Hopman. She lived in Nijmegen all her life.
  • Henricus (3.5) (1763-1815) was an ensign in the army and afterwards a shoemaker. With his wife Margaretha Slims he had two sons. One of them died when he was only two years old. The other son, Antonius (4.2), who was born in 1804, served from 1821 as a gunner in the army. In 1829 he was transferred to the army in the Dutch East Indies. The ship with which he was transported arrived in Batavia in January 1830. We don't have further information about him.
  • Gerardus (3.6) (1766-1850), who was also called Gradus, was a bricklayer. He lived in Nijmegen almost all his life. In 1795 he married Theodora Helena Grevers, who was born in Nijmegen as well. They had seven children.
    Theodora died in 1834. Next Gerardus lived for many years in the Old Civil Seniors' Home in Nijmegen. Older single Nijmegen residents who were in possession of the civil right of Nijmegen had the right to spend their last years there. Gerardus had acquired that civil right, which was in principle reserved to Protestants until French times, in 1797. He passed away at the advanced age of 84.

    Grandchildren of Remigius

    Only through the above mentioned Gerardus the name Beijen was passed on to later generations.

    The eldest son of Gerardus and Theodora, Remigius Adolphus (4.3), took in 1815 as a conscript part in the Battle of Waterloo. He survived the battle, was a shoemaker's servant in Nijmegen and married there in 1819 Maria Catharina Gertrudis Theunissen. They had five children, three of whom died very young. The two others died shortly after their twentieth. Remigius and his wife did not reach an advanced age as well: they died at 34 and 44 years, respectively.

    The Battle of Waterloo

    The participation of Remigius Adolphus Beijen in the Battle of Waterloo is evidenced by the fact that his name appears in the register of the bonuses that are paid from 1817 to the Dutch participants in the battle. The bonuses were not determined by the military achievements, but by the ranks of the soldiers. The generals received the highest sums (14,453 guilders and 34 cents), the corporals, drummers and ordinary soldiers, among whom was also Remigius, the lowest (29 guilders and 10 and a half cents).

    The youngest son of Gerardus and Theodora, Benjamin Lambertus (4.8), entered the army on a voluntary basis in February 1831, during the time of the Belgian Revolt. He probably did not actually participate in the Ten Days' Campaign. His career in the army was not successful: according to his superiors he was repeatedly guilty of misconduct and in February 1832 he deserted. Nothing is known about what happened to him afterwards.

    All present members of the Nieuwkapelle family descend from Henricus Hubertus Beijen (4.7), one of the other sons of Gerardus. He is discussed on the next page.


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