Jhr. Thomas van Beresteyn

A.K.A. Jonkheer Mr. Thomas Christiaensz Van Beresteyn van Maurick.

Thomas van Beresteyn, Heer van Maurick, geboren te ‘s-Hertogenbosch 8 April 1647, overleden op Maurick 19 Maart 1708, kapitein in Statendienst, Rentmeester der geestelijke goederen in de kwartieren Kempenland en Oisterwijk en van het kapittel Oirschot, Raad van ‘s-Hertogenbosch,verwekte, na het overlijden van zijn echtgenoote Dina Cornelia Tromp, een natuurlijken zoon bij hare zuster Alida Tromp, die op Maurick haar intrek had genomen. Te Amsterdam geboren, werd deze zoon ald. ged. en ingeschreven als Paulus Gijsberti (voornamen van grootvader en overgrootvader van Thomas van Beresteyn), terwijl bij den doop verdichte namen van vader men moeder werden opgegeven. Het wapen, dat Gijsberti aannam, bestaat uit de stukken van het wapen van Tromp, keper en lelie, doch anders geplaatst.

Thomas was not married to Alida Tromp, since Thomas was widower of Dina Tromp, Alida's elder sister. Alida stayed in the Castle of Thomas, to take care of his children, since her sister Dina had died. Alida and Thomas fell in love. In those times it was forbidden to get married in this situation, but Alida got pregnant by Thomas and full of shame, sadness and sorrow, she left for Amsterdam, without letting her family or anybody else know about it. She wanted to die and get buried as an unknown person, was written in her last will. This would be a scandal for the whole family, but Alida covered it all up, by using a false name for herself at the birth of Paulus and on his birth-certificate. She used the name ALIDA DE CLAIR. She died only a few weeks after giving birth to Paulus Gijsberti and got buried in de Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, under the false name AELTJE (short for Alida) DE CLAIR or DE CLEER (again looks like de Clair). Because of these actions the scandal was not known to anybody besides her own family and the family of Thomas Van Beresteijn. She gave birth to a son, and named him after the grandfather and great grandfather of Thomas, Paulus Gijsbert, she added an -i to the last first name, so that became the surname of Paulus, her son. I have searched through the family archives of the family Gijsberti- Hodenpijl, Tromp, Gaspar van Kinschot (husband of Alida's older sister Sara) and Van Beresteijn and found that they all say that the Paulus Gijsberti, married to Hester Hodenpijl was the son of Alida Tromp and Thomas van Beresteijn of Castle Maurick, near the city Vught. This big secret was not discovered untill late 1904, so Alida Tromp did a good job hiding it in 1703 !

I myself discovered it because I found we are descending from Hester Hodenpijl and I looked up Hesters wedding in the archives of her birth city Schiedam (near Rotterdam) and I saw that her husband came to wed her, with HIS COUSIN (???) Squire Mr. Gaspar van Kinschot Jr.. I knew this name from the book about our Great Dutch Sea hero and Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp. I only could not remember who this figure was, so I looked it up... and there he was, the son of Squire Mr. Gaspar van Kinschot Sr. and Sara Tromp, eldest sister of Alida Tromp ! I got a big shock... good heavens, are we descending of the Great Sea hero Maerten Harpertszoon Tromp ??? YES we are !!! 139 streets in the Netherlands are named after him, his face was on our post stemps, his statue is at the city hall of Rotterdam, where he was a dean for a little while in a Dutch Reformed Church and his eldest son Harpert (Alida's father, our ancestor), almost became Mayor of Rotterdam (another ancestor of ours, was), but finally he became President Mayor of the city Delft.

The family archives of the family of Thomas van Beresteijn also said that Thomas, father of Paulus was the guardian of Paulus, together with Jhr. Mr. Gaspar van Kinschot Sr. Another proof that the great grandfather of Paulus Gijsberti was Sea hero Maarten Tromp, was that the family crest of Hester Hodenpijl, Paulus Gijsberti and their kids contained pieces of the family crest of Maarten Tromp himself. The French lily for instance, because Maarten Tromp got Knighted by the French King, the colours and some other specific things. The family and descendants of Paulus Gijsberti and his wife Hester Hodenpijl belonged to the Dutch aristocracy and their family tree can be found in every big city in the Netherlands in a little blue book where all the aristocracy is written down in. The book of "het Patriciaat", "the Aristocracy", and our ancestor Dina Alida Gijsberti Hodenpijl is in it, since she was the eldest and only daughter of Hester and Paulus. Dina Alida (named after her grandmother Alida Tromp and her grandmother Dina Walen !) was the mother of Anna Catharina Ross, who married Jan Manuel Brocx and together they got a daughter, named Jacoba Paulina Brocx, who married her cousin, Leendert Pieter Brocx a.k.a. Leonard Pierre Brocx) and this Jacoba Paulina Brocx was the grandchild of Dina Alida Gijsberti Hodenpijl and Alida Tromp was the great-great-grandmother of Jacoba Paulina Brocx. Got it ? =))

Thomas was :

• Infantry Officer, last Captain from 1673 to 1678
• Steward of the spiritual goods Kempenland Oisterwijk 1679
• Alderman (Schepen) ‘s-Hertogenbosch 1685, 1689, 1695, 1696, 1705
• City council of the city 's-Hertogenbosch
• Lord and owner of the Castle Maurick and its surroundings which was a village at those days

Marriage of Dina Cornelia and Thomas

• te Delft
• type Trouwakte
• datumondertrouw 08-08-1693
• Personen
• Bruidegom
• naam Thomas van Beresteijn
• woonplaats 's Hertogen Bosch
• type j.m.
• Bruid
• naam Dina Cornelia Tromp
• woonplaats Rijswijk
• type j.d.
• Thomas van Beresteijn
• Register
• archiefnummer 0014
• inventarisnummer 00078
• type Doop, Trouw en Begraaf Registers
• Akte
• pagina 15v
• diversen bruid woonde laatst
• Source
• Archives DTB city Delft