Sara Hinlopen

Sara Hinlopen (June 12, 1660 – June 16, 1749) was the daughter of Jan J. Hinlopen and Leonora Huydecoper van Maarsseveen. Sara Hinlopen came from a family of Flemish cloth merchants, who had moved towards the northern Netherlands. Her grandfather Jacob Hinlopen was a merchant in spices, and at an early stage had been involved in the Enkhuizen Chamber of the Dutch East India Company. Her other grandfather Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen, was a burgomaster in Amsterdam and for years a land developer around the river Vecht.

After both her parents had died she and her sister (rather rich orphans) were raised by uncles and guardians. At the age of twenty Albert Geelvinck became her husband. The double-wide mansion, owned by the both of them, is at present the Museum Geelvinck-Hinlopen.

Life

Sara was born between five and six o'clock in the morning. On Friday the 16th Sara was baptized in the Westerkerk. The witnesses were Jacob J. Hinlopen, her uncle and Sophia van Huydecoper, her aunt. Sara was named after her grandmother, Sara Coymans. On September 10th her uncle Huydecoper jr went to see the newborn baby and brought as a present a couple of silver chandeliers.In 1663 Sara lost her youngest sister who had developed measles and her mother who suffered a miscarriage, having been ill for seven days. [RAU 1002-919] The following year her elder brother Jacob died. Having been kept isolated at Pijnenburg, the family country mansion near Lage Vuursche, he probably died due to the plague.

In January 1665 her father remarried to Lucia Wijbrants. The family moved from a house in Doelenstraat, which was rented from the VOC-gouverner Pieter Carpentier, to reside at Kloveniersburgwal, next to the Oudemanhuispoort and opposite Jan Six. He rented the prestigious house from the same institution as his brother Jacob J. Hinlopen, then the superintendent of the nearby elderly peoples home. Lucia gave birth to a stillborn child on November 11, 1665, and Jan J. Hinlopen, of a rather stocky build, died in September 1666 at the age of forty.

Childhood

The two surviving daughters, Johanna Maria and Sara, did not get along with their stepmother Lucia Wijbrants. [Goudbeek, R. (z.j.) Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis. Geschiedenis van het Huis en zijn Bewoners (1687-1998) (In Dutch.)] In 1672 Lucia made the best of a not ideal situation and remarried Joan van Nellesteyn, a mayor of Utrecht. Becoming older the fairly independent girls could gain more independence by administrating their money, stocks and paintings by way of marriage. Johanna Maria, the eldest, flatly refused to marry her cousin, having a crush on someone else. [Kooymans, L. (1997) Vriendschap en de kunst van het overleven in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, p. 174. (In Dutch.) ] In 1679 she married Johan van der Merct, a lawyer from Middelburg and involved in the Dutch West India Company (WIC), against the will of her guardians. Also Sara was presented to a cousin, Joseph Coymans, on February 2nd, 1680. It is hard to believe the acquaintance had been a succes, because on April 12 she wrote a letter to the high court in the Hague, asking for trade competence. In between, on April 5, 1680 Cornelis Geelvinck had requested for his still unmarried son Albert Geelvinck access to the thirteen years younger Sara Hinlopen.

Joan Huydecoper jr., her uncle, kept an interesting diary containing some details about the two girls. He invited Sara to his country house, on the border of the river Vecht when her uncle died. In 1680, after the burial of the guardian Jacob J. Hinlopen the distinguished collection of paintings, formerly owned by Sara's father, was split up and bequeathed to the girls. [RAU 67-59. Familiearchief Huydecoper, on 11/7/1679, 12/8/1679 and 2/22/1680.] Unfortunately none of the paintings or painters have been mentioned. By allotment Sara came - most likely - into the possession of the paintings by Rembrandt, Ahasuerus and Haman at the feast of Esther, and a genre painting or a family portrait by Gabriel Metsu, now located in Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. On January 19th, 1680 Sara and her sister went to the recently opened opera house on Leidsegracht, having been invited by their uncle, who owned a box.

Albert Geelvinck

Eager to leave the house, she was introduced to the thirteen years older lawyer Albert Geelvinck. Within five months (August 27) they married in the townhall. On September 24, in the late afternoon they invited guests to the church of Sloterdijk, where her uncle had been a minister for years. Sloterdijk was a popular place for weddings, a quiet pleasure resort, only a few miles outside the citywalls, near to the broad IJ.

In 1687 the couple moved into their brand new mansion on the Herengracht. Albert Geelvinck bought an allotment from his neighbours to extend the garden to the Keizersgracht and where he had a coachhouse annex warehouse built. In 1690 he was appointed as a administrator of the Society of Surinam. Two years later he ordered 500 slaves to be transported out of Angola, probably because in these years the WIC could not provide sufficient workers for the plantations in the colony. When Albert Geelvinck died in 1693, the house, more than 800m² (8600ft²) was estimated to be worth 24.000 guilders. [GAA 5046, reg. 7, Coll. Successie, 10/2/1693, f. 281. ] Albert was succeeded in politics by his older brother Joan, who lived on Singel. On April 26, 1695 Sara married Jacob Bicker, their cousin; 18 years older and even richer than Albert Geelvinck had been. Their contract separated their possessions very strict, in case of divorce or death only their own blood relations could inherit. If he should die, a part of his wealth should be put aside as her new dowry ( ! ) and if Sara should die before Jacob the jewelry, worth 6.000 guilders, he gave her as a wedding present, would be returned to him or his heirs. [http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/amst_marr.shtml ]

Jacob Bicker and other small details

* In 1696 the couple must have witnessed the riots on Herengracht and in front of her neighbour's house, known as the undertakers riot.
* From 1707 - 1731 she was a regentess of the cities orphanage in the Kalverstraat.
* In 1713 her husband died. (Being widowed, she was allowed to manage her Funds, without anyone's consent).
* In 1717 Peter the Great rented a mansion across from the canal, owned by her second cousin Jacob J. Hinlopen.
* Sara helped out a few people, who had gotten into a financial crisis in the notorious year 1720.
* It is assumed that around 1725 she had ordered improvements to the house; the gable of her house changed in a style, popularized by Daniel Marot, who lived around the corner on Reguliersgracht.
* In 1730 Lieve Geelvinck, her cousin, married her neighbour the widow Anna de Haze, in those days the richest woman in Amsterdam.
* After 1742 she sold her carriage and horses; it is very likely she was not able or interested to leave the mansion. The ware- and coachhouse she subsequently let to a skipper on Heemstede.

Aftermath

Sara Hinlopen turned out to be the longest living member of her family, and died at almost 89 years old, however without having had children. One of her in-laws mentioned in his diary that she had been blind for a few years, but otherwise of a healthy composure and that she left a considerable amount of money "being stingy". [In: Het dagboek van J. Bicker Raye, bewerkt door F.M. Bijerinck & M.G. de Boer, (1935), p. 172. [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bick002dagb01_01/bick002dagb01_01_0019.htm] ] Most of her belongings, the house, her stakes, her paintings and her books, and 350.000 guilders, including the cash money (ƒ 2,50), was divided into lots and passed to Nicolaes Geelvinck and his three sisters.

Unfortunately her will does not mention any of the paintings, most probably to avoid Inheritance Tax. A considerable sum (18.000 guilders) went to Margaretha Bicker, her sister-in-law, and 1.100 guilders to her three servants Hermannus, Lysbeth and Geesje. Balthus, her former servant and Maria, the neighbor's maid also inherited 800 hundred guilders. The unknown Jan Verwey and his wife received 12.000 guilders together with her clothes. The Reformed Church were allowed to spend 2.000 guilders for the poor.

References