Lucia Wijbrants

Lucia Wijbrants or Wybrants (Amsterdam, October 21 1638 - Utrecht, May 23 1719) was the daughter of Johannes Wijbrants, a silk merchant, whose ancestors had moved from Stavoren to Antwerp. [Bok-Cleyndert, E.J. & R. Loeber (1992) Het geslacht Wybrants. Een koopmansfamilie in de Nederlanden en Ierland. In: Jaarboek van het Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, p.74-114.] After 1585 when Antwerp was occupied by the Spanish army, the family moved to Amsterdam and lived in a house in the Warmoesstraat, then a fashionable shopping street. They had eight more children: only Hendrick (1623-1669), Helena (1628-1721), and Johannes (1638 - ?) survived. [Johannes, her twinbrother married Adriana Hinlopen in 1664, a niece of Jan J. Hinlopen.]

Jan J. Hinlopen

Lucia grew up at Keizersgracht 213. On December 9, 1664 she gave notice to her marriage with Jan J. Hinlopen; she was accompanied by her mother, Machteld Pater. On January 6, 1665 the couple married in the Nieuwe Kerk. Jan Vos wrote a poem for the happy occasion. [J.Vos, Alle de gedichten dl. II, Amsterdam 1671, p. 225-226.] On November 13, 1665 Lucia gave birth to a still born child, buried the next day. In 1666 Hinlopen commissioned a painting from Bartholomeus van der Helst of the 27-years-old Lucia, himself and three hunting dogs, but showing his deceased first wife and children in the background. [Dudok van Heel, S.A.C., (1996) Een opmerkelijke dikzak. Jan Hinlopen door Bartholomeus van der Helst, In: Maandblad Amstelodamum, p. 161-166. (In Dutch.)] In September 1666 Jan J. Hinlopen, rather stocky built, died at the age of forty. Lucia lived with her two stepchildren on Kloveniersburgwal, next to her brother-in-law Jacob J. Hinlopen.

Having a portrait of yourself became very popular in the Netherlands after 1660, and a portrait functioned as a sort of a personal web page. Lucia Wijbrants had herself painted in 1666 by Lodewijk van der Helst (1642-1684). This painting by the son of Bartholomeus van der Helst is now in the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest). [Pigler, A. (Hrsg.) (1968) Katolog der Alter Meister, Tühringen, p. 308. On the backside of the painting is a note with the name of the sitter.] According to her will on June, 27, 1716, she had her portrait painted by Gabriel Metsu. [GAA, not. Lenard Noblet, 7379, p. 448-473.] Metsu painted only a few portraits in his life time; the resemblance with the one from 1667, now in Minneapolis, and two other portraits of Lucia is striking. On the painting one can see a chandelier. It could be one of the two silver chandeliers given by Joan Huydecoper II and his wife to the parents of Sara Hinlopen on September 10, 1660, two months after her birth. [RAU 67-57.]

Within a few years it became clear she did not get along with Johanna Maria and Sara Hinlopen, two rich, self aware or may be jaded orphans. [Goudbeek, R. (z.j.) Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis. Geschiedenis van het Huis en zijn Bewoners (1687-1998) (In Dutch.)] Lucia moved in with her mother at Herengracht and remarried Johan van Nellesteyn (1617-1677) on February 29, 1672 in Sloten. In their marriage contract is stated she gave him her portrait by Jurriaen Ovens, a Holstein painter, who from time to time lived in Amsterdam. [Van Gent, J. (1998) Portretten van Jan Jacobsz Hinlopen en zijn familie door Gabriël Metsu en Bartholomeus van der Helst. In: Oud Holland 112, pp. 127-138, notes 24, 25; Appendix: notes 1, 2, 3 and 6. (In Dutch.)] If he would die before her, she would inherit 8.000 guilders and the inventory, but not the library, nor the portraits.

The rest of her life she lived in Utrecht. When she died, it seems, everybody important attended her funeral in Westerkerk. She was related to Jan Commelin and Caspar Commelin, two famous Dutch botanists. Her sister Helena and Machteld Wijbrants, her niece, inherited all her belongings. Machteld on her turn left everything to Hester Hinlopen. In the 19th century this painting belonged to Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Since 1992 the painting can be seen in the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Johan van Nellesteyn

Van Nellesteyn was a burgomaster in the city of Utrecht in the years 1654-1656, 1658-1660, 1664, 1665. After his second wife, Hillegonda Pater, had died in 1670 married Lucia Wijbrants. [Elderring-Niemeyer, W. (1962) Genealogie van het geslacht Van Nellesteyn. In: De Stichtsche Heraut 9, pp. 32-42.] In 1672, a year which is called by the Dutch the disaster year, Johan van Nellesteyn and his wife were fleeing from Utrecht, when the city was occupied by the French army under Louis XIV. Nellesteyn and his brother-in-law, Jacob Martens, moved their belongings to Amsterdam by boat. On their way back a few months later, Nellesteyn was attacked by the orangist mob, who regarded him as a traitor. [Bruin, R. de & A. Pietersma. Op geborduurde kussens. De familie Martens in politiek en bestuur. In: Erfgenamen aan het Janskerkhof. De familie Martens in Utrecht, 1628-1972. Jaarboek Oud-Utrecht 2002, p. 43, 46, 47, 49, 50.] Nellesteyn was one of the few members of the vroedschap reappointed by William III of Orange after 1672.

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External links

* [https://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/archieven/archiefbank/indexen/doopregisters/zoek/search.nl.pl?v1=Joa*&b1=&a1=Wybrants*&r1=1&v2=&b2=&a2=&r2=0&d1=&m1=&y1=1638&d2=&m2=&y2=&rs=0&x=59&y=13 Birth certificate of the twins]
* [http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=4418 "Portrait of Lucia Wijbrants" (1667) the second wife of Jan Hinlopen, by Gabriel Metsu]
* [http://www.hetutrechtsarchief.nl/archieven.asp Website of the Utrecht Archives, search for Lucia Wybrants]
* [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-A-3753?id=SK-A-3753&page=2&lang=en&context_space=&context_id= The Rijksmuseum on the Disaster Year]