Swartwout Chronicles

The spiritual welfare of the inhabitants of Groningen early enlisted the attention and care of the Roman Catholic Church. Two religious sanctuaries were built within the walls of the city ; one was consecrated to Saint Martin as a patron, and the other to the Blessed Virgin. The first edifice is recorded as bearing the name of Sint JMaartcn as early as the year 1253. In 1465 one of the towers of the church was struck by lightning and the building was set on fire and burned. The present Gothic structure, at the northeast corner of the Great Market {Groote Markf), erected after a fire in 1627, has a conspicuous tower four hundred and thirty-two feet high, containing a fine chime of silvery-toned bells, which, at each quarter-hour, tone by automatic machinery the tune of a sacred or patriotic hymn peculiarly pleasing to the ear.

The Aa-kerk, about a quarter ofa mile west of Sint Maartcns-kerk, occupies the site of the early parish-church consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. The present building, it is said, derived its name from the river Aa, flowing near it. The first chapel seated there was converted into a neighborhood church in 1246. The structure was considerably enlarged in 1465. Unfortunately, on May i,167 1, the tower of the church was struck at night by lightning and the edifice was consumed. The stately tower now widely defining the locality of the church was built in 1712.

The floor of the Aa-kerk, as well as that of Saint Martin’s, is principally made with slabs of dark stone under which are the tombs of many of the former members of the congregation. The coats-of-arms of some ofthe wealthy and distinguished families arc sculptured on these tablets, but most of the armorial ensigns and cpitaphic inscriptions on them are now deeply foot-worn. A half century ago the lofty windows of the church contained beautiful pictorial memorials in colored glass, but later they were broken, either ruthlessly or accidentally, and for them panes of plain ordinary glass were substituted. The Sunday and feast-day services in the Aa-kerk were commonly attended by the members of the different Swartwout households in Groningen, and during a period of many years an elaborately delineated coat-of-arms of the family richly embellished one of the principal windows.

In going directly from one to the other of these massively built brick edifices one passes across two large, open market-places. The Great Market ( Groote A/ark/), lying immediately west of Saint Martin’s Church, and having an area fifty Groningen rods long and thirty wide, is said to be the most spacious one in the Netherlands. It was first paved with brick in 1447, and has for centuries been a place of assemblage for the people of the city and the surrounding country seeking opportunities to sell or buy commodities of a strikingly diverse and unique character. The westerly side of this widely open space became the site of the city’s council-house (i-aadhuis), in 1443. The

THE AA CHURCH, GRONINGEN, I793.

A part of the Fish Market inthe foreground.

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imposing city-hall (stadkuis), now overlooking the market, was erected between the years 1793-1810.

The Fish Market ( Visch Markt) occupies another open space not far west of the city hall. The quadrangle, which bears this name, has a length of two hundred and forty-one paces. Itwas first paved with brick in 1446. The Corn Exchange (Korenbeurs), standing immediately east of the Aa-Ker/c, fronts the Fish Market.

During the present century the city of Groningen has greatly enlarged its

THE CORN EXCHANGE, GRONINGEN, 1596.

Aa-Kcrk is separated fromitby a narrow street.

territory. The last enumeration of the inhabitants showed the population to be 57,900. Although lying in north latitude fifty-three degrees fifteen minutes, or on the same parallel as the southern part of Labrador, it is favored with a temperate climate, and the winters there are no colder than those in the State of New York.

Itis highly probable that the residence of certain members of the Swartwout family in the city of Groningen in the sixteenth century was partly

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regard of the countrymen and peasants. As for the nobilitie, gentrie, and churchmen, they were forced to purchase letters of grace and pardon at a deare rate.” 1

The people of Groningen, aware of the jeopardy of the city by the nearness of the invaders, began to prepare for its defence, should the Saxon duke undertake to besiege it. This he lost no time in doing, but when the enemy attempted to assault the place, its defenders displayed such valor and knowledge of the art of war as surprised the German troops, who were not only repeatedly repulsed but several times driven away from the walls by the armed people of Groningen sallying unexpectedly upon them from the gateways of the city. Incidents of the siege of Groningen are also detailed by the author of the rare English history of the Netherlands :

“The duke foreseeing that if hee did not in like sort subject the towne of Groningen and the countrie thereabouts hee should never injoy Friseland quietly. Hee went the last of July, 1500, to besiege it. Hcc planted his campe at Auwert, Seewert, and on the side of the port of Bottoringhe. Hee battered it [the gate] furiously as well as the walles and ramparts with his cannon as [he did] the houses in mine with his great mortcrs. The inhabitants had a good garrison of souldiers who made many brave sallies upon his campe.

One day as hee himselfe was taking a marke with a cannon, a shot of artillerie came from the towne, who, although he were not toucht with the bullet yet was hee sore wounded with the splinters of the carnage and the gabions, and was carried to his lodging.

After that hee had besieged it six weeks, the plague also becing very whot in his campe, and having yet prevailed little, hee made a suspension of armes, and raised his campe, and then caused himselfe to be transported to Emden, where hee died the twelfth of September.” 2

Whatever views may have been entertained by different Dutch historians respecting the obedience or disobedience of the people of Groningen in regard to the enjoinment of the arbitration commissioners, in their decree, in 1338, that the stone wall surrounding the city should be demolished and replaced by a wooden one, itis a fact, that, in 1469, the wall,at that time encircling the city, was strengthened by the erection of six massive towers and rendered more defensible by the excavation of a new moat along it. Other additions to the city’s fortifications were made at the time of the Gilderschen war, 15 14-1536, and also in the succeeding century, between the years 1608 and 1624. About

1Agenerall historic of the Netherlands. ByEd. Grimeston. London, 1608. Lib. v. p. 222. 2Ibid. pp. 222, 223.

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the beginning of (.he sixteenth century the salient features of the city were po etically enumerated in the following Dutch rhyme : “

Zeven poorten, die tc landivaert gaen, Translated Seven gates that countryward go,

Zeven straten, die aan de Vistnerckt stae?i, . ._, … Seven streets on the Fish-market show,

Zeven diepen, die ter stadt ititkomcn, into LngllSn Seven canals from the city come out,

Zeven pijpbruggcn op de ivatcrstroomen, ” lillC S’ Seven bridges over the streams thereabout

tIICSC

En vijfdeurcn aan St. Martens kercken, . And five doors on Saint Martin’s kerk, Dat zijnvijfGroningcr mcrckenPl may DC lead: Are fivemarks ofGroningen work.

The seven gates were severally named Hcerepoort, Aapoort, Bottcringcpoort, Ebbingcpoort, Poelpoort, Oostcrpoort, Nijcbruggenpoort; the last-named being known later as Kranepoort. These old gates, with the exception of the Krancpoort, were two or more stories high and set off with towers. 2 The city, as delineated on several rare topographical views of it, was inclosed, as already remarked, by strong and high walls of stone, and later further strengthened by seventeen bulwarks or diving-ers, and encompassed by a deep and wide moat, about six English miles in circuit. In 1828, THE AA GATE. the last of the old gateways was demolished. Formerly on the west side of the city

THE LORD’S GATE.

Formerly on the south side of the city.

The earliest-known person surnamed Swartewold, Zwartcwolt, or Swartwolt recorded a citizen of Groningen, was Willcm Zwartcwolt, who, on the evening of the THE POOL GATE. festival of Saint Lawrence (August 10), 1459, obtained a Formerly on the east side of the

city.

1 Wandclingcn door hct oude Groningen, vi. Door Mr. J. A. Feith, Rijksarchivaris in Groningen Jaarboekje voor Gcschiedenis, Taal-en Letterkundc dcr provincie Groningen. 1895, pp. 101, 102. 2Jbid. p. 101.

CERTIFICATE OF A LEASE OF LAND GIVEN TO WILLEM ZWARTEWOLT OF GRONINGEN, ON AUGUST TO, 1459.

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lease of two adjoining tracts of land lying near the city. He was at that time the warden (de wachtcr) of a defensive tower surmounting one of the gateways of the city—a position held only by persons highly trustworthy and of known loyalty. The Dutch text of the well-preserved instrument is legibly written on a small scroll of parchment, to which is appended a thick disk of black wax bearing an impression of the seal of the city of Groningen. It is a certificate

THE TOWER OF SAINT MARTIN’S CHURCH, GRONINGEN, 1793.

A part of the Great Market in the foreground.

of the burgomaster and council of Groningen reciting the engagement of the lessee and his heirs to pay yearly the sum of three gold overland Rhenish florins as ground-rent, and the annual city taxes, for the use of two parcels of land bordering upon the north side of the Damstcr Road, which extends northeastwardly from the city to Appingedam, a prosperous village distant about fifteen English miles.1

1 Vide: Text and translation ofthe certificate in the Appendix. Document No. 2.

A PART OF THE GREAT MARKET, GRONINGEN, 1896.

The City Hall on the west side.

DECREE OF THE ARBITRATION COMMISSION, ISSUED AT GRONINGEN, ON THE FESTIVAL OF SAINT PAUL, JUNE 30, 1338.

A reduced photographed facsimile of it in two section*.. trators which included such eminent personages and scholars as abbots, prefects, commentators, cleans, a prior, and several lords. The constitution of this arbitration commission, it is related, was made an occasion for the singing of “a great number of triumphal songs.” 1

The preamble of the record of the awards made by the commissioners sets forth the purpose of their appointment and the way in which they gave publicity to their decisions: We, the arbitrators or friendly adjusters of the differences arisen between the Frisians, on the one side, and the other, and their the city of Groningen, on abettors, before whom the said dissension was finally compromised by the oath of each party that they would stand to our decision, no less by an assenting unanimity, which we have made known for a perpetual remembrance of the matter, for the present as well as for the future, that having shared in the determination of each party, we ordain and promulgate for the good of peace and harmony.

One of the most sweeping of the different provisions of the decree was evidently that relating to the fortifications of the city of Groningen: “In the first place, that the people of Groningen, in consideration of the honor of the Frisians, shall pull down from the foundation the stone wall of their city, from the Fbbinge gate, included, all the way to the tower nearest the west gate, Hotteringe gate, also included, with all their intermediate parts, and that the people of Groningen shall put in place of it a wooden wall with gates of wood. Also that they shall reduce the six fortresses.” Other requirements of less note, to be obeyed both by the Groningenburghers and the Frisians, are recited in the instrument, as also are enjoinments for the payment ofcompensatory sums of money. The sealing of the decree and its publication are particularized in the closing sentences of the instrument:

“In perpetual remembrance of all which testimony and the carrying out of the matter the seals of the countries of Frisia, Hunsingo, Fivelgo, Drenthe, Groningen, Vredewold, Langewold, Hummerse, and the Eight Parishes are appended to these presents. Given and published by Selwert, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and thirty-eight, in commemoration of the Blessed Paul. Wherefore we, the other compromisers or arbitrators aforesaid, are contented with the aforesaid seals.” 3

1¦” Aan ecu groot getal van Zegslieden.”1 Tegcnwoordigc staat dcr Vcreenigde Nedcrlanden. Stad en Lande. Jivintigste dec/, p. 92.

ilAros arbitratores * * * * ex parte una, sive am’u abiles lompositores super discordiis exortis inter Frisones, et eivitatem Groniensem, c.x altvra,et eorum, in yuos dicta discordiafucrat Jinalitcr compro/mssa, jurantento utriusi/ue partis, i(tnostre starcnt ordinationi,nihilominus accedentc consensu,ad perpetuam rei i/iemoriaui notum facimus, tain presentibus quani futuris, quod nos comwunicato consilio utnusque partis ob bonuni paeis et icwcordie ordinavimus et promulgavimus inviolabilitcr observandinu.” I’ide:Text and translation in the Appendix. Document No. i.

/// OUOrillllomnium omnium testininnimnrt rriir,’

quorum rei geste perpetuam siuri/hi ti’rrniittiFrisie,h~~i-i?ir testimonium et memoriam sigilla tcrraum

THE PROVINCE-HOUSE AND A PART OF SAINT MARTINS CHURCH, GRONINGEN, 1793.

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The Dutch historian, Übbo Emmius, who had seen the original transcript, says, that in place of the eight seals, severally of Hunsingo, Fivelgo, Drenthe, Vrcdcwold, Langewold, Hummerse, and the Eight Parishes, with which the decree should have been scaled, there were only those of Hunsingo, Fivelgo, and Drenthe affixed to it.”1 A comparison, however, of the impress of the third seal, as shown by the photographed copy of the original parchment, with the impression of the seal of the city of Groningen exhibited on the photographed copy of another rare parchment embellishing a further page, willafford the evidence that the seal of the city of Groningen is the third one in the order of succession that is attached to the original decree.

Although many woful calamities distressed from time to time the Frisians, yet seldom were any so afflictive as the wars which gain-seeking foreign rulers inaugurated against them. Giving officers command of armies numerically stronger than the body of inhabitants capable of bearing arms, they sent them into the plenteous region, where they left blights of death, fire, and grief long memorable to the mourning and poverty-stricken people.

The invasion of that part of Frisia in which lay the manor of Zwartewoude, in 1500, by Albert, Duke of Saxony, under the august patronage of Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, (< made such pittiful spoile,” as is quaintly related by an English historian, that all, both noble and base, rich and poore, preisters, monkes, nunnes, and novices, fled out of the countrie, none remaining but the poore pesants of the Seven Forests, who would see what the end might bee of all there miseries.”

To further gratify his greed of spoil, the avaricious duke proclaimed “that the pesants should returne freely, every man to his house, and that, for a certaine summe of money (which they should contribute every one according to his habilitie), he would receive them againe into favour. Whereuppon they returned, redeeming themselves of the duke, some villages at a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred florins, according to their wealth. Then commandement was given to bring all their armes into the cittadell of Lewarden, and above all, for a reparation, they should come bareheaded and barefooted, without girdles, to sue for pardon uppon their knees, and to promise all future obedience to him, and his heirs. This was in

singonie, Fivelgonie, Drent/iie, Groninghe, Fredewald, Langhcivaid, Hummerke, et de Octo Parrochiis hiis presentibus sunt appensa. Datum ct pronuntiatum apud Sylawert, anno Domini MCCC trecesimo actavo, in commemoratione bcati Paul/’. Quod nos ceteri eompromissores sen arbitratores supradicta coiitenti sumus sigillis supradictis.” Vide: Text and translation in the Appendix. Document No. I.

Emmius, die den oorsprongelyken brief gezien heeft, zegt, dat inplaats van agt segels, Hunsingo,Fivelo, Drente, Groningen ,Fredeiuold, Langewold, Hummerze, en agt Kerspelen, wet wclke deeze uit—spraak moeste bezeegcld warden, er alien aanqehegt waaren dat van Hunsingo, Fivelgo, en Drent.” Tegenwoordigc slaat der Vereenigde Ncderlanden. Stacl en Lancle. Amsterdam, 1793-Twintigstedccl, p. 93.

1

GROENINGA, COMMONLY CALLED GROENINGEN” PRIOR TO THE FINAL DEMOLITION OF ITS WALL AND FORTIFICATIONS.

Poppo, the son of Radbod, who succeeded him in governing Friesland, was killed in 750 in a battle with Charles the Hammer, who established at Utrecht the famous episcopate of which Saint Willebrordus was the first

1 Ecusson: un ccrf sauiant guardant dans line clairere d’une foret noire. Citnier: la tete d’un cerf guardant. Lambrequin: de sinople et d’argent . Vide: Frontispiece.

(end p.4)

bishop. Saint Bonifacius, his episcopal successor, in order to enlarge the bounds of his bishopric, sedulously applied himself to bring the Frisians under the domination of the church. The unwillingness of the people to be converted caused much bloodshed, for many were slaughtered by those attempting to make them tractable to the yoke of ecclesiastical authority. While endeavoring to advance by force of arms the propagation of his faith among them, Saint Bonifacius heroically met a martyr’s death at the hands of the resolute Frisians at Dokkum, about nine English miles northeast of the site of the manor of Zwartewoude.

Under Charlemagne, 768-814, Friesland was governed by counts and dukes appointed by the illustrious German emperor. Conrad, the ambitious Bishop of Utrecht, in February, 1088, obtained ecclesiastical control, by letters patent, of the counties of Oostergoo and Westergoo. The title to this territory was abrogated by Lothaire 11., who, in 11 25, succeeded to the throne of Germany. Considering it to have been acquired by unlawful means, he transferred the two counties, and the section entitled the Seven Forests (which three divisions comprised the territory then known as Friesland), to his nephew, Theodore VI., the twelfth earl of Holland and Zealand, and lord of Friesland.

The persistency of the valorous Frisians in freeing themselves from subjection to foreign rulers was signally rewarded in the year 141 7, when a charter confirming their political independence was given them by Sigismund 11., Emperor of Germany. Thereafter, for many years, unvexed by war, they peacefully planted and reaped, enlarged their barns and built themselves more comfortable dwellings, and wisely administered the affairs of their provincial government.

The selection of the Netherlands originally so uninviting because of their sombre forests, impassable morasses, extensive infertility, and extremely humid climate, for permanent habitation by men who elsewhere might have had more agreeable and healthful surroundings —is strangely inexplicable. The persistency with which they and their descendants labored and contributed the means to change the cheerless aspect of the inhospitable land and render its waste places arable and salubrious, as also the manner in which they debarred the North Sea, by immense dikes and massive dams, from destructively inundating the low country, are distinctly stupendous and unparalleled. Any one considerately viewing the stirring1 traffic of its great cities, the countless steamships and sailing craft crowding its ports and waterways, the rare and costly art-relics of its famous museums, the many well-paved highways of the rural districts, the striking productiveness of the sedulously-cultivated farms, the multiplicity of the serviceable wind-mills, the innumerable herds of grazing kine, the frequent villages with lofty-towered churches, cannot

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but perceive with amazement the effect of the initiallabor and enterprise of the early inhabitants.

The chief and most woful of the many afflictions besetting the early inhabitants of the Netherlands was the frequent flooding of the country by the North Sea. Lacking the means to build costly dikes to check the invasive floods, they not only often lost all the property which they had slowly acquired through long years of provident industry, but many were drowned in attempting to cross impassable and impetuous streams to reach unsubmerged ground. The following translated excerpta from one of the histories of the country summarily describe the calamities consequent upon these once-frequent inundations”:

Hereafter our ancestors enjoyed a rest until the great flood in January, in the year 1164, when the whole of Friesland and parts below it were dreadfully damaged ; the flood being general, the number of men that was killed by it was estimated as being over a hundred thousand. Our region was shortly thereafter visited by an amazing drought in 1285, and by a frightful inundation in 1287, by which, between the rivers Eems and Lauwer alone, twenty thousand men were killed.”1

At the beginning of the eleventh century there lay between the rivers Eems and Lauwer, at the confluence of the rivers Aa and Hunze, about thirty-five English miles eastward of the manor of Zwartewoude, a great meadow, which on account of the vivid beauty of its verdure obtained the name of Groene Inge (Green Meadow), which in the course of time was corrupted into Groningen.

The origin of the prosperous city, the capital of the province of the same name, now widely extending its numerous and cleanly-kept streets over the outer area of the verdurous lea, is obscure. The information extant respecting the beginning of the place is exceedingly meagre. Nothing, itseems, is known of the existence of Groningcn prior to the year 1006. Itis titled VillaGroninga” in a Latin gift-deed presented, in 1040, to the church of Utrecht, by Henry 111., Emperor of Germany. The prosperity of the place being evidently assured, and the inhabitants finding, in the year 1110, that the fence of palisades, with which it had long been surrounded, was either too low or too insecure, they removed it and encircled the city with a high stone wall, massive towers, strong gates, and a deep ditch. Gondebald, Bishop of Utrecht, fearing that the people might thereafter hold his ecclesiastical authority in contempt, as the wall had been built without his consent, induced the citizens two years later to pull it down.

1 Tcgenwoordigc staat dcr Vereenigdc Nedcrlandcn. Stad en Lande. Amsterdam, 1793. Twintigste

dec!, pp. 40, 85.

MAP OF GRONINGEN AND THE SURROUNDING DISTRICTS, 1793.
(Sorry, no map at this time.)

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Groningen was not again rendered defensible until 1255, when the construction of another stone wall around it was undertaken. The circuit of the place was then estimated to be about two and a half English miles.

About the year 1334, the Ommelandcrs or country-people of Friesland became antagonistic to the interests of the town-people, and an open war with the people of the city of Groningen ensued, in which the inhabitants of the rural districts, principally those of Hunsingo, Fivelgo, Langewold, Vredewold, Drenthe, and the Eight Parishes, participated. The Gronino-enburehers at first twice defeated the combined forces of their antaoonists, but in a third engagement they themselves were worsted. The struggle thereafter was indifferently prolonged until the contestants consented to have an arbitration commission appointed to settle their differences. Thereupon a body of ecclesiastical dignitaries and distinguished laymen 1 was selected to render decisions for the settlement of the disagreements existing between the people of Frisia and those of the city of Groningen.

The Latin text of the unique decree, published on the festival of Saint Paul, June 30, 1338, is engrossed on a scroll of parchment, twenty inches wide and ten long, in the lower border of which slits were made for attaching the seals of the eight districts designated in the instrument. The valuable document is carefully preserved in the Government or Old Archive (Rijks of Oud-Arc/u’ef’), a fire-proof building behind the Province-house (/let Provincie/iuis), opposite but back of Saint Martin’s Church, in Groningen. Written as it was a century and more before the art of printing by movable type became serviceable for the publication of books, the antique method of abbreviating words and of punctuating sentences is curiously exemplified in the remarkably legible text.

The residence of Otto Swartewold, at that time in the district of Drenthe, in Friesland, lying south of the city of Groningen, and about thirty English miles southeast of the site of Zwartewoude, was probably caused by a marriage contracted by him there, or by an inclination to attempt the betterment of his fortune in that locality, which was only a day’s journey from the family manor. It may be well to remark that a beginning of the Dutch way of spelling the family name is evident in his writing it Swartewold, for he omits using the German adjective schwarz and adopts the Dutch adjective swartc while retaining the ancient Teutonic substantive.

Otto Swartewold was undoubtedly a man of marked integrity as well as of considerable intellectual ability, since he was selected one of the number of arbi1

“De talri/ke hooge geestelijkcn en lecken” (the numerous high ecclesiastics and laymen)

Wandelingen door het oude Groningen. vi. Door Mr. J. A. Fcith, Rijksarchivaris in Groningen. Jaar boejke voor Geschicdenis, Taal-en Letterkunde der provincie Groningen. 1895, p. 89.

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