Etymology of the van Eessen surname

As discussed in the previous blog post, the oldest known references to the van Eessen surname (as a byname in the 11th century), show that the most logic explanation for the surname is a geographical one: it is a toponymic surname referring to the toponym Esen (Eessen in the old spelling), now part of Dixmude (Diksmuide) in West Flanders, but previously an independent municipality.

In the 11th century the toponym Esen was already well established. It first appears in 961 in a charter of Count Arnulf I of Flanders, in the phrase "ecclesia de Esna cum capellis suis Diccamutha et Clarc". In those early times Dixmude ("Diccamutha") and Klerken ("Clarc", near Houthulst) still were subsidiary chapels of the mother parish Esen. Over the coming decades Esen would become the center of a real shire, Esen-Ambacht, within the Franc of Bruges, an administrative circumscription headed by a sheriff (schout). Its jurisdiction covered Esen, Klerken (Houthulst) and initially also Woumen. Back then this was all together a sizeable forested region on the southern shore of a big tidal cove with creek system flowing out into the North Sea, the Yser river estuary (see map below).

Foundation of parishes on the tidal border land between the Franc of Bruges (west of the thick quasi vertical dark grey solid line) and the shire of Furnes (Veurne-Ambacht, east of that line) during the 12th century. The mother parishes are underlined and connected with red lines to their daughter parishes. The thin horizontal solid black line on top is the current coast line, while the thin fanciful and irregular solid black lines to the left and right depict the 10th-11th-12th century coast line. In between them is the big tidal channel that flows out in the North Sea and that would later evolve into the current Yser river, which is also depicted on the map with a blue solid line. Esen as well as Diksmuide were on the southern shore of the channel and looked out on the sea (source: A. Verhulst, Historische ontwikkeling van het kustlandschap, 2000).

Together with Torhout, the shire of Esen was the only one in the Franc of Bruges known to have had only hereditary sheriffs, and no council of Aldermen (schepenbank) for judicial matter. According to E. Warlop, the first castellan of Dixmude (around 1088), the Ingran (or Ingelram) mentioned in the previous blogpost, was probably already hereditary sheriff of Esen-Ambacht by the time he was appointed castellan of Dixmude by the Count of Flanders, something he deducts from the fact that Ingran had assumed the byname van Eessen.

During the past one thousand years, the toponym of Esen has been spelled in quite a number of different ways. Some other references are Esnes (1066, 1096, 1106, 1208), Hesnes (1088), Hesna (1089, 1146), Esne (1100), Esna (1110, ±1115, 1127, 1161), Esene (1112, 1296, 1744), Esne (1225), Essen (1266), Essine (1292), Eessine (1368), Essenes (1419), Eessene (1512), Eessen (1903), and finally the current official spelling Esen (as of 1946).

But what exactly is the origin of the name Esen? There are diverging etymological explanations, of which the most recent ones are believed to be more plausible.

The 19th century West Flemish chronicler Pieter Lansens speculated that the name originated from the old verb eeschen (eisen in modern Dutch), which means to sue for something as a plaintiff in court. He refers to the old jurisdiction of Esen-Ambacht which according to him must have had its roots way back before the Middle Ages.

Later, around WWII, the Belgian toponymist Albert Carnoy thought that the actual word stem of the name Esen(e) was hees- or heis- which etymologically means undergrowth (kreupelhout), coppice (hakhout) or light woods (licht bos), combined with the word end -ene which etymologically means a collection. Together this meant wood of  undergrowth (bos van kreupelhout).

Finally, after WWII, the Belgian historical linguist Maurits Gysseling explained the name Esen as a pre-medieval hydronym, a water related name, based on the earliest reference and name variant Esna, without further specifying the meaning of the rather broad term 'pre-medieval'.

Given that Esen in the 10th century was located at the coast line, on the border land between a tidal area and a vast forest, it is reasonable to assume that the name refers to both a pre-medieval water related name, as well as a forest of undergrowth and coppice.



Sources:

• Lansens, P. Alouden staet van Vlaenderen. Brugge, 1841.
• Koch, A. C. F. De rechterlijke organisatie van het graafschap Vlaanderen tot in de 13e eeuw. Antwerpen-Amsterdam, 1951.
• Warlop, E. De vorming van de grote schepenbank van het Brugse Vrije (11e-13e eeuw). Standen en Landen, vol. 44, 1968.
• Warlop, E. The Flemish nobility before 1300. Kortrijk, 1975, 4 volumes.
• Verhulst, A. Historische ontwikkeling van het kustlandschap. Vlaanderen, jg. 49, 2000.
• Gysseling, M. Toponymisch woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland (vóór 1226). z.p. (Leuven), 1960.
• Carnoy, A. Origines des noms des communes de Belgique (y compris les noms des rivieres et principaux hameaux). Louvain, 1948 (vol. I), 1949 (vol. II)

Origin of the van Eessen surname

The adoption of fixed surnames that were passed on from father to children, in an environment where until then people had been used to a single name system, was a gradual process. In the Low Countries, surnames were first adopted in the Southern Netherlands (which flourished quite a bit sooner than the North, with cities that were thriving from the High Middle Ages onward), especially the County of Flanders, and also in the cities and by the higher classes. Then, with time, the custom moved up north, and also to the rural areas, with the lower classes following suit.

The higher classes and nobility, especially in the County of Flanders, were the early adopters of the fixed surname custom, mostly driven by a desire to distinguish themselves from the common people. In the early times they often had a byname, rather than a hereditary family name: a so called epithet (and in certain cases an epitheton ornans). A byname could be ethnic, locative, occupational, or characteristic, but it was rarely passed on from the father to his children except maybe as a kind of patronymic. This way, in time, a byname could become a hereditary family name. In the County of Flanders, there were already hereditary surnames in the 13th century, and in its cities like Bruges or Ghent most citizens had fixed surnames by the 14th-15th century.

Similarly, also the surname van Eessen first appeared as a locative byname of an ancient noble family. As of the year 1088 a certain Ingerranus d'Hesnes (Ingelram van Esen, also referred to as Ingran of Esen in English works), castellan of Dixmude, appears as a signatory in the Flemish diplomatic sources. According to Dr. Ernest Warlop in his historical study The Flemish Nobility before 1300, Ingran was a member of the ancient noble House of Menen (a term coined by Warlop), a powerful clan in the 11th century County of Flanders. Before 1088 he was probably already sheriff (schout in Dutch, scaltetus in latinised form) of the shire of Esen (Esen-Ambacht), a hereditary office, and the highest administrative and judicial representative of the Count of Flanders in that shire.

When Dixmude was split off from the parish and the shire of Esen to form a separate parish and castellany, the Count of Flanders appointed Ingran as viscount (castellan) of the new castellany of Dixmude. This was common practice in the context of administrative reforms, used as a compensation for the loss suffered as a result of the creation of a new administrative circumscription that was taken from one's district. As a consequence, Ingran was both sheriff of the shire of Esen, as well as viscount of the new castellany of Dixmude.

It is very well possible that, in the course of the 12th century, this ancient noble byname developed into a hereditary surname, most probably along the lineage of the hereditary office of sheriff of the shire of Esen.

van Eessen in Camerlinckx-Ambacht and Gistel

As a general background, I'll list here my paternal lineage, starting from my grandfather (nr. 9 below) all the way back to my most distant known ancestor (MDKA) Nicolaas van Eessen (sometimes mentioned as van Eessenseune):

1. Nicolaas van Eessen (b. ca. 1610 p.o.b. unknown - d. 1669 Slijpe) x 1655 Janneken de Ruysschere (3rd marriage)
2. Joos van Eessen (b. 1664 Slijpe - d. 1730 Slijpe) x 1703 Arnolda de Pottere (2nd marriage)
3. Nicolaas van Eessen (b. 1713 Slijpe - d. 1772 Leffinge) x 1742 Joanna Verscheure
4. Pieter Vaneessen (b. 1742 Leffinge - d. 1818 Gistel) x 1769 Maria Goethals
5. Francis Van Eessen (b. 1780 Gistel - d. 1864 Gistel) x 1804 Cecilia Mestdagh
6. Francis Van Eessen (b. 1805 Gistel - d. 1855 Gistel) x 1839 Maria Devos
7. Karel Vanheessen (b. 1849 Gistel - d. 1919 Gistel) x 1879 Pauline Vanmaele
8. Emiel Vanheessen (b. 1880 Gistel - d. 1957 Gistel) x 1912 Clotilde Lingier
9. Maurits Vanheessen (b. 1921 Gistel - d. 2010 Ostend) x 1950 Margariet Knockaert

The map below shows the 3 locations (numbered in blue) where my known paternal ancestors were born and have lived: Slijpe (1), Leffinge (2) and Gistel (3). During the Ancien Régime (until the French Revolution), both Slijpe and Leffinge were part of the shire of Camerlinckx (Camerlinckx-Ambacht), with Leffinge being the main parish of the shire. Gistel was a town and centre of the neighbouring shire of Gistel (Gistel-Ambacht). Both shires were part of the Franc of Bruges (Brugse Vrije), a castellany of the County of Flanders.

It was Nicolaas, grandson of the old Nicolaas and youngest child of Joos in his second marriage, who brought the family to nearby Leffinge, when he married Joanna Verscheure in 1742. His eldest son Pieter married in 1769 in nearby Wilskerke (also Camerlinckx-Ambacht). After a short stay there, he settled in 1770 with wife and first child in Gistel, and started what was to become the branch with surname variant Vanheessen, inseparably connected with the town of Gistel (as the majority of its members have been living there for more than two centuries).

Can we break beyond the paper trail brick wall?

The key question with this lineage is of course whether we can trace it back even further than our most distant known ancestor Nicolaas. In a 1645 review list of able-bodied men of Slijpe (monsteringslijst van weerbare mannen), who had to help and defend the area against all kinds of pillagers in turbulent times of war, Nicolaas is mentioned as being 35 years old. Hence, we do know that Nicolaas must have been born around 1610.

Unfortunately, it so far remains unclear where exactly he was born. Still, we can safely assume that it was not in Slijpe. After the Battle of Nieuwpoort (2 July 1600), which actually was fought in Leffinge, and the subsequent three-year Siege of Ostend (1601-1604), the surrounding area and the Camerlinckx-Ambacht were completely devastated and depopulated. The original inhabitants had abandoned the place to seek refuge from the war violence. When the Twelve Year's Truce brought a period of relative peace and stability from 1609 to 1621, some of the original inhabitants returned to their villages to restore the ruins and reorganise their lives. In the subsequent years, many others followed in their footsteps, attracted by the available space and fertile soil (incl. families from the south of present-day West Flanders, and also from French Flanders and North Holland). Most likely there was also a family van Eessen among them, who came to settle in Slijpe in the 1620s together with their children, among whom was also our Nicolaas.

The question then is: where did they come from? We don't really know for sure, but there are clues and they have to do with the red dots in the above map. These red dots indicate places where we find references to people with the surname van Eessen, throughout the 16th century and in the beginning of the 17th century. At the time, these places were part of the shire of Furnes (Veurne-Ambacht), another castellany of the County of Flanders. One of these places was Reninge, where the early parish registers (beginning 17th century) even allow us to reconstruct a complete family. Given the rather small distance between this area and Slijpe (about 20 km), it would not be very unlikely if our family van Eessen that settled in Slijpe was related to this van Eessen family of Reninge.

As far as I know, the Reninge family does not have any living descendants via male lineages in Belgium. However, one of the sons of this family, Joannes van Eessene (born in 1600), migrated to Leiden in the Netherlands to work in the textile industry (Flemish textile workers were very much in demand then and were actively attracted by a number of cities, incl. Leiden). He married there in 1623 and started a family with several offspring, incl. male lines. This means that there could still be living male descendants of this Joannes in the Netherlands or elsewhere with a variant of the van Eessen surname. In such case and if we can identify these people (or if they happen to read this blog and get in touch) it would be possible to confirm or disprove a possible common ancestry in the area of Reninge, by carrying out a simple Y-DNA test.

There is also a green dot on the map, which represents the village of Esen, near Dixmude (Diksmuide). The van Eessen surname (as well as its variants) is derived from a toponym, and, again given the small distances, it likely refers to an early namesake who must have come from Esen, being in the period that fixed surnames were first adopted in our regions (12th-13th century). I also have some hypotheses here, but let's keep that for another post.

Welcome

Welcome to The van Eessen DNA blog! The starting point for this blog is my own paper trail genealogical research that traces my direct paternal lineage back to the polder village of Slijpe, now part of Middelkerke at the Flemish North Sea coast, where the parish registers of 1634 provide the earliest known record so far of Nicolaas van Eessen(seune). Nicolaas is the most distant known paternal ancestor (MDKA) of all currently living Flemish people with the surnames Van Eessen, Vaneessen en Vanheessen.

Within a genealogical timeframe, this blog will therefore - until further research breakthroughs - only be able to provide meaningful information to direct descendants of Nicolaas. However, between 1088 and 1634 there are plenty of mentions of the surname van Eessen (and variants) in diverse records. One of the challenges is to understand how these relate to our Nicolaas.

Beyond the genealogical timeframe, another important goal of this blog is to:

• bring together and inform all people with one of the many variants of the van Eessen surname, regardless of their country of origin (e.g. Van Eessen, Vaneessen, Vanheessen, Vanes(s)che, Van Essche, Vanhessche, Van Hessche, Van Hese, Vanhese, Van Essen, Vanhessen, ... in Flanders; van Heesen, van Heezen, van Hees, van Essen, van Hessen, van Hesse, ... in the Netherlands; other variants in other countries, possibly unknown to me at present); 
• eventually reveal or disprove possible kinship between these different namesakes (which can be done using genetic genealogy, a quickly developing and very promising approach to try to move beyond the brick wall of classical genealogy), something for which a Surname DNA Project can be set up;
• understand how the different surname variant groups fit into the big patrilineal human family tree;
• develop a broader one-name study of the different surname variants.

Although most people with a variant of the surname presumably live in the Low Countries and therefore speak native Dutch, I have decided to keep this blog in English in order to maximise the odds of reaching and involving all relevant people. 

The site is currently very much 'under construction' and I intend to feed it with regular updates. I hope you'll find something of interest. Feel free to engage, comment, ask questions, get in touch!