Rijswijk and Neighboring Towns

The Amsterdam Rhine canal, North of the town, was only dug after W.W. II and opened in 1952.

Rijswijk is a small town in the Lower Betuwe area. View map here.
Even today (2016) only some 360 people live there.
In 1638 here were some 200 registered members of the (only) church, including children. The Martinus church is from before the 14th century. During the Reformation the church, priest and congregation all went Protestant. During the following centuries, the church has been restored and modified several times. Read the full doc. about its restoration here.

The first time van O-s are recorded in the Rijswijk area is in the Gelre & Zutphen Register of External Feoffments. Item 43 describes land parcels in the Buren area (less than 5 miles South of Rijswijk), next to where the Lords van Osenbroich are situated. Read the abstract here.

Gelre Leenakte Boeken 1381-1741

BUREN.
In den lande van Buren op den Hoff 1 hont 17 rode lants; item op de Vergerden 6 mergen ende 24 roden; op Groetvelt (N.B. there is still an area named Grootveld around Buren today) 3 mergen 2 roden; op den Bogart 4 hont 44 roden; op den Blisment 10 hont 17 rode min; in den Voercamp 16 hont 7 roden; item oick 5 hont lants op de Hoge toorne, daer boven liggen die heeren van Osenbroich, ende beneden Emont van Soelen, tot Zutphens leene ontfinck Johan van den Polle, anno 1381. Rutger van den Polle crigt uutstel van sijne leene, die nit genoomt werden, anno 1403.
View the complete report of "Gelre Leenaktenboeken" on this Documents page.

The van O-s mentioned were obviously from the Ossenbroich clan in the Cleves area.

The next mentioning of a van O. in the Rijswijk area is in a North Rhine Westphalia charter from 2 Apr. 1532. It describes the inheritance by Nevelynck and his brother Vincentius van Ossenbroick after their father Johan had passed away. They are from the same van O. clan as mentioned in the charter above. Line 12 states that they now both share: buerens guedt ingen Bossch gelegen. The paleographer, who transcribed the complete document for us, "translates" it as "Buerens goed c.q. grotere boerderij, landgoed ingen, in het Bossch liggend". Translation: a property (estate) in the woods in the Buren area. N.B. capital letters were not always used for names of people and/or places in those days. View the original document and it transcription here.

Less that a year later, after his wife Anna had passed away, Nevelynck sells all his posessions to his brother Vincent, except the Buren's property is not mentioned in any of those sales. Then on 23 Feb. 1533 one charter states that Nevelynck has moved abroad and remarried there.
Did he marry a woman from the Buren/Rijswijk area and settled at his estate there? Is Aert van Osenbruggen, the patriarch of the Rijswijk clan his son? Nevelynck was a "leenman" and Aert's descendants were also "leenmannen". The "Lords of Emmerich" (De Heren van Emmerik) had many properties in Maurik and surrounding areas. Read de lenen van Culemborg (1251-1669) here.

The next van O-s, with their actual van Osenbrugge last name recorded, in the Rijswijk area is not until the 1690s. The existing Rijswijk church records begin at 1638 with a list of its members, including baptized children. They list the well documented Berndt Henderickse (b. ~1605), whose (grand)children, 60 years later, are being documented in the church books and charter by various spellings of the van Ossenbrugge, van Osnabrugge and van Osenbruggen name.
View a list of all the Rijswijk van O-s from 1638-1811.

The van O-s in Rijswijk and (later) the surrounding towns all married sons and daughters of important, ruling class patricians. That could only be the case, if they themselves were of high standing. The first generations of van O-s men were mainly "leenmannen" and regarded as the "Foremost Citizens" of those places.
View a list here of those "Principaelste Luyden" in Rijswijk and Maurik in ~1700. .

The Rijswijk Patriarch
The oldest records are for Hendrick Aertsen (van Osenbruggen) and his wife Hilleken.
Look here for his descendancy register. There are over 1,100 of his descendants in our database.
Therefore his father's name must have been Aert, Arn(d)t, Arend or Adriaen.
Who could this have been and where did he originate from? There are several scenarios:

He was a descendant of the v. Ossenbruch clan in the Cleves and Zutphen areas.
They were "leenmannen" and so were the van O-s in Rijswijk.
- He might be Nevelynck's son, if he moved to his property in the Buren area. See the story above.
- He might be a (grand)son of Arend van Ossenbroek (or his brother Otto), who had moved to the Zutphen area and had close contacts in Arnhem.
- He might be Arnt van Osenbrugge, the son Gerartz van Osenbrugh. In 1540 Arnt was underaged and lived Arnhem. They were closely involved with the Commandery of St. Jan, which also had establishments in Ingen and Buren. Read the full story here.
- A son or close relative of Herman van Ossenbroeck, who was married to Beerte van Culemborg. They had property and tithes ("tienden") in Ewijk and Beuningen in de Betuwe. Beerte's father Everwijn had 36 property deeds in Maurik , which was one township with Rijswijk. Everwijn's brother was Gerard II, Heer of Culemborg, Ewijk, Werth, Everdingen, Goilberdingen, Tull, Honswijk, Lienden and ambtsman of Buren.
He (or his parents) came from the town of Osnabrück in Westphalia.
- He came from there without any links in Holland.
- He or his parents gradually moved there via Arnhem, Ingen etc. In that case he might be related to Matthijs van Osenbrugge's (grand)parents. It is interesting to note that Matthijs named his second-born son Berend, and when that son died he named another son Berend and even a third time. The name must have been important to him and did not exist on his wife's side of the family. Matthijs and Berend (Bernt) in Rijswijk were of the same age.

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