The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg – The Low Countries

Under Construction

The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, aka the Low Countries, had a complex history interconnected with the Franks, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain under the Hapsburgs, and France under Napoleon, as well as England. This diverse history of the Low Countries adds to the richness of the places connected with Daniel Dering Mathew’s heritage, though his ancestry predates the Hapsburg and Napoleonic eras by some centuries. The history of the Low Countries has been very turbulent, and Daniel Dering Mathew’s ancestral lines from The Low Countries is redolent of George Martin’s “Game of Thrones” – with murders and conflict between ambitious siblings and uncles! 

Most of the Low Countries (Netherlands, Begium and Luxembourg) ancestry of Daniel Dering Mathew was during the Medieval Plantagenet era, as indicated in the links below.

However, there was an ancestral connection during the Stuart – House of Orange era, viz Baroness Katharine Remee van Leemput who married Sir William Mathew, son of Abednego William and Susannah Sparrow – 1, 2, 3,

Katharine Mathew nee Remee van Leemput who was claimed to have accompanied Mary, Queen monarch and wife of William III., to England as one of her maids of honour in the era of the Glorious Revolution in Britain which saw James II ejected and replaced by his daughter Mary II and her husband William III a Prince of Orange –1, 2, . However the Glorious Revolution occurred in 1688 – 1689, and Katharine and William had already married in London in 1682, and so doubts are cast on Katharine accompanying Mary II to England.

Additionally, there is no information on the source of Katharine being a Baroness from the Netherlands, unless it relates to a title on her marriage, although the wife of a Baronet has the title of “Lady” rather than Baroness. Also the name of “van Leemput” has not been found to be associated with Dutch Barons. 

So there are questions as to where this claim of a Baroness originally came from – although it was contained in the book Antigua and the Antiguans, which was only published in 1844.

The Mathew family are also covered in Susan Appleby’s “The Cornish in the Caribbean” published in 2019, where Katherine is mentioned as being of a wealthy family.

Note – Katharine’s origins are unclear. There are differences as to Katharine’s places of birth and marriage ie in England or Utrecht Netherlands.  Some also claim that Katharine was a daughter of Jan Jacob van Leemput while others claim that she was a daughter of  Charles van Leemput, a son of the Antwerp born Flemish artist Remigius van Leemput, known as Remee, who died in London in c.1675/1680. Remigius became part of the Guild of St. Luke there in 1628–9, and came to England in Charles I’s reign. However, Charles reputedly died in London in 1651, whereas Katharine was reputedly born in 1665, well after Charles’ death. There are further claims that Katharine was a descendant of Remee aka Remigius. See Wikipedia article on Remee aka Remigius – which indicates that Remigius had two children “His son Giovanni Remigio,1, later became a copyist in Rome, and his daughter Mary also became an artist and married Thomas Streater, the brother of the artist Robert Streater“. However there is no mention of a son named Charles Remee van Leemput.  There are also claims that Remigius may have been connected to the family of Dutch heroine Trijn van Leemput nee Voorn, wife of Jan Jacob van Leemput of the 16th Century.

Remee aka Remigius van Leemput, husband of Anna Maria Geldorp (c.1612? – )and son in law of George Geldorpe, (Wikipedia, JVDPPP) was known for his portraits of English aristocracy and royalty, some originals and others copies of other painters like Hans Holbein eg of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour shown with their son Edward VI. George Geldorpe was the son of He was the son of the Flemish portrait painter Gortzius Geldorp who lived and worked in Cologne.

van Leemput Mathew Family Tree

Abednego Mathew married Miss Susannah Sparrow – continued

  • Charles Mathew married Miss Dashwood
  • Sir William Mathew married Katharine Remee Baroness van Leemput
    • Abednego Mathew married Miss William
      • Susan Mathew
      • Louisa Mathew
    • Edward Mathew
    • William Mathew married Miss Anne Smith
      • William Mathew – died young
      • Daniel Mathew (1715 – 1777) of Felix Hall Kelvedon West Essex – 1, 2, married Mary Byam (1730 Antigua West Indies – 1814 Felix Hall Kelvedon West Essex)
        • Louisa Mathew (1753 – 1845) married Admiral Lord James Gambier
        • Daniel Byam Mathew (1756 London – 1838 St Kitts West Indies ) – Elizabeth Dering (1765 – 1812) – 1, 2, 3,
          • Daniel Byam Mathew
            • Daniel Dering Mathew
        • Ann Mathew (1757 – 1841) married Thomas Humphrey (1748 – 1843)
          • Elizabeth Humphrey married Tyhurst – speculative
        • William Mathew (1758 – ) – no issue identified
        • Elizabeth Eliza Mathew (1759  – 1801) married Robert Monckton Arundell Viscount Galway (1758 – 1810)
        • Mary Mathew (1760 – 1845) – no issue identified
        • George B Mathew (1760 – 1846) married Euphemia Hamilton  – 1
        • Susannah Mathew (1762- ) – no issue identified
        • Jane Mathew (1765? – 1853 married Samuel Gambier (1752 – 1813)
      • Edward Mathew married Lady Jane Bertie
        • Mathew Mathew
        • Jane Mathew married Thomas Maitland
          • Brownlow-Bertie Mathew,  who assumed the name and arms of Bertie, in accordance with the will of his maternal uncle, Brownlow, last Duke of Ancaster, and Marquess of Lindsey.
      • Abednego Mathew married Jennet Buckley (daughter and heir of William Buckley of St Kitts;) – Buckleys Estate – 1,