WW2 | 1.The Boissevain Clan (Updated July 9, 2016)

"No regret for the past.
No fear of the future."

The following is the first chapter of a book on the Boissevains before 1940 and During WW2.

My grandmother Olga Boissevain's family were Huguenots – French Protestants who followed John Calvin's doctrine of predestination, changing the status of business people from one of toleration to one of divine grace.

This was naturally an attractive religion for business people in France, who had been pilloried by the Catholic Church for having become too rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Boissevains originally lived in Bergerac in the Dordogne, France but had to leave because the Catholic king Louis XIV became uneasy at the growth of Huguenot power.

The Boissevains Escape and Some Go to Holland

No one, of course, would leave the gorgeous Dordogne area voluntarily. They had to be ejected. The Boissevains were booted out, a minority within France that was no longer welcomed.

The name Boissevain comes from the boxwood tree (Buxus) that is common in the Dordogne. In that part of the world, one tree means in front of the house means "Go Away”. Two trees means “Come and Go as You Please”. Three trees together means “Welcome”.

The first of the Boissevain clan was Lucas Bouyssavy (1660-1705), who made his Roman name into a more French name by changing it to Boissevain. He was a French Calvinist, who were called Huguenots because of an early leader named Hugues.

 After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, Lucas escaped to Holland in 1688, hiding among wine barrels in the hold of a ship from Bordeaux to Amsterdam. He began his life as an immigrant by teaching subjects like bookkeeping, French and architectural drafting. He kept the faith, attending the Walloon (francophone) church in Amsterdam.

Calvin went beyond Martin Luther in objecting to an anti-business bias in Roman Catholic doctrine. He built on preachings of St. Augustine to develop a doctrine of predestination, in which worldly wealth is a sign of divine favor. For from being an obstacle to entering the Kingdom of Heaven, wealth was a sign of the elect.

With this wind in their sails, the Huguenots were successful in France, and at their height they accounted for half of the nobility and half of the artisans. But the Catholic Church fought back:

• In 1534, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was created by Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola, as a counter-Reformation group with a military-style organization, reporting directly to the Pope.
• In 1572, to end a French civil war between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots, Catherine de' Medici, wife of Henry II, called Huguenot leaders to Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day, ostensibly for peace negotiations. She then had all of these leaders massacred in their beds during the night.
• In 1685, Louis XIV became impatient with the Huguenots' mobilizing an "armed political party" (William Langer, Encyclopedia of World History, 1948, p. 386) under the protection of a promise of religious freedom by Henry IV. Louis revoked  this promise, the Edict of Nantes. 

After the Revocation of the Edict, the Huguenots fled France. This damaged the country's economy and contributed to the unrest that erupted into the French Revolution. The New Catholic Dictionary (1929, p. 321) says it all:

The results of the Edict's being revoked were disastrous for France.

The Boissevain family well remembers its history of religious persecution, not least and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. This has meant - as in many other families that have faced persecution - the family retains a core value of fighting for justice, and a consciousness of the cost of this value. The Huguenot religious beliefs have been diluted and modified through shifts to a more secular society as well as  conversions and marriages (my mother, for example, converted to Catholicism). The core family value is expressed in the Boissevain motto

Ni regret du passé, Ni peur de l’avenir.  No regret for the past, because its costs are the price we must pay. No fear of the future, because we are here to face forward.

The Boissevain Family in Holland

Charles and Emily Boissevain proudly pose with their six
daughters, at Drafna c. 1910, before the wood was painted white.
Back row (L to R): Olga, Emily, Charles, Hester.
Front row: Mary, Hilda, Nella, Teau.

The Boissevains in Holland begin with Lucas Bouyssavy (1660-1705), who made his Roman name into a more French name by changing it to Boissevain.

After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, Lucas escaped to Holland in 1688, hiding among wine barrels in the hold of a ship from Bordeaux to Amsterdam. He began his life as an immigrant by teaching subjects like bookkeeping, French and architectural drafting. He kept the faith, attending the Walloon (francophone) church in Amsterdam.

Through the church he met Marthe Roux, who escaped with her mother and sister in a hay wagon in 1686. Marthe Roux's mother kept her daughters quiet even when soldiers at the border stuck their bayonets into the hay. Marthe's mother was stuck in the leg but was soundless, even having the presence of mind to wipe her blood off the bayonet with her skirt. Of such stuff were the Boissevain women made. No wonder they were leaders in the woman suffrage movement in Holland.

She and Lucas married in 1700 and had a son Jeremie Boissevain (1702-1762), who continued his father's business of teaching drafting and English, and worked as a bookkeeper. He had a son Gideon Jeremie Boissevain (1741-1802), who was a merchant and accountant (bookhoeder). He had a son Daniel Boissevain (1772-1834), who became a ship-owner, living in the middle of Amsterdam on the Herengracht. He married a socially prominent woman and they had 14 children, including five males from whom most of the other Boissevains in the world appear to be descended (the others descend from Daniel's brother Henri Jean Boissevain).

The Boissevains in Holland did well with their Huguenot appetite for commerce. They were involved in seagoing activities - Dutch Navy admirals, shipping magnates, sea rescue directors, shipbuilding, and banking. The family was extremely musical and creative, and generated not only Bankers and Boaters, but Bohemians as well. The Boissevains were a major force for the creation of the concert hall (Concertgebouw) in Amsterdam. I heard this from my mother and from a Dutch relative who was close to her, the late Sacha Boissevain (see February 2010 post).

Emily Heloise MacDonnell Boissevain and her five sons, c 1910.
L to R, seated, front row: Charles E. H., Emily, and Alfred.
Standing: Jan Maurits, Eugen and Robert (all three went to USA).

The eldest of the five children of Daniel Boissevain was Gideon Jeremie Boissevain (1796-1875). He married three times, the second time to a van Lennep. All of his eight children who survived infancy were by his third wife Maria van Heukelom. Of the eight, the three most prolific were:

The Jantjes - Boaters and Bankers

Jan Boissevain (1836-1904, NP p. 52) was  the fifth child of Gedeon and was a Boater and Banker. My mother used to call his nine children and their descendants the Jantjes (little Jans). The term is formally identified in the Dutch Boissevain Foundation Bulletin. The Jantjes were very important in the Dutch Resistance in World War II.

• His third child Charles Daniel Walrave Boissevain was a Boater, going from the Dutch Navy to serve as Consul-General to Canada (1866-1944, NP p. 55); his son Jan "Canada" Boissevain was born in Montreal, hence the nickname; Jan Canada's sons Gi and Janka were leaders of the armed resistance. 
• His seventh child, Petronella Johanna Boissevain, married Adriaan Floris ("Aat") van Hall (1870-1959, NP p. 54), and their children included the Dutch Resistance leader Walraven van Hall. Aat van Hall's twin brother Floris Adriaan ("Floor") van Hall died during the early part of World War II,  and Aat was named as his executor.

The Charletjes

http://nyctimetraveler.blogspot.com/2015/02/who-were-emily-helose-macdonnell-and.html

Charles Boissevain (1842-1927, NP p. 67), sixth child of Gedeon, was a Bohemian, publisher of the leading Dutch newspaper and, for some years, the most popular journalist in Holland, writing a column called Van Dag Tot Dag ("From Day to Day"). He married an Anglo-Irish woman, Emily Heloise MacDonnell, in 1867. His original first name was Karel, the Dutch version of Charles. But since he married an Irish girl, Emily Heloise MacDonnell (1844-1931), whom he met when covering the International Exhibition of 1865, he anglicized his name to Charles. He got sick while at the Exhibition, and Emily's parents brought him home to recover. Emily looked after him and they fell in love.

The MacDonnells came from Scotland in the 15th century. Colla MacDonnell settled in Tynekill Castle and was provided with gallowglasses (government soldiers) to keep order. They were powerful people in the county. My nephew Christ Oakley has visited what is left of Tynekill. James MacDonnell unfortunately forfeited the property and privileged position that Colla had acquired by rebelling against the British King in 1641. After that the MacDonnells had to have a profession or a government appointment. Richard MacDonnell (1787-1867) was Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1852 until his death. He married Jane Graves, daughter of the Very Rev. Richard Graves who was descended from Duc Henri de Montmorency, executed in France in 1652. One of Richard MacDonnell's sons, Hercules Henry Graves MacDonnell (1819-1900) married Emily Anne Moylan in 1842, eloping to be wed by the blacksmith of Gretna Green - their second child was Emily MacDonnell. Emily Moylan (1852-1883) was the only child of Denis Creagh Moylan (1794-1849) and Mary Morrison King, who was the out-of-wedlock daughter of George, Third Earl of Kingston, who can be traced back to John of Gaunt and Edward III.

Charles was outspoken and liberal. He took the side of the Boers against British aggression in a book-length "Letter to the Duke of Devonshire" and upset his wife's relatives in Ireland. When Emily tried to defend the British, her daughters called her a Rooinek ("Redneck"), which is what the Boers called the British soldiers. Charles never seemed to have enough money, certainly not enough to match his vanity, but with he help of occasional inheritances they brought up eleven children in style. The Bohemians among the Boissevains never seemed to match the affluence of the Banker-Boaters like Jan, and the women among the Bankers were occasionally scandalized by the behavior of the Bohemians.

Charles and Emily had 11 children and they and their descendants are called the Kareltjes or Charletjes (little Charleses). The Boissevain Foundation Bulletin spells it Charles-tjes, but the English language avoids having three consonants in a row and I am spelling it the way my mother did, without the hyphen:

• His eldest son, Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain (1868-1940, NP p. 69) married a famous Dutch suffragist Maria Barbera Pijnappel (one of many suffragists in the family); they had ten children of whom the third was Robert Lucas Boissevain, who was bankrupted by the Nazis and became a Dutch Resistance leader. In a house in Haarlem owned by his wife's recently deceased uncle Aat (Floris Adriaan van Hall), he lodged himself, his wife, six children (including one hiding from the forced-labor razzia), plus four Jewish hideaways. 
• The third daughter, Olga Emily Boissevain (my grandmother), married a naval officer, Bram van Stockum.  They had a daughter, Hilda van Stockum, and two sons. The middle son, Willem van Stockum, worked with Einstein, volunteered to be a bomber pilot, and was killed in his sixth bombing mission over France during the week of D-Day (a book was written about him in 2014, Time Bomber, by Robert Wack, a U.S. Army major and pediatrician).
• The fourth daughter, Hilda Boissevain was born July 12, 1877. She was the younger of the middle two girls among the Charletjes.  The first two of Charles’ daughters, Mary and Hester (Hessie) made conventional marriages, with no interest in higher education. The second two–Hilda and Olga–were interested in higher education but had to fight for it. The third set of two, Nella and Teau, both went on to university without thinking twice about it. Hilda married Hendrik (“Han”) de Booy, from a long line of Dutch naval officers, including some vice-admirals, bonding with the Boaters among the Boissevains. In 1929-31, when Hilda van Stockum was in Amsterdam studying art, she stayed with the de Booy family and painted the portrait of their daughter Engelien. Han became the head of the Dutch Lifeboat Company, a sea-rescue organization. He also worked for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw as an officer, during which time his brother-in-law Charles E. H. Boissevain stepped off the Board to avoid a conflict of interest. The de Booys had four children: (1) Hendrik Thomas (Tom) de Booy, b. December 26, 1898, who married Ottoline Gooszen and followed his father as Secretary, then Director of the Dutch Lifeboat Company. (2) Alfred de Booy, b. May 29, 1901, married Sonja van Benckendorff, from Byelarus, the daughter of a landowner near Bakou. (3) Olga Emily de Booy, b. March 14, 1905, married John Gottlieb van Marle and they had three children (some cousins of the van Marles were active in the Resistance). (4) Engelina ("Engelien") Petronella de Booy, b. June 17, 1917 as mentioned was a friend of my mother Hilda van Stockum; she married Dr. Marcus Frans Polak at the beginning of the war and thereby saved his life because he was Jewish and would have been deported if not married to her. After the war they were divorced because he couldn’t carry the burden of knowing she saved his life. But, Engelien says, they remained very good friends to the end of their lives. [See also https://nyctimetraveler.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-first-year-of-dutch-occupation.html.]

Hester and the den Texes

Hester Boissevain den Tex (1842-1914, NP p. 49), twin of Charles, married Nicolaas Jacob den Tex in 1866. They had ten children, one of whom married a Boissevain cousin!

References

Benoit, Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes (5 vols., Delft, 1693);

Browning, History of the Huguenots (London, 1840); PUAUX, Histoire de la Reformation francaise (7 vols., Paris, 1859);

Coignet, L'evolution du protestantisme francais au XIX siecle (Paris, 1908);

Encyclopedie des sciences religieuses, ed.

de Beze, Histoire ecclesiastique des eglises reformees au royaume de France (2 vols., Toulouse, 1882).

de la Tour, Les Origines de la Reforme (2 vols. already issued, Paris, 1905-9).

Dégert, Antoine. (1910). "Huguenots."  The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Co. Retrieved Dec. 14, 2015 from New Advent: www.newadvent.org/cathen/07527b.htm

Encyclopedia Bitannica, 11th ed., 1910. "Huguenots. http://www.britannica.com/topic/Huguenot.

Laval, Compendious History of the Reformation in France (7 vols., London, 1737);

Lichtenberger, Paris, 1877-82), s.v.; HAAG, La France protestante (10 vols., Paris, 1846; 2nd ed. begun in 1877); Bulletin de l'histoire du protestantisme francais; Revue chretienne;

Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (3 vols., London, 1832);

Other Chapters

The above post is a draft of Chapter 1 of a book. The other chapters are listed with links in The Boissevain Family in the Dutch Resistance, 1940-45. 

Letters from an Irish Grandmother, 1907-1910

Capt. Bram van Stockum, his wife Olga
Boissevain van Stockum, and their two 

eldest children, Hilda and Willem, c. 1915.

The following letters from Emily to her daughter Olga have been transcribed and lightly annotated. Emily lived most of the year in Amsterdam, but spoke and wrote little Dutch. The letters are being prepared for publication by Boissevain Books LLC and are © by the publisher on behalf of the Estate of Hilda van Stockum.

Emily MacDonnell Boissevain to Olga Boissevain van Stockum from Drafna, July 25, 1907 
Drafna, Naarden Thursday, July 25, 1907 Dearest Olga, I am awfully sorry you are not coming on Saturday, Hilda [de Booy, Olga's sister, after whom Hilda van Stockum was named] was so looking forward to being here with you. However I’ll try & keep her here till the following Saturday. I enclose you Gordhart’s letter, for which many thanks. As you are not coming here yet, I send you a basket of vegetables, salad is our largest commodity at present. I had to laugh at your being anxious about Bram [van Stockum] because he was a few hours late - mercy on us, how will you come through life, & how will you nurse a baby [i.e., Hilda, who will be born in seven months]? Every time you are anxious or worried will mean pain to the poor little child. So you will have to get yourself in order before that time, you had better tell Bram to stay away unexpectedly very often, & then you’ll get accustomed to it. And then if you only knew how angry it makes a man to think that there is continual supervision over him. And if an accident happened you’d be one of the first to hear it. And isn’t it stupid to worry about troubles before they are there. It is so un-philosophical. Forgive me going on about this, but I can’t help it, I feel so strongly about it, & as I know those emotions are so bad for you, I am sure you will do your best to keep calm, & don’t be angry with me for my tirade! Kathleen leaves us on Sunday I am sorry to say. When you come here, bring your clothes with you for Polly to alter. With fond love, Ever yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, July 29, 1907 
Drafna, Naarden Monday, July 29th [1907] Dearest Olga, I wonder when you will be coming here? It seems a sin to have that cottage empty all this time. Polly told me to tell you that if you send her the material she can make the blouse she promised you now. Kathleen left us yesterday, & we are sorry she has gone. Nella went with her, but will be home in a fortnight. And at the last minute Robert decided to go also, as far as London, but I believe he will go to Gliffars, he has still a few days holiday. Flevo is upset, all their summer plans are upset, for Henk has her "examen" in Trigonometry & “Wutbrunde” on the 1st of September, so has to work hard till then, & he & Em & Alfie were to have started next Monday for the Glen, and on the 15th to have met their father in London, & gone with him a boating excursion on the Thames, which Cor cannot do without Henk, as he wants help with the rowing, & Em & Alfie can’t go alone to Ireland. But nothing will matter if only Henk can pass, but it is so difficult to find anyone to work with him [─] everyone is away on holidays and he must have help, for he has had “onvooldvench” for those “vakken” the whole year. Sissie Cruijs has passed her exam out of the H.G.S. & was No 1. We saw the little boy van Hamel and the niece the other day, & I promised to fetch him here one day this week, and bring him home in the donkey carriage. We were driving past the house and he recognized us. I’ll send you more vegetables tomorrow or next day. Best love from yr. loving mother. I’ll look for your Balzacs. I don’t recollect exactly how the currie was made, but when you are here, I’ll try and tell you.

1908: Emily to Olga from Drafna, May 6, 1908 [?] 
[Beginning fragment] Drafna, Naarden Friday, May 6th, 1908 [?] Dearest Olga, You are down in the depths! But that is nothing, when you are a couple of months further all will be different. The first 3 or 4 months are always bad, & it is a pity for you that Bram has to be away from you now. I am sorry to hear that your stomach is out of order, for that means that you can take little food, & I know the doctor will want to feed you up. But your own sense will tell you that it is no good taking food you cannot digest. Try a warm milk diet, small quantities at a time. Only you, yourself can find out what you can best take. But one thing I must tell you, and that is that lying in a room, even close to an open window is not at all the same as being in the open air, even a balcony is not as good. To heal your lung you must breathe the pure fresh air, & your window wide open at night, & plenty of blankets if it is cold. It is a bother that you are in the family way, for of course it makes it more difficult to heal the lung, and that is the first thing you have to think of now. Have a little patience, and you’ll find after a couple of months you’ll begin to feel more cheerful about yourself. I saw enclosed advertisement in the D. O. H. [Damned Old Handelsblad] and thought it might be something for you, if your sister in law has to go away in June, for you’ll want somebody then to look after you & the baby & the house, I can write to her & see her if you like. I am glad you like the caps, & I am sure your… [unfinished fragment]

Emily to Olga from Drafna, May 8, 1908 
Drafna, Naarden Friday, May 8, 1908 Dearest Olga, I wish I could picture you somewhere! For of course I have not a notion where you are, and it is so hard to write before I know something about you. It is a week yesterday since we got your telegram from Padang so in a little more than a fortnight, I’ll be getting a letter from you, telling us where you are, and all about you and the baby. You will have [heard] of the birth of Teau’s & Rosie’s babies, within 24 hours of each other, but Teau won the race! She followed your example in an easy confinement, everything went so beautifully and the doctor was not half an hour in the house before the child was born, & now the nursing goes splendidly. On Sunday she will be down stairs, I went to stay with her the first ten days, but came back yesterday, as four of Hessie’s children are here, and want a lot of minding, nurse is completely [occupied] for Eugen, so Nella had her hands full. I had long promised to go to Teau when her child was born, but then when Hessie’s children came, I decided I wouldn’t go, but Teau was so disappointed, and said she felt so lonely with only a strange woman about her, and she looked so pathetically at me that I succumbed! Her child is really very like yours, a nice little round head, lots of black hair, dark eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes, a nice little mouth and beautiful little ears. Rosie’s child is just like all her others, it is a larger child than Teau’s but of course pretty. I have let Drafna for three months July, August and September, and Nella & I will go for the month of July to Zandvoort and take Johnnie with us, Hessie was in a way how she would get him to the sea side, so I settled that plan, we haven’t yet decided what we’ll do in August and September. Polly will go first to Teau & Hessie & then to England for 6 weeks. So those are the Drafna plans as far as we know them. Emile will be the “bruidgrus” [?] on Tuesday next the 12th and marries on the 27th. Nuvya was married last week on the 29th in London, I was sorry not to go to it, for I would have seen them all, but Teau kept us so long waiting. I haven’t yet got accustomed to the idea of your being in India, it seems so strange to me that I cannot believe it, everything was decided so suddenly. With father [it] is different[,] he is coming home so soon, but you are beginning a new life out there, and your little child growing up without knowing any of us, and other children perhaps coming, so if you don’t write me everything you do, I’ll feel quite out of your life. And write me all you know of Bram, and how often you see him, every little derail is interesting. Hilda will tell you all about her trip to Paris. Everything went off beautifully. Tomorrow I dine at Charles & Marie’s, it is his birthday, 40 years of age! I can scarcely believe it. I direct this letter to Bram, because I suppose that is the best way of your getting it. Mind write to me, if you know how I am longing to hear all about you. Fondest love from yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga, from Drafna, June 4 [1908] 
Drafna, Naarden Thursday, June 4 [1908] Dearest Olga, I cannot say how happy I feel! I knew you were happy with Bram & your baby, but now your letters tell me of content & satisfaction and a sort of feeling of being ready to like & make the best of everything, & then to know that you feel so well, & that baby goes on so splendidly, indeed I am thankful. Your descriptions of the arrival in Padang & your reception by Jo and tante Da, & the account of their houses was simply lovely. I never got such a good idea of India before. How nice and kind tante Da is for you, just her old self, giving, giving. And now you have got this nice invitation from the Valettes so I suppose you will be there now. I an so glad you were able to nurse baby entirely yourself, without any bottle, & I hope you will be able to go on till she is 9 or 10 months old. Father said he was going to look out for a baboe for you, and that will be a help for you, & I know they are not expensive. Nella was so touching by your writing to her, she was so happy with her little Godchild. Teau is perfectly happy, and is a splendid nurse, all goes beautifully. She had a most easy confinement, I think I told you in another letter all that was to be told, but it is so hard to know what I have, & have not written, specially as I have you & father to write to, & of course both of you want to know pretty much the same things. Fik is so busy getting ready for his promotion, that they can’t come down to stay here, which is a great disappointment to both parties, but Teau does not like to leave him, & I think she is right. His promotic is fixed for the 8th of July, and he & Teau have lovely plans for next year, and they are taking shape. Prof. Weber wants him to come and help him with his book that he is writing, & to do that he must go live near them, as Weber has a laboratorium and that is at Eerbeek in Geldesland, and Schoonpoe has had a talk with him about it, and he will buy some ground and build a house there for them. Teau is out of her mind with delight, and next month she and Schoonpoe go down to choose a site for the house. She hates living in Amsterdam. So that is all the news about Teau. Mary is back from Baden, & says her knee is ever so much better, and she must know it best, but she looks weak, but is as full of energy as ever, and last Sunday sang in the Groote Kerk in Naarden, & Hessie who was there said it sounded excessively well, and her voice quite strong. Charles and Marie are in London for a week enjoying themselves, going to operas & theatres, & seeing the latest new things. That is something that Dutch people don’t understand -- going away from your business for a week’s pleasure. Robert is back from his walking tour in the Schwartjwald, & is now at his new work, & so happy that he has done with the banking business, & looking forward to being sent this autumn to the West for three months. That will be a grand holiday for him! Marie and her baby are well. They come down to Flevo tomorrow for the “Pinkster dagen.” Hilda & her family come to us. We brought the van Halletjes home yesterday to Hattem to the new cottage where Hessie is now settled, and she will certainly be there a year, for the new house will only be began next week, and could not be dry for them by the winter. But they are most comfortable quite enough room, & a lovely dry spot in the middle of pinewoods & heather, & Hessie is so happy. Johnnie has gone to Zandvoort with Robert’s children, & will stay there two months, the first plan was that Nella and I would go with him there in July, but I am happy to say that is not necessary. Nella & I are now going to London on the 18th and we go to see the matron of an Hospital there that Hercules recommended, for Nella to go as sick nurse, & before she could make an application, she must have a personal interview. She has not yet decided where she will go, for we are also going to see some place in Zurich that Miemke de Vries recommends. And most probably this summer I will go with her to some place in Switzerland to see what can be done for her rheumatism, we have to be roofless for three months, so we can go where we like and do what we like, the only compensation for the home being broken up. Robert and Rosie have let their house in the van Eeghen straat and taken one in the Koningsinne weg, a very nice one, quite large enough and only f700 a year. I sent your letter to Mia, & she was so happy to read, I am now going to send you two letters to Aunt Minnie and Auntie Fan, I know how they will love it. Tell me in a private bit, whenever you hear anything from Andy Jameson, & also all about your money affairs, everything about you & Bram & the baby will interest me, so you need never puzzle your head as to what you’ll write, & if you haven’t much time, then send a post card. I’ll try and keep you up with the family, but I cannot get through them all in one letter! With fondest love Ever yr. loving mother

Emily in Switzerland to Olga in Java, August 3, 1908
Monday, August 3, 1908 Pension Hopp [Kopp?], St. Moritz, Switzerland Dearest Olga, I hope by this time that you are better, for the last few letters, you haven’t been feeling well. Hildasays it may be that you are acclimating, but it also may be that you are in the family way, & for baby’s sake I hope that will not happen yet. It would be a pity if you had to wean her before she was a few months older. Here it would be nothing, but in Ind[ones]ia it is so hard to get good milk & milk is absolutely necessary for a child under the year, & indeed till they are two years old it must be the principal food.  I think Hilda and Moni [Koni?] each had a cow for their children, I know it is very expensive, but if you can manage it at all, I would look on it as a necessary expense, you must make enquiries about it.  I fancy you three have had what we would call here an influenza, I did not think it existed in Ind[ones]ia, but that would be a reason for you feeling weak a long time afterwards. You are more than good about writing to me, I get a letter every week, and also what you write is so delightful, you tell me everything about you & Bram and baby, & I can picture your daily life and can understand how happy you must be while Bram is with you. I don’t believe in Soerabaya being the healthiest spot for you to live in, & was glad you were going to a cooler place when Bram was away. And then to Madoera, I don’t know anything about that, & have no map here to show me where it is, but is it not an island or an island near Soerabaya? I am delighted Bram is busy drawing the “Gastroscope,” I heard about it from Willem and I asked him to send it to me for Hercules, for I am sure he would like to know all about it, & Willem told me he had not got it yet, but that was some time ago. I am sure Jan will miss you very much when you leave Soerabaya, even though he may not see much of you. He must have had a very lovely time those first years he was in Ind[ones]ia. I have put by post from Gorringe two Enzock “Tidies”, which are the same pattern as the flannel ones that I used to have, you put them over a napkin, also two little bodices. I told them to send them as thin as possible for Indian wear, & if you put two buttons at the sides, then fasten the “Tidies” in that way to the bodice, it is much nicer than [?]rings, & you need not use any safety pins. I have also sent you two pinafores and two little low dresses, which I hope will fit and which I hope are the right pattern. Till I get home I cannot see Jan’s picture, so do not know exactly what dress he had on when it was taken. But mind tell me if the dresses fit, & if the other things are not you want, when once we are home I can easily get Polly to make you what you want, but then you must let me know, perhaps Gorringe may enclose the bill to you, but if he does, then send it back to me. I suppose baby will be soon getting a tooth, when she is about 7 or 8 months. I hope your money affairs are all right. Did you ever anything more from J? We are expecting him and Harrie here next week. Fancy Harrie is engaged to be married, she at last made up her mind to accept a young officer a Mr. Kirkwood, who seems to be very much in love with her, she met him last year for the first, & saw a great deal of him, but couldn’t make up her mind, & he went on to India, but came back a few months ago, & she saw more of him, and a couple of weeks ago accepted him & he returned to India last week, and comes back next year to marry her. But she has not told her parents yet, and they know nothing of it, however when she gets here, she intends telling her father. Only she does not want her mother to be meddling about it, she is such a disagreeable woman, and always specially nasty to Harrie. We see a good dial of Violet and tante Lisette who are at the Hulm [Kulm?], which is not far from us. This Pension is very good, but I can’t say I like pension life, I prefer an hotel, but then that would be too expensive for us, & I must say we don’t trouble ourselves much about the people in the house, for we are out all day, & don’t speak to anyone at meal times, & after supper in the evening, we take our books. I am sure they all hate us, for keeping so apart, but I can’t stand those Germans & I am sick of their language, so I pretend I don’t understand them! Nella is very satisfied with her masseuse, who is rubbing away all her gouty lumps, if I really think it is necessary I will let her go to Groddack for a month, but perhaps he would allow her to live with me in a pension in Baden, while he treats her. Charles is here now, being treated for his knee. Valhenburg is engaged to be married to a Miss Foekema. I feel quite content that he is not my son in law! My girls deserve a better sort. Fondest love from yr loving mother.

Emily to Olga from Drafna, November 29, 1908 [?] 
Drafna, Naarden Monday, November 29 Dearest Olga, I missed writing to you last week. I hope you were not very disappointed. And you are so good about writing to me. Now I have just got your letter of the 1st of November. I am so glad you are more comfortably settled, & hope you won’t economize too much in your food, your health comes above everything. It would be lovely if you were able to have your own house while Teau was with you, and she will be able then to tell me everything about it. I am glad father sent you a little bit of money, for it will help towards the extra expenses while Teau is with you. Oh! how I am longing for the letters telling me everything about you and little Hilda, & Bram, & also to hear about the talks you have had, and whether Jan was with you, and what is settled about Edmée. I hope he has put an end to that engagement. Mind you send us a telegram if that is the case, father will repay you. I sent Teau the copies of the correspondence between us, and the mother, and Edmée. She will have shown them to you of course. We got a letter today from Teau written after she had been to Colombo. I suppose posted in Sabang, or Singapore. She was enjoying her journey immensely. Her baby is the joy of the house here and so well. I saw in the D. O. H. ["Damned Old Handelsblad"] an article from the “Necheland” written by H. E. v A. asking why they don’t make their own torpedoes in Holland. I suppose Erwin is the writer. Wouldn’t it be a good thing for Bram if they did so? He might come at the head of it. Eugen was over with us yesterday for a day, and went back last night to Hamburg. Hessie is home again, & went down to see her on Friday, & it was a real happiness to see her at the head of her house again, singing and dancing with her children, and taking care of them all, and she looks so well. Eugentjie is improving, and looks first rate, and is now allowed to walk about for five minutes every day. Freddie is a darling boy, & so happy to have his mother back again, & Jan was getting so fearfully unhappy, there was no getting a word from him, but that will get better now that Hessie is home. Yes, I am happy that you are with Bram, & though it is lonely for you to be five days alone, still it makes all the difference to him that he can be with you every week for a couple of days. So I hope yours and Hilda’s health will remain all right in Lawang till you leave it in December next year. My fond love to Bram and kisses for Hilda from yr. loving mother

1909: Emily to Olga from Drafna, January 19, 1909 
Tuesday, January 19 [1909] Dearest Olga, I got your letter of the 18th & 21st this morning so I heard baby was better at the same time that I heard she had been ill. I am so sorry for you, but I suppose it was the remains of the illness that she had while she was at Nering Bogel’s. I have got her photo, and I am more than delighted with it, she is a little beauty, & looks so clever & healthy. Of course every one knows a photo cannot do justice to a child, the perpetual movement and coloring and expression are wanting, but I am quite satisfied with this photo. I told Hilda about your baboe having given the child wrong things to eat, & she says you cannot trust one of them, that is why she had to get a juffrouw for the children. They are just a degree better! What Bram says about drinking milk from a bottle is true for a little infant, but a child of Hilda’s age drinks slower out of a cup than out of a bottle, & it is easier to keep the cup clean. I suppose you will have weaned it by this time, for when you get this letter it will be a year old. Father hasn’t been yet to see Mevrouw van Stockum, but I’ll manage that he goes soon, I never thought about it, though I had fully intended going myself next week, when I will be in town. Father and I go to the Amstel Hotel on Monday next for a month, and Nella goes to Teau. I don’t think I wrote yet to thank you for having told me what you think about Jan’s health. I am so glad I know a little more about him. His letters to Edmée & to us only tell us that he is perfectly well, and feels strong. I am helpless for I do not dare to let out to anyone, that you told me about his health, I wouldn’t for anything [want it to get back to him so] that he got to know it so I didn’t even tell father. I am afraid there is not much chance of his getting over here, though I know Edmée has a faint hope of it. But I heard through her this morning that Stemberg, the man whom he disliked, & who worked so against him in the office, has been sent to another “afdeeling” so Jan won’t be bothered with him any more, & if he is happier at his work, & [knows] that he has a prospect of marrying not too far off, that will act beneficially on his health. It would be too good to think of his getting anything to do here in Europe. I feel so sure that in the end he will have to come back her, I cannot believe in Ind[ones]ia agreeing with him. But father won’t allow me to say so, that is why I know it is no good saying anything to father. But you needn’t be afraid of writing whatever you like to me. It is so much nicer to know that you open your heart to me. I hear that Mr. Thompson is going to Europe, & Rose[?] coming in his place. That is also nicer for Jan, isn’t it? I am bringing little Hilda home on Friday, she has been here now three [weeks?]. Cabeth is here now also, she was so delicate after the measles that I got her here for three weeks. Groddiek is in Amsterdam for four days, & Mary & Cor have gone to the Amstel Hotel for that time, as they wanted to go to theatres &c with him. He dined at Flevo on Saturday with Han and Hilda, Fik & Teau and the Prest & Walla. The poor Prest, I don’t think he was edified by him. Mary had an idea that they were kindred souls! Nella & I have kept out of his way, though I am really grateful to him, for what he has done for Nella’s rheumatism & her fat. She is nearly 10 kilos lighter than she was last winter, & is strong and healthy and able to do everything with her hands now, she can bike and play the organ, & cut bread and carry parcels, in fact, I never have to consider her hands now, & he has done her morally no harm, but “forewarned is forearmed”. Hessie will be moving into her new house the week after next. I will be glad when she is settled there. The winter is passing on well with Eugentje had a slight attack of croupy cough, but is all right again, & the others have remained all so well, & look different creatures from when they were in Frankhuis. Hessie herself isn’t so very strong, but that is the result of overtiring herself last summer. She tried to do without nurses, and had one child of a year that couldn’t walk, another invalid child that mightn’t walk, & four healthy spoilt ones who kept her busy morning and night, and only one servant. Result was a breakdown, & now a nurse, a Juf, a governess, 3 servants, one child away here, & Freddie going to school, so now she can have rest for a little. The other day little Hilda said she was going to have 14 children when she married, but “I want to be very healthy and strong so I am going to get 14 verpleegsters [nurses] to mind them for fear I would overtire myself.” She speaks from experience! But Hessie is not severe enough with her children, and they get too much for anyone. Mind tell me always all you can about your money affairs and whether you got money from Mr. J[ameson, of whiskey fame, related to the MacDonnells and the Marconis ]. I was awfully sorry to hear about the disappointment of Bram not coming for Xmas. But how nice for you if he can remain with you till June. Fondest love from yr loving mother I am so glad I have baby’s [Hilda’s] photo, I can picture her now to myself.

Emily to Olga from Amsterdam, January 26, 1909 
Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam 26th January, 1909 Dearest Olga, I got your letter of the 29th of December yesterday, when I was just leaving for Amsterdam, we are going to stay here for a month. It was so nice hearing about your Xmas, especially as those exchange[s] of telegrams made us know all about each other then, & Xmas is only a month gone. Of course we thought Bram had by some chance turned up at the last moment, & we were all so happy for you. Your description of baby at the Xmas tree, was exactly as Teau’s was at our tree, stretching out her little arms to the lights, & screaming with pleasure. I am glad you are going to wean the child, & I would throw away all the bottles when she is a year old, she must learn to eat and drink properly, and the stomach must get gradually accustomed to solid food, and not only fluid. But I cannot possibly prescribe what food. Teau’s baby gets now porridge (though a sieve) in the morning, and a boterham & milk out of a cup. At ten she gets a “pap” of Mellin’s food, at one she gets a plate with a potatoe mashed, with some carrots, or spinach through it, and a little gravy. At four she gets a little bouillon with rice, or biscuit, or bread in it, and at six she gets another “pap” of Mellin’s food, and then sleeps from seven till seven, & when she wakes in the morning she gets a crust of bread with a cup of milk. The bouillon is made from one ounce of tralfo oleisch & a breakfast cup & a half of cold water and a very little salt, & put down to come to a boil & then simmer for a couple of hours till the meat is nearly a pap, so soft, then through a sieve, & there remains over about a breakfast cup full, & that is for two days but Teau’s baby is now only 9 months old, as they get older they get more. We always made the bouillon for the babies in the nursery, on the “theistoof.” Teau only weaned her baby a month ago, and she got her fist bouillon at Drafna, & loved it & when she went home, Teau’s cook (your Saarlje) made it so badly that the baby refused to take it, & Teau had to put an egg in it to make her take it. Babies know so well when a thing is to their taste! Jan will have certainly told you that there is a small chance of Fik and Teau going to Java in October for several months, & they would leave the baby with me. It is a great secret yet, as it is not quite decided. He would be going for vischery onderyock [fishery exploration] and they would be travelling about to all the different islands. I wonder where you will be then, where do you think. You can fancy how excited Teau is about it, it would be lovely for her. Hancy Stark the dentist is in Java, he heard that Father lost his rheumatism in the last, and he had been suffering fearfully from it for some months, so he went, & arrived in Batavia cured! He took his dentist’s chair & instruments with him, & if he came short of money would begin a practice, so if he comes to Soerabaya, I advise you go to him, and make a [p. 2, on Amstel Hotel letterhead] bargain beforehand; he’ll never ask you a high price for father’s sake, & “auld lang syne.” Cor de Vos is going to marry a young dentist in Hilversum, 10 yrs. younger than herself, she is 36, & her eldest sister, the married one (divorced) is going to marry the brother (also a dentist & 14 years younger than herself). Groddeck has come & gone, & father & Nella never laid eyes on him though he was five days in Amsterdam. Father goes today to see Mevrouw van Stockum. He didn’t know she was in Amsterdam, or he would have gone sooner. He has written to Bals. Did you know that Dr. van Stockum’s son is in London at the Shipping Department of Eugen’s office? He told me he would be nice to him for your sake. I have got quite a tender feeling for Edmee, & I really believe she is fond of Jan, & if she had only been brought up differently, but to live with a vulgar snob (as the mother) must have had some effect on her, but she is young enough to come under good influences, she would see how her eyes were opened [?] by the few days in contact with our girls, the reality, truth, unselfishness, general love, mutual admiration, fearlessness of opinions, I mean, not afraid to say what they thought of themselves & others, and never posing, it was all a revelation for her. She was very quiet, but happy. I am so glad that I am able to say truly that I like her. But I could see that she was accustomed to “pose” and to be the central figure. Ever yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, March 22, [1909] 
Monday, March 22, 1909 [Day matches date.] Dearest Olga, On Saturday I sent off four dresses for you by the Oranje” and two pr. of drawers for baby with pattern, I think they will be the right length for her now, but as she grows taller you make the “pijpen” longer. When they are so small it is ugly to have “pijpen”. Your dresses are two white piqués and two white muslins, the pattern is from two dresses of Mary, & I got Polly to make what I thought you wanted, but under the muslin, you’ll have to wear a petticoat, I think Annatje gave you some, made all in one. The little jacket must be fastened with a broach & safety pins, or a tie in front, but I left the neck bare, for I think that prettier than a high neck without a band or collar, and if you want your neck covered you can always wear a shirt or blouse underneath. If these fit you, and you like the pattern, then in September I will send you four more. It was awfully hard to understand what you wanted, but I think them very pretty, and fit for wearing in the daytime. Teau tried them on, and they looked so nice on her. I hope you are not getting too thin. I have just got your letter about Jan. If I had got it a day sooner, I could have had a talk with Eugen about him, for Eugen has been with us the last week. He got influenza and the doctor in London told him to go away for a change, so he came here, & Harrie & Violet were with us on their way home from St. Moritz, so we have been having a grand time. Eugen doesn’t change, he is as full of life as ever, and where he is, he finds happiness, and livens up those around him. He has improved in many ways, is more considerate, and takes life a little more earnestly, & has more pleasure in reading and intellectual conversation. He has such a chivalrous nature, there is something grand & noble in it. He has nothing mean or small about, he has a large and liberal view on the actions of everyone, though being young (especially so for his years) he often condemns & takes too one-sided a view, but he is improving in that way. He is completely natural and truthful. Like all my children he is developing late. I am awfully fond of him, & I love the way he admires and believes in Father. I am so happy that he & Jan write to each other again. I believe that is since he is now convinced that Jan is not in love with Loulric. I know he thought it still a year ago. Good bye love. Mind tell me exactly about the dresses. Ever yr. loving Mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, April 22, 1909 [?]
Friday, April 22 [1909] Dearest Olga, Your mother wrote me such a nice letter, to put my mind at rest about you, & saying what care they would take of you, & look after your food, & not let Hilda be a trouble to you, it was just sweet of her. She said that if Hilda had come to us you would have fretted too much after her. And she tells me you have got a little servant for her, so that will be a help to you. Have you yet got any of the letters from Lawang? I wrote to Jan to make enquiries about them, because the little dress I made for Hilda ought to have arrived, & I directed one letter to Teau to Lawang, thinking she would be with you, & now she was in Soerabaya, & so got no letter that mail from me. Mind when you write next to me tell me something about your health. Have you still verhooging? Are you in the family way? Is Bram coming to see us? Fondest love from yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga, End Fragment, May [?] 1909 [?] 
Drafna, Naarden [p. 2.] Next Monday she gives a large children’s party in the small “zaal” [hall] of the Concertgebouw [the concert hall in Amsterdam that Charles Boissevain lobbied for in his newspaper],  & pas and mas and friends may come also, & there is a man to play the piano for dancing & Eugen is going to show the “toover [?] lantern”, & father has made a “stukje” for Cateau de Booy to act, & everyone intends to have great fun. I expect Eugen here on Thursday. And Hilda & Han & family, & Charles & Marie come to us on Friday. We are going to have a tiny tree for baby Nella, on the hall table, & I will leave it there all Xmas time & we will light it every evening. You will certainly have one also. Best love from yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga, End Fragment, June [?] 1909 [?] 
Hotel Englischer Hof, Baden-Baden, p. 2 [In a letter I?] ... had from father [Hercules MacDonnell] he told me of the [how] disappointed they all had [been] about not being able to go on the trip with Bram, it was too bad. And now I wonder were you luckier, & and if you & baby went, & how it agreed with you, I am longing to hear all about it. There was a report in Amsterdam that Jan’s engagement was broken off. We traced [it] to Talitta Voute (Holtzman) in all probability, but Ind[ones]ia is an awful place for “praatjis”.  I daresay it begin when people heard that Mrs. de la V. was going to Europe with her daughter, & they concluded that this trip would end in the same way as the last! I daresay it is nothing Mrs. de la V. would like better. I have been hearing about her from people who knew her while in Ind[ones]ia, & they say she is an aanstellerij mensh, with a difficult temper, and then they shrug their shoulders and say “she is a Couper”. And they say the scandal about the eldest daughter’s first marriage was entirely her fault. I hope to Heavens Jan and Edmée will be able to live far away from her the first couple of years. I wouldn’t give up the thought of seeing Jan soon, only for the sake of that. Now good bye. I go in to Lucerne today & to Genoa tomorrow. Best love to Bram. Ever yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga from Zandvoort, June 15,1909 [Unfinished fragment] 
Tuesday, June 15, 1909 [Day matches date.] Villa Admiral de Kuijter, Zandvoort Dearest Olga, I think I wrote to you last week from Flevo, where I had gone to nurse Nella who had a bad abscess in her throat. She is now better, & I went down there on Sunday hoping to bring her back with me here, but the doctor thought it safer to wait till the weather was milder, for we are having a spell of cold north wind. So I go to Flevo tomorrow, and hope to return here with her on Thursday. She does not go back to “Erica” the Herstillings oord for children. Her time there is up on the 1st of July, and she is not yet strong enough to do the work there. Poor Nella, she is unlucky [love affair?]! She is going to Ireland [Sligo] for July and August, & she loves that. I told you that Aunt Minnie and Jole were over here for 3 days staying at Teau’s & Flevo, & I hear from Teau that Aunt Minnie was perfectly delighted at the reception she got from all the children, & they were all awfully nice to her, but then they are all fond of her & really glad to see her. And she lost her heart to Alfred, the only one she had never seen. I am so sorry about the dresses, I thought they looked so nice, & would be just what you wanted for morning wear. You have time now to write to me, & tell me exactly what you want in the way of dresses, and I get Teau to bring them to you, & you will have them in the beginning of November. I can get you one dress at Duhr’s for my expense, & then I can send you a couple of nice white blouses if you have skirts to wear with them. The dress from Duhr could be for evening wear with a V shape in front. You must write me exactly what you want, & then I can see what I can afford to send you. In September I can get everything in order, so that Teau can take it with her. Why does Bram now think that Ind[ones]ia will not be good for your nerves? He could have known that all along. It is the worst possible place for people with nerves. If you come home with Teau, of course you come to Drafna, & I’ll have a corner for you and little Hilda. While Teau is away, I am to have her baby & nurse. Will Bram have to stay in Ind[ones]ia long after you? Just won’t he hate it. I haven’t said anything yet to father about your coming, for I thought that will be time enough next winter. I [fragment ends here]

Emily to Olga from Drafna, December 20, 1909 [beginning fragment] 
Monday, December 20, 1909 [Day matches date.] Dearest Olga, Just got your letter of the 20th Nov. And the next day Fik and Teau will have been with you. How you will have talked! And we are still waiting for news of how the engagement was broken, & whether Jan was very cut up, or whether he was prepared for it, and whether Teau knew all about it before she sailed on the 28th. I trust to you to tell me everything. You are such a faithful correspondent, couldn’t be better. I have never had to wonder why I don’t hear from you. I hope you’ll get father’s letter all right, in which he encloses f25. If it had been double that, he would have been happy to give it for the sake of the good news! I thought Bram was already commandant of the Wachtschip, it was in the paper that he was appointed. You must tell me exactly what his title is now, also whether he is sure that he will be allowed to stay a year longer in Ind[ones]ia. I don’t trust those “Marin” people, they know how to tease, & if they think he wants to stay in Ind[ones]ia, they will order him home perhaps! But keep me au fait of what his work is, for if people ask me I don’t like giving wrong answers. Just yesterday I told somebody he was commander of the Wachtschip, & now in your letter this morning I hear he is still at the torpedoes. I can understand he likes that work best. Hilda had her bruiloft last Thursday, & Nella and I went in to her early in the morning, to help to settle her flowers and presents. She got such a pretty ring from Han. We gave her “groenten lepels.” And she is getting, from the cousins, a beautiful Deventer carpet for her drawing room, and she got a lovely old Dutch Press from Charles and Marie. Heaps of flowers, and the reception was nicely full, & afterwards all the brothers and sisters dined with her; we were 18 in all.

1910: Emily to Olga from Drafna, February 21, 1910 
Monday, February 21st, 1910 [Day matches date.] Dearest Olga, Thank you for your nice long letter of the 19th and also the one of the 24th about Dr. van der Sande. We know you would feel his death very much, as he had been attending Hilda so shortly before, & Fik and Teau knew him also. I am of course wondering what you will decide about coming home. It is a great excitement for us. I am sending you by post two little calico dresses, which Polly made for Hilda, they fit baby Nella exactly, but we only tacked the hem so that you can make it as long or short as you like. But now I won’t be able to send you any warm clothes as I had at first intended. Anyhow if you come back in May it is not so very cold, & I can always post something to you to Port Said, if I know it in time. Thanks for sending me Jan’s letter. I dare say I’ll hear from him in a few weeks, when he has got my letters without mention of Edmée. After I heard from him that the engagement was broken I wrote him one letter saying how I felt for him, and after that I haven’t mentioned the subject, and I told him I wouldn’t speak of her any more. But I knew Jan would keep quiet & to himself for a time. It will be good for him if Teau is able to stay with him for a little. I am longing to know whether you went to Soerabaya to consult Dr. de Voyd, but against you get this I daresay I’ll have a letter from you. Did you get the letter from father with f100 in it, and another with f10? Mind acknowledge them when received. I am sorry to hear about Mevrouw [Mrs.] van Stockum not being so well, I know how fond Bram is of her. Best love from yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga, March 10, 1910 
Drafna, Naarden Thursday, March 10th [1910] [Day matches date] Dearest Olga, Still waiting for news of you, or rather Bram. I fancy we can get a letter next week telling us what his illness is, & when you are coming home. You would certainly have telegraphed to us if it was anything very bad, so that is consoling. Fancy, Jole is engaged to be married to a Mr. Durham Verscholje, whose sister is Lady Crofton. I think you know her. I hear he is a very nice man, and excessively clever, an inventive genius. He is a mining engineer, and earning about £1,200 a year, so they will marry soon. Neville is also engaged to a Miss Forsyth, a girl in Calcutta, I believe very handsome, and a splendid horsewoman and dancer; that is all I know of her! The very latest news in the family is that Han and Hilda [de Booy] have bought a small piece of Drafna ground, & are going to build a Cottage there for summer use, & hope to have it ready by July. I am expecting Hessie & Eugentje here every minute. They are coming to stay here for at least a fortnight. I feel so happy at the idea of having them. Johnnie and Maurits are now settled in Zandvoort, and go daily to that nice school in Bloemendaal. The idea is to have them there for a couple of years if it agrees with them. Mrs. Trot van Stockum comes here this afternoon to pay us a visit. She was yesterday at Mom’s and slept there. I would have asked her to lunch here today, only Hessie is arriving just at that hour, so she comes for tea. Ever yr loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, May 2, 1910 
Monday, May 2 [1910] [Day matches date.] Dearest Olga, Bram was here on Saturday & lunched with us, at least with father & me, for there was no one else here, and no one at Flevo either. I hope he will be able to come here some Sunday, for otherwise I don’t know how he will get to see them, & of course they all come to me, and ask me how they are to see Bram, & I can’t tell them, I don’t even know his address in Amsterdam. He told me he couldn’t come to dinner here as he was busy every evening, so I told him to come to lunch whenever he could.  I hadn’t a notion that he was going to stay any time in Amsterdam, I thought he had only left you for a few days, so I understand that you think it dreadful his going away, you will miss him! I hope everything is going smoothly, & that you are doing all the doctor told you. We are having such lovely spring weather, & everything looks so fresh and green, and the nightingales are singing so beautifully, life is worth living at present! But I want to know that you are getting on well. You ask me about the name. I advise you call your boy after Willem, if he would like it. I never liked the name Jan, & then Jan van Stockum doesn’t sound a bit nice. Why does your mother [Mrs. van Stockum Sr.] think it will be in October and not November? I hope to hear from you soon. Ever yr. loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, May 13, 1910 
Drafna, Naarden Friday, May 13, 1910 [Day matches date.] Dearest Olga, Letters are unpleasant things if mine gave you to think for one minute that the family had been complaining of not having seen Bram. No one has said a word to me, but I would have liked him to have shown them, that he considered himself one of the family & was happy to accept from them anything they could do for you out of love. So you needn’t make yourself unhappy about quarrels and unpleasantness that don’t exist! And you needn’t think you’ll have to ask Charles for money, for I have only to tell him you want it for your cure, & you will get it at once. Bram was here yesterday to get some things out of his trunks, and told me he thought of bringing you to Holland in August. You must tell me where you would like to go? And shall I look out for something for you for that month? And where? I told Bram yesterday that I wished he would bring you here for the month of June. This is the healthiest spot for lung patients, I told him the great Sanatorium is close to us! It would be a lovely month for you to be with us, & Fik & Teau on & off here, and no other logées. And then we could make your plans for the rest of the summer. I told him he mustn’t think of going to Hessie in July or August for it would be really too much for her. She gets her boys home then for the holidays. Don’t you worry yourself about your family, they are all very nice & loving! Ever yr. loving mother

Emily in Zandvoort to Olga, June 21, 1910 [?] 
From Villa Admiral de Kuijter, Zandvoort Monday [?], June 21, 1910[?] [Date does not match day of week in 1910.]
Dearest Olga, Last Thursday I was able to bring Nella here, and she is gradually getting stronger, she was awfully pulled down. Her throat attack was worse than she ever before had, and I thing the reason was, that she didn’t give in soon enough, she only took to her bed when she couldn’t stand on her feet any longer, there was so much to do, 13 children to be washed, dressed and fed and no servant to help, and the two “zusters” [sisters] ill. I am so sorry that her philanthropic work was cut short, it is disheartening for her. She was delighted with a letter she got from you last week, and also one from Jan. she stays with us here till the 30th of June, when we go traveling, and she goes first to Teau, and then to Ireland. We are going to London for a few days, as I have at last got Girenks [?] to come and meet me there, I haven’t seen him for two years, and I have so much to talk to him. And then we go from London to Paris, and so on to Switzerland. I think you may rest easy about our being in Drafna next summer, I am almost sure Father won’t sell it, he refused an offer the other day. He is going to sell the bit along the “straatweg” and he’ll get a good price for that, and then we keep the rest of Drafna, and house and stable. Attie has bought the bit of ground near “klein Drafna,” that “dennen bosch” opposite Brouwer, just beside our place, and they are building a wooden house there, for summer use and weekends, Attie is so happy to come near us. I sometimes get so angry when I am writing letters to you, there are such heaps and heaps of things I want to tell you, and which I know would amuse and interest you, but it is important to wish them, it takes too long, if I only think of the hundreds of things that passed through my head while I was writing this! Hilda came down here yesterday for dinner, and the way that girl can talk, she is most entertaining, and her life is so full and active, it is most interesting to hear her. She is also a good wife and mother, and it has not always been easy for her with Han, for he is full of old fashioned ideas and customs and without actually going against him she has managed to get him to take a broader view of things. If she had given in to everything, he would have made her live a very cramped life, sitting at home darning or knitting stockings, ready to receive him when he chose to pop in on her. And she is fit for more than that, and happily he begins to see that a little bit, but it was a struggle. And she is such a good mother, looks after her children well, morally and physically. Tom [de Booy] has always been an easy and a good child, with the highest cifers in his class that he can get, but happily he is now sometimes naughty, or he would have been a prig! And Hilda had a difficulty in not letting Han spoil him, by always consulting his wishes, and making everything smooth for him. Alfie has developed so nicely, he is a very clever child, and a sense of humor, and witty and innocent and a good heart, the makings of a fine man, full of fun and mischief, the saving of John. Olga is a nice gentle little thing too young to say much about her yet, she has always odious “jufurouwen”, and has now got an English heavy lump, who is going away in the autumn, and then Hilda gets Polly’s niece Ethel, (Annie’s daughter) and that will be I hope a nice companion for Olga. I don’t know your address any more, as I suppose you will have left Lohman’s Pavilion by this [time], so I hope your name is known well enough in Soerabaya for you to get this. I am going out now to pay a visit to Suge van Tienhoven, she has built herself a little house here beyond “Zuid Zandvoort,” you know she got a f2,500 lot in a lottery last year, and this house is one of the results. I had a postcard from Hessie last week, and she says she is really improving but will have to stay the whole month of July in Laag Soiren. Best love to you and Bram and little Hilda. Your loving mother.

Emily in Gunten, Switzerland, to Olga, August 9, 1910
Hotel & Pension Hirschen, Gunten on Lake Thun, Berne, Switzerland Tuesday, August 9th, 1910 Dearest Olga, Last week I wrote to you telling of our visit to Bram’s mother, but this week I have nothing particular to tell you, we are here on the Thunersee, enjoying ourselves beyond words, after making little excursions on the steamers, to Interlaken, Spinz [?], Thun etc. Tomorrow we hope to go to Adelboden for a day, to pay a visit to Sisi & Mia Boissevain, who are there for some weeks. Last Tuesday we paid a visit to Charles and Marie in Grünig where they are for the summer with their whole family & Anna!!! And an under nurse. They all have their meals together, at a separate table from the other guests, & it was a sight to see the tableful and Charles, the proud & happy father, I was so glad to see them all there, Charles away from his business, and not preoccupied, & taking nice walks and excursions with his boys, who are fine manly fellows, Charlie remains our favorite, but Menso is also a nice boy, & does not give the impression of being so pedantic as he seemed to be. They are both of them nice with their parents, & fond of them. I am happy to say Bobbie is being sent to Snuk this winter to go there to the gymnasium, & will live with “Leeraar” [?]. I wish he had been sent to a good “Kostschool”, but any thing is better than his staying at home, he is a troublesome boy, & everyone in the house was against him, which is ruinous for a boy’s character. I just had a letter from Marie & she tells me Menso & Charlie have just climbed the Wetterkom successfully, that is a stiff climb. I have no letters worth enclosing, except one from An, which tells about Drafna, Nella & Teau, my chief correspondents write too intimately for me to forward their letters. Teau is beginning to realize how hard it will be for her to part from her little girlie. I am not going to advise her to do it, for if she feels it so very strongly, it might make her ill, & makes me feel the responsibility very much. It would be great disappointment for you I know. Best love to Bram and a kiss for the baby. Love yr loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, October 5, 1910 [?] 
Tuesday [?], October 5, 1910 [?] [Day of week doesn’t match date] Dearest Olga, The telegram from Samarang arrived this morning, and of course Teau is in a state of doubt now as to what to do. Fik is in town today and she went to see him to consult him as to what they will do. I know she longs to take her child with her, but as she would have to leave it for three months, she is not sure what is the wisest thing to do. We of course know nothing about Lawang, but I suppose Fik and Hilda will be able to tell us what sort of place it is. The telegram says: “Bram & Olga residing healthy Lawang”, so we suppose you are settled there while Bram is on the Wachtschip. If we could afford to send Nella out to help you with the two children then it would be easy but that can’t be. And two children of the same age would be too much for you alone. So poor Teau is rather unhappy, not knowing what to decide, so I hope Fik will settle everything. Han & Hilda [de Booy] dine with us today, so Hilda will put in her word of advice. If I was Teau I would take the child with me, but I won’t give any advice, but I thought her quite right not to bring the child to Soerabaya. I hope the climate in Lawang will do you good, & that you will lose that “verhooging”. In the long run that would undermine your constitution. That is what Hilda always had. Ever your loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, October 20, 1910
Drafna, Naarden Thursday, Oct. 20, 1910 Dearest Olga, I am so glad that you arrived home without being too tired, and found your house and all in order. The cook might to be very happy with the old blue dress, for by cutting away all the bad part, she would make a very nice dress for a small person. I missed you so awfully when you went, I cannot tell you how I enjoyed having you, old clothes and all! But I hope Bram won’t disappoint me about little Hilda, I really saw nothing of the child, and I would so love to have her without father or mother, and when your baby is born, I’ll come down to see you, and sleep at Hessie’s and hope that Bram will let me take little Hilda back with me for a week, and he will surely be going to Amsterdam in that time, so he wouldn’t nip her, but we need not settle anything till the time comes. I don’t think you ought even to think of going with Bram to the west. A year goes by so soon, and you have now mapped out your time, so that you really can be economical, and need cost Bram very little. I saw Hilda yesterday and she is so well, and I expect to have her here on Saturday week, I told her to wait till after the birthday, and told her Hessie was staying till Monday or Tuesday, so that she would be sure to see her. She hopes to go to you when your child is born. I had to tell her all about you, and the scolding I gave you about your clothes, and I told her you bore it like an angel. I forgot to give you the wedding cake for you and Hessie. Fancy father went to see Hilda yesterday, and got into a tram and went to her house instead of the “Ziekenferplizing”. I told him it was just something for Olga to do, and that it was easy to see she was his daughter! Best love to Bram. Ever your loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, November 8, 1910 [?] 
Monday[?], November 8, 1910 [?off by a year from the calendar] Dearest Olga, Your letter of October 11 came this morning. I hope soon to hear from you that your malaria is quite over, you certainly let it go on too long, & that is why it is so hard to get rid of. I am also very glad that Fik decided to leave baby Nella here, but that telegram was hard on Teau, for it made her just long to take her with them. And she is so well & happy here, it would have been a sin to disturb her. Father tells me that he wrote to you last mail begging of you to send us a telegram if it was finally decided that the engagement was broken, for it is not likely that Jan would telegraph it, and we are so anxious to know that there is an end to it all. If you telegraph: [“]Boissevain. Naarden. Broken.[”], then we know what that means, & father will at once send you a “postwissel” for the amount of the telegram. It will be such a relief to us all, for we are so afraid that she may have written to Jan in such a strain, that he will have pity on her, and not give her up. Teau will have got a telegram from us on her arrival in Batavia, saying that Edmée had written offering to break [the] engagement. I wanted Teau to know exactly how matters stood, before seeing Jan, as she thought it so horrible that she couldn’t talk out really what was in her mind about Edmée. Yesterday we had a visit from Henk Boelen, who lives in Soerabaya & will see Jan soon. It was nice of him to come here, & he can tell Jan all about us. Marie was here for the day. Charles had gone to Hamburg for the weekend to see Eugen. Mary is back from Baden, and is certainly the better of [for] her stay there. And on Saturday Nella fetched Johnnie from Noordwijk, where he has been for seven weeks, & he looks a different creature, so well and strong. He goes back to Hattem tomorrow. Please go on sending me Jan’s letters, you can’t know what it is for me, it is a bit of himself. He was so young when he went away. Don’t mind Bram, though I agree with Bram all the same! But this is exceptional & I am his mother! Yr loving mother

Emily to Olga from Drafna, November 16, 1910 
Drafna, Naarden Dearest Olga, Last night I got your letter of 18 October. I am sorry to hear you have got “verhooging,” I thought you would be all right when once you got to a proper climate, but perhaps by degrees your temperature will learn to behave itself. Have you got books to read? And have you sewing work to do? Or can you take up some study. You must not get into the habit of being unhappy from Monday to Friday. Of course you miss Bram, and of course it is nicest to have him with you, but haven’t you learnt the lesson yet to take life as it is, & make the best of it? Why, don’t you know that if you are unhappy, it affects your health. You must give yourself some work to do, that will really occupy you while you are alone, and with such a man as Bram to refer to, & to help you, it will not be difficult, and then with that dotie [cute] child for recreation, & also having to do everything for her, oh! You mustn’t let yourself be unhappy. Begin & write an account of your life in India, it will be nice for little Hilda afterwards, & I would love to read it! Do you want any books? And what sort? Father will be only too happy to send you some if he knows what sort. Am I writing you a horrible sermon? But it is for Bram’s sake, as well as your own, think of what a difference it makes for him if he knows he leaves you happy or if when he comes to you he can see you have been fretting for him. But I fancy when you are settled in your own house in December it will be different. And when you get this you will have had Teau and Fik with you and I dare say that will have done you good. We have heard nothing from Edmée and are just longing to know how things stand with her and Jan. You’ll telegraph to us as soon as you know anything? I am longing to hear Teau’s account of you and Hilda. Fondest love from yr. loving mother

My Irish Granny - by Hilda van Stockum

Emily Heloise MacDonnell
Boissevain (1844-1931) as a
young woman.

The following is a guest (ghost?) post by my late mother, Hilda van Stockum (1908-2006), who left a description of her grandmother Emily MacDonnell Boissevain and also her grandfather Charles Boissevain, which I transcribed and have lightly annotated. A book is planned that will include this following excerpt.  (c) Copyright by Boissevain Books LLC for the estate of Hilda van Stockum.  

To me she was always a little, but formidable old lady, who was the heart of her family, adored by husband and children, but a little daunting to the grandchildren, all 50 of them. Maybe the older ones knew her as a younger woman; I came at the end of the family.

Luckily my grandmother lived long enough [at Drafna, near Amsterdam] for me to get to know and love her, but when I was a child we were always at odds. I wasn’t Irish looking; I took after my father. I had few “feminine” qualities. My grandmother liked to see girls doing needlework, but for me the needles never did anything but prick. I was a bookworm, which in those days was frowned on, because girls were supposed to be playing and exercising in the fresh air to get nice complexions.

But I was too fascinated by the bound volumes of the “children’s corner” of my grandfather’s newspaper [the Algemeen Handelsblad, then Holland's leading newspaper], and could not wait to read the next installment of the current adventure story. I was introverted in those days, and found it difficult to make conversation with my Granny, who spoke Dutch with an accent.

Charles Boissevain (1842-1927), my
grandfather, publisher of the leading
newspaper in Holland.

My grandfather wrote a daily column in the Algemeen Handelsblad, the most successful daily paper in Holland, and wrote a feature called “From Day to Day” in the most frivolous part of the paper, which also included a children’s section. We grandchildren often, on arrival at their grandparents’ house, made a bee-line to their library where all these wonders could be found.

I earned a scolding from my Granny for doing so:

The first thing you do when you visit anywhere, is to present yourself to your hostess and greet her. I didn’t even know you had arrived.

So in future I did as she told me, and as the drawing room was next door to the library not too much time was wasted. But I have to confess I was not the most popular guest. Those who had not learned to read yet fared much better

I was my grandfather’s favorite, and was placed beside him at table. So I was the one who witnessed the first time he lost a tooth. He was very unhappy about it because he had kept all his teeth till he was 80. I sympathized very much because going to the dentist was one of my phobias and no doubt my grandfather appreciated my heart-felt sympathy.

My grandfather told me I had a talent for making up verses and he said I inherited this talent from him.  He had also written books, mostly on his travels. I have an article reviewing his literary output by some literary bigwig of his time - although it was a very superficial criticism.

The great attraction I felt for my grandfather was his naughtiness. He was always doing forbidden things: putting marmalade and cheese on the same piece of bread and then declaring with a naughty twinkle and a sigh of satisfaction, after consuming this concoction: “It was just as if an angel peed on my tongue.” That’s the sort of thing I loved Grandfather for.

Granny wasn’t angry. She laughed... but we weren’t allowed to imitate him.

I don’t think my Grandfather ever knew that my Granny ruled him. She was so full of deference and respect! He met her in Ireland where he had gone as a young and handsome reporter for the little commercial paper that employed him - as he worked his way up he made it into the most important Dutch daily newspaper.

Charles went to Dublin to report on some trade event, on the lines of the modern expos, and probably it included the annual Dublin horse show [which had started up three years earlier, in 1864]. Hercules MacDonnell invited him to stay at his home, Sorrento Cottage, in Dalkey, where he met the numerous MacDonnell family. The oldest girl, Emily Héloïse, was strikingly beautiful. As it happened, my grandfather got ill, and he was nursed by my great-grandmother and her daughter Emily. Perhaps it was not surprising that my grandfather fell in love with the charming young nurse. At any rate, married they were.

I asked my Granny once what made her marry a foreigner like that. Wasn’t it a big step for her to take?

“Oh,” she said, “he made me laugh so much I hadn’t the breath to say ‘no’.”

My grandmother had had a glorious youth in Ireland. My grandfather wrote a poem about her, in which he describes how she jumped from the rocks into the sea and rode bareback on her pony. [She was one of the inspirations for HvS's book Pegeen.]

She herself wrote my mother about her teen years and all her admirers. With one she went for walks, with another she practiced archery. One she always met accidentally on her way to church and with one she went to visit the poor. But she did not like that much [visiting the poor], she added. She must have missed all that freedom later.

They were married in London and there is a legend that they quarreled after they left the church, because my grandfather claimed her arm, as was his right as a husband in Holland. But Granny acknowledged no such right and refused to allow anything so immodest.

So the Irish rose was transplanted among the stiff Dutch tulips, and not without friction. She did everything wrong... and as the Boissevain family consisted of endless cousins, aunts, uncles and great-aunts, their disapproval made a big noise.

In those days the activities in Holland of a proper lady were greatly restricted. You could not go out in the mornings because then the domestic servants did the shopping and it would be awkward to meet them. You can imagine the horror the family felt when they saw Charles’s wild Irish wife out at eleven in the morning, skating on the canals arm in arm with her cook.

However, nature soon put an end to these exploits. My Granny presented my grandfather with eleven children: five boys and six girls, one more clever and handsome than the other. She acquired a Yorkshire nanny called Polly, who became such a member of the family that she stayed with them till her death. And she made the clothes of the children and grandchildren out of the then so-popular Liberty cottons.

There must have been lean years, but my grandfather describes his home life in these words:

I am always struck anew by the intimacy of our family life: I see the family sitting by lamplight, in the room with red drapes, grouped around their mother, who is their spring of action, their source of love. 

It’s a vivid picture by a fond family man. He was so proud of his family he kept their photographs in his pocket to show at the drop of a hat. He was nicknamed “The Kangaroo”.

Once he visited a Turkish Emir and boasted of his eleven children. “That’s nothing”, said the Amir, “I have 26.”

“Ah, that is a large number,” said my grandfather, impressed, “but I have only one wife!”

It was the Emir’s turn to be very impressed.

There are charming letters of my grandmother to my grandfather, which tell of her difficulty with such a large family. One problem was the noise at table when they all talked at once, and the dreadful stillness when no one talked. She tried to let them talk one by one, but only Mary, the oldest girl, responded and in the end she gave up - rather the noise than the silence.

On another occasion she had to punish her second son Alfred for teasing the little girls, and she locked him in a room. He kicked and kicked at the door till he kicked out a panel. Then he stuck his handsome head through the opening and cried:

“I didn’t do it, Mother, I didn’t do it!”

She writes that it was difficult for her not to laugh. Yes, we get the feeling of an Irish household rather than a staid Dutch one.

Once my uncle Alfred had a serious quarrel with his wife. He had been given a little inheritance and he proposed to give his wife half for new slipcovers and with the other half they would go to Paris and have fun. Aunt Mies was aghast. To spend money for fun when they needed new sheets as well was wicked.

She went and complained to her friend, my mother.  Her response shows the influence of my Granny.

“You are suffering from different religions,” said my mother.

Aunt Mies was puzzled - “What do you mean?” They both belonged to the Walloon church (very proper, rather like the Anglican church).

“Yes,” said my mother, “you were brought up to feel that in order to be a virtuous spouse and housewife you must think first of the necessities of your home, and last of all of your own enjoyment.”

“That is truth,” said aunt Mies seriously.

“So my brother is very fair,” said my mother. “He gives you half for your religion. But he, on the other hand, was brought up to think that the one thing we must do is to enjoy ourselves in the beautiful world God has created for us, and that the last thing we should do is to bore ourselves with necessities.”

Aunt Mies looked at my Granny and thought, and then agreed: “That is true too,” she said.

“Therefore,” said my mother, “aren’t you a little mean not to enter into his religion while he generously enters into yours?”

They had a wonderful time in Paris.

My Granny was always ready for a lark. She went to football matches to see her boys play, and later, when they were young men, she’d sit up with them talking and drinking whisky till late at night. Her husband’s numerous admiring females did not bother her at all.

“Isn’t it time you wrote to your Scottish Thistle?” she’d ask.

“Who was that?” grandfather would ask.

“Oh, how shameful of you Charlie, have you already forgotten her?”

Her morals were very broad too. She wanted my grandfather to smuggle wine to her relatives in London and Ireland. My grandfather said he could not do it. He was known everywhere to be an honest man. He could not compromise his principles.

“Nonsense,” said my Granny. It’s just because they trust you that you can smuggle so easily”.

My grandfather remained adamant. But the next time he crossed the North Sea and was bowed past the customs with by deferential officials, he opened his suitcase in his hotel room and right on top, without any attempt to hide them, lay a row of bottles.

I don’t know what happened to my Granny after that, but she survived.

My Granny did not believe in illness. If her children chose to succumb to such an indignity, she did not cosset them, because that would only encourage them to be ill again. Many a weary day did my mother once lie in bed, unattended, with a raging appendicitis.

My mother, born Olga Emily Boissevain, later Mrs. Bram van Stockum, was the middle one of eleven children -- five brothers and sisters above her in age and five below.

The oldest child of Charles was a son called Charles E H [“Charles Eh Hah” in Dutch]. Charles EH was the wealthiest of the 11 “Careltjes” He married a woman who was became the first female member of the Dutch Parliament – Marie Pijnapple; they had ten children. So it was not surprising that my grandparents ended up with 125 grandchildren, all of whom were welcome to visit them.

If creativity and complexity go hand in hand, then large families lend themselves to being creative. The Boissevain family is a large and creative one and its components were focused on houses.

The 11 children of Charles and Emily Boissevain and called the Charletjes. They lived in a semi-circle stretching from the seaside resort town of Zandvoort to the west, then 20 miles east through Haarlem to Amsterdam, another 15 miles east to Naarden-Bussum (served by a single train stop), Baarn, and Blaricum, and finally 45 miles northeast to Hattem, near Zwolle, where the van Halls lived. The center was at Bussum, where Drafna was located.

Drafna was described by Tom de Booy as having “a special atmosphere [as] the throbbing center of the Boissevain clan.” The De Booys built a house called De Sparren near Tante Trot’s house. In Hattem were Astra, built by the van Halls, and Kleine Astra, where the van Halls stayed while they were building their house. The de Beauforts (the family Teau married into) also lived near Hattem.

The importance of houses may be conveyed by the fact that Teau de Beaufort composed a play about
houses. Each character was given a house to play. They had to memorize their lines. I remember it being very embarrassing. I was 10 years old and was given the part of a seaside resort house (probably the one at Zandvoort). But my father was there and he took the liberty of changing some of Teau’s lines. I thought her father’s changes were good (he had a good ear for meter), but Teau and her fellow authors did not want to recognize any line changes. As a result, I never learned the changed lines properly and I was prompted with the original text, which I hadn’t studied. It was a disaster.