My 10th-great-grandfather Jacques le Mahieu (born about 1550, died after 1611) was buried in the Vrouwekerk in Leiden, a church that existed from the early 1300s until the 1800s. Some of the stones of the church are preserved and memorialized in this little plaza in Leiden.
Mahieu is believed to have been a French Protestant from the Walloon region. He is said to have been among the refugees from French Catholic persecution who travelled to Canterbury, England. He married Jeanne Leman Mahieu (1563-1609), and among their children was Hester Mahieu (c 1584-after 1666). Eventually the family settled in Leiden, where they affiliated with this church, the Vrouwekerk.
It was built as Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady). By late 1500s and early 1600s it had become a Protestant church—specifically a Walloon church who were joined by English Puritans who had migrated to Leiden.
As the plaque reads, Hester Mahieu married Francis Cooke (1583-1663) at this church. They are my 9th-great-grandparents. Cooke was one of those English Puritans who had settled in Leiden prior to deciding to travel to America.
Francis Cooke sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, along with a son. Hester and the rest of the children came to Plymouth three years later on the Anne. The family lived the rest of their lives in Plymouth Plantation and are buried there.
Eventually the descendants via the Cookes' daughter Jane (1605-1666) became a family among my Brownstown, IL roots (the Washburn family).
In May, 2023, how lovely it was to stand where a distant ancestor was buried, and where two others were married.
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