(Corrected) Jacobs/Jacobson (& de Croyer) and van Soldt (+Ot

[R C]

Ole Peter Grell’s 1989 work, “Dutch Calvinists in Early Stuart London: The
Dutch Church Austin Friars, 1603-1642” contains information on my mother’s
first known non-English forebears, the families of Philip Jacobs/Jacobson
and his first wife Elisabeth’s father Jan van Soldt.



Philip Jacobs or Jacobson migrated from Flanders to London ca 1600. He was a
Deacon at Austin Friars from 11 Dec. 1617. He was a merchant and denizen of
London, residing in Pudding Lane, Billingsgate Ward, and was recorded in the
Visitation of London in 1633-35. Grell notes his memberships in the Virginia
Company (1609), the Bermuda Company (1615) and the East India Company
(1624). He was refused naturalisation by James I as the King specifically
stated that he couldn’t afford to lose the revenues the royal coffers
received as a result of Jacobson’s being subjected to double taxation as a
foreigner. Philip Jacobson was called King’s Jeweller under both James I and
Charles I, and because of their enormous debts to him was made a lessee/fee
farmer of lands in the royal forest of Bra(y)don forest, near Purton and
Cricklade, Wilts., which appears to be how he came to be connected with his
2nd wife’s family, Ernle, who were already established in that vicinity.



Some interesting tidbits about Philip Jacobson’s activities can be gleaned
from various sources, including:



Pamphlets on Forestry in Great Britain

1900

"An early lessee had been Philip Jacobsen, a Dutchman who lived near the Sun
Tavern in New Fish Street in the City of London. Jacobsen was a court
jeweller to whom the King owed £8000 or £10000...The subsequent history of
the holdings is as follows. Frances Jacobsen, widow of Philip Jacobsen,
obtained a confirmation of lease for thirty-three from Lady Day 1668 but the
acreage was less than that of the original." [also noted in T.R. Thomson's,
Bradon Forest, p. 27]



The Genesis of the United States: A Narrative of the Movement in England
1605-1616 which resulted in the Plantation of North America by Englishmen,
vol. 2, Alexander Brown (1891)

p. 931

"Jacobson, Philip, of Antwerp, jeweler, 2. Sub. £37 10s. ; pd. £62 10s. Of
St. Margaret's Parish, in Billingsgate ward, London ; one of the king's
jewelers ; was the son of Jacob Jacobson de Antwerp. March 18, 1611, he
bought the great diamond of the E. I. Co., paying £535 therefore."



His first wife, however, was Elisabeth van Soldt the daughter of Jan or John
van Soldt, of Aldgate ward, London (PCC will), whom he married in 1604. By
her he had issue: Jane (Joanna) Jacobson, baptised at Austin Friars in 1614,
who married my 11th generation ancestor Thomas ERNLE (III), gent., of Purton
and Braydon, Wilts. (bt. 1614, Dilton, Westbury, Wilts.; will proved
Archdeaconry Court of Wilts, 1694).



Philip JACOBSON married 2ndly, Frances ERNLE, sister of Thomas ERNLE (III),
and thus ended up as her own brother’s mother-in-law. A somewhat garbled MI
recorded for Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart, at Cricklade St Sampson, Wilts.,
recalls their granddaughter Frances SKILLING. SKILLING was a gentry name in
those parents in the 17th century.



The pedigree of JACOBSON is traced back to Philip’s parents in Antwerp, his
birthplace, and there are connexions to the van Soldt family in both the
JACOBSON pedigree recorded by the heralds and the OTGHER pedigree.



An additional piece of information is that another of Jan/John van SOLDT’s
daughters, Susanna van SOLDT’s name is associated with some of the earliest
surviving Dutch keyboard music.



The IGI, by patron submission, from an unknown source, has information on
the family of a Hans van SOLDT and his wife Elisabeth ROMBOUTS, who would
appear to have made the move from Antwerp to London between the birth of
their son Hans in Antwerp in 1584 and that of their daughter Susanna in
London in 1586. Their daughter Elisabeth, presumably the same one as my
ancestress, was born in London in Armada year.



Grell says of Jan van Soldt that he was a Deacon of the Dutch Church (Austin
Friars) from 1586-1597, resided in Aldgate street, and was an elder from
1595 who was still in office in Oct. 1603.



I do not know whether Jan/John van SOLDT of Grell’s book, the Visitation and
PCC will, and Hans of the IGI are identical, and I would be interested in
learning where the IGI information might have come from.



I would also be interested to know by what means it is possible to trace the
lineage of armigerous families in Antwerp and elsewhere in the Low
Countries.



In the 1620/1 London Visitation pedigree, Philip JACOBSON, gent., is called
the son of Jacob JACOBSON of Antwerp by his wife Anne daughter of Philipp
de CROYER of Antwerp. Would his arms recognised in England have been burgher
arms or nobleman’s arms from Flanders?



If the IGI connexion is correct, then Elisabeth wife of Philip JACOBSON, was
the daughter of Hans/Jan/John van SOLDT, by his wife Elisabeth ROMBOUTS. Her
paternal grandparents would be Paulus van SOLDT (son of Hans) and Maria
Franco (Frans?) Aerse (d. of Franco [?Frans]), and her maternal ones, Willem
ROMBOUTS and Catharina REYGERS.



Any useful leads or information would be most gratefully received.



Many thanks in advance,



Richard