This article has been reprinted with the kind permission of Harry Macy, Editor of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.

    I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for his help and understanding.

    The progenitors of the Wijnkoop family are CORNELIS WIJNKOOP and his wife Marie Jansdr. van Langendijk, who among other children had the following sons: Johannes, Gerrit and Evert. Cornelis and his wife settled in New Netherland abt. 1655.

    There was also in the colonies at the same time one Pieter Pietersz. Wijnkoop born in 1616, for in a disposition made March 9, 1640, his age is given as 24 years. (Van Rensselaer-Bowier Mss.) It is not known at present if there existed any relationship between Cornelis and Pieter Wijnkoop. The latter does not seem to have left any descendants. The most complete genealogy of this family is the Wijnkoop Genealogy of the United States of America by Richard Wijnkoop published in 1904. As to the origin of the family the writer states on page 3 that a tradition preserved in the Pennsylvania branch of the family, seems to indicate that the American progenitor Cornelis C. Wijnkoop came from Utrecht. On the same page is reproduced what is supposed to be the arms of a Wijnkoop family, which was settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is taken from Rietstap's Armorial G�n�ral, but drawn by someone unfamiliar with heraldry or at least with French blazoning, with the result that the representation is a heraldic curiosity. Quarterings I and IV should represent the mountain and sea respectively issuing from the dividing line and the base, not floating in mid-air, with two stars (mullets) in chief; II and III the lion should be rampant and no stars are to be shown in these quarterings

    There are in existance in a private collection in the Netherlands two excellent, very complete MS genealogies of the Wijnkoop family bearing the foregoing arms, of which a branch was settled in Amsterdam, but which originally came from Hoorn, North-Holland. A thorough research failed to disclose any possible connection of the American Wijnkoop family with the former. The American compilers of the Wijnkoop genealogy however have overlooked the fact that there existed in the Netherlands another family of the same name, settled in Barnevelt and Nijkerk, a vicinity from where many persons emigrated to New Netherland (see van Slichtenhorst article) and although the final conclusive proof is at present still lacking (a thorough research has not been made), circumstantial evidence seems to point to this family as the probable ancestors of the American Wijnkoop family, incidentally in a general way corroborating the tradition heretofore mentioned of an origin from Utrecht. The town of Barnevelt is situated in the Province of Gelderland but very near the Utrecht border and it is to Barnevelt that we must look for the place of origin of this Wijnkoop family. In the neighborhood of this small town is a district (buurt) known by the name of Wenkop (Magazine Navorscher XXXIV, p. 43) from

which the family undoubtedly derived its surname, for the family name is often given as van Wijncoop.

    The earliest mention of the name which I have found is an entry under date of October 7, 1557 in the records of the treasury of the Province of Gelderland. The entry reads, translated:

No. 1-DERRISKEN, ATRIS WIJNKOEPS mother, born outside of the Province (of Gelderland) died in Barnevelt. Leaves a daughter married to Evert Jansz. van Domzeler. (A tax was levied on the estate of a person born outside of the Veluwe, a district of the Province of Gelderland, who died within its borders.)

No. 2-REINIER (RENERUS) (van) WINCOOP or WIJNKOOP, from Barnevelt was at first a priest, but joined in 1583 the Reformed church. In 1592 be was appointed as a minister at the Dutch Reformed church at Barnevelt, but his appointinent had not been confirmed in 1594. On the 17th of Oct. 1596 however Regnerus Wijnkopius, minister at Barnevelt, is present at the communion supper held at Nijkerk. He died 1603. (Geschiedenis der Reformatie te Nijkerk (History of the Reformation at Nijkerk) in Publications of the Dutch Society Gelre. Bijdr. en Meded. Vol. XV.)

No. 3-There is a REYNIER EVERTSZ. WIJNCOOP, whose widow Diele van Morseler lives Oct. 4, 1609 at Apeldoorn (near Barnevelt) and who is then 85 years old. They have a daughter DIRCKSKE WIJNCOOP. (Civil lawsuits court of Gelre 1616, I.)

No. 4-STIJNE ELBERTSDR. (EVERTSDR,?) the wife of Gerrit van Mehen a sister of REYNIER VAN WIJNCOOP sues EVERT WINCOOP in 1580. (Same source as No. 1 above.)

No. 5-EVERT WINCOOP is mentioned in Nijkerk in 1558. (Same source as No. 1 above.)

No. 6-WESSEL (or BESSEL), GERRIT and MELIS WIJNCOOP, brothers, sons of JOHAN WIJNCOOP, appear before the court of Gelre June 30, 1612. They are inhabitants of Putten, near Nijkerk. (Civil lawsuits court of Gelre 1613, 1.)

No. 7-BESSEL JANSZ. WIJNCOP is mentioned in 1608 as owner of property in Arckemede (a district near Nijkerk and Putten) and so is JAN WIJNCOP, in 1611. (Civil lawsuits Court of Gelre 1620 V.)

No. 8-Enfeoffed with the estate Hoerne near Garderen (near Nijkerk) was on April 27, 1618 BESSEL GERRITSZ. WINCOOP. He was succeeded by his son MELIS BESSELS WINCOP and so on in many succeeding generations. (Registers of Landtenure Veluwe. Gelderland.)

No. 9-TRIJN JANSDR. WIJNKOOP b. 1577, d. Nov. 12, 1649, m. Melis Lamberts b. 1574, d. Feb. 3, 1652. She is possibly a sister of the three brothers mentioned under 6. (Magazine Navorscher XXIII: 623.)

    There is still mention of a Bessel Wijnkoop in 1793 in Putten, a Melis van Winkoop is trustee of the orphan asylum at Nijkerk in 1826 and Wulfert van Winkoop in 1854, proving that the family still existed in this part of the Netherlands about 100 years ago.

    Considering the fact that children of the American progenitor bore the names Jan, Gerrit and especially Evert, names which we also found in the contemporary generations of the Barnevelt-Nijkerk-Putten family, it seems logical to assume that the probable pre-American ancestors of the American Wijnkoop family are to be found among the former.

    A clue might be found in the fact that the American founder Cornelis Wijnkoop was in 1666 appointed an executor of the estate of the late Gijsbert Philipszen van Velthuysen (who had been killed by the Indians at the Esopus) and who is designated as his "neeve," cousin or nephew. (Early Records of Albany Vol. IV p. 11 note.)

    As far as I have been able to ascertain, the Barnevelt Wijnkoop family never

assumed a coat-of-arms. The American family however assumed the arms which are reproduced herewith and which are said to have been first used by Peter Wijnkoop b. 1755 (Wijnkoop Genealogy p. 7). They are reproduced in this genealogy and also in colors in the Holland Society Yearbook of 1886 (annual dinner issue) opp. page 60.

    Charles D. Allen in American Bookplates under Nos. 960, 961 and 962 lists the ex-libris used by Augustus Wijnkoop, C. C. Wijnkoop and Peter Wijnkoop and reproduces on page 56 the bookplate of Richard Wijnkoop. These all call for or show these same arms with slight modifications of general design but not of substance. The idea of these arms was evidently first conceived for a bookplate, but as it is strictly heraldic in design we must classify it as the Wijnkoop coat-of-arms.

The charge of the arms is meant to be a pictorial representation of a meaning of the name Wijnkoop, namely the buying of wine. The most common meaning of the name is a drink of wine offered by the purchaser to a seller at a sale. Wenkop, the name of the district from which the family undoubtedly derived its name is said to mean the extreme end of a pasture.

    (Additional information on the Wijnkoop family just obtained will be found in the January, 1935, RECORD.)

Source:

New York Genealogical & Biographical Record
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
122 East 58th Street
New York, N.Y. 10022-1939

Volume 65
October 1934
Pages 351-353