The history of Spekker
Johann and Aeve Specker
1565 - 1624
The first representatives of the family were Johan & Aeve Specker. Johan was born around 1565 and is mentioned in documents as “Honourable and Respectable Johann Specker“. Johan and his wife lived in a time of great upheaval. The Reformation stirred up spirits everywhere and the Netherlands renounced Spanish rule and started the Dutch-Spanish War. Due to its evangelical orientation, Emden became the "Geneva of the North"; and in the context of the events, the the political stage in that city were focused, like in a magnifying glass. To top it all off, Count Johan Tzyerza (Cirksena) of East Friesland died in 1591 in East Friesland and his brother Count Edzard II now took over the whole Government. The power struggle between the two brothers on a political and religious level had permanently paralyzed government business. The situation escalated in 1595 in the city of Emden, where a Calvinist community led by Gerhard Bolardus deposed the counts government of the city, razed the counts residence and on March 18, 1595 announced that Emden was now a free Reichsstadt.
Count Edzard levied taxes in the form of servantsmoney without delay following an arbitration procedure between the Estates and the Count, which was conducted by the Imperial Envoy, Count von der Lippe. In the case of the Rheiderlanders, the purpose of this was to finance the garrison of the fortress at Leerort. Nor did he wait for the population to pay this money in, he had vassals collect it, who now roamed the Amt of Leerort. This was one of those reprisals the Specker family in Stapelmoor and like everyone else, they already paid the so-called guard money to pay the garrisons of fortresses like Leerort and local wardens. Johan and Aeve felt this new taxation to be unfair, also because they knew from the pulpit proclamation that Count Edzard was forbidden by the emperors envoy to introduce innovations. However, since the family belonged to the Hausmanns class, she was able to counteract this. The syndic of the householder estate, Hector Friedrich, was commissioned to draw up a formal complaint in which the householders of the office protested against these innovations. To this end, the inmates of the Leerort office signed a power of attorney for Hector Friedrich and also Johan Specker signed this. Two notaries by the names of Jakob Adriani and Albert Severin were entrusted with the task of handing over this protest note to Count Edzard. But the Count, who was in his residence at Fortress Leerort at the time, would not let them in. So the complaint was handed over to the Counts secretary, Haseborg. As soon as the notaries wanted to leave the fortress, the count had them arrested and imprisoned. He probably feared a repetition of the events in Emden. This is the only way to explain the vehemence with which he acted in this matter. He probably felt personally insulted by the protests of the Hausmanns class and anxious to restore his authority, so Count Edzard II instructed the bailiff Johan Wilcken to summon the signing Hausleute of the Leerort office immediately and call them to reason. So Wilcken had all the signatories of the complaint summoned to the school in Leerort. In the presence of two notaries, all those eligible for parliament in the towns of Leer, Loga, Logabirum, Edermoor, Veenhusen, Weener, Stapelmoor, Diele, Vellage, Essklum, Mitling and Mark, Dorenborg and Driever were asked how they felt about the complaint against the count. This protocol is dated February 19, 1596 and records the names of 97 local residents summoned from the named places who held an office or were otherwise considered “qualified citizens”. Johan was also among those summoned. The fate of the imprisoned notaries will probably have made its rounds among those gathered. Likewise, those who traveled must have been all too aware that Count Edzard viewed the complaint as a kind of high treason, and some people were probably intimidated by it. However, the statements that were made, made it clear that, to their knowledge, the complaint was intended to lead to nothing other than peace and unity and was not aimed directly at the counts personal government, but only complained about the collection of the servant money. All those present agreed that the complaint was not directed against the Count personally. Some stated that they would completely distance themselves from the events because they were not aware of the explosiveness of the protest note beforehand. Still others stated that they had never signed a power of attorney at all. The content of the protest note probably went far beyond the target and had developed an explosiveness that was not intended. The Count was finally satisfied with the statements and those summoned were allowed to leave.
Johan Specker is said to have donated the wooden pulpit there to the evangelical church in Weener in 1611. This statement is based on oral and written family records, as there are no ecclesiastical records of the pulpits endowment. However, his sons payment is documented Focko Spekker over 50 Rhenish guilders (todays value around €2,500 - €3,000), with which the assembly of the pulpit after Johans death was financed. Johan himself appears in 1623 and 1624 in a church account from Weener.
A ladies hood, which was found in the sound cover during restoration work in 1929, could therefore Aeve Specker have heard. Attempts to locate this womens bonnet via the local history museum in Weener were in vain. The only photo of it dates from the year the find was made in 1929 and was probably taken by Bernh. H. Meyer from Weener.
The Thirty Years War and Aftermath
1625 - 1716
Until about 1640, prosperity was distributed fairly evenly in East Friesland, and there were hardly any slums. But a European catastrophe brought about a change here. In 1618 the Thirty Years War broke out in the country and although East Frisia experienced no real combat operations over the entire period and expressly remained neutral, the country was systematically fleeced by encamped troops of the competing factions. Johanns son Berend Spekker had to steer the fortunes of the court through explosive times, because the inmates had to feed the camped troops with all kinds of natural produce, which severely affected the familys profitability, and the supply of Westphalian fuel dried up almost completely. the Spekkers were able to hold their ground, because Focko Spekker, Berends brother, made it right after the war to finance the construction of the pulpit in 1649, which was donated by his father. Since the war lasted from 1618 to 1648, it can be assumed that the completed pulpit was stored during this time so that it was not processed into firewood before assembly. Also the son of Berend, Luebbert Spekker, who was born around 1624, belonged to the Hausleute in Stapelmoor. The great crisis occurred in this post-war period and the gradual decline of East Frisia began, because the count and estates had to cope with unbelievable debts from the Thirty Years War. The debts of the stands totaled 1,717,536 guilders with 8-13% interest. Measured against todays values, one would speak of around €86 million. An exorbitant sum for the time. It was not for nothing that the country needed a hundred years to be back in the black. Such things were not immediately known to the East Frisian population of that day and were merely expressed in a general feeling. 1682 became Luebbert Spekker a son was born, whom he promptly named after his father, Berend. Berend Spekker also had to fight hard, because the most devastating catastrophes that ever afflicted the Rheiderland fell during his time. He married Hemke Staas in 1709. Of this Hemke Staas comes the first name that is still used in the family today state. In 1715, the Rheiderland was overrun by a cattle plague, which had not been known as a disease until then. It originated in Italy as early as 1708, worked its way into the Netherlands by 1713 and was at the gates of Rheiderland in 1714. In December 1714 the first case of the epidemic near Stickhausen became known and immediately afterwards, at the beginning of 1715, the first cattle died near Werdum. Inaccurate sources speak of 60,000 dead animals, which in many cases meant ruin for the rural population. All farmers who managed to counteract this plague to some extent were soon to suffer another stroke of fate. In Wiardas East Frisian History Volume 7 from 1797 it is written:
In the spring of the following year, the Amel, a small, black-grey worm, which tends to multiply through cold and wet weather, appeared in an extraordinary number. The green and building land was extremely damaged by this Amel, to the greatest disadvantage of the farmer. The willows stood bare from the grass and the young seeds were gnawed or partly completely spoiled. The corn that was still sprout and ripened was eaten by the mice in the summer. The land was so full of mice that you could beat them to death with sticks and kick them with your feet. Mice swarmed everywhere you looked. Entire fields that had been densely packed with grain the day before were like a mowed field the following morning. […] In winter the mice got lost.
The magnitude of these closely-paced catastrophes only becomes apparent when we realize that the rural population could only subsist on their produce. But there were hardly any cattle left in the field and the barn was empty. For Berend and Hemke made it even more difficult that on 02/06/1716 the little Staas Spekker was born. Staas was born after his sister Engel *1710 and his brother Luebbert *1713. So the household housed Berend and Hemke with the three children. Fear of the future seems to me is a far too small word here. The country was squeezed out by the Thirty Years War and now robbed of its sources of income. Rents plummeted, the land lost its value, and famine ensued. What saved Berend and his family during this time was the fact that Berend was one of the wealthy farmers due to his heritage. So the Spekker family, in retrospect, bridge this dry spell better than many others, even if they themselves doubted it. Many families in East Frisia starved to death that summer and autumn and even the neighbors had no chance to counteract this, as they could barely make ends meet. In the chronicle of the Groeneveld family one finds the indication that at that time there was hardly any money in circulation and the population had to live on what was there or what was bartered. Then finally this terrible year came to an end. And despite a failed harvest and almost complete loss of livestock, Christmas was approaching, as it does every year. All families in Rheiderland are now hoping for a better spring next year. After a hundred years of hardship and foreign servitude, this must the beginning of better times. But fate wanted to give this story a big point after the last act.
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