PATSY AND THE PUP | "My Favorite Book," says Hachikō

Hachikō says: "Patsy and the Pup is my favorite
 book." A nice book and you can get it. Photo by
JT Marlin.

My name is John and I am the younger son of Hilda van Stockum, who wrote Patsy and 
the Pup.

This post is about Patsy, her pup, and Hachikō.

About Hachikō

My wife Alice and I adopted a puppy that we named chūken Hachikō after a loyal dog that is a legend in Japan.

The adoption took place a few days ago, on March 23, which I discovered is National Puppy Day. So that put me in mind of Patsy and the Pup.

Wookiee Warriors–from Wookieepedia.

Hachikō is from a farm in upstate New York. The mother was a  Schnauzer.  The father is reportedly a Pomeranian, but on that farm they didn't keep a lot of records, so there is room for other theories.

Our daughter Caroline's theory is that Hachikō is at least half-wookiee. Someone else tells me that Hachikō is more of the size of an ewok, i.e., a smaller bear-like version of the wookiee. But Hachikō looks more like a wookiee than an ewok.

What do you think? Hachikō can be seen in the first photo at top reading my mother's book Patsy and the Pup. He is sitting in Alice's lap.

Oh, and Hachikō loves the book.

Patsy and the Pup

The book is about a dog that follows home a girl named is Patsy, for whom the model is clearly Elisabeth (whom we call Lis), except that Patsy lives in Ireland. She must bring the dog back to its owner. She loves the dog and wants to keep it, but she is told she is too young.

She has many adventures, but in the end Patsy successfully brings the dog back to its owner. Ten there is a surprise ending that should make any child happy.

The real-life models for Patsy and the pup were my younger sister Lis and her dog Trusty, a female pup. We had to leave Trusty behind with a friend when she was about four calendar years old, because of the six-month-quarantine laws for importation of dogs in Ireland in 1951.

Dogs in HvS Books and Art

Dogs are featured in many of Hilda van Stockum's books and artwork. They play an important role in The Winged Watchman, for example, when the Nazi Wehrmacht decides to require every Dutch dog to be evaluated for Army service. The original and latest cover of The Borrowed House has a dog standing behind Janna. On the cover of HvS's very first book, A Day on Skates, there is a little dog looking at the skaters...

Patsy and the Pup is, of course, all about a dog. So, I guess, is Pamela Walks the Dog, which is about a virtual dog; it was illustrated by HvS but the story was written by Christine Marlin.  In The Mitchells, a dog is a key part of the end of the story as Mr. Mitchell is worn down and endorses the idea that the family should have a dog. (That actually happened when the family moved from Lachine, then outside of Montreal, to Argyle Avenue in Westmount.)

Many of HvS's illustrations or landscape paintings show a dog somewhere in the foreground. Mostly they seem to be middle-sized, like terriers, but Andries features a big dog, looks like a Labrador. HvS wrote Rufus Round and Round originally about a Yorkie that she acquired from me.

A lot of her paintings and illustrations have little dogs in them. Can you think of some more?

BOISSEVAIN | Gens 0-6 (Updated July 1, 2016)

Gideon Jérémie Boissevain
Jr. (II), 1796-1875.

The following is structured as a genealogical Family Group starting with two men named Lucas who headed the Boissevain family in Holland. One stayed in France and the son left for Holland. 

The six generations of Boissevain descendants who lived in Holland are shown here (i.e., starting with Lucas Jr. as Gen1). The numbering system is the Henry Method employed by the late Matthijs Boissevain, showing both male and female descendants. The numbers were featured on the identification badges of the participants in the 1992 Boissevain Reunion in Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada.

The Henry Method has been modified in several ways, some of which are described here, to simplify the format.

References marked NP are to the page of the Nederland's Patriciaat, 1988; the Boissevain family starts on p. 40. In the NP, only male descendants are followed and the language is in Dutch. Both aspects pose barriers for many users, in addition to the scarcity of copies of the 1988 NP. Roman numerals are also used frequently in the NP and are in disfavor among Anglo-Saxon genealogists because they are not computer-sortable.

A genealogy through Gen8 and possibly Gen9 will be posted shortly and will then be published in some form.

Authorship of this genealogical table and related short bios–a work in progress during the summer of 2016–could be ascribed as follows: "Matthijs Boissevain, John Tepper Marlin and Noah Sisk, Boissevain Generations 1-6". Matthijs was the originator, Gen8. Marlin is Thijs's cousin once removed, Gen9. Sisk is Thijs's great-grandson, Gen11. Marlin and Sisk worked on the genealogy together in April-June 2016 and continue to do so.

Acknowledgments: Besides Tice Boissevain, on whose work the genealogical tables are based, I would like to express my appreciation for the continuing assistance of relatives dead and alive. For example, the Boissevain house tours in Amsterdam was made possible in large part by an article in Dutch by Ernst G. Boissevain for the 1993 Boissevain Bulletin that I machine-translated by Google Translate and then edited. Thanks to my late mother, Hilda van Stockum, for translating so much from Dutch and spending many hours trying to explain to me the intricacies of her Dutch relatives and their relationships. Thanks to Charles Leidschendam Boissevain and his daughter Aviva Boissevain for being so active in bringing the Boissevain relatives together, continuing Tice's making family members more aware of one another. Thanks to Noah Sisk's grandmother Pam Boissevain Wilkinson and her sisters Romelia (Rommy). Let me add before I forget the translation help of Francesca van Hamel, the invaluable translation and archival assistance of Engelien de Booy and the help of institutions in Amsterdam–the Archief, NIOD, the Versetzmuseum. Also Ben Boissevain's encouragement that I spend more time on this, although I never followed up on his suggestion that I have the work funded through a Crowdfunding exercise (this turns out to be a time-consuming project of its own). I will be adding to this list as I remember or am reminded!! Comments appreciated by email or as a posted comment below. –JTM

BOISSEVAINS – GEN0-GEN6

The following illustrates the generations through to Charles Handelsblad Boissevain. (This is being worked on.)

Gen0. The Ur-Boissevain, Lucas Bouyssavy Sr. (1640?-1685?) of Bergerac, Dordogne, France. He is said to have died in France soon after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes.

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Gen1. Lucas Boissavin Jr. 1660-1705, X 1700 Marthe Roux. In about 1895 he fled to Belgium and then Holland. Marthe also fled Bergerac. They were married in Rotterdam September 1, 1700. The marriage date seems to conflict with the story told in several places that Marthe Roux had two infants with her when she left France.

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Gen2. Jérémie Boissevain 1702-1779.

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Gen3. Gédéon Jérémie Boissevain 1741-1808.

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Gen4. Daniel Boissevain 1772-1834.

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Gen5. Gédéon Jérémie Boissevain 1796-1875. There were other children of Daniel.
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Gen6. Charles "Karel" Handelsblad Boissevain X Emily Héloise MacDonnell. There
other children of Gédéon Jérémie.

Source: Barthold Hubert Boissevain, Stamboek der Boissevains [Genealogy of the Boissevain Family], Amsterdam: Jacob van Campen, 1937.  Numbers in parentheses after the dates of birth and death are from the Stamboek. Generation numbering follows that of Matthijs (Tice) Boissevain.

GEN 0-1 | Lucas Sr. and Jr.

0. Lucas Bouissavy, Sr. 1620?-1685

      1. Lucas Bouissavy/Boissavin, Jr., 1660-1705 X (1700) Marthe Roux, 1664-1727

             11.  Isaac Bouissavy, 1701-? (may have died in infancy)

             12. Jeremie Bouissavy (Boissevain), 1702-1762

             13. Marthe Anne Boissevain, 1705-1767

0   Lucas Bouissavy (1631?-1685?) is the Ur-Boissevain, who starts the Boissevain Family Group. By most accounts he lived in the Dordogne, in Couze St. Capraise in Bergerac–the same Bergerac that long-nosed Cyrano made famous, suggesting that the prominent Boissevain nose has a regional origin. It's a lovely place. Sacha Boissevain once said to me: "We should never have left." They didn't have much choice after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. Apparently the property was left to a younger son who stayed behind. An Irish source says the name Boiscevain was used and the family originally came from what was then called the Cévennes, a name given by the Romans to an area that would now mostly be in today's Ardèche. This information (?) I find nowhere else but in this Irish source, but much of it seems possible, some of it even likely:

The Boissevain family of Amsterdam is derived from that of "Boiscevin," originally settled in the region of the Cévennes. Having early embraced the Reformation, they must have shared and suffered in the religious wars in that district, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; even after the Edict of Toleration was signed at Nantes by Henry of Navarre, in 1598, the persecutions were frequently renewed, and many of the Huguenots fled to seek safety elsewhere. This was especially the case about 1629, when Louis XIII (surnamed the "Just") destroyed the town of Privas and other places, and laid waste much of the Cévennes. At all events the Boiscevins appear to have been transplanted to Bergerac (on the Dordogne, about 40 miles east of Bordeaux) a town which had been dismantled by Louis XIII in 1621, for its Calvinistic tendencies. There they appear to have occupied a good position until the momentous revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 24th, 1685. This at once forced half a million of the most useful citizens of France to abandon their country, and seek a refuge elsewhere. Some of the Boiscevins also fled, endeavouring to escape to Holland. The father, with his wife and two little daughters, attempted to pass the frontier. He himself was captured and shot. His wife and the two girls were concealed in a wagon of hay. The soldiers of the guard thrust their lances through the hay; they pierced both children (who never recovered), and they wounded the mother in the thigh. The brave woman, who at the time was enceinte, allowed no sound to be wrung from her either by pain or terror. The wagon passed on with its wounded and dead. She arrived at the Hague, where she bore a son, who received the name of “Lucas.” 

This story makes sense only if we assume that Marthe Roux was married to someone else in France and they both tried to escape with their two children. This actually seems more probable than that a married couple would try to escape separately. But then Marthe Roux would have remarried in the Netherlands. Lucas was her husband.

Gidéon Louis Boissevain in
front of the Biltmore Hotel,
NYC, about 1922.

1   Lucas Bouyssavy/Boissavin, Jr. (1660-1705) is the original emigrant from France, the common ancestor of all the Boissevains in the world. Lucas was a Huguenot who lived happily in the Dordogne, France but had to leave behind his father Lucas Bouissavy Sr. (1671-1687) and brother because, as my mother told me often, the Huguenots were made unwelcome by the Sun King, Louis XIV. By revoking the religious-freedom principles of the Edict of Nantes, sunny Louis made being a Huguenot a treasonous act punishable by death. Lucas sold his property upon deciding to emigrate to Holland soon after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He escaped among the wine barrels on a boat from Bordeaux to Rotterdam. In one version of the story, this Lucas married Marthe Roux in Rotterdam. She had escaped separately, hiding in a hay wagon. When the wagon reached the border, a soldier checked the hay by plunging his bayonet into it. Despite the bayonet cutting into her thigh, Marthe Roux had the presence of mind to wipe the blood off the bayonet when it was removed; of such stuff were the Boissevain women made. Lucas and Marthe were the first generation to settle in Holland. The legends of Marthe Roux vary in detail. One source says two infants with her in the hay wagon were killed by the bayonet. Another says that one of the two infants died in Antwerp because of the onerous travel conditions. Some accounts of the family start with this Lucas rather than his father, perhaps because of the confusion about who the father of this Lucas was.

GENS 2-3 |  Jérémie and Gédéon (Gideon) Jérémie Sr.

12      Jérémie Boissevain (1702-1762, NP III), accountant X Marie Charlotte du Chesne, 1733 (article).
          122  Gédéon Jérémie Boissevain Sr. (1741-1802) X Margaretha Quien, 1767. NP IV.

Children of Gédéon Jérémie Sr. and Margaretha
1221    Marie Charlotte Boissevain (1768-1808).
1222    François Jeremie Boissevain
1223    Daniël Boissevain, Sr. (1772-1834, NP Va 45) X Johanna Maria Retemeyer (1796).
1224    Jean Boissevain.
1225    Henri Jean (1777-1823 NP Vb 133).  Six more children.

GENS 4-5 | Daniël and Gideon Jérémie Boissevain Jr.

1223    Daniël Boissevain, Sr. (1772-1834, NP Va 45). Married Johanna Maria Retemeyer, 1796. He started the newspaper (Algemeen Handelsblad) that his son Gideon inherited and his grandson Charles Handelsblad made famous.  He had 11 children.

12231  Gideon Jérémie Boissevain Jr.  (1796-1875, NP VI 48), also Handelsblad publisher. By his first wife Antoinetta Elizabeth Klijn he had a son who died neonatally and she appears to have died during childbirth. By his third wife Maria van Heukelom (1801-1866) he had seven more children, who would be most of the sixth generation of Boissevains in Holland.

12232  Daniël Boissevain Jr. (1804-1878, NP VIb 83).

12233  Edouard Constantin 1810-1885 NP Vic 102.

GEN 6 | Children of Gideon Jérémie.

122311 Son, died neonatally.
122312 Daniël Boissevain, Jr. (1831-1849).
122313 Walrave Boissevain (1833-1854).
122314 Annette Boissevain (1835-1894).
122315 Jan Boissevain (1836-1904, NP VIIa 52). Shipowner. His descendants are the Jantjes.
122316 Charles Handelsblad Boissevain (1832-1927, NP VIIb 67).  Twin of Hester. He had 11 children by his Irish wife, Emily Heloïse MacDonnell. Charles becomes 0 in another Family Group, and his descendants are shown there. They are called the Kareltjes or Charletjes (article).
122317 Hester Boissevain (1842-1914). Twin of Charles. Married Nicolaas Jacob den Tex.
122318 Jacob Pieter Boissevain (1844-1927). Worked for Boissevain & Co. in Batavia.

GEN 6 | Children of Daniel

122321  Gideon Maria (1837-1925, NP VIIc 88).
122322  Jacques Elie (1839-1918, NP VIId 90).
122323  Athanase Adolphe Henri (1843-1921, NP VIIf  93).
122324  Mijnhard Johannes (1845-1917, NP VIIg 97).
122325  Louis Daniël (1848-1916, NP VIIh 100).

GEN 6 | Children of Edouard Constantin 

122331 Willem (1849-1925 NP VIIi 107) 
                   Daniel François (1856-1929 NP VIIj 118)
      Henri Jean Arnaud (1813-1891 NP Vie 122)
                        Hieronimus (1849-1918 NP VIIl 123). 
                Louis Daniël (1852-1921 NP VIIm 127)
                Ursul Philip (1855-1930 NP VIIn 130).
       Jean Henri Guillaume (1817-1870 NP Vif) 136 (photo)
                Willem Frederik Lamoraal (1852-1919 NP VII p 138) (article)
                Auguste Charles Hugo 1864-1929 NP VIIq 144

This blog is sponsored by Boissevain Books, which publishes books by Hilda van Stockum and others. To help sustain this work, buy a book at www.boissevainbooks.com.

HvS ART | Madonna and Child

HvS, "Madonna and Child", image
posted by permission of the artist's
estate (c/o Boissevain Books LLC).

I remember both the painting and the sculpture that it features, and the two candlesticks as well.

The wooden sculpture was a gift of John Dowling, who was a dentist in Dublin with a large family. Mom was close to both John and his wife Joan. She went with Joan to Lourdes because Joan was seriously ill.

We used to go to John Dowling for dental work when we were in Dublin during the years 1951 to 1954 (in 1954-55 we were in Sceaux, outside of Paris on the Ligne de Sceaux).

As a father himself, Dr. Dowling had a way of making sure that children paid attention to his instructions on keeping your head steady and so forth. In my case he painted a scary picture of what might happen if I failed to follow his instructions. I hasten to say that Dr. Dowling might well have been justified in taking this approach with me.

John Dowling was one of the people that Mom knew from her days as an art student in Dublin and she still had a soft spot for him and he knew it.

She was bowled over by the statue. Being eight or nine years old, and remembering Dr. Dowling as a terrorizing dentist, I recollect saying something critical about the sculpture that made Mom furious (see previous paragraph for background). I have a sense that my criticism of the statue may have prompted the painting. What better way for her to telegraph her appreciation for the statue than to do a painting of it?

Anyway, stories about paintings raise their value, so this long epic about it might help the gallery sell the painting for a decent price. It is up for auction in Dublin at Adam's and is posted on Invaluable Auctions as well as AskArt.

My sister Brigid confirms that Mom was emotionally vested in the statue. She writes:

That statue is memorable to me because the day before my wedding [in Montreal, June 27, 1957] Daddy had cleared the house [419 Lansdowne Avenue, just above Sherbrooke St.] ready for the wedding party, and Mother couldn't find her statue and went shouting around the house in a fury, thinking Dad had destroyed it. I finally found it in the big Dutch press, but Mother took a long time to simmer down.

(I have that big Dutch press. The Dutch designed it so it could be brought upstairs in the narrow Amsterdam houses piece by piece, and assembled in the room.)

Lot 30: Hilda van Stockum HRHA (1908 - 2006) Madonna Oil on board, 43 x 28.5 cm. (17" x 11.25")

by Adam's

March 23, 2016, 6:00 PM BST

Dublin 2, Ireland 

Estimated Price: €500 - €700 

Description: Hilda van Stockum HRHA (1908 - 2006) Madonna Oil on board, 43 x 28.5cm (17" x 11¼")

Signed lower left corner with initials. Image © Estate of Hilda van Stockum.

This blog is sponsored by Boissevain Books, which publishes books by Hilda van Stockum. To buy a book and support keeping her work alive, go to www.boissevainbooks.com.