Chapter 4. Emmanuel Deschacht and Joanna Mestdagh, Jabbeke, 1734 to 1815
A bride from the next village
Emmanuel Deschacht married Joanna Mestdagh of Snellegem, the next village, on 23 January 1759. The witnesses were Jacobus de Wulf and Baptista de Schacht, very probably Emmanuel's father, which supports the link to Joannes Baptista made in chapter 3.1 Joanna had been baptised at Snellegem on 27 December 1734, the daughter of Joannes Mestdagh and Joanna Jaques.2
Transcription and translation
26 [decem]bris nata est hora 8 matutina et 27 ejusdem baptizata est Joanna filia leg. Joannis Mestdagh et Joannae Jaques conjugum. Susceptores Jacobus Hoenraet et Brigitta Staesens.
On 26 December [1734] at eight in the morning was born, and on the 27th was baptised, Joanna, lawful daughter of Joannes Mestdagh and Joanna Jaques, a married couple. Sponsors Jacobus Hoenraet and Brigitta Staesens. This is the Joanna Mestdagh 'baptised at Snellegem, aged 34' of the Jabbeke baptism of 12 May 1769: Emmanuel De Schacht's wife, Bernardus's mother, with her parents (grade A).
Joanna was baptised in the church of Sint-Elooi at Snellegem, whose oldest part, in the Romanesque style, dates from about 1150. It still stands, with a newer nave added in 1893.7
They lived at Jabbeke and had at least seven children between 1759 and 1775: Anna Maria (1759), Andreas (1761), Livinus (1763), Petrus (1766), Bernardus Jacobus (1769), Philippus Jacobus (1772) and Joannes Josephus (1775).1
The baptism of 1769
When Bernardus Jacobus was baptised on 12 May 1769, the priest did something priests of the Austrian Netherlands had just been instructed to do: he wrote down where the parents had been baptised and how old they were. Emmanuel: "baptised at Jabbeke, aged 37". Joanna: "baptised at Snellegem, aged 34". Joanna's age is exactly right; Emmanuel was in fact thirty-five.3 The boy's two names are those of two of Emmanuel's brothers, Bernardus and Jacob (chapter 3). The godfather was an Anselmus de Schacht, who would stand witness again at Bernardus's wedding twenty-five years later.
Transcription and translation
12a baptizatus est Bernardus Jacobus fil. legitimus Emmanuelis de Schacht baptizati in Jabbeke aetatis 37 annorum et Joannae Mestdagh baptizatae in Snelleghem aetatis 34 annorum. Susceptores fuerunt Anselmus de Schacht et Barbara Theresia de Jaghere. natus heri circa 9am vespertinam.
On the 12th [May 1769] was baptised Bernardus Jacobus, lawful son of Emmanuel de Schacht, baptised at Jabbeke, aged 37, and Joanna Mestdagh, baptised at Snellegem, aged 34. The sponsors were Anselmus de Schacht and Barbara Theresia de Jaghere. Born yesterday about nine in the evening. Emmanuel was in fact 35 (baptised April 1734); the godfather Anselmus stood witness again at Bernardus's wedding in 1794 (grade A).
These were the quiet decades of the Austrian Netherlands, the long peace under Maria Theresa in which farming prospered and the countryside filled up.6 Emmanuel's children were all born in peacetime, between the War of the Austrian Succession, which had put French garrisons in Flanders in 1744-1748, and the French Revolutionary armies that would arrive in 1792-1794, when his son Bernardus was a young man.
The end
Emmanuel died at Jabbeke on 21 June 1782 at seven in the morning, "baptised in this parish ... husband of Joanna Mestdagh", and was buried on the 23rd. The age the priest wrote, sixty-odd, is wrong by a dozen years - one more warning about ages at burial.4 He is the only Emmanuel de Schacht baptised at Jabbeke, so the link to Joannes Baptista and Cornelia is grade B: the burial says "baptised in this parish", and only one baptism is there to match it, but no act of Emmanuel-the-husband names his parents outright.
Transcription and translation
Vigesima prima Junii obiit ad septimam matutinam et vigesima tertia sepultus est Emmanuel de Schaght baptizatus in hac, aetatis 6[0?] annorum, maritus Joannae Mestdagh. Ita est: J. B. De Pachter[?] Past. de Jabbeke. Vidi hac 25a Julij 1782, P. J. Verhagen Past. ...
On 21 June [1782] at seven in the morning died, and on the 23rd was buried, Emmanuel de Schaght, baptised in this parish, aged 6[0?], husband of Joanna Mestdagh. So attested by J. B. De Pachter[?], parish priest of Jabbeke; seen on 25 July 1782 by P. J. Verhagen, dean. The age is written as sixty-odd; Emmanuel was baptised here in April 1734 and was 48 - the priest's figure is wrong by a dozen years, but the wife's name and 'baptised in this parish' identify him (grade A; age discrepancy noted).
Joanna Mestdagh outlived him by a generation. By the family tree she died in 1815, past eighty; her death act has not yet been read.5
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Jabbeke marriages 1756-1769, page 973, read on the original 18 October 2026 (betrothal 7 January, marriage 23 January 1759; witnesses Baptista de Schacht and Jacobus de Wulf) [S8] (grade A); baptisms of the seven children at Jabbeke, 1759-1775 (grade B). Bernardus Jacobus's baptism is read on the image [S3]. ↩↩
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Snellegem, baptisms 1685-1755 [S4]: 27 December 1734 (grade A). ↩
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Jabbeke, baptisms 1755-1769 [S3], image 0_0959: Bernardus Jacobus, 12 May 1769 (grade A). ↩
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Jabbeke, burials 1780-1783 [S3], image 0_1353 (grade A; the age is uncertain in the writing and in any case wrong). Index [S8]: no other Emmanuel de Schacht baptised at Jabbeke. ↩
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Wikipedia (Dutch), "Geschiedenis van de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden" [S17] (background only). ↩
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Wikipedia (Dutch), "Snellegem" [S20]: the Sint-Elooiskerk, Romanesque part of 1150, nave of 1893 (background). ↩