Overview: van den Berch family

The best source for information about Leeuwenhoek's ancestors is the 1952 article "Leeuwenhoek's afkomst en jeugd" by W. H. van Seters in volume 19 of the Biologisch Jaarboek. It is in Dutch, and has never been translated for publication.

It begins with the earliest known document. In 1557, Leeuwenhoek's great-grandfather Sebastian Cornelis van den Berch married Neeltje Jans Hogenhouck, daughter of another rich and influential regent family.

This was not a large family in Delft, in spite of the fact that S had ten siblings. Sebastian had an unmarried, childless brother and a sister who didn't leave for whom we have few records, and a half-brother who married into the Hogenhouck family but was childless.

Why didn't Sebastiaan and Neeltje's grandchildren get in veertig? They didn't have male heirs carrying the name. So as a regent family, the van den Berches died out in ____ with the death of the last male ____.

We don't know what S's father did, but S had a brewery and lived on K and was chosen for the Veertigraad in 1579, already middle aged, where he served until his death in 1605. Twice, he served as magistrate, 1584 and 1603, of the court where his great-grandson would be appointed kamerbewaarder in 1660.
His wife outlived him by 
Margriete Jacobs van den Berch had four sisters and two brothers. After the death of her first husband in 1638?, Margriete called on two of her sisters to help with young Antony's education. All but one sister, Cornelia, had left Delft to seek their fortunes elsewhere. 
We don't know the nature of his circumstances or curriculum in Warmond. Boitet gives us a better idea of what happened next, when Antony went to Benthuizen. "    ".
Next, Antony apprenticed in Amsterdam with a sc  -- D, but lived with his aunt Catharina and her husband Pieter Maurits Douchy, who was also a linen merchant.
The van den Berch women were descendants of a long line of Delft regents who had been involved in city politics and management for a hundred years.
They had eleven kids: