Jan-Baptist Verlooy

Jan-Baptist Chrysostomus Verlooy (Houtvenne, 22 December 1746 - Brussels, 4 May 1797) was a jurist and politician from the Southern Netherlands.

Verlooy belonged to a family of local notables who owned extensive possessions and of whom some were invested with prominent power. An official document bearing 21 June 1720 as a definite date, bears testimony to the fact that his grandfather, Jan Verlooy (about 1657–1723), was a royal and hereditary notary ("conincklyck ende erfelyck notaris"). Grand father Jan occupied the position of Secretary in Houtvenne. This position might have provided him with a degree of respectability which is proved by the fact that one of his grand children, Jan Frans Verlooy, referred to it when he applied to be a notary in the Chancery of Brabant in 1775. One can read in the assessment preceding his appointment that he descended from respectable parents, that his grand father was Secretary of Oosterwijk and that the family of his mother were one of the most honourable from the Campine ("van treffelijke ouders voortsgecomen, synen grootvader was Secretaris van Oosterwijck ende de familie van sijne moeder is eene van de treffelyckste uyt de Kempen"). Grand father Verlooy was buried in the church of Houtvenne, generally a privilege for the upper class.

Jan Baptist Chrysostomus’ father, Jan Frans Verlooy (1697–1773), was also Secretary in Houtvenne. If it is true that he was involved in agriculture as well, and this seems to be confirmed by the census in 1755, then he probably would not have been able to spend much time in this business. This can be deduced from the hundreds of pages in folio that he wrote while in service at his commune and which turn up in the registers of the municipal archives in Houtvenne, now in the state archives in Antwerp. He was mentioned various times in the journal of the priests of Houtvenne, now and then as Mr. Secretary Verlooy ("De Heer Secretaris Verloy"). The farmhouse he lived in, the so-called "Kauberg Schrans" was an impressive building. Situated to the north of the village, it belonged to the red brick construction of the hamlet "the Pig Market" ("de Varkensmarkt") or "the Square" ("de Plein"). It was surrounded by a deep moat, to the outside contiguous to the brick Saint Anne Chapel.

Jan Frans Verlooy carried responsibility for a large household. Ten children came from his first marriage with Anna Maria Meeus (Joanna Elisabeth, 1724, Jan Frans, 1726, Henricus, 1729, Anna Maria, 1730, Anna Catharina, 1732, Jan Frans, 1735, Petrus Antonius, 1737, Anna Barbara 1740, Ferdinandus Jozef, 1742, a nameless child, 1743). Out of his second marriage on 14 January 1744 with Anna Wouters, came eight descendants (Joannes Baptista, 1745, Joannes Baptista Chrysostomus, 1746, Adrianus Ferdinandus, 1748, Frans, 1750, Maria Theresia, 1752, Adrianus, 1754, Jan Frans, 1756, Guilelmus Norbertus, 1758). The second child from his second marriage was Jan Baptist Chrysostomus. Jan Frans Verlooy was buried on 1 September 1773 and his wife Anna Wouters was buried on 17 October 1764.

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