Willem van der Haegen


Willem van der Haegen, or Willem De Kersemakere, known in Portuguese as Guilherme da Silveira, or Guilherme Casmaca, was a Flemish-born Azorean entrepreneur, explorer, and colonizer. He was a pioneer colonizer in Azorean history and his descendants formed part of the original Azorean nobility.

Colonization of the Azores

As part of his inheritance, King Edward of Portugal bequeathed the islands of the Azores to his brother, the Infante D. Henriques, in 1433. This was subsequently left to Henry's nephew and adopted son, Infante D. Fernando, in addition to Henry's title as Grand Master of the Order of Christ. A grant was made by the Infante to his aunt, D. Isabella of Portugal, the Duchess of Burgundy, in the Low Countries. For many of the Flemish who were recuperating from the Hundred Years' War, this grant offered an opportunity of alleviating their suffering.
Van der Haegen, a wealthy Flemish merchant who traded with the Portuguese, was invited by Joost de Hurtere to settle the island with him, in an archipelago that was becoming known as a New Flanders. Consequently, in 1470, with his wife Margarida da Zambuja and at his own expense, he offloaded two ships carrying his extended family, slaves and professionals of various services, to begin what was characterised as a "second-wave" of immigration to the island. Van der Haegen, by his virtues and distinguished personality, became popular on the island. But, sensing a level of bad faith on the part of de Hurtere and a growing rivalry, he abandoned his holdings on Faial, to settle in Quatro Ribeiras, on the island of Terceira. He begins to cultivate wheat and gather woad plants for export. These plants, along with other species, were essential in the production of many of the dyes popular with mercantile classes. Most islands in the archipelago were populated, and the plants commercialized by the landed gentry for their exportable nature; early settlements were founded on the basis of agricultural and dye-based exports, such as woad. Van der Haegen's colonies were no exception.
On a trip to Lisbon he encountered D. Maria de Vilhena and his son Rui Teles. After some negotiation, D. Maria would cede the rights to the exploration of the islands to Van der Haegen, in exchange for monthly payments. Around 1478, he settled in Ribeira da Cruz, where he built homes, developed agriculture, collected more woad species for export, and explored for tin, silver or other minerals. Owing to the island's isolation and difficulties in communication his crops became difficult to export. After several years, he decided to leave the island and return to Terceira. But his return was brief; after seven years he left Quatro Ribeiras and settled in the area of Topo, São Jorge Island, effectively establishing the community with other Flemish citizens. He died there on December 21, 1507/09, and was buried in the chapel-annex of the Solar dos Tiagos, in the villa of Topo, today in ruins.

Personal life

Marriage and issue

He married Margarida de Zambuja probably in Bruges, Flanders, and would father eight children which would all integrate into the communities of the Central Group of islands:
The Flemish surname Haag means forest, which is translated into Portuguese as Silveira. The families with the surname Silveira, generally, descend from the Fleming Willem van der Hagen, although there is a branch of Silveiras on the island of Graciosa that are direct descendants of continental Portuguese families. Willem by his virtue and personality was able to found settlements that would eventually develop into important communities in the Azores. His descendants, using the adopted name Silveira, would continue his work on the islands and within the Portuguese empire. The name Silveira was adopted by Willem during his life in the Azores, from the literal translation to the Portuguese of the Dutch Haag or Haeg meaning "bush", "forest" or "scrub", which is silveira in the Portuguese. His family lineage is separate from the Silveiras of continental Portugal which also inhabited some settlements in the Azores. Van der Haegen obtained from King John II of Portugal, confirmation of family heraldry for his use in the archipelago.

Possible origins

In 2006, in his article 'Les Flamads au Portugal au XV Siècle the French historian Jacques Paviot wrote about the existence of a civil sentence in the archives of Bruges, written in medieval dialects of French and Dutch, which details the commercial relations of an individual named Willem De Kersemakere with various Portuguese merchants, including :pt:Lopo Mendes do Rio|Lopo Mendes.
According to Paviot and to further research published in 2011 by the Belgian genealogist André L. Fr. Claeys, this document, in comparison to the will of Willem van der Haegen's wife, :pt:Margarida_de_Zabuya|Magarida de Sabuya, dated from 14 September 1510 and registered by the notary André Fernandes, concluded that the real name of the colonizer until then known as Willem van der Haegen was in fact Willem De Kersemakere.
Claeys argues that the reason why De Kersemakere was known as Willem van der Haegen is that he must have been first married in Bruges to a lady named Van der Haegen. The conclusion is that on the Azores, according to Portuguese tradition, Willem's children from this first marriage must have chosen the surname of their mother van der Haegen or da Silveira, but without their father's family name "Casmaca", as it is also the Portuguese custom.
Furthermore, Claeys remarks that the chroniclers and genealogists of Azorean history based their writings on documents of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, several generations after Willem's lifetime, maintaining the surname da Silveira for all the children of the first marriage and even for Willem himself. This would probably mean, in Claeys' conclusion, that the first seven children are not from Margarida de Zambuja, and thus retain their mother's name, while Francisco, the youngest, was always called Casmaca. Claeys' also claims that, according to the Flemish and Portuguese customs, men never receive the surname of their wives, thus, the denomination "Willem van der Haegen" would be incorrect.
In addition to Paviot and Claeys, several authors throughout the centuries have referred to Willem as Guilherme Casmaca or Cosmacra, with the earliest attestation, besides the will of his wife, being a description of his life and family by Gaspar Frutuoso written in the years 1586-1590, in chapter 36 of the manuscript Saudades da Terra. Likewise, in a contemporary account to Willem's lifetime, Valentim Fernandes refers to him as 'Guylelmo Hersmacher' in his latin manuscript 'Descripcam de Cepta por sua Costa de Mauritania e Ethiopia published in 1506.
Paviot speculates that De Kersemakere may originate from the Dutch word Kaarsenmaker, while Jorge Forjaz, Pedro da Silveira and José Guilherme Reis Leite speculate that Casmaca may originate from the Dutch word Kaasmaker or Kasmach, the last two also state that this may be the origin of Flemish cheese tradition on the São Jorge island. Moreover, Eduardo de Campos de Castro de Azevedo affirms that he colonizer known as Guilherme da Silveira was actually from Maastricht, which previously belonged to the Duchy of Brabant, where there was never any family by the name Vandraga/Van der Haegen.
Willem van der Haegen's parentage is uncertain, however he might have been a member of the 'De Keersmaeker' patrician family.
James H. Guill, in his book 'A history of the Azores Islands, Vol. 5, p. 140', claims that Willem's wife, Margarida, was in fact an illegitimate daughter of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy and that her husband was an illegitimate grandson of John the Fearless, likely through the latter's bastard son, John, Bishop of Cambrai, although, his allegations are heavily contested by Claeys, because Guill never cites any sources for this information, and never consulted the archives of Bruges, or other Flemish sources, always referring to Willem as 'Van der Haegen', and never 'Casmaca' or 'De Kersemakere'. Instead, Claeys argues that Margarida was probably born 'Marguerite Zabeau' from the petty nobility of Wallonia, observing that since before 1322 the surname Zabeau is found on the regions of Liège, Luxembourg and Ardennes. Claeys also notes that even if Margarida was in fact a Savoy, she was probably the daughter of other members of this family who settled in Wallonia, as he claims to have found two coats of arms of lineages named Savoi or Savoye. Also in the same region, there are records of Aimé, Count of Savoy and Jacop van Savoye, Count of Romand and Saint-Pol.
It is very likely that Guill based his allegations on the claim made by Gaspar Frutuoso that Willem was the grandson of a Count of Flanders. However, the noble origin of Van der Haegen has been disputed by various posterior authors. The first of which, Diogos das Chagas, claimed in his manuscript 'Espelho Cristalino' from 1646 that there were two people named Silveira: "João de Silveyra, a very important man and great merchant ", to whom Joost de Hurtere made many promises if he would agree to settle on the Azores, and another "Guilherme de Silveyra of the Silveyras of Brandath" who traveled to Flores and then São Jorge. In regards to the latter, das Chagas writes that the name Brandath is a linguistical corruption of Vandraga.