Rog Hiemstra’s Blog

Antje was born on November 2, 1775, in Jubbega, Netherlands. In 1807 she was employed as a maid in Tijnje. She had a love affair with Kobus Klazes and became pregnant. This was a problem as she already had two other children out of wedlock, a son of 9 and a daughter of 6, who lived with Antje’s mother, Tjitske Hendrik, in Kortezwaag. As this was a shameful thing to have a third pregnancy out of wedlock, Antje tried to hide it.

After finishing her work at Tijnje, she moved to Tietjerk and became a maid on the farm of Nutte Hedzers and Akke Romkes until May 12, 1808. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to hide her pregnancy. After then she spent some time with her sister in Wartena. She and her mother went to Tijnje again on May 26, to look for work for Antje. They went to the home of Lammert Willems and Aukje Gerrits who was a farmer and a merchant. After sitting in Aukje’s house for awhile, Antje said she had to go to the toilet (in those times the toilet was a little shed outside built over a small canal where refuse could be passed and slowly washed away). There she gave birth to her third baby. She did not know what to do and made a fateful decision that led to a spectacular court case.

She stepped outside and threw the baby in the canal. Her mother, Tjitske, then came out to the toilet and stood near her. Then Tjitske took her daughter to a small room built for a servant, Froukje Wopkes. Tjitske then hid some grass that was red from her bleeding daughter. Unknown to Antje, this was all witnessed by Lammert Willems’ son.

Aukje Gerrits soon entered this room and saw Antje lying on a chair and bleeding. She urged Tjitske to hurry to nearby Gorredijk and bring back the midwife. Tjitske did and they returned later that night. Antje first resisted being examined, but finally she could not hide the fact of a birth as the placenta was still in the womb. But where was the child? The midwife found only blood in the toilet. The next day after dawn the midwife asked Froukje to look around. She did and discovered the dead child outside the toilet in the little canal. After the body had been found, Tjitske wrapped it in a cloth and put it near the bed on which Antje was now lying.

The next day Antje was transferred to Beetsterzwaag. On June 10 she was transferred to the prison in Leeuwarden. When physicians examined the body on June 30, it appeared to have been a fully developed child, alive at birth, and that it had breathed for awhile.

The Frisian court of justice handled the matter. The trial began on September 10. Antje attempted to defend herself and said that she thought the time to deliver had not yet arrived. She said that in the toilet she only lost much blood. She said that perhaps the child had been born, she had not known it, and it had fallen into the water. However, she was not able to convince the court. The court judged that Antje was guilty of neglecting her newborn child. She had to stand, bound to a stake, with a doll in her arms on a scaffold for a quarter of an hour in Leeuwarden. Then she was whipped. She stayed and worked in prison for 10 years and then she was exiled from Friesland forever.

The court also tried Tjitske Hendriks. She was also declared guilty for aiding Antje in efforts to do what she did and she spent three years in prison. It is not known who cared for the children during the time she was in prison. However, she was not exiled and returned to Kortezwaag after then. After her 10 years in prison, Antje most likely went to Zevenhuizen to live with her children.