Verwersdijk 97 A

Grandfather Thonis Philips Leeuwenhoek (-1643) gave it to his granddaughter Geertruijt Huijchs Leeuwenhoeck (1628-1684) scheiding odh 1685 05/31. She was unmarried and childless.

When Leeuwenhoek registered his engagement and marriage to Barbara de Meij in July 1654, he said he was living on the Verwersdijk, the last word on the middle line in the image below.

This was probably today's Verwersdijk 97A, which is the only house on that street owned by anyone in his family. His grandfather bought the house and bequeathed it to his son, Antony's uncle Huijch, who bequeathed it to his daughter, Antony's cousin Geertruijt. In 1654, she was 26 years old and unmarried. Huijch was living on the Brabantse Turfmarkt, so perhaps Gertruijt lived there alone and had room for cousin Antony, just back from Amsterdam. His youngest sister Catherina is listed as living on Verwersdijk, also, when she married Claes Jans van Leeuwen on March 17, 1655.

Antony did not buy the house on the Hippolytusbuurt until February 1655, so perhaps he and his bride lived on the Verwersdijk until they could move into their new house, probably in May 1655.

If so, when the gunpowder blew on October 12, the Delft Thunderclap, Antony and Barbara were living closer to the explosion than many people who died, including painter Carel Fabritius. Perhaps the young newlyweds were at one of the nearby fairs in den Haag and Schiedam that kept the casualties that day lower than they might have been if everyone had been at home.