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Communities within the community: aspects of neighbourhood in seventeenth-century Haarlem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Gabrielle Dorren
Affiliation:
Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Univ. of Amsterdam, 1012 VB Amsterdam

Abstract

This paper analyses the notion of neighbourhood in Haarlem, a Dutch town in the province of Holland, in the seventeenth century. During the first decades of the century the city magistrates were challenged by huge immigration, religious and cultural pluralism, and, due to the Dutch Revolt, a lack of a strong central power. In spite of these ingredients for social unrest, peace was preserved without too many difficulties. One of the mechanisms that kept society from falling apart was neighbourhood. Several levels of neighbourhood will be studied here and an answer is given for the growing interference of city magistrates with neighbourhood life.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

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26 To give an idea of the amount: this was as much as a year's salary for a very well-paid job, like that of organist in Haarlem's main church or headmaster.

27 Namely, the amount people who owned more than 1,000 guilders had to pay when they married.

28 As confirmed by other sources for Haarlem, such as the general ordinances on gebuurten of 1649 and 1670, and by evidence on The Hague and Leiden as mentioned by Rappard, ‘De 's Gravenhaagsche buurten’ and Pieck, ‘Jan van Hout’.

29 Ibid., 40–1.

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44 For seventeenth-century Haarlem there are no registers of citizenship left. We do not know what percentage of the population was officially citizen, but there is ample reason to believe that being an honourable, creditworthy resident was what really counted for citizens and non-citizens alike. On this subject see my article: ‘De eerzamen: zeventiendeeeuws burgerschap in Haarlem’, in Aerts, R. and Velde, H. te (eds), De stili van de burger. Over Nederlandse burgerlijke cultuur vanaf de middeleeuwen (Kampen, 1998), 6079.Google Scholar

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