Boissevain

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Boissevain is a Dutch patrician family. The Boissevains are Huguenots, originally from the Dordogne in France.

Lucas Boussavy appears to be the founder of today’s Boissevain family. Lucas sells his half of the ancestral property in the village of Couze to his brother Jean on 22 July 1685. On 4 December 1687 he draws up his last will in the town of Bergerac, Dordogne. Because of Catholic persecution of the Protestants, he goes into exile, first to Bordeaux, and then to Amsterdam (Netherlands). He settles there about 1691, using the name Boissevain. So all bearers of this name, wherever in the world, descend from this Lucas.

In the course of the generations the family spreads further over the rest of the Netherlands and Europe. Adolphe Boissevain (1843-1921) acquired an outstanding reputation in financing companies, particularly railway companies, e.g. the trans Canadian Pacific Railways. Along this line is situated, in Manitoba, the town of Boissevain, Manitoba named after Adolphe. Daniel Boissevain (1856-1929) contributes the spread of the Boissevains over the North American continent, while for instance Willem Frederik Lamoraal Boissevain (1852-1919) contributes to a powerful presence of the family in the Dutch East Indies (the present-day Indonesia).

[edit] Coat of Arms

The family coat of arms includes a shield in silver with three green box trees in pyramid form, planted beside each other in the ground. The oldest known seal stamps in the second quarter of the 19th century show a shared coat of arms. On one side one can see the coat of arms of the Retemeyer family with a silver anchor and two stars above it and at the other side the Boissevain coat of arms. The heraldic device reads as follows in the old French language: Ni regret du passé, ni peur de l'avenir (Neither regret the past, nor fear the future).

[edit] Famous Boissevains

The Ship-owner Jan Boissevain (1836-1904) founder Netherland Line
The Journalist Charles Boissevain (1842-1927)
The Member of Dutch Parliament Walrave Boissevain (1876-1944)
The Resistant Hero Mies Boissevain - van Lennep (1896-1965)
The Resistance Fighters Janka (1921-1 October 1943) and Gideon Boissevain (1922-1 October 1943)
The Lyrical Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay Boissevain(1892-1950)
The Suffragist Inez Milholland Boissevain (1896-1916)
The painter William Boissevain (1927)
The Dutch Actor Daniël Boissevain (1969)