Jean Crommelin's Family Bible


Jean Crommelin (1603-1659), husband of Rachel Tacquelet
and owner of the large Crommelin Linen Works at St. Quentin, France

In an earlier article in the Crommelin Journal [See Spring 2012] we made mention of an old family Bible that was discovered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This historic bible passed through several Verplanck families and documented the ties between the Crommelin and Verplanck families dating back to 1667.

Now we learn of another old family Bible that originated with Jean Crommelin/Rachel Tacquelet in France. The whereabouts of this Bible is currently unknown but it was found among the books of Mr. Robert Crommelin of Flushing, L.I. who died April 28th, 1791 and was buried May 1, 1791 in the Episcopal Churchyard at Flushing. Fortunately a transcription from its fly-leaf was recorded and published in the booklet Gabriel Ludlow and His Descendents pp 15-16, by William Seton Gordon.

This Bible has an interesting provenance which includes:

  • Jean Crommelin/Rachel Tacquelet - St. Quentin, France
  • Madeline Esther Duyckinck - Rotterdam
  • Charles Crommelin - New York (acquired December 1725 from his aunt)
  • Robert Crommelin - Flushing, New York

    It records the births of all of the children by Charles Crommelin and Anne Sinclair, and also the deaths of these two parents. It includes a couple of notable marriages as well.



    Mr. Gordon did not mention where he located this Family Bible, and the last will of Robert Crommelin could not be found to determine to whom he may have bequeathed it. However, since Mr. Gordon was a member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, I suspect that this society may have been its repository. Unfortunately this society went out of business recently (2017). Evidently the NYGBS collection was donated to the New York Public Library - Genealogy division - so researchers who wish to track down a very interesting family Bible might want to begin by investigating this source. Thankfully we at least have the above transcript from Mr. Gordon's booklet...