Amerongen. -The name of Robert Middlemore's wife at once attracts attention. In the entry of her marriage at St. Peter's, Birmingham, in 1772, she is described as Barbara justice, alias Ameronger. In 1724 is recorded the marriage of John Moore and Anna Ameronger. In the burial register of Edgbaston, under date 18 February, 1712, occurs the name of "fustian Mayronghen, of Birmingham," and amongst the baptisms at St. Peter's a few years earlier, in 1709, is entered ".... Justice filia Amazonrer et Annae justice de Birmingham." Of Robert Middlemore's marriage the witnesses were Edward Loxley, perhaps the bride's stepfather, and Philip Loxley, and in the will, 5 September, 1725, of the former, mention is made of his daughters-in-law, under age, Mary Amoronger and Sarah Amoronger. It is allowable to surmise that "daughters-in-law" really signified step daughters; since, if they were the former, it follows that he had two sons who married sisters, both under age, which is not very probable. No other traces of this peculiar name have been found, and indeed it is not quite certain that the spelling of it here given is correct, for the entries are not recorded in the most legible handwriting.
It seems probable that here we have an instance of the settlement in Birmingham of a foreigner, " fustian Mayronghen," who married an Englishwoman, Anne or Hannah Justice, that he died in 1712, and that they had at least four daughters, Anne, Mary, Barbara, and Sarah and that his widow remarried Edward Loxley, who died in 1725. It would not be very remarkable if the family was sometimes known by the name of the English mother rather than by that of the foreigner. This is confirmed by the tradition handed down to the late Richard Middlemore, of Temple Row, who was told by his father, Richard Middlemore, of Birmingham, that the latter's great grandfather, Robert Middlemore, married one "Justice Armour or Amaronger."
In the Probate Registry at Lichfield is recorded the will, dated 24 January, 1712, of Justanus Ammerongen, of Birmingham, button maker, who leaves £20 to each of his five children then living, and the residue to his wife Hannah, who proved the will, 8 April, 1713, she being executrix with Richard Broughton, of Edgbaston, yeoman. In the inventory, 5 April, 1713, which amounted to £13 5s., the testator was described as Justin Ammarronger, of Birmingham. It is unfortunate that he failed to specify his children by name, but the inventory is valuable as proving the identity of Ammeronger with Amerongen, and clearly shows that Ameronger is merely a misspelling. The witnesses were Edward Michell, Ralph Bucknall, and Robert Powell. It is worth while noting that Rodolphus Bucknall was one of the witnesses of the marriage of Anna Amerongen and John Moore.
That Justanus Ammerongen married Hannah justice may be taken as certain. The entry of a baptism ".... Justice filia Amazonrer et Annae justice de Birmingham" is peculiar, but is doubtless due to the confusion caused by similarity of the husband's Christian name, Justanus and the wife's surname, justice. The position of the three families may be thus shown:
Though Loxley and Loxlow are identical names the widow of Justanus Ammerongen is to be distinguished from Hannah Loxlow, of Birmingham, widow of Richard Loxlow, of Birmingham, mentioned in his administration bond, 27 April, 1714. The sureties to the bond were Hannah Loxlow, Philip Loxley de Edgbaston, jun., and Edward Broughton, of Hoar Cross. Hannah Loxlow signed her name Loxle. The will of Philip Loxley, of Edgbaston, was proved in 1727.
That a younger son of some Dutch van Amerongen should settle in Birmingham would at no time be very extraordinary, and still less so in the reign of William III. If Roman Catholics they would naturally meet with the Middlemores at St. Peter's. But another circumstance must be remembered. If the suggestion made on p. 199 be correct, that Father Lewis Middlemore was brother of Robert Middlemore, it may well be that the former, who we know was at Douai in 1734, and subsequently at Bruges, visited the continent at an earlier date, so that the respective position of the two families may have been well known to each other.
According to Rietstap, whose heraldic dictionary is the standard authority for armorial bearings throughout Europe, the name of van Amerongenexists in the Low Countries. A family of this name lived in Guelderland, Utrecht, and Dordrecht, who bore for their ancient arms the peculiar device, Argent, a pair of shears in bend with points upwards sable. Some of the name were of the rank of barons. The spelling of the name in Edgbaston Register in 1712 "Mayronghen" may possibly indicate that the g was pronounced soft, and if so the presence of z in the Amazonrer entry at St. Peter's in 1709 is sufficiently explained, while the terminal n tends to confirm the suggestion that the original form of this surname is the Dutch van Amerongen.
Mr. W. J. C. Moens, who has great knowledge of Anglo-Dutch genealogy, points out that the r at the end of the name instead of n, would arise from the pronunciation of the word by a Dutchman, and tends to show that fustian Amerongen was an original settler.
Amerongen is a village in Utrecht on the north bank of the old Rhine, about half way between Rheenen and Amsterdam. The castle and manor seem to have belonged, in 1720, to Godart Adriaan de Ginkel, Earl of Athlone, so created by William III, in 1692, for his victories in Ireland.
On the death of the ninth Earl of Athlone, Amerongen Castle seems to have passed to the Bentincks, Lord Athlone's sister, Lady Jemima de Ginkel, having married General J. L. Bentinck, who died in 1833. It is now the residence of his grandson, Count Godard Bentinck, a younger son of Count Charles Bentinck and Caroline eldest daughter of the reigning Count of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
The name occurs at an earlier date in London, for on 30 March, 1662, Gertruyt van Amerongen, wife of William Langton, with attestation from the Hague, was admitted a member of the Dutch church in Austin Friars, and again, 21 February, 1702, Jan Amerongen was likewise admitted a member of the same. The Austin Friars church was, however, a Calvinist body, but the family of Taets van Amerongen included Roman Catholics in the seventeenth century. Of this family was Arent Taets van Amerongen, living in 1415, who in 1425 was Burgomaster of Utrecht. He bore for arms, Argent a fess or.