Maria Notermans

Maria Notermans (February 1725 Schinnen – Unknown) was an alleged member and leader of the Bokkenrijders, and the wife of Balthasar Kirchhoffs.

Life outside of the gang

On February 15^th 1725 Maria was baptized in Schinnen as daughter of Paul Notermans and Cornelia Claessen. There is not much known about her childhood. On February 8^th 1763 she married Balthasar Kirchhoffs in Merkstein. She was 37 at the time, Balthasar was 55 years old. They did not have any children.

A forgotten leader

According to the trials of the other persecuted – from her trial nothing got preserved – Maria Notermans was member of the Bokkenrijders during the period of Overmaze-III. There is however a possibility that Notermans was a leader of the gang, seeing as that in some sources they refer to her as such, like in a letter from November 4^th 1774:

“That during the same occasion, the wife of named Kirchhoffs, who was present at the commission of the main misdeeds, and partly commanded the gang, under the name of the Black Hussar on the earlier mentioned display, which for the Romans otherwise equally is known, to have as much reverence, made her water.”

The possibility of her being a leader of the Bokkenrijders could be quite correct. Both her husband Balthasar Kirchhoffs as well as Joseph Kirchhoffs, her brother in law were persecuted as leaders. Peter Kirchhoffs, another brother in law, was persecuted as member. The Bokkenrijders were a sort of ‘family business’, it seems.

According to the trials, when joining the gang’s raids, she would often wear men’s clothing. Peter Muller explains that she was wearing men’s shoes, and so tells Leonard Louppen that she was dressed as a man. Why is unclear, but it is not possible to rule out the fact that she might have done so to be taken seriously within the gang, or simply to not stand out.

Trial

The exact date on which Maria Notermans got arrested, is unknown. There is however confirmed that this should have been before February 14^th 1771, seeing as that Catharine Korvers makes a statement in which she states that Maria has been captured by this point. However, seeing as that they are the only ones mentioned in the arrest data in the Monastery diaries before the 14^th from the 4^th and 1^st of February, but all that were arrested on those dates were from Ubach, Notermans must have been captured in January. There is a good possibility that she and her husband were captured on the same day; Balthasar Kirchhoffs was also arrested in January.

There isn’t much known about the remaining trial. There is known however that Notermans escaped out of jail, seeing as that she occasionally is shown on the lists of persecuted as ‘escapist’. Sleinada also writes about her escapement, even though he is sceptical whether she really escaped:

“…or to say better secretly getting released, seeing as that the hole in the tower, through which she would have escaped, was small enough that no human could escape through, while on top of that Mary was a heavy fat woman.”

Theories about her escape

There are multiple theories regarding the escape of Maria Notermans

• Notermans escaped on her own power
• One or more guards who was known or was friends with Notermans released her
• The Kirchhoffs family bribed the guards to release Notermans, or to ‘not pay attention’
• There were guards part of the Bokkenrijders, who wanted to save a member or leader.