Nicolaas Hersseler (also known as Niklaas or Nicolaes Herseler) (c. 1717, Kerpen-Eifel – 10 November 1773, Heerlen) was a knacker from the Heerlerheide, which was part of the town Heerlen. He was the father of eighteen-year-old Philip Hersseler and the brother of Dirk Hersseler. All three of them were sentenced and executed as Bokkenrijders during the third mass trial. Nicolaas himself was even viewed as one of the gang's leaders.
Personal life
Nicolaas was a knacker and horse collar maker from Kerpen who, after living with his brother-in-law in Aachen for a while, moved to the Schrijversheide-Heerlerheide. He was married to Maria Catharina Ponts, the daughter of Peter Ponts and Maria Bimmelmans. (Not the same Peter Ponts that was also accused of being a Bokkenrijder.) His profession and family might have been part of the reason why he was accused of being a Bokkenrijder; thirty years earlier, the knacker family Ponts was heavily persecuted in this area. Nicolaas was a knacker, just like the alleged Bokkenrijders leader Mathias Ponts and his four children, who were convicted as well. On top of that, Nicolaas's wife had the surname Ponts.
They had three or possibly even eight children together, born between 1747 and 1765. This means that it's possible that the youngest child was only eight years old when their father Nicolaas, their brother Philip and their uncle Dirk were arrested and executed.
The family was well off: they possessed much land and Nicolaas kept cattle and even bees. (The possessions of suspects were usually seized by the government, though, so it's possible that the family became poor after Nicolaas's arrest.)
Arrest
Following the accusations of Hendrik Kreijten and Andries Gorné, an arrest warrant was issued on 1 May 1773 for ten men, including Nicolaas Hersseler. He was arrested. On 3 May was his first interrogation and confrontation with other suspects, but he denied all allegations, like most other alleged Bokkenrijders did in the first place. He was, like almost everyone else, sentenced to an interrogation under torture.
Confessions
The torture started on 4 May and continued on 5 May, 6 July and 7 July After the thumbscrews were put on, Nicolaas started confessing; the torturer added two Spanish boots, one on each leg. At first, he mostly named people who lived outside of Heerlen and didn't fall under the jurisdiction of this “schepenbank” or court. (He might have done this because he used to live outside of Heerlen and knew more people who didn't live in Heerlen, or maybe because he hoped that they would not be persecuted, because they lived outside of the jurisdiction of Heerlen's court.) However, he started accusing other people after a while, people who lived in his town. He confessed to committing several robberies and said that 'the barber surgeon' (by whom he meant the alleged leader Joseph Kirchhoffs) had been the leader. He told his interrogators that he hadn't pledged the oath of loyalty to the gang and to the devil, but that he did have to promise to remain true to the gang. However, the interrogators were not satisfied. They kept asking him if his eighteen-year-old son Philip had been guilty as well and persisted after Nicolaas's denial. Nicolaas named over one hundred people and finally ended up saying his son's name as well. He withdrew that confession the next day and told the prosecution that Philip was innocent, but to no avail; Philip was sentenced and hanged even earlier than his father. Nicolaas was also forced to accuse his brother Dirk, Philip's uncle.
Hendrik Bemelmans and his brother-in-law Joannes Honnoffs, who both sollicited for the position of knacker after Nicolaas Hersseler's arrest, were both accused by Nicolaas, but he withdrew that accusation as well. As opposed to Nicolaas's son Philip, Bemelmans and Honnoffs were released and able to leave the area.
“[He] confessed that his accusation of Henderick Bemmelmans and Johannes Honofs, both of whom are imprisoned, was false and untrue, that they had not been present at any crimes or known about any, and did not know anything to incriminate them, but that he had accused them out of hate and kept the accusations up during the confrontation out of fear.”
Nicolaas also told the interrogators about a shooting at the robbery of Ritzen's brewery, it turned out that this shooting had never happened, leading to Nicolaas's withdrawal of this confession.
Death penalty
The prosecutor, Gerard Farjon, demanded the death penalty for Nicolaas Hersseler, and wanted it done by breaking him on the wheel (“radbraking”) while alive. He was to be bound to a cross and broken on the wheel with eight turns. After that, his body was to be lain on the wheel and his head to be put on a spike. The same had been done to Nicolaas's brother Dirk a few months earlier, on 23 september 1773. One of the reasons for this heavy punishment was, according to Farjon, that Hersseler had turned his young son evil, even though Nicolaas Hersseler had withdrawn all accusations against his son. The boy had been hanged a few months earlier.
Nicolaas Hersseler was 56 years old. He left a wife and children.
The sentence appeared in a newspaper called the Groninger- and Middelburgsche courant:
“Wednesday the 12th, 6 more criminals were punished with the gallows on the Hees, close to Heerlen; additionally, the infamous villain, the Knacker of Heerlen, has been broken on the wheel alive, has had his head cut off and has had it be put on a spike.”
References
1: Van Gehuchten, F. (2014). Bokkenrijders. De schande van Limburg. De derde en grootste bokkenrijdersvervolging, 1770-1778, Heerlen: Leon van Dorp. p. 246
2: Van Gehuchten, F. (2014). Bokkenrijders. De schande van Limburg. De derde en grootste bokkenrijdersvervolging, 1770-1778, Heerlen: Leon van Dorp. p. 99-102
3: Van Eekelen, J. (z.d.). Bokkenrijders en afstammelingen > Hersseler, Philip > Philip Hersseler, vilder in Heerlerheide, gefolterd, galg 1773. johnve.home.xs4all. Viewed on 7 October 2022, from https://johnve.home.xs4all.nl/AFS_2/A226.html#228
4: Van Eekelen, J. (z.d.). Bokkenrijders en afstammelingen > Hersseler, Nicolaas > Nicolaes Hersseler, vilder in Heerlerheide, gefolterd, executie 1773. johnve.home.xs4all. Viewed on 7 October 2022, from https://johnve.home.xs4all.nl/AFS_2/A226.html#227
5: Van Eekelen, J. (z.d.). Documenten Bokkenrijders > Processtukken > VONNISSEN > Vonnis Nicolaas Herseler 1 november 1773 Rijckheyt Heerlen . Schepenbank Heerlen 1168. johnve.home.xs4all. Viewed on 7 October 2022, from https://johnve.home.xs4all.nl/docop/proc8/proc_K57b.html
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