Willem Ploum

Personal life

There isn't much known about the life of Willem Ploum, but according to the trials we know that he was married and had a daughter named Maria Elisabeth Ploum. On February 5th, in Merkstein, someone named Willem Ploum married Catharina Savelsberg; their oldest daughter was named Maria Elisabeth. The chance is big that this was the same Willem Ploum, although there are quite a few Ploums from that area. In that case Willem would've had five children, born between 1747 and 1763. As far as we know he is not family of Joseph Ploum who was persecuted at the same time as him.

Willem Ploum had an inn named the 'Vivat', located at the Akerstraat within a foresty area between Ubach and Merkstein. Leonard Ploum, who somewhat before him got arrested and was labeled as suspect, said that he visited the Vivat once before, "having tied up" for the wife of Willem Ploum.

He was described as a ruddy man.

Trial

There isn't much left of Ploums file; this can mean that he hadn't confessed anything or had revoked his confessions, but also that the file just perhaps didn't survive as time passed. Though on January 10th 1771, at the first interrogation under torture of the suspect Joseph Keyser, he gets named. He is arrested in spring. On September 9th his enhanced interrogation takes place, and on the 11th the recollection. Afterwards a death sentence follows. On October 15th he was hanged at the gallows located on the Beckenberg at Herzogenrath, together with eight others: Joseph Keyser, Joseph Ploum (as far as known not related), Jacob Otten, Gabriël Reinarts, Peter Pauwels, Cornelis Dautsenberg, Adolf Steyns en Hendrik Steyns.

Willem Ploum often was put down as one of the head leaders of the gang. His inn would've been one of the places where the Bokkenrijders would often gather and where stolen goods were sold. He himself would've attended raids by horse, just like the supposed leader Joseph Kirchhoffs. As a consequence of the suspicions, Willem Ploum and his inn often play a role in books about the Bokkenrijders. After his trial and death the inn was deconstructed. There is a chance that this means his wife and child(ren) would have lost their source of income; when someone got arrested, the aldermen from court(?) would seize their property.