Johannes Ponts

Personal life

Johannes Ponts was born on or before March 26th 1713 and baptised that same date. He was the oldest son and the second child of Mathijs Ponts and Maria Bemelmans. He grew up together with 8 siblings (Ida, Peter, Gertrudis, Hendrik, Maria, Margaretha, Matthias en Reinerus) at the Akerstraat in Hoensbroek. He learned the skill of being a knacker from his father. His family called him Hans, although he was also known as Joes in a statement from his brother Peter.

As a young man, Johannes marries Anna Odilia Edel, a knacker's daughter from Düsseldorf. After her passing in 1740 he remarries his second cousin, Anna Gertrudis Ponts. (People didn't let their child marry with a knacker, since they were social pariahs in the 18th century. That's the reason knacker families often married eachother, sometimes even within their own family.) Johannes became father of at least 2 children, one from each marriage.

In 1743, Johannes' father Mathijs, his brother Peter and sister Maria got arrested and imprisoned; people thought they were part of the Bokkenrijders. His brother Hendrik was also accused, but he fled and managed to escape imprisonment. Johannes' older sister Ida got arrested a few months later, together with her husband, Johannes Honoffs. Mathijs, Peter, Maria, and Ida Ponts and Johannes Honoffs all got executed as Bokkenrijder.

Arrest and escape

Even before the Bokkenrijderstrials Johannes and Anna Gertrudis get accused of having committed multiple burglaries. Johannes even gets accused of having been a part of the murder on his father in law and name buddy Johannes 'Jan' Ponts. On February 15th 1742 the couple gets detained and locked up in Eschweiler, but Johannes manages to escape after only a few days. Anna Gertrudis gets released on August 10th; it looks like she did not have anything to do with the burglary. What happened to their children in the meantime is unknown; but Johannes' brother in law Joannes Honoffs states that Johannes' sister Maria Ponts had a child with her of about three to four years old, which means it could've been possiblibly been the child of Johannes and Anna Gertrudis.

People think that Johannes, after his escape, roamed through the area for about a year, in which he committed burglaries here and there. The rumor went that in the summer of 1742, he rode a stolen horse on the 'Aeckerbaan' (Akerstraat).

In the summer of 1742 a few family members would have stolen a horse from the meadow from farm 'Aldenhof'; there is a possibility Johannes Ponts and his wife Anna Gertrudis Ponts were a part of this. This could've been the stolen horse he rode around on.

Trial

On April 2nd 1743, there's a burglary that happened in 's-Gravenvoeren. The victims give a specific description of one of the culprits, and that description leads to another arrest of Johannes on April 18th 1743. He gets interrogated under torture on May 24th, 25th and may 30th. He pleads guilty and gets convicted. In the verdict only the crimes around his own living area were included, not the crimes in Hoensbroek where his father and siblings were convicted for. That is why Johannes' trial is mostly disconnected from the Bokkenrijderstrials which were happening, although he does get accused by most suspects who also accuse Mathijs and Peter Ponts. The chance is there that Johannes actually committed the crimes he got convicted for, although it could be that the knackers were used as scapegoat. On August 14th 1743 the thirteen year old Johannes was hanged in the county known as Rekem.

The fate of Anna Gertrudis