Van Heeckeren - Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms

The family coat of arms is a gold shield with a red cross and two plumes overhead.

the coat of arms you picture is that of the counts of Rechteren - the single ostrich plume on the hat - if you also take a look at the shield holders, your will find that the rechteren shield holders have wings down

the heeckeren crest has two ostrich plumes on the hat, on the 5 barred helmet, and the griffion shield holders have their wings up and their tongue and tail are of a single tipped arrow

the shield is the same

jakob van heker in 1427 was recognized as the owner of the srtructure and grounds ruurlo castle (then named roderlo)

the family does not start then - prior to that time the family had owned a number of castles, fortresses, homes, together with the associated grounds and structures - during the many battles (both won and lost) - much of the family documentations was lost when structures were made to ruin during these battles

the titles of count (rechteren) and baron (heeckeren) date to this time period - considered "old nobility" - napoleon bonsparte during his 20 years of continual battles placed is brother (lodewijk napoleon) as regent (governor?)in charge of the Netherlands (roughly defined by the truce of west phalen) - he tried to clarify/place his mark on the unwritten status for the nobility in those areas and in 1813 those ambitions were signed and sealed when he lost the regency over those countries with the outcome of waterloo - possibly a bit earlier with napoleon's first exile to elba

"old nobility" starts well before the napoleontic wars - anything post 1913 is considered "new nobility", and a significant part of those are from the pen of lodewijk napoleon

jacob van heker mentioned earlier was by no means the first van Heeckeren - apparently there have been identified four different significant structures by the name heker/heeckeren/et al. there is one such site where the castle moat was still identifiable (as of the late 1980's probably still identifiable, but i don't know that as a fact) - it is generally thought that the heeckeren derived its name from that structure. that year is quite uncertain

the father of the aforementioned jakob van heker is uncertain - there were two brothers in the prior generation, each of whom could have been his father,and one of whom must have been the father but history has not (to my knowledge) revealed which one - for that reason jakob van heker is considered the root of the recorded family, and every acknowledged titled van Heeckeren today is a descendant of jakov van Heker - that formalization is triggered by the 1813 napoleonic/French documentation

i hope this has clarified more than it has confused

there are a number of websites which are instructive in attempting to understand the genealogy of heeckeren/rechteren/van voorst/van voorst tot voorst et al.

however my father told me on a number of occasions that his father told him that the documents from the "Heraldieke Bibliotheek" of the Netherlands from 1876 titled "Voerst, Hekeren genaamd Rechteren, Rechteren genaamd Voorst, Voorst genaamd rechteren", and 1881 "Het Geslacht van Heeckeren", as of those dates represented the most credible and complete record of the old nobility family van Heeckeren.

also available is the "little red book" (het "roode boekje"), more properly "Nederlnd's Adelsboek H-K" - my copy dates from 1975, published by N.V. Uitgeverij W.P. van Stockum & Zoon - it sketchily continues where the above mentioned publications leave off, and is more detailed to the present - it is compiled by the "Hoge Raad van Adel" in the Hague (aka den Haag, and 's Gravenhage)

there is also a publication named "Wapenboek van de Nederlandsche Adel" dating from something like 1885 (my guess) - it has probably the most credible pictorial representation of coasts of arms of the Netherlands nobility as of the end of the 1800s - suggest you go see that book in the liibraries of either Amsterdam and/or rotterdam - there are 2 other copies of this book in existence, but I have no knowledge of where they are kept - in it, i'm certain, you will find the answer to any of your concerns and accuracy of the van Heeckeren, and van Rechteren costs of arms

Jacob van Heeckeren tak Barlham