The Federal Archives in Arlon (Belgium) contain an important collection of old documents that are related to events that took place in Bastogne in the 17th century. These documents allow us to imagine the way of life in Bastogne around 1635, when Henri HANSY settled down there. We also find some unexpected facts about his life and that of his children.

For Bastogne the seventeenth century can be summarized in three words : war, starvation and the plague. Holland, Spain and France quarrelled over the Luxemburg area and because of its position, Bastogne becomes the ideal route for the armies that fight each other.

Thanks to the protection of its city walls, the town offers a relative safety in an area that continuously is being devastated by passing armies and plague epidemics.

For centuries indeed the town was surrounded by impressive walls, which were more than seven meters high and some meters thick. About twenty round and halfround towers, dispersed over the total length of the wall, gave entrance to a circular way  from which guards and soldiers could assure the safety of the town if necessary.

The town could only be reached through 2 gates : the “porte Basse” (the “low gate” which still exists today and carries the name “porte de Treves”) and the “porte Haute” (which was situated in the present “rue Haute”). These two gates have been indicated in light blue on the map below :

View of the walls and ditches, that surrounded the town of Bastogne, according to a drawing of the 17th century. Only two gates gave entrance to the town.

To enter the town one first had to pass a guard who was standing in a circular tower outside the walls, then cross the ditch over a drawbridge. This way one reached the real city gate, which was secured by a wooden gate and a metal fence. To the left and the right of the “Porte Haute” were two circular towers, one called the “Tour de la Porte”, the other “Tour du Portier”, the tower of the gate keeper.

Each gate had a gate keeper, to who guarded the entrance to the gate, opened and closed the gate and in case of emergency let down the fence and got the bridge up so that the ditch made entrance to the town impossible.

Hereafter we will see that Henri HANSY, ancestor of all the Delperdanges guarded Bastogne’s porte Haute for several years.

We do not know for sure how and why Henri HANSY came to Bastogne about 1635. His name appeared for the first time in 1639 on the baptismal certificate of his son Laurent.

Between 1639 and 1659 no less than 10 of his children will be baptized in Bastogne (see chapter : Once upon a time ...<•>) :

Parochial registers of Bastogne.
Available information on the baptismal certificates of his 10 children.

The different certificates show us how between 1650 and 1655, Henri HANSY gradually became known as Henri d’ERPELDANGE or D’ELPERDANGE, a name which will become DELPERDANGE in the next generation.

We may assume that Henri HANSY was born about 1615-1620 and originated from ERPELDANGE or at least had stayed in ERPELDANGE before settling in Bastogne.

And what prevents us, inspired by the job he would do later on (see below), to partly rewrite history by stating he was a member of a Luxemburg army and when passing by Bastogne he fell in love with a beautiful local lady, Catherine COLENS, so that he decided to end his wandering life, marry and settle down in Bastogne. Se non e vero, è ben trovato !.. (Even if it is not true, it is a nice story)

The study of documents dating from 1650, which are kept in archives of the state in Arlon, allowed us to discover some additional information about the life of Henri HANSY. His name indeed appears in the accounting records of the year 1650 of the town of Bastogne, in which both the accounts receivable as well as the accounts payable of the years 1649 and 1650 are listed.

Accounting records of the city of Bastogne - 1650

"Payé à Henry Hansy, portier de la porte haute de cette ville, pous ses gages d'avoir vargué à la garde de ladite porte, douze florins et huit sols ..."
-----
”Paid to Henri Hansy, gatekeeper of the Porte Haute of this town, as a salary for the guarding of this gate, twelve florins and eight nickels...”

 

This means that in 1650 Henri HANSY was a gatekeeper of the Porte Haute in Bastogne. Unfortunately we do not possess any accounting recors of previous years and for this reason we cannot discover in which year his employment started.

In the financial records of the next working year (1651-1652) one can find the same sum of money as a salary for the gatekeeper of the Porte Haute, who however this time, he is referred to as Henri d’Erpeldange.

Accounting records of the city of Bastogne - 1652

"Payé à Henri d'erperdange, portier de la porte haute de cette ville, pour ses gages d'avoir ....  et vargué à la garde de la porte, douze florins et huit sols ..."
---
"Paid to Henri d’erpeldange, gatekeeper of the Porte Haute of this town, as a salary for ... and for the guarding of the gate, twelve florins and 8 nickels...”

But guarding the city gate seems to have been only a second occupation for Henri HANSY. Indeed in the accounts receivable of the town for the years 1651-1652 we also find that Henri d’Erpeldange, gatekeeper of the Porte Haute, in his turn paid the sum of 13 florins to the town as a consequence of the assignment of a “chaussage” after a public tender, which means as much as levying taxes for the use of bridges and roads.

Accounts of the city of Bastogne - 1652

"(Reçu) de Henri d'erpeldange, portier de la porte haute, pour la ... du chaussage a lui enchéré, suivant l'acte d'oultrée pour ... la somme de treize florins "
---
”(Received) from Henri d’Erpeldange, gatekeeper of the Porte Haute, for the levying of taxes on bridges and roads, assigned to him after a tender ... the sum of thirteen florins”.

The same sums can be found both in accounts receivable as well as accounts payable of the town for the years 1652-1653, which have also been kept. Therefore, it appears proven that Henri HANSY was the gatekeeper of the Porte Haute, but moreover that probably his first occupation was levying taxes on bridges and roads in the name of the town. And as was customary at the time, a fixed percentage of the levied taxes was designated to him.

Most of the accounting records of the following years have not been kept, except for the year 1679-1680. Here we can read that Pierre, the second son of Henri (born in 1644) has taken over the task of his father to levy taxes in the name of the town. Henri HANSY, who at that time must have been older than 60, nevertheless continued to receive his yearly salary of 12 florins and 8 nickels, a sum which had remained unchanged for more than 20 years.

Accounts of the town of Bastogne - 1680

"Payé à Henry Delperdenge comme  portier gagé de la porte haute de cette ville, comme de coutume  douze florins et huit sols ..."
---
”Paid to Henri Delperdenge, as a gatekeeper of the Porte Haute of this town, as usually, twelve florins and 8 nickels.”

The remark “as usually” seems to indicate that Henri was appointed for life or at least that his responsibilities as a gatekeeper was not questioned anymore.

Thanks to the accounting records of the same year we learn that the Porte Haute at that time was also used as a prison. Among the accounts payable we find indeed the sum of one florin “for three boards for a door of the Porte Haute serving as a prison”.

Accounts payable of the town of Bastogne - 1860

"Pour trois planches pour une porte à la Porte Haute servant de prison,
1 florin."
---
”For three boards for a door of the Porte Haute serving as a prison, 1 florin”

From these data however we cannot derive whether Henri, besides his function as a gatekeeper, also guarded prisoners.

The last payment to Henri HANSY can be found in the accounting records for the year 1685. Henri must have been 65 years old at that time !

In the same year, maybe as a reward for his long and loyal service to the town, the council decided to build an additional room and a kitchen for him.

Accounts payable of the town of Bastogne - 1685

".... pour refaire le pont levis de la porte haute, faire une chambre et une cuisine pour le portier, et plusieurs autres besognes reprises dans le marché ......"
-----
”for repairing the drawbridge, building a room and a kitchen for the guard and for different other jobs that have been summed up in this list, ...

And apparently, as a result of these works, in 1886 eleven nickels had to be spent in order to “raise the attachment of the weights of the clock of the Porte Haute, due to the building of a room for the gatekeeper ...”

Accounts payable of the town of Bastogne - 1686

"Les prises qui soutiennent les contrepoids de l'horloge de la porte haute ayant du êtres mis plus haut à raison de la chambre du portier..."
---
”The attachment of the weights of the clock of the Porte Haute had to be raised because of the room of the gatekeeper...”

We can conclude that after performing his duty as a gatekeeper for more than 30 years Henri HANSY spent his last years in the small house adjacent to the Porte Haute.

Bastogne – the rue Haute previous century

And probably he witnessed the start of the demolition of the citywalls, which was ordered by the French dominators in 1688.
 

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 To avoid confusion, due to the migration of the Hansy name to DELPERDANGE, we  use the following names in the database :

1st generation : HANSY

2nd generation : HANSY - DELPERDANGE