1736
In a little port on the Schelde River, St.-Amands, Katrijn Waterschoot gives birth to her ninth child, it is a boy! Catherine is the wife of Jan de Smet (1). Faithful to the tradition they bestow on the newborn baby the first name of the godfather, Joost de Smet, who is bailiff at Bornem. The newborn child will assure the continuation of the surname de Smet for generations to come. During his first eleven years Joost lives in St.-Amands (now in Belgium), in a house called Den Engel.
1747
His father, Jan is a well-to-do ship-owner. To improve his business opportunities he acquires a property in Dendermonde called De Witte Hert. The house is situated on the banks of the Dender river and once belonged to the famous sculptor Willem Kerricx. The family moves to Dendermonde and Jan continues to trade with his two barges on the Schelde and the Rhine rivers, even as far as the Zuiderzee in Holland.
1761
Joost is 24 when he proposes to Joanna Maria Duerinck. She is the first-born of Jan Duerinck and Isabelle Feliers, both living in St.-Gillis, near Dendermonde. The young couple moves into the paternal house on the banks of the Dender. Joost decides to carry on with the profitable trade of his father and little by little he earns more responsibility in the business. His family grows rapidly. Joanna Maria and Joost have no less than 13 children. But in the Flanders of the eighteenth century child mortality is very high. A lot of children die very young due to smallpox, typhus and other lethal diseases. The names of 7 children can be found in the family records. Four of them reach adulthood. They are Jean-Baptiste, Isabelle-Françoise, Marie-Thérese en Josse-Joseph. Joost and Joanna Maria speak Flemish. The bookkeeping of the ship-owner is also in Flemish.
1791
On September 7th 1791, after 30 years of marriage, Joanna Maria passes away.
1793
A year and six months later, on the 10th of February 1793 to be precise, Joost (56) marries Marie-Jeanne Buydens, the daughter of his friend and neighbour Martin Buydens and Marie-Elizabeth Cortvrint. The young bride is only twenty. But the marriage turns out to be very successful and his second wife gives Joost another nine children. But again few of them survive long enough to become adult people. The lucky ones are Rosalie, Charles, Pieter Joannes (Peter John), François and Marie-Jeanne De Smet. Joost corresponds in Flemish with the children of the first marriage. With the children of the second marriage, such as François and Charles, he corresponds nearly always in French.
1797
The eldest son of Joost, Jean-Baptiste De Smet (35), works as a catholic priest in Sleidinge near Eeklo. The French Revolution is not very easy on the clergy. Jean-Baptiste refuses to submit to the French Directoire and has to go in hiding. A year later he is caught and sent to a the prison on the isle of Ré in France. From there Jean-Baptiste is to be transported to a penitentiary in French Guyana, a place of no return. But in the meantime he is allowed to work as male nurse in the military hospital of St. Martin-de-Ré. Fortunately Joost manages to pay a ransom to repurchase his elder son. Back home Jean-Baptiste returns to his activities in Sleidinge. In 1804 he moves to Heusden near Ghent, where he unexpectedly dies in 1808.
During this same unhappy year 1797 a priest of Everberg near Leuven, Charles Nerinckx (36) has a similar experience. He also has to hide for the French gens d'armes. After having hidden successfully during four years in a hospital in Dendermonde, he finally decides to leave his occupied country and to emigrate to North-America. In 1805 bishop Caroll puts Nerinckx in charge of the catholic community of Kentucky. It is a vast area and the Apostle of Kentucky has to spend a lot of time in the saddle.
In 1817 and 1821 Nerinckx travels to his native country in order to recruit extra missionaries for his parish in the U.S. On his first trip he manages to recruit 5 candidates : Van de Velde, Verheyen, Timmermans, De Smet (not family of Peter John) and De Meyer.
1798
Enough is enough ! October 12th is the start of a popular revolt against the French occupation. Emmanuel Benedict Rollier (28) agrees to take the leadership of the rebellion in Willebroek. A peasant army fights the French regular troops in the provinces Oost-Vlaanderen, Antwerpen and Limburg. A lot of soldiers die on the battlefields of the Boerenkrijg in Overmere, Bornem, Mechelen, Herentals, Diest and Geel. The French troops ("sanskulotten") manage to crush the rebellion in a last bloody battle in Hasselt. On the 5th of December the struggle is all over.
Isabelle De Smet, half-sister of Peter John, marries Jean-Baptiste Rollier, nephew of the famous rebel leader.
(1) In the 18th century the surname was generally written as de Smet. Joost, father of Peter John, as well as the children of his first marriage used it. After the French revolution however, Joost and his children thought is wiser not to suggest any connection to nobility, so they adopted the orthography De Smet. At the end of the 19th century however, the family obtained a legal correction and as a result the de Smet spelling could be used once more.
(One can find more information on the De Smet family in the appendices).