BONEDIGGERS

1852

 




About the year 1850 the Dutch cattle suffered (again) from a contagious lungdisease. In Friesland the authorities published  an overview each week in the Leeuwarder Courant mentioning the number of infected cattle in each municipality as well as the number that -with permission of the owner- had been terminated as a precaution. By December 1851 already 6.000 cows were killed and buried in Friesland (for which, by the way, the owners were compensated). In those days it was the custom to bury the bodies of cattle in roads around the towns and in the fields of the farms. By a law dated July 16, 1839 "digging for bones or other animal remains and selling or using the same" was strictly prohibited.

In his diary Doeke Wijgers Hellema from Wirdum (see also: Secessionists - Hallum) wrote about this disease too. On March 24, 1842 he noted that in England it was a custom to manure farm fields with bones. As a consequence, and with permission of the farmers, bones of buried cattle were dug up in Friesland and sold to traders who had them shipped to England. According to Hellema bones were dug up at a farm near Wirdum for a total value of dfl. 80,--  Apparently -and notwithstanding the prohibition- no action was taken by the authorities to put an end to the digging.

Ten years later the situation was quite different. In Ferwerderadeel and Westdongeradeel about 130 people from Blija, Ferwerd, Hallum, Marrum and Holwerd were fined by the local constables during February and March 1852 and had to appear in court. The accused explained to the judge that it was sheer poverty that had made them digging for bones but nonetheless all were sentenced to 2 to 4 days imprisonment. They also had to pay the cost of their own trial which amounted 2 to 8 guilders per person.
Quite a lot of the bonediggers were under age. For example: Kornelis Sytzes Zoodsma was 10 years young at the time but just like the rest he was sent to jail, in his case for 4 days. The court stated that the children could have and should have known that bonedigging was prohibited and for that reason showed no mercy.

The following persons were sentenced and imprisoned:

  Andrae - Hamstra
  Hansma - Papma
  Postma - Zwart


Many thanks to the Historische Vereniging Noordoost Friesland te Dokkum for granting permission to publish an English version of their story of the "Beenderendelvers", including the overviews.
Much obliged also to D.R Wildeboer, author of the original Dutch version and to J. Hietkamp
() who traced the records at It Ryksargyf.