page_title: Willem van der Haegen
section_title: Possible origins
hierarchical_section_title: Willem van der Haegen / Possible origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Coat of Arms of Willem De Kersemakere
context_page_description: D. Willem van der Haegen, or Willem De Kersemakere, known in Portuguese as Guilherme da Silveira, or Guilherme Casmaca, was a Flemish-born Azorean entrepreneur, explorer, and colonizer. He was a pioneer colonizer in Azorean history and his descendants formed part of the original Azorean nobility.
context_section_description: In 2006, in his article 'Les Flamads au Portugal au XV Siècle' the French historian Jacques Paviot wrote about the existence of a civil sentence in the archives of Bruges, written in medieval dialects of French and Dutch, which details the commercial relations  of an individual named Willem De Kersemakere with various Portuguese merchants, including Lopo Mendes. 
  According to Paviot and to further research published in 2011 by the Belgian genealogist André L. Fr. Claeys, this document, in comparison to the will of Willem van der Haegen's wife, Magarida de Sabuya, dated from 14 September 1510 and registered by the notary André Fernandes (in which Willem is referred to as Guilherme Casmaca), concluded that the real name of the colonizer until then known as Willem van der Haegen was in fact Willem De Kersemakere.
  Claeys argues that the reason why De Kersemakere was known as Willem van der Haegen is that he must have been first married in Bruges to a lady named Van der Haegen (unknown first name, born around 1432, date of marriage unknown, date of death before 1469). The conclusion is that on the Azores, according to Portuguese tradition, Willem's children from this first marriage must have chosen the surname of their mother van der Haegen or da Silveira, but without their father's family name "Casmaca", as it is also the Portuguese custom. 
  Furthermore, Claeys remarks that the chroniclers and genealogists of Azorean history based their writings on documents of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, several generations after Willem's lifetime, maintaining the surname da Silveira for all the children of the first marriage and even for Willem himself. This would probably mean, in Claeys' conclusion, that the first seven children are not from Margarida de Zambuja, and thus retain their mother's name (in Bruges, they were probably named De Kersemakere), while Francisco, the youngest, was always called Casmaca. Claeys' also claims that, according to the Flemish and Portuguese customs, men never receive the surname of their wives, thus, the denomination "Willem van der Haegen" would be incorrect.
  In addition to Paviot and Claeys, several authors throughout the centuries have referred to Willem as Guilherme Casmaca or Cosmacra (a possible linguistical corruption of Kersemakere), with the earliest attestation, besides the will of his wife, being a description of his life and family by Gaspar Frutuoso written in the years 1586-1590, in chapter 36 of the manuscript Saudades da Terra. Likewise, in a contemporary account to Willem's lifetime, Valentim Fernandes refers to him as 'Guylelmo Hersmacher' in his latin manuscript 'Descripcam de Cepta por sua Costa de Mauritania e Ethiopia' published in 1506. 
  Paviot speculates that De Kersemakere may originate from the Dutch word Kaarsenmaker (candle maker), while Jorge Forjaz, Pedro da Silveira and José Guilherme Reis Leite speculate that Casmaca may originate from the Dutch word Kaasmaker or Kasmach (cheese maker), the last two also state that this may be the origin of Flemish cheese tradition on the São Jorge island. Moreover, Eduardo de Campos de Castro de Azevedo affirms that he colonizer known as Guilherme da Silveira was actually from Maastricht, which previously belonged to the Duchy of Brabant, where there was never any family by the name Vandraga/Van der Haegen.
  Willem van der Haegen's parentage is uncertain, however he might have been a member of the 'De Keersmaeker' patrician family.
  James H. Guill, in his book 'A history of the Azores Islands, Vol. 5, p. 140',  claims that Willem's wife, Margarida, was in fact an illegitimate daughter of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy and that her husband was an illegitimate grandson of John the Fearless, likely through the latter's bastard son, John, Bishop of Cambrai, although, his allegations are heavily contested by Claeys, because Guill never cites any sources for this information, and never consulted the archives of Bruges, or other Flemish sources, always referring to Willem as 'Van der Haegen', and never 'Casmaca' or 'De Kersemakere'. Instead, Claey
caption: Coat of Arms originally used by the De Keersmaeker family in Flanders.
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