Jakob and Wilhelm Grahe had themselves baptized by the Dompelaars of Krefeld in the Wupper River with four other members of the Reformed Church in Solingen, Johannes Lobach, J. Fr. Henckels, W. Knipper (or Kneppers), and Luther Stettius, and were therefore arrested two years later and taken in chains to Düsseldorf, 26 February 1717. They remained in prison here until autumn. On 1 December they were taken to Jülich, where they spent two years and ten months in damp prison cells at hard labor during the day. Two Mennonites of Rotterdam, Johannes de Koker and his brother Gillis, visited them in prison and drew the attention of the Dutch States-General to this case; on the intercession of Francois Fagel, Grand Pensionary of this body, they were released on 20 November 1720; but they had to leave the country and promise never to return. Wilhelm Grahe wrote a detailed account of this period of suffering, which was published in Doopsgezinde Bijdragen.
Other Mennonites who visited them in prison were Jan Kroes (Crous), Gossen Goyen, and W. von der Leyen; after their release they found shelter with Hubert Rahr of Krefeld. The most complete account of the Dompelaar movement is given by Friedrich Nieper.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1861): 51-85.
Göbel, Max. Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheinisch-westfälischen evangelischen Kirche. Coblenz, 1849: III, 238 ff.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 155 f.
Die Heimat (Krefeld, 1877) 188 ff.;
Nieper, Fr. Die ersten deutschen Einwanderer von Krefeld nach Pennsylvanien. Neukirchen, 1940: 201-222.
|Nanne van der Zijpp|
 Cite This Article
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. "Grahe, Jakob and Wilhelm (17th/18th century)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 30 Jan 2015. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Grahe,_Jakob_and_Wilhelm_(17th/18th_century)&oldid=105650.
Neff, Christian and Nanne van der Zijpp. (1957). Grahe, Jakob and Wilhelm (17th/18th century). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Grahe,_Jakob_and_Wilhelm_(17th/18th_century)&oldid=105650.
Herald Press website.
©1996-2015 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.