Vanden Gheyn, Van den Gheyn or Van den Ghein was a family of bellfounders and carillon makers. The bell foundry was established in 1506 in Mechelen and active until the 20th century. They have been called "the most famous family of bellfounders [Belgium] has had".
History
Vanden Gheyn in Mechelen
Willem Van den Ghein
In 1506, Willem Van den Ghein (the family name would later change to Vanden Gheyn) came to Mechelen from Goirle, in the Northern Netherlands, and started a bell foundry there. Willem was active until at least 1530, but died before 1534. He made bells for Mechelen and Oudenaarde, and also for Bergen op Zoom in the Northern Netherlands. He also cast at least two small carillons, one of 4 bells for Middelburg, and one of 5 bells for the St John's Kirk in Perth, Scotland which is still in place.
Willem was succeeded by his sons Pieter I and Jan I Vanden Gheyn. Jan Vanden Gheyn only cast a few bells independently before his death in at the latest 1544. He was followed by his son Anton I
Pieter I Vanden Gheyn
Pieter I Vanden Gheyn first started on his own, at the latest in 1533, and after the death of his father inherited his foundry as well. His works were of very high quality and can be found all over Western Europe. He delivered a 10-bell carillon to Oudenburg in 1539, and a similar sized one to Roosendael Abbey in 1553-1556. He created a 13 bell carillon for the Dutch city Zierikzee in 1550-1554, and a 16- or 17-bell one for Edam in 1561. He died on 14 March 1561. His sons Peter II and Jan II continued the bellfoundry. Jan II died on 22 July 1573: he made some bells which can be found in current Belgium and France, but no carillons.
Pieter II Vanden Gheyn
Pieter II Vanden Gheyn was active between 1555 and his death on 27 January 1598. He completed a carillon for Arnemuiden in 1584, and expanded carillons in Mechelen, Aalst and Hoorn. In 1593, he delivered a large bell and a 20-bell carillon to the town hall of Veere. In 1595, a 17-bell carillon for a hospital in Leiden followed. He was a successful and ambitious bell founder, with works all over Europe. He was very prosperous, with many houses in Mechelen, but his fortune and that of the company changed after the decline of Mechelen from around 1585. Mechelen had already been burned once, near the start of the Eighty Years' War, in 1572, but the mass exodus of Protestants to the Northern Netherlands from 1585 on saw the city population shrink from some 25,000 to close to 10,000 in a decade. Three of his sons worked in the bell-foundry: Pieter III, Hendrik (1560-1602) and Jan III (died 1626).
Pieter III Vanden Gheyn
Pieter III was born around 1552, and died on 15 December 1618. Despite the ongoing war and the reduced fortunes of his family and his city, he continued to deliver a steady stream of bells and other founded goods. He delivered in 1595-1596 a carillon for Monnickendam, and in 1599 eleven bells for the church carillon of the Church of Our Lady across the river Dijle in Mechelen. In 1615-1616, he made a 17-bell carillon for Sint-Maartensdijk in the Netherlands. Many of his bells were made for Scottish churches as well.
Later members of the Vanden Gheyn family in Mechelen
Jan III Vanden Gheyn had a successor in his son Pieter IV Vanden Gheyn (born 1605), who founded in 1638 together with Peter II De Clerck, another bellfounder from Mechelen, the big bell for the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels. Many other collaborations with Peter II and Jacob De Clerck are noted in the 1630s and later: when Johannes de Clerck, of the same family of bellfounders, dies in 1663, his widow remarries Jan IV Vanden Gheyn and the companies merge. Jan IV (born 1642) was a son of Pieter IV. After the death of Jan IV, his stepson Jacob II De Clerck again starts using the De Clerck name for his bells, ending the dynasty of the Vanden Gheyns in Mechelen.
Pieter IV Vanden Gheyn had another, older son, Andries I, who moved to Sint-Truiden in 1655 and to Tienen a few years later. He was there succeeded by his son Pieter V and his grandsons Andries II and Pieter (or Peter) VI.