Frans Banning Cocq

Frans Banninck Cocq (sometimes incorrectly spelled as Banning), free lord of Purmerland and Ilpendam (February 23, 1605 – January 1, 1655) was a knight, burgemeester (mayor) and military person of Amsterdam in the mid-17th century, the Dutch Golden Age. He belonged to the wealthy and powerful Dutch patriciate, the regenten, and is best known as the central figure in Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch. Biography Background and Family Frans was born on February 23, 1605 as the son of Jan Jansz Cock (1575–1633), a local pharmacist of German descendant in the Warmoesstraat. His father, born in Bremen, moved around 1592 to Amsterdam. Nothing is known about his grandfather. He was married to Lysbeth Fransdr Banninck (1581–1623) of Amsterdam origin. In the Amsterdam patriciate of the 16th and 17th centuries, there were two families with very similar names, the Banning(h) family, also known as Benning(h), and the Banninck family, which were not closely related to each other. The first-named family was of greater importance, since they were members of the city government for a longer period of time. Banninck Cocqs mother belonged to the less important family, and was related to Amsterdam burgomaster Cornelis Hooft. Deviating from the tradition according to which, as the first-born, he was to receive the name of his paternal grandfather, he received the first and last name of his maternal grandfather Frans Banninck (1544–1582), who died at young age. The Bannincks had been members of the Amsterdam City Council for generations and only Frans Banninck early death, before he could reach an office, broke the tradition. In this way, the parents documented their right to continue a family tradition. Frans was baptized on 27 February 1605 in the Oude Kerk. As his parents were not married, it caused a scandal, but on 17 September of the same year they went to the townhall to notice the marriage.