Concise overview | Owners and residents of Country Estate Ma Retraite “Huize Sint Jan”

Concise overview | Owners and residents of Country Estate Ma Retraite “Huize Sint Jan”  

Address: Utrechtseweg 67 

• 1797 | Willebrordus Verkerk (Utrecht 1742-1816 Utrecht), iron merchant by profession, purchases the gallows field from the provincial administration. Married in Utrecht in 1762 to Elizabeth Johanna de Bruin (Utrecht 1739-1814 Utrecht) 

• 1816 | Mr. Laurens Johannes Nepveu (Paramaribo 1751-1823 Utrecht). 

Member of the City Council of Utrecht and member of the Provincial States of Utrecht and lord of the Zandbergen estate. Married in 1780 in Utrecht to Margaretha Roosmale (Utrecht 1751-1829 Utrecht) 

• 1787-1829 residing at Janskerkhof 15A 

• 1792-1807 also residing at country estate Dijnselburg 

• 1816-1823 also residing at summer residence and country estate Ma Retraite 

Parents Jean (Jan) Nepveu (Utrecht 1719-1779 Paramaribo) married in 1744 in Paramaribo to Johanna Agatha Oudenrogge (Commewijne Suriname 1722-1765 Paramaribo). Remarried in 1767 in Amsterdam married to Elisabeth Buys (Paramaribo 1728-1775 Paramaribo). 

Grandparents Louis Nepveu (Amsterdam 1689-1729 Paramaribo) married in 1709 to Suzanne Hamelot (Amsterdam 1689-after 1730 Paramaribo) 

Great-grandparents Aubin Nepveu (Charenton-le-Pont Fr. 1655-1704 Amsterdam) and Anne Baron (Dieppe Fr. 1665-1724 Amsterdam) 

Children 

1. Laurent Theodore Nepveu (Utrecht 1782-1839 Paris), from 1807 Lord of Dijnselburg, rentier, member of the council and alderman of Utrecht and member of the Provincial States of Utrecht 

2. From 1939-1871 Lord of Dijnselburg | Son Mr. Jean Ignatius Daniel (Utrecht 1810-1887 Utrecht), clerk of the provincial court and man of letters 

3. Johan Aubin Roosmale Nepveu (De Bilt 1785-1865 De Bilt) 

4. Margaretha Roosmale Nepveu (Utrecht 1787-1880 Utrecht) 

5. Lodewijk Anthonie Roosmale Nepveu (Utrecht 1789-1867 De Bilt) Beerschoten House 

6. Jacob Joost Roosmale Nepveu (Utrecht 1790-1859 Utrecht) 

7. Karel Baron Nepveu (Zeist 1791-1871 Amersfoort) 

Most of the above persons are buried at the Dijnselburg country estate in the Roosmale-Nepveu burial vault. 

• 1832 | Mr. Cornelis Maria van Hengst (Utrecht 1771-1848 Zeist) lawyer and alderman (public administrator) of Utrecht. Married in 1804 in Voorst to Wilhelmina Catharina Geertruida Everdina Sloet van Diepenbroek (Sinderen 1783-1832 Utrecht) 

Construction of landscape park with winding pond by Jan David Zocher Jr. (Haarlem 1791-1870 Haarlem) 

• 1849 | Heir Carel Joseph van Hengst (Utrecht 1807-1866 Utrecht), son of his deceased brother Cypriaan Gerard van Hengst. Married in 1834 in Alkmaar to Jkvr. Hermandina Fontein Verschuir (Alkmaar 1808-1876 Utrecht) 

• 1858 | Justus de Mol van Otterloo (Amsterdam 1823-1860 “Ma Retraite” Zeist) tobacco broker. Married in 1854 in Beverwijk to Maria Wilhelmina Hovy (Amsterdam 1833-1914 Kampen); remarried in 1864 to Isaak Esser (Haarlem 1818-1899 Kampen) 

• 1881 | Joan Maria Baron van Voorst tot Voorst (Elden 1851-1939 Lugano) director of the Overijssel Fire Insurance Company in Zwolle. Married in 1875 in Zwolle to Pauline Frederique Elisabeth Marie van Sonsbeeck (Zwolle 1851-1922 Zwolle) and remarried in 1926 in Diepenveen to Carolina Mechtilda Francisca van Nispen tot Pannerden (Zutphen 1884-1967 The Hague) 

• 1896 | Johan Hendrik van Marwijk Kooy (Amsterdam 1847-1916 Zeist) co-founder of the Amstel Brewery. Married in Zeist in 1871 to Johanna Henriëtte Beuker (Amsterdam 1852-1930 Montreux)  

Children 

• Elisabeth (Élise) van Marwijk Kooy (Amsterdam 1873-1923 Driebergen). Married in Amsterdam in 1893 to Jhr. Pierre Herbert Bicker (Soerabaja 1866-1945 Zeist) lived at Moersbergen Doorn. The Jonkheer remarried in 1927 to Jkvr. Sophia Wilhelmina Petronella van Lennep (Heemstede 1892-1966 Aerdenhout)
• Johan van Marwijk Kooy (Montreux 1874-1907 “Ma Retraite” Zeist) unmarried and succeeded his father in 1901 as co-director of the Bavarian Brewery De Amstel in Amsterdam (died of typhoid)
• Jeanne (Jenny) van Marwijk Kooy (Montreux 1874-1952 Zeist) unmarried and lived in Villa Sonneheart on the Woudenbergseweg
• Maria van Marwijk Kooy (De Bilt 1875-1955 Zeist) married in 1901 in Zeist to Jhr. Egbert Lintelo de Geer (Amsterdam 1869-1945 Zeist) resided at Kerckebosch Castle

o Design of house and outbuildings Abraham Salm (Amsterdam 1857-1915 Amsterdam) 

o Garden design L.A. Springer (Amsterdam 1855-1940 Haarlem) 

• 1916 | Jeanne Henriette Beuker widow of Marwijk Kooy
• 1930 | Rental of villa as family guesthouse by former gardener Dirk Dros and his wife
  • P.M. van Dam of timber company Van Dam in Bunnik operates the country estate
  • Sale of land to the municipality
• 1937 | Anna de Roode (Baarn 1911-19...) as director of a first-class family guesthouse with 26 rooms and central heating. Married to Gerard Beszelzen (Utrecht 1909-19...) in Zeist in 1940
  • 1939 | Lieutenant General of Infantry Jan Joseph Godfried Baron van Voorst tot Voorst (Kampen 1880–1963 Vierakker), requisitioned several rooms on September 6 during the mobilization and as commander of the Field Army on behalf of the Dutch armed forces. In the utmost secrecy, the General Staff and Prince Bernhard met there to discuss the threat of war from Germany and the possible flight of the Royal House.
  • Coincidence? His uncle Joan Marie Baron Voorst tot Voorst was the owner of Ma Retraite from 1881 to 1896.

 Rooms were also rented out to, among others: 

• • CHU Mayor Mr. Willem Adriaan Johan Visser (Beek 1904-1975 Leiden). Married in 1929 to Jkvr. Jenny Micheline de Geer (Zeist 1907–1966 The Hague, buried in Zeist). Divorced 1951.
  • Harry Antoon Jozef Dreesmann (Utrecht 1900-1971 Utrecht), Director of Vroom en Dreesmann N.V. Utrecht, Amersfoort and Dordrecht. Married in 1929 to Geertruida Paulina Antonia Maria “Tuut” Peek (Arnhem 1907-1982 Amsterdam, buried in Utrecht)
• 1942 | Requisitioned by the Germans, who painted the white villa green to camouflage it against Allied air attacks
• 1945 | Headquarters and hospital for Canadian liberators
• 1945 | Planting of the weeping willow, which still stands there today, on the small island in memory of the liberation
• 1946 | Sale to the Society “the Crusaders of Saint John”, a Roman Catholic lay order boys' boarding school under the name “Huize Sint Jan”.
• 1976 | On the night of January 19, a fire breaks out and the central section is destroyed. The second fire the following night makes further habitation impossible, and the boys are housed in barracks on the rear grounds. The fire department and army use the vacant building for exercises.
• 1979 | Sale of vacant ruin to Verenigde Dura Bedrijven BV. from Rotterdam
• 1986 | Restoration and renovation
• 1987 | Noro Group Companies, Owner John Arthur Fentener van Vlissingen (Utrecht 1939-2025 Zeist)
• 1994 | Maliebaan Management B.V.
• 2007 | Boron Estates Holding B.V. and BCD Group
• 2026 | Boron Estates Holding B.V., Fentener van Vlissingen Family