The surroundings

There were more states in Zweins. Schotanus’s map of 1698 also names Groot Heerma, Rinnerda and Van der Waeyen, and Eekhoff’s map from the middle of the nineteenth century adds Heerma State. Only Kinghum is named in the rotating court of 1406-1438 as a state of Zweins that supplied a judge. Little or nothing of the other states can be found in the landscape today; on the site of Heerma State there is now a farm. The large number of states does mean that the area was relatively prosperous at the time.

This probably had something to do with the area’s proximity to the canal (now the Van Harinxmakanaal) and the road from Harlingen to Franeker and Leeuwarden. At the site where this road crossed the canal, a drawbridge (tille) had been built. Locally it was called Keimpetille. As early as 1785 an essay on how proper names become corrupted used it as an example: “kingma Til, ’t welk men altijd keimpe til, of kimpe til hoort uitspreeken” (Kingma Til, which one always hears pronounced keimpe til or kimpe til) (Taal-, dicht- en letterkundig magazijn (1785), p. 136).

There was also a toll, a pub and a brickworks (tichelwerk). All this activity gave rise to a small settlement named Kingmatille, which exists to this day, despite the fact that the bridge, tollhouse, pub and brickworks are long gone.

The upkeep of the bridge was the business of the owner of Kingma State, and that led to complaints. On 16 June 1618 the Provincial Executive of Friesland (Gedeputeerde Staten) ordered Saeckle Intes Kingma to restore the bridge to a width of 14½ feet and to its former height, and in July the city of Leeuwarden lodged a complaint of 46 articles about his upkeep of Kingmatille (Inventaris van het oud-archief der stad Leeuwarden (1893), pp. 233-234).

The owner of the state also had the say over the pub. In 1647 Saeckle asked the grietman (district governor) of Franekeradeel for permission to build a house by Kingmatille on the towpath for someone who would “aen Passanten ende wech-veerdige personen een minglen bier uijt-tappe ende vercope” (draw and sell a mengel of beer to passers-by and travellers). He was granted that right on 11 March 1647, “met verbott aen allen anderen” (with a ban on everyone else). Jan Bauckes, who lived in the tollhouse and had been keeping a tap there, promised in December that from then on he would only do so with the permission of “Heere Kingma” (Mr Kingma) and would stop as soon as Kingma forbade it (Tresoar, Van Beyma thoe Kingma family archive, inv. 7, transcription by Martha Kist for Joost Kingma, Ruiter voor de Republiek (2022); inventory of the family archive (1907), p. 301).

A lot happened at the bridge in 1650. In August Saeckle asked the court of Hennaarderadeel, the district on the south side of the canal, whether he could lay a tille in the road just past Kingmatille at his own expense. When an associate judge and the clerk came to look on 3 September, he showed them his plan: he wanted to extend his clay ditch through the dyke to a piece of land belonging to the Franeker orphanage, so that the clay he had bought could be brought “bequamelijck aen Kingma Tichelwerck” (conveniently to the Kingma brickworks). Over the gap in the dyke there would be a tille “op de Hoogte van een grote Cleijpraem” (high enough for a large clay barge to pass underneath). On 11 September the court gave its consent (Tresoar, Van Beyma thoe Kingma family archive, inv. 8, transcription by Martha Kist for Ruiter voor de Republiek).

A month later, on 17 October 1650, Leeuwarden and Harlingen concluded an “akte van sociëteit” (deed of partnership) in the tollhouse on the management and upkeep of the towpath: the two cities shared the proceeds and the costs, and Franeker was left out. The parchment, signed by twelve delegates of the two cities, ends with “Actum op den Tolhuijs aen Kingmatille den 17en Octob. 1650” (done at the tollhouse at Kingmatille, 17 October 1650) (Inventaris van het oud-archief der stad Leeuwarden (1893), no. 345).

In Frisian stories, too, Keimpetille was a landmark on the canal. In 1922 P. Janzen told of the visit of King Willem I to Franeker in May 1818, to see Eisinga’s planetarium. As soon as the provincial state yacht carrying the king reached Keimpetille, a small cannon there was to fire a salute, Saunhuzen would answer, and at the powder tower “de Buiskool” on the Leeuwarden side of Franeker three cannon stood ready. When a boy shouted from the roof of the tower “Jonges, de koaning komt!” (boys, the king is coming!), a shot was fired at Keimpetille, immediately followed by one at Saunhuzen, and then the three eight-pounders roared, right behind the back of the somewhat hard-of-hearing professor Wassenbergh. He turned round and asked the sergeant: “Seiden jou wat teugen mij?” (did you say something to me?) (Sljucht en rjucht (1922), pp. 297-298).

By 1836 the hamlet by the bridge was the main part of Zweins. H. W. Steenstra wrote: “Bij de kerk staan weinige huizen, doch de aanzienlijke streek bij Kingmatille maakt het voornaamste gedeelte des dorps uit, waarbij ook een steenfabriek, toebehoorende aan welgemelden Heere Grietman” (there are few houses by the church, but the sizeable row of houses at Kingmatille is the main part of the village, with a brickworks belonging to the aforementioned grietman). That grietman was Julius Matthijs van Beijma thoe Kingma, who lived at Kingma State (H. W. Steenstra, Oudheidkundige aanteekeningen van de dorpen en kloosters der grietenij Franekeradeel (1836), pp. 55-56).

In 1859 the bridge belonged to jonkheer Ulbo Jetze Heerma van Beijma thoe Kingma, who lived at Kingma State. After an amicable settlement the province of Friesland bought it from him for just over 8,405 guilders; the contract was signed on 25 April 1859. From 12 May 1860 a bridge keeper and toll collector levied the toll for the province, at a salary of 200 guilders a year (Verslag van den toestand der provincie Friesland over 1859). The canal was busy: 3,907 ships passed the Kingmatille in 1871 and 6,061 in 1872 (same report for 1872).