PREFACE

      A volume could easily be written on the history of the several branches of the de Wolf family in Europe; but, according to the plan outlined by the author of the present genealogy, the writer will confine himself, in this preface, to the origin of the name and the relationships in Belgium, Holland, Germany and the Russian Baltic Provinces.

      It must certainly be a matter for satisfaction for the numerous representatives of the de Wolf name and blood in America, to know that there are few families in the United States, and indeed in Europe, which hold such a distinguished position, in so many different countries as the de Wolfs. This statement may, at first sight, seem exaggerated, until it has been explained that not only do the de Wolfs belong to the oldest aristocracy of Flanders, Saxony and Livonia, but that in the present generation, as in the past, the representatives of the family in these countries have now an enviable name for themselves in public life in the domain of literature and science.

      During the course of my travels, and almost life-long residence on the Continent, more especially in Belgium, it has been my good fortune to become personally acquainted with leading members of the de Wolf family, among them being Baron Ariste de Wolff, of Riga, Livonia, now in the Russian diplomatic service; and Baron Louis de Wolf de Moorsell, of the Château de Trevierès, Bracgnies in the Province of Hainaut, a well-known member of the Belgian aristocracy. Baron Louis de Wolf's ancestor, Maximilian de Wolf, son of Frederick de Wolf, a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire, had lands conferred upon him by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and took up his residence in the neighborhood of Ghent in 1535. He was created a baron in the following year. Several of Maximilian de Wolf's descendants held appointments in the French army and diplomatic service. Baron Charles de Wolf, Maximilian's eldest son, joined the cause of the Belgian people in their revolt against Spain at the time of the revolution in the Lowlands, in 1579. Baron Joseph Henry de Wolf, a great grandson of Charles de Wolf, after the cession of the seven Belgian provinces to the Empire, took up his residence at Haarlem in Holland; his son, Joseph, Baron de Wolf, became an Admiral in the Dutch service, and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1751 to 1757.

      The Barons de Wolf, of Belgium, are closely related to the best known families of the Kingdom, and have intermarried during the past three centuries with the scions of the oldest aristocracy. Among the more noteworthy of these relationships are those with the Dukes d'Ursel; the present head of this family, the Duc d'Ursel, is President of the Belgian Senate, and a warm personal friend of King Leopold; the Princes de Ligne, whose family seat, the Château de Beloeil, is one of the marvels of Belgium; and the writer's friend, the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, of the Château de Lovenjoul, one of whose maternal ancestors was the Baroness Theodora de Wolf. The Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul is one of the most eminent littérateurs of the day in Belgium; as the author of A History of the Works of Honoré de Balzac," "A History of Theophile Gautier's Works," "A Love Romance—the true story of Balzac and Madame Hauska," and of several other works, crowned by the French Academy. The Vicomte de Lovenjoul's renown is not only not confined to his own country, but has crossed the Atlantic. The Vicomte's palatial residence in Brussels—with its library containing, besides all of the existing manuscripts of Balzac's novels, the unpublished correspondence of the great novelist with Madame Hauska—is perhaps the most unique sight in the Belgian capital.

      The legend of the origin of the name of de Wolf is practically the same in every country. According to the family tradition in Belgium, Frederick de Wolf's first known ancestor, Louis de Saint-Etienne, of the French noble family of that name, was one of King Charles the Fifth's attendants on a hunting expedition. During the chase, a wolf cub crossed the King's path; Charles threw his lance at the cub, mortally wounding it, and breaking the weapon against a tree. An enormous she-wolf, seeing her offspring wounded, rushed from the forest upon the King, who had nothing but his hunting knife to defend himself with. Louis de Saint- Etienne rushed between the wolf and the King and despatched it with his sword, thus saving the King from the danger that threatened him. As a reward the King Knighted Louis, who, from this time, was called de Loup, and was the ancestor of the noble French family of that name. His grandson, Emile de Loup, accompanied the Princess Mathilda to Germany at the time of her marriage to the eldest son of Frederick, Elector and Duke of Saxony in 1423. Emile de Loup became a great favorite at the Saxon Court, and had the title of Baron conferred on him in 1427. He then changed his name from the French to the German, and was known afterwards as de Wolf. It was his direct descendant, Maximilian de Wolf, who founded the Belgian branch of the family. The ancestral seat of the de Wolfs in Saxony is the Castle of Crimmitzshaw. The arms of the family are: —Or, Three Wolves' heads, erased sable borne on the breast of an Imperial double-headed Eagle, sable-beaked, or, a Coronet of Baron of the Empire. Crest: Out of a Ducal Coronet, a Demi-Wolf, gules, holding in the dexter paw a fleur-de-lis, or. The motto: Vincit qui Patitur. He conquers who endures.

      The title of Baron is borne to-day by the de Wolfs in Belgium, Holland, Saxony, Prussia and Livonia (Baltic Provinces of Russia). This in itself might be of small importance, for the number of parvenus with this or other titles of nobility is legion on the Continent. In the case of the de Wolfs the proof of their noble origin lies in the fact that the several branches of the family have borne coat-of arms for-centuries. In the official Arckives Nobiliares of Belgium, it is recorded that the de Wolfs have borne arms since the beginning of the sixteenth century, in Flanders. It may, perhaps, be hardly necessary to state that it is the right to use armorial bearings which has always been the distinctive test of nobility. Coats-of-arms in the early dawn of feudalism were the mark of the French gentilhomme as of the English gentleman. Consequently, the de Wolfs have, in the broadest acceptation of the word, the right to "that grand old name of gentleman, defamed by every charlatan and soiled with all ignoble use." In this connection it is a most noteworthy fact that the European de Wolfs have always looked upon their long line of ancestry as being in itself far more honorable than a mere title. They have always, let it be noted, retained the distinctive family name of de Wolf, and have never, as is so often the case, particularly in Belgium, allowed their original family name to be replaced by that of their estates. This pride taken in their name rather than in the title, recalls the splendid old motto of the Rohans: Roi ne puis, Monseigneur ne daigne, Monsieur sius.-A King I cannot be, a nobleman I do not deign to be, a gentleman I am.

      Concerning the origin of the de Wolf family in America, there can be but little doubt from the investigations the writer has made, that our first American ancestor was a scion of the Livonian branch, which is, itself, an offshoot of the Saxon branch. There is a well-established tradition in Baron Ariste de Wolff's family, that, in the early part of the seventeenth century, a younger son of the Baron de Wolff of that day, left Livonia to emigrate, presumably to America, and was never again heard from. The crest of the Livonian de Wolffs, it should be observed in this connection, is the same as that of the American branch—to wit: Out of a Ducal Coronet, a Demi-Wolf gules, holding in the dexter paw a fleur-de-lis, or.

      The writer concludes this preface with a plea in favour of the original spelling of the name de Wolf. This is certainly the only logical manner of spelling the name; for those members of the family, at least, who bear the de Wolf coat-of-arms. In France and Belgium, only those families who have the particle "de" (in Germany "von"), have the right to bear coat-of arms. In Belgium and Holland there are many family names with the prefix "De," which, in Danish and Dutch, means "the," but this prefix, apart from the similarity of spelling, has nothing in common with the French particle "de," and it would not only be absurd, but illegal, on the Continent, for the members of these families to use coats-of-arms, unless they had previously been ennobled. Bradford Colt De Wolf Brussels, December 30, 1901.