The war of Independence of the Netherlands against Spain began in I568. One of the first successes was the capture of Den Briel on April 1st. 1572 by the so called Sea Gueux. Soon after this event Scottish soldiers came to the Low Countries. Already on September I6th. 1572 the Regent of Scotland, Mar. granted a passport to Captain Henry Balfour. Commander of about 200 Scotsmen. to serve under the Prince of Orange. In January 1573 Henry Balfour was present at the siege of Haarlem. From 1572 to 1781 there were always Scottish regiments in the Netherlands: in the period from 1629 to 1655 there were three.
The present collection of entries of marriages of Scotsmen starts with I574. In the oldest marriage-register of the Netherlands. that of Dordrecht. Scotsmen are on record for the first time in that year. From 1648. when a peace-treaty was signed with Spain. until 1673. when William of Orange was fighting France, no Scottish soldiers came to the Netherlands. However, the three regiments continued to exist; in 1655 the number had decreased to two but from 1660 onwards there were again three regiments. This study stretches to 1665 because the Scottish regiments were then transformed into Dutch regiments. This was because of the outbreak of the Second Anglo- Dutch War. The Stuarts, of whom the Scots were fervent adherents, then reigned in England. The number of entries of marriages in the period 1665- 1674 is negligibly small.
The data described in this work were collected by the author during the period 1965-1967. The eleven provinces of the Netherlands each have a Central Record-Office in the province capital, where the marriage-registers of the cities and villages of that province can be consulted. For example in the Central Record-Office at The Hague the capital of the province of Zuid-Holland, the registers of Schoonhoven and of other places are kept. However, in Delft, Dordrecht, Gouda, Gorinchem, The Hague itself, Leyden, Rotterdam and Schiedam, which are situated in the same province, there are municipal Record-Offices