Hester Rebecca Nepping was executed in Amsterdam on Monday, June 15, 1812, together with her maid, Adriana van Rijswijk, and her lover, Gerrit Verkerk. All three had been sentenced to death by the court of assizes in Amsterdam, and the sentence had been upheld by the Hof van Cassatie, the Court of Cassation, in Paris. At that date the Netherlands was part of the French Empire, and French criminal procedure applied.
The charge was murder. Nepping and Van Rijswijk were tried for the deaths of two people in the household at Wijk bij Duurstede in 1811: a boarder, Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole, and Nepping's husband, Jan Brummelkamp. Verkerk was tried as an accomplice in the murder of Jan Brummelkamp. A third death, that of Nepping's father in November 1811, was not part of the charge.
Hester Rebecca Nepping was baptized in Amsterdam on October 9, 1774. She was the only child of her parents, who were well off. Her father was Johannes Nepping; her mother was Cornelia Schram.
In 1794 she married Jan Brummelkamp, a man from Loenen op de Veluwe. The banns were published in Amsterdam on April 4 of that year. She was 19. The couple lived for a time in Amsterdam and later moved to Wijk bij Duurstede, in the province of Utrecht.
In May 1810 the household took in boarders for a single payment of 3,000 guilders, in return for care for life. One of them was Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole, an elderly woman.
In February 1811 Adriana van Rijswijk came into the household as a maid. She had earlier worked at an inn in Culemborg. She was about 24 and unmarried. Nepping also formed a relationship with Gerrit Verkerk, a younger man of Wijk bij Duurstede, who was about 21 or 22 when he was executed.
Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole died in the household at Wijk bij Duurstede at the turn of August to September 1811, on August 31 or September 2. Her death was followed by the death of Nepping's father, Johannes Nepping, in the first days of November 1811. That death was not investigated as a murder, and it was not charged.
Jan Brummelkamp died on or about November 11, 1811, within days of Nepping's father. Nepping, Van Rijswijk and Verkerk were all arrested after his death. Both deaths were prosecuted as murder.
The three suspects were held first in the maison d'arret in Amersfoort, under the imperial prosecutor there. On January 15, 1812 they were moved to Amsterdam to stand trial. The indictment is dated January 20, 1812: Nepping and Van Rijswijk were charged with murder, "moord", of Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole and Jan Brummelkamp, and Verkerk was charged as an accomplice in the murder of Jan Brummelkamp.
All three at first denied the charges. Van Rijswijk was the first to admit her part, and she gave an account of Nepping's relationship with Verkerk. Verkerk then acknowledged what he had done in the Brummelkamp case. Nepping in the end admitted the two killings that were charged, the deaths of Berenburg-Vinjole and of her husband. She denied any part in the other deaths in her family.
The trial took place before the Hof van Assisen in Amsterdam, the court of assizes of the French-period system. Nepping and Van Rijswijk were convicted of the double murder, "tweevoudige moord". Verkerk was convicted of "medeplichtigheid", complicity, in the murder of Jan Brummelkamp, not of murder itself. All three were sentenced to death. The date of the verdict is not known.
The three condemned appealed to the Hof van Cassatie, the French Cour de Cassation, in Paris. The appeal was rejected and the death sentences stood. They learned of the outcome on June 15, 1812, the day of the execution.
On Monday, June 15, 1812, Hester Nepping, Adriana van Rijswijk and Gerrit Verkerk were executed in Amsterdam. Nepping was 37. Van Rijswijk was about 25, and Verkerk 21 or 22. A pastor of the Reformed congregation in Amsterdam, Willem Broes, had given Nepping spiritual care in her last days and published an account of her life, her character and her final religious experiences in 1812.
Several points remain open. The death of Nepping's father in November 1811 was never charged, and she was not convicted of it. The death of an uncle in 1797 was suspected; Nepping denied it, and it was not proven. Accounts differ on whether Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole died on August 31 or September 2, 1811, and on whether Verkerk was 21 or 22 when he was executed.
October 9, 1774: Hester Rebecca Nepping is baptized in Amsterdam.
April 4, 1794: the banns for her marriage to Jan Brummelkamp are published in Amsterdam.
May 1810: a boarder, Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole, joins the household in Wijk bij Duurstede for a payment of 3,000 guilders.
February 1811: Adriana van Rijswijk joins the household as a maid.
Late August or early September 1811: Elisabeth Berenburg-Vinjole dies.
Early November 1811: Nepping's father dies; no charge is brought.
About November 11, 1811: Jan Brummelkamp dies.
January 15, 1812: Nepping, Van Rijswijk and Verkerk are moved from Amersfoort to Amsterdam.
January 20, 1812: the three are charged.
1812: the Amsterdam court of assizes sentences all three to death; the Court of Cassation in Paris rejects their appeal.
June 15, 1812: Nepping, Van Rijswijk and Verkerk are executed in Amsterdam.
1812: Willem Broes publishes his account of Nepping's life and last days.