17 In the billy goat 38

IN THE BILLY GOAT 1738 has had an eventful history.
It originally decorated the house at Rechtstraat 89, but it was finally discarded and ended up in the flooring of the backyard, where it was found again. After years  'in the museum', and being dragged from place to place, it ended up at Markt 68 during the general relocation wave of 1953. The caption is currently (half) covered by the awning.

Fragments from the past.

On 22 March 1860 a deed was executed before the Maastricht notary P.J.H. Jessé in which the property Markt 1112 (now 68, and before 1850 known as 1628) was acquired by the surveyor Joannes Henricus Hubertus Timmermans (1815-1870) and his wife, the shopkeeper Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens (1819-1894). Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens would run a coffee shop at Markt 68 until her death in 1894. Before this purchase in 1860 the Timmermans-Claessens couple lived at  Markt 1109 with their children (presently 65, and before 1850 known as number 1626). This was the house called "Hof van Spanje" (Court of Spain) from which Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens  married  in 1839. She then lived with her parents, the wealthy brewer Pieter Gillis Claessens, and Maria Catharina Vroenen, who became the owners of this house in 1834.

After the death of Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens in 1894 her children sold the "well-maintained house" in which "for many years there had been an always very popular cafe", as appears from an advertisement in the Limburger Koerier of 29 December 1894. On 24 January 1895 the property was sold by public auction for 20,700 guilders to the distiller Egidius Hubertus Meijers, residing in the Wycker Grachtstraat. The deed was executed before the Maastricht notary A.E.J.H. Herfst.

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