Anna Maria Jennaert, the Kranenburg Girl

A stolen baby

The Kranenburg girl had been kidnapped at the age of 16 months on 5 May 1700 and not seen again until caught in 1717 the forest of Kranenburg, near what is now Zwolle, in the province of Overyssel. When found, she was unable to speak, and lived on grass, leaves and so on. As is so often the case, her existence had been known of for some time, but people hadn't been able to catch her until a concerted effort was made by "one thousand peasants" armed with nets.

Anna Maria Jennaert

The girl turned out to be Anna Maria Jennaert, who was born in Antwerp in 1798. She was originally kidnapped when a dying merchant in Amsterdam willed his mistress's baby 5000 dollars, not knowing that the baby had died. The mistress thus kidnapped the girl in order to present her to him to get the money.

Returned to her mother

Following newspaper announcements of her capture in January of 1718, the Kranenburg girl was reunited with her mother, who returned with her to Antwerp on 6 April. She recognised her mother, was very glad to go to her, and apart from failing to learn to speak was very much at home in human society, with no wish to return to the wild.