company changed after the decline of Mechelen from around 1585. Mechelen had already been burned once, near the start of the Eighty Years' War, in 1572, but the mass exodus of Protestants to the Northern Netherlands from 1585 on saw the city population shrink from some 25,000 to close to 10,000 in a decade. Three of his sons worked in the bell-foundry: Pieter III, Hendrik (1560-1602) and Jan III (died 1626). Pieter III Vanden Gheyn Pieter III was born around 1552, and died on 15 December 1618. Despite the ongoing war and the reduced fortunes of his family and his city, he continued to deliver a steady stream of bells and other founded goods. He delivered in 1595-1596 a carillon for Monnickendam, and in 1599 eleven bells for the church carillon of the Church of Our Lady across the river Dijle in Mechelen. In 1615-1616, he made a 17-bell carillon for Sint-Maartensdijk in the Netherlands. Many of his bells were made for Scottish churches as well. Later members of the Vanden Gheyn family in Mechelen Jan III Vanden Gheyn had a successor in his son Pieter IV Vanden Gheyn (born 1605), who founded in 1638 together with Peter II De Clerck, another bellfounder from Mechelen, the big bell for the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels. Many other collaborations with Peter II and Jacob De Clerck are noted in the 1630s and later: when Johannes de Clerck, of the same family of bellfounders, dies in 1663, his widow remarries Jan IV Vanden Gheyn and the companies merge. Jan IV (born 1642) was a son of Pieter IV. After the death of Jan IV, his stepson Jacob II De Clerck again starts using the De Clerck name for his bells, ending the dynasty of the Vanden Gheyns in Mechelen. Pieter IV Vanden Gheyn had another, older son, Andries I, who moved to Sint-Truiden in 1655 and to Tienen a few years later. He was there succeeded by his son Pieter V and his grandsons Andries II and Pieter (or Peter) VI. Vanden Gheyn in Leuven Andries II Vanden Gheyn Andries II was born in Sint-Truiden in October 1696, and succeeded his father Pieter V at an early age. In 1725 the city of Leuven commanded a new 25-bell carillon from the company for the St. Peter's Church, which should be better than the existing Witlockx carillon in the