The van der Meulen family of Brussels was an important bourgeois family of freshwater fish merchants.

Many of its members were deans of the guild of freshwater fish merchants They owned the fiefdom of the Roetaert[1] as well as numerous fishponds and lakes, especially in the Sonian Forest, such as the famous Enfants Noyés ponds, which Elisabeth van der Meulen (1720–1769), wife of Jean-Baptiste van Dievoet (1704-1776), sold to the state in 1744.

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