Jelis Strings was a friend and associate of two brothers, Pieter and Jelis Potvliet. He shared with them a common faith in Christ as well as a partnership in business. All three young men had grown up in the town of Tielt, Flanders, west of Ghent. Here they had belonged to the state church (Catholic), but having heard the preaching of the Anabaptists, they were converted to Christ as disciples and were baptized into this fellowship.
Jelis Strings and his two partners learned of coming persecution through some of their business associations. As the sense of danger increased, Jelis and his associates, the Potvliet brothers, left Tielt and went to Wervik, a town in Flanders near the French border. In the summer of 1562, the three young men were arrested. Dean Titelmans himself came during the night with servants and soldiers and surrounded the house where the young men lived, taking them by surprise For the remainder of the night the three were put in the town prison. At daylight the inquisitor had them bound and placed in a wagon while he and his company rode alongside on horseback. They took the three prisoners to Kortrijk, a three hour journey to the northeast, actually on the road to their hometown of Tielt. Jelis and his friends were imprisoned here for three months. Finally the inquisitor and the lord of Everbeke, in whose region they had been arrested, agreed on their sentences, and they were taken back to Wervik, accompanied by a great crowd. In the city marketplace known as the Steenaker, the inquisitor had ordered the preparation of an enclosure, with stakes and wood to execute the three young men by burning.
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