De Witt (family)

Statue of Johan (left) and Cornelis de Witt in Dordrecht.

Jacob de Witt, painted by Nicolaes Maes in 1657, Dordrechts Museum.

Cornelis de Witt, painted by Jan de Baen between 1667 and 1670, Rijksmuseum.

De Witt is the name of an old Dutch patrician and regenten family. Originally of Dordrechts origin, the genealogy of the family begins with Jan de Witte, a patrician who lived around 1295.^{[1] [2]} The family have played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They were at the centre of Dordrecht and Holland oligarchy from the end of the 16th century until 1672.^[3]

The De Witt family during the Dutch Golden Age

During the Dutch Golden Age, the De Witt family was very critical of the influence of the House of Orange-Nassau. They belonged to the republican political movement, also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, as opposed to the Royalists. Together with the Republican political leaders at Dordrecht, the Van Slingelandts, and at Amsterdam the leading Bicker family and their relatives of the family De Graeff, the De Witts strove for the abolition of stadtholdership. They desired the full sovereignty of the individual regions in a form in which the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands was not ruled by a single person. Instead of a sovereign (or stadtholder), the political and military power was lodged with the States General and with the regents of the cities in Holland.

During the two decades from the 1650 to the 1670s the De Witt family had a leading role in the Dutch administration. This period was also referred to by Republicans as the Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom), the First Stadtholderless Period which lasted from 1650 to 1672.^[3]

In Rampjaar 1672, when the Orangists took power again and the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt were murdered, the family lost their position as one of the key States party families. In 1861 the family died out with Maria de Witt.

Family members

• Jacob Fransz de Witt (1548-1621), Burgemeester of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland
• Cornelis Fransz de Witt (1545–1622), Burgemeester and regent of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland and West Friesland
  • Andries de Witt (1573–1637), Grand Pensionary of Holland
  • Jacob de Witt (1589–1674), Burgemeester and regent of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland
    • Johan de Witt (1618-1676), Burgemeester and regent of Dordrecht
    • Cornelis de Witt (1623–1672), Burgemeester and regent of Dordrecht, ruwaard or governor of the land of Putten, chief of the Dutch marine
      • Johan de Witt (1625–1672), heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard and IJsselveere, Grand Pensionary of Holland
        • Johan de Witt Jr. (1662–1701), heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard and IJsselveere, secretary of the city of Dordrecht
          • Cornelis Johansz de Witt (1696-1769), vrijheer van Jaarsveld, Burgemeester of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland

Notes

1. ^ Family De Witt at Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 3
2. ^ De Witt – Genealogie
3. ^ ^{a b} Triumph of Peace

Literature

• Sypesteyn, C.A. van, De geslachten De Witt te Dordrecht en te Amsterdam in: De Nederlandsche heraut. Tijdschrift op het gebied van geslacht-, wapen- en zegelkunde jrg. 3 (1886 's-Gravenhage; C. van Doorn & zoon).
• Panhusen, Luc (2005) De Ware Vrijheid, De levens van Johan en Cornelis de Witt, Atlas
• Rowen, Herbert H. (1986) John de Witt – Statesman of the True Freedom“ Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52708-2.
• Fölting, H.P., De landsadvocaten en raadpensionarissen der Staten van Holland en West-Friesland 1480–1795. Een genealogische benadering. Deel III in: Jaarboek Centraal Bureau Voor Genealogie. Deel 29 (1975 Den Haag; Centraal Bureau Voor Genealogie).
• Israel, Jonathan I. (1995) The dutch Republic – It`s Rise, Greatness, and Fall - 1477-1806 Clarendon Press, Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-820734-4.