Jan Bernd Bicker (27 August 1746, Amsterdam – 16 December 1812,

Wassenaar Wassenaar (; population: in ) is a municipality and town located in the province of South Holland, on the western coast of the Netherlands. An affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies north of that city on the N44/A44 highway near the Nort ...

) was a Dutch merchant, politician and a member of the very powerful

Bicker family Bicker (also: Bicker van Swieten) is a Dutch patrician family, it has been a patrician family since 1390. The family has played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They led the Dutch States Party and were at the centre of the oligarch ...

Life

After studying law and philosophy in Utrecht, he joined the bank ''Andries Pels & Soonen'', founded by his grandfather

Andries Pels (1655 - 1731) Andries Pels (2 September 1655, in Amsterdam – 8 February 1731) was a wealthy Dutch banker and insurer. He began as someone who had devoted himself to the merchandise trade, along with his brother Guillelmo, but after the latter's death in ...

. He served as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

in the city council and as an administrator of the Amsterdam branch of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

(WIC) and was director of the

Society of Suriname The Society of Suriname ( Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the Dutch Republic's colony of Suri ...

. Bicker was opposed to the

House of Orange The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of O ...

and supported the

Patriots A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

, a liberal group that wanted to curtail the power of the ''

Stadtholder In the Low Countries, a stadtholder ( ) was a steward, first appointed as a medieval official and ultimately functioning as a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and ...

''. A political conservative, he disliked the democrats within the Patriotic movement. Because of his opposition to the Stadtholder, he was forced to leave the country when the latter, after the

Prussian invasion of Holland The Prussian invasion of Holland was a military campaign under the leadership of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, against the rise of the democratic Patriottentijd, Patriot movement in the Dutch Republic in September–October 1787 ...

, removed the Patriots from power. Bicker settled in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

and later in

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

. There he was in contact with other leading members of the Patriotic movement who had left the Dutch Republic in October 1787. Together they formed a ''Revolutionary Committee''. In April 1794, during the Great Terror, he left Nantes and settled in

Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

. After the

Armée du Nord The Army of the North or is a name given to several historical units of the French Army. The first was one of the French Revolutionary Armies that fought with distinction against the First Coalition from 1792 to 1795. Others existed during th ...

had occupied the country in January 1795 the Patriots returned; Bicker arrived in May. Meanwhile the Dutch Republic was renamed '' Bataafse Republiek''. Bicker was elected a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

and belonged to more conservative ''Moderaten'' (moderates). Despite his conservative leanings he opposed

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and supported reforms. The

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

of 22 January 1798 by

Herman Willem Daendels Herman Willem Daendels (21 October 1762 – 2 May 1818) was a Dutch military officer and colonial administrator who served as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1808 to 1811. Early life Herman Willem Daendels was born on 21 October 1 ...

Pieter Vreede Pieter Vreede (October 8, 1750– September 21, 1837) was a Dutch politician of the Batavian Republic in the 18th century. Vreede was born in Leiden and died in Heusden. He was a prominent critic of stadholderian misrule and of the urban pat ...

and

Wybo Fijnje Wybo Fijnje (24 January 1750 in Zwolle – 2 October 1809 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch Mennonite minister, publisher in Delft, Patriot, exile, coup perpetrator, politician and – during the Batavian Republic and Kingdom of Holland – manager of ...

and his supporters (radical Unitarians), had to guarantee "the unity and indivisibility" of the Batavian republic. The group behind Vreede was dissatisfied with the conservative-moderate majority in parliament, which tried to prevent the formulation of a more democratic, centralized constitution. It broke the power of the Moderates and Federalists. Opponents, like Bicker, were rounded up and imprisoned without charge. Bicker did not end up in

Huis ten Bosch Huis ten Bosch (, ; ) is a royal palace in The Hague, Netherlands. It is one of three official residences of the Dutch monarch; the two others being the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague and the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Huis ten Bosch was th ...

, but in Wijk bij Duurstede. In March he, his son and a servant were transferred to Leeuwarden and imprisoned for 11 weeks in three spacious upper rooms of the

Princessehof The Princessehof Ceramics Museum (in Dutch: Keramiekmuseum Princessehof) is a museum of ceramics in the city of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. The museum's name comes from one of two buildings in which it is housed: a small palace ( means ‘royal ...

. The coup did not bring the expected results, and Daendels supported another coup d'état on 12 June and Bicker was released. He was a member of the executive organ, the '' Staatsbewind'', from 1803 to 1805. He played no role during the

Kingdom of Holland The Kingdom of Holland ( (contemporary), (modern); ) was the successor state of the Batavian Republic. It was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in March 1806 in order to strengthen control over the Netherlands by replacing the republican governmen ...

(1806–1811), but honoured as ''

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

''. He retired from the public scene and lived at his estate ''Oosterbeek'' at

. He kept ornamental birds and grew

pineapples The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many cent ...

. He died at age 66.

Family

Jan Bernd Bicker was married to Catharina Six on 23 May 1769 in Amsterdam. She was a scion of the powerful

Six family Six is a well-known Dutch family from Amsterdam. The family originally came from the region of Lille in the north of France. History The name Six is an abbreviation of Sixtus, a name given to the sixth child of a family. The first known member ...

. The couple had nine children. Their son, Henric Bicker (1777–1834), who accompanied his parents in exile in 1787, was ennobled by King

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

in 1815. Henric became an untitled member of the

Dutch nobility The Dutch nobility is a small elite social class consisting of individuals or families recognised as nobility, noble, and with or without a title of nobility in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The existence of nobility was established in the Con ...

.Some information about Henric Bicker
/ref>

References

Source

*Bisselink, M.N.: ''Jan Bernd Bicker: een patriot in ballingschap 1787–1795'', VU Boekhandel/Press 1983, {{DEFAULTSORT:Bicker, Jan Bernd 1746 births 1812 deaths Aldermen of Amsterdam Administrators of the Dutch West India Company Knights of the Legion of Honour Dutch West India Company people from Amsterdam Members of the Dutch Patriots faction Utrecht University alumni

Jan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

Nobility from Amsterdam Members of the First National Assembly of the Batavian Republic Members of the Second National Assembly of the Batavian Republic Members of the Staatsbewind