Johan de Witt Jr., heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten,
Snelrewaard,
Hekendorp and IJsselveere (27 May 1662 at
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
– 24 January 1701 at
Dordrecht
Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...
) was a
Dutch politician, scholar, and collector.
Biography
Johan Jr. was the son of
Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt (24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672) was a Dutch statesman and mathematician who was a major political figure during the First Stadtholderless Period, when flourishing global trade in a period of rapid European colonial exp ...
and his wife
Wendela Bicker (1635–1668). Having been part of the old Dutch patrician
De Witt family, De Witt took a seat as secretary of the city of Dordrecht. After the early death of his mother, his relatives,
Gerard Bicker (I) van Swieten and Catherine van Sijpesteijn, who lived in the same house, also looked after their nephews and nieces. His two other uncles,
Jean Deutz and
Pieter de Graeff
Pieter de Graeff (15 August 1638 – 3 June 1707) was a Dutch Republic, Dutch Aristocracy (class), aristocrat of the Dutch Golden Age and one of the most influential pro-state, republican Amsterdam regenten, Regents during the late 1660s and the ...
, became guardians and were responsible for handling the maternal estate.
In
Rampjaar
In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the (; Disaster Year). In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded a ...
1672, after the murder of his father, De Graeff became the guardian of Johann and his siblings.
Johan de Witt Jr. later became the overseer of the orphanage in Dordrecht (1684–1685). After that he became secretary (1688–1701) and member of the College of Forty (1695) of Dordrecht.
Johan de Witt married his cousin Wilhelmina de Witt (1671–1701), the daughter of his uncle
Cornelis de Witt
Cornelis de Witt (15 June 1623 – 20 August 1672) was a Dutch States Navy officer and statesman. During the First Stadtholderless Period, De Witt was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, and was in opposition to the House of Oran ...
(1623–1672) en Maria van Berckel (1632–1706). The couple had two children:
* Johan (1694–1751), who inherited his father's property and sold them in 1723 to Jan Hendrik Strick van Linschoten.
* Cornelis de Witt (1696–1769),
Burgomaster
Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch .
In so ...
of Dordrecht and
vrijheer of Jaarsveld.
Johan de Witt owned an extensive library, consisting of books that previously belonged to his father as well as additions of his own.
[H. W. de Kooker, Bert van Selm, Boekcultuur in de Lage Landen, 1500-1800: bibliografie van publikaties over particulier boekenbezit in Noord- en Zuid-Nederland, verschene voor 1991, HES, 1993]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witt, Johan de
1662 births
1701 deaths
People from Dordrecht
De Witt family
de:Johan II. de Witt
fy:Johan de Witt Jr.
nl:Johan de Witt (1662-1701)