Willem van den Hove

Willem van den Hove

Willem van den Hove (baptized August 10, 1568 in Amsterdam ; buried December 7, 1647 in Alkmaar ) was a Dutch merchant.

Working in the Netherlands

Van den Hove had a stepfather who had commercial links with Spain and who most likely introduced him to the trade. In 1591 they jointly had shares in a shipload. Then van den Hove worked on his own account. He had business contacts in Spain, the western Mediterranean and Brazil. As a modern Dutchman, he took part in new trips to the Mediterranean at the time. He was also involved in insurance business.

A few years later, van den Hove ended overseas trade and was now involved in building dikes. Since the Netherlands needed new land and there was a lot of money available, such projects were pursued with particular energy. Van den Hove was one of the largest landowners in Zijpe . As a dyke sworn ("heemraad") and probably also a mill master, he participated in the self-administration of the lowland area. Presumably in 1607 he moved to Alkmaar, where he acquired citizenship in 1608.

In 1603 van de Hove and other residents from Amsterdam and Alkmaar took part in the diking of the Schoonorter Polder under the direction of Johann Clausen Rollwagen . In 1610 he participated in the dike of Wieringerwaard , then in the Jonkvrouwenpolders and Mauritspolders in the Dutch area of ​​Flanders. In 1617 he bought the Westerwolde estate , to which Wedde Castle belonged. For the adjacent foreland in the direction of Dollart , Emperor Charles V had drawn up a fiefdom in 1538, according to which the possession of the land represented sovereign right tied to the rulership. Van de Hove was obviously hoping to dike the land profitably, but was left with the residents of Bellingwolde and Blijham . As neighbors, they had an older right according to which they owned the land.

Van den Hove was probably too ambitious and not very solid. In June 1619 he sold the property again, but still referred to himself as "Heer van Wedde, Westerwoldingerland, Bellingwolde en Blijham". Shortly after the purchase, he was unable to make payments due. The sale of most of his other lands saved him from bankruptcy.

Working in Schleswig-Holstein

Van den Hove was possibly by Johann Clausen Rollwagen on Duke Friedrich III. von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and its economic policy goals. The duke invited him to Tönning , which he reached in December 1619. He helped to develop the plans according to which Friedrichstadt was built in 1621 . It is not certain who had the idea to settle the Remonstrants banished from the Netherlands at the Synod of Dordrecht in 1619 on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein. The plans could come from van den Hove, who had sided with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in Alkmaar , or the former council pensioner Johan de Haen, who had reached Tönning before van den Hove. Before going to Tönning, Van den Hove had stayed in Antwerp, where he had started negotiations with the leaders of the Remonstrant Brotherhood.

During the founding of Friedrichstadt, van den Hove enjoyed the Duke's trust and achieved a prominent position. One of his sons was allowed to lay the first cornerstone of the city in September 1621. Van den Hove tried in particular to attract merchants from the Netherlands to move there. He also negotiated sea trade with the Spanish government. When the first administrative organization was set up in 1623, it was not van den Hove but Adolph von Waell who got the post of ducal governor. The only reason for this was obviously that he was a nobleman and thus had the highest social rank. Van den Hove worked instead until the first council constitution in 1631 as one of six assessors (councilors). Presumably he was involved in 1623 for Mennonites who wanted to move into the city and should no longer be expelled in Eiderstedt .

Van den Hove founded self-serving companies early on, for which he received privileges from the Duke. In 1620 he owned a brick factory that produced stones for the construction of the church. In addition, he had a lime kiln with which he made mortar. In 1621 he was allowed to set up a salt works. In the following year, a mandate was issued that prohibited the import of salts from Lüneburg, which gave van den Hove additional security. In addition, he apparently participated in several ships that went overseas. In 1627 he got permission to open a herring fishing company. Whether he actually used them is not documented.

Van den Hove would have hoped for the greatest profit from the salt trade with Spain. In 1628 the Duke gave him the privilege of founding a company. This went back to the first contracts with the Spanish governor in Brussels . Van den Howe was unsuccessful, however, also because ships from Friedrichstadt were contractually prohibited from loading in England and the Netherlands. Van den Hove and the Duke failed with their plan to turn Friedrichstadt into a trading town. They found no buyers for the goods in the immediate vicinity and had too little capital available. In 1635 van den Hove went bankrupt.

In 1635, the year after the Burchardi flood , the agents and residents of Alt-Nordstrand sent van den Howe to the Netherlands. Here he should address interested people who should re-embed the heavily destroyed area. His efforts were obviously unsuccessful. In 1637 van den Hove suggested opening a salt boiler on Pellworm , which was supposed to extract salt using a process he had invented. He couldn't realize this plan either. It is not documented when he moved back to Alkmaar. In 1645 he applied to the States General to protect his salt extraction process. Relatives apparently supported him in the last years of his life.

family

Willem van den Hove married Magdalena van der Dussen (born 1592; buried on March 25, 1653 in Alkmaar) in 1602. Your father Jacob Huyghensz. van der Dussen († 1622) was a mayor of Delft and married to Geetrudia Willemsd., née van Heemskerck.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 182-184.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 182.
2. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 182.
3. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 182.
4. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 182.
5. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 183.
6. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 183.
7. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 183.
8. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 183-184.
9. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 184.
10. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Hove, Willem van den . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 182.