Wybo Fijnje
Encyclopedia
Wybo Fijnje was a Dutch Mennonite
minister, publisher in Delft
, Patriot
, exile, coup perpetrator, politician and - during the French era - manager of the state newspaper.
in Rijnsburg
. Fijnje began his career as a Mennonite preacher in Deventer (1774). Then he was called to Delft, where he had already (c.1775) taken up an office on the "Hollandsche Historische Courant". Fijnje was probably inspired by these publishing activities and the internationally-praised paper of his wife's family in Leiden, for in November 1775 he had married with Emilie Luzac
, the publisher's daughter.
, that fairly took in anti-orangist
viewpoints. In 1783 Fijnje was involved in the foundation of the exercitiegenootschap
pen; in 1785 by the setting up of the "Leids Ontwerp", together with Pieter Vreede
and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
. On 21 August Fijnje - as a delegate - read a revolutionary explanation in the council hall. Eleven members of the vroedschap
were requested to leave, after which eight patriots could be installed. All this happened without the stadholder's knowledge or consent, but with the assent of the population, although they apparently remained outside, silent, watching the flying column under the leadership of Adam Gerard Mappa
, a letter-setter. A baker that sold orange cakes was court-martialled and put under house arrest. The excercitiegenootschap took over Delft's large ammunition and weapons store in de Republiek, now the army museum. Their example was followed in Leiden, Dordrecht, Alkmaar, Hoorn and Monnikendam, even under the threat of a Prussian ultimatum and raid.
painted with symbols of freedom, and throwing its inventory into a canal. The Fijnje family went to Antwerp, later to Brussels and finally to Watten
(French-Flanders). Johan Valckenaer
, Herman Willem Daendels
and Mappa rented - on Fijnje's initiative - a castle, on top of a hill. The four husbands and three bachelors ordered the rooms, grew vegetables and played billiards. Wijbo Fijnje remarried with a Frenchwoman, Marie Françoise Constance Ténar, after Emilie died in 1788. When the members of the association were accused by the local population of growing and selling grain, the commune was dissolved in 1792. Mappa emigrated to the U.S. and began the first printer in New York; Valckenaer moved to Paris.
- served on the committee for dismantling the VOC
. In all these posts he took radical viewpoints, but he also amused himself. On 22 January 1798, he committed a coup with Pieter Vreede
and Van Langen to guarantee "the unity and indivisibility" of the new republic. The radical and omnipresent Fijnje represented the Executive Government and set up the "Binnenlandse Bataafse Courant" (Interior Batavian Courier). Langen and the other controversial unifiers did not long remain in power, for on 12 June 1798 Herman Willem Daendels
led a new coup. For the old-exiles with a marked character, there was no longer any place even for democratically elected aristocrats. Fijnje and Van Langen were locked up until the end of the year in the Gevangenpoort, accused of embezzling state money through the then public prosecutor Van Maanen
, but never tried.
Fijnje became a private citizen and busied himself with an old hobby, higher mathematics, and stayed indoors for weeks at a time. On advise of Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
, Alexander Gogel and Hendrik van Rays Fijnje became in 1805 editor in chief of the "Bataafse Staatscourant" (Batavian state courier). He got the domain "het Kleine Loo" to disposition. When the editing was moved to Amsterdam, Jonas Daniel Meijer
was appointed editor in chief. Fijnje seems to have been unable through illness to keep up the job, but kept on as a de facto manager.
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
minister, publisher in Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....
, Patriot
Patriots (faction)
The Patriots were a political faction in the Dutch Republic in the second half of the 18th century. They were led by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, gaining power from November 1782....
, exile, coup perpetrator, politician and - during the French era - manager of the state newspaper.
Early life
Fijnje grew up in Haarlem, where his father Jan Fijnje, originally from Harlingen, was also a minister. His parents died in 1763. He studied in Amsterdam, but moved in 1771 to Leiden and came in contact with the CollegiantsCollegiants
In Christian theology, the Collegiants , also called Collegians, were an eclectic religious sect, formed in 1619 among the Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland...
in Rijnsburg
Rijnsburg
Rijnsburg is a community in the eastern part of the city Katwijk, in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The name means Rhines Burg in Dutch.-History:...
. Fijnje began his career as a Mennonite preacher in Deventer (1774). Then he was called to Delft, where he had already (c.1775) taken up an office on the "Hollandsche Historische Courant". Fijnje was probably inspired by these publishing activities and the internationally-praised paper of his wife's family in Leiden, for in November 1775 he had married with Emilie Luzac
Emilie Luzac
Emilie Luzac was the second daughter of Jean Luzac, book seller and publisher, and Anna Hillegonda Valckenaer...
, the publisher's daughter.
Patriots
Johan Luzac, writing under the pseudonym Attica in Fijnje's Dutch-language paper, warned his brother-in-law to practice more moderation in dealing with his co-worker, the journalist Gerrit PaapeGerrit Paape
Gerrit Paape Delft was a Dutch plateelschilder , poet, journalist, novelist, judge, columnist and ministerial civil servant.-Life:...
, that fairly took in anti-orangist
Orangism (Netherlands)
Orangism is a monarchist political support for the House of Orange-Nassau as monarchy of the Netherlands. It played a significant role in the political history of the Netherlands since the Dutch revolt...
viewpoints. In 1783 Fijnje was involved in the foundation of the exercitiegenootschap
Exercitiegenootschap
An exercitiegenootschap or militia was a military organisation in the 18th century Netherlands, in the form of an armed private organization with a democratically chosen administration, aiming to train the citizens and the lower bourgeoisie in use of muskets...
pen; in 1785 by the setting up of the "Leids Ontwerp", together with Pieter Vreede
Pieter Vreede
Pieter Vreede , 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 patriciate....
and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck , Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch politician of the Batavian Republic and an investor in the Holland Land Company....
. On 21 August Fijnje - as a delegate - read a revolutionary explanation in the council hall. Eleven members of the vroedschap
Vroedschap
The vroedschap was the name for the city council in the early modern Netherlands; the member of such a council was called a vroedman, literally a "wise man"...
were requested to leave, after which eight patriots could be installed. All this happened without the stadholder's knowledge or consent, but with the assent of the population, although they apparently remained outside, silent, watching the flying column under the leadership of Adam Gerard Mappa
Adam Gerard Mappa
Adam Gerard Mappa was a Dutch Patriot and active colonel in a local militia,...
, a letter-setter. A baker that sold orange cakes was court-martialled and put under house arrest. The excercitiegenootschap took over Delft's large ammunition and weapons store in de Republiek, now the army museum. Their example was followed in Leiden, Dordrecht, Alkmaar, Hoorn and Monnikendam, even under the threat of a Prussian ultimatum and raid.
Exile in northern France
Wijbo Fijnje was one of the convinced and militant patriots who were forced to leave the city on 19 September 1787, when the Prussian army occuptied Delft. The population of Delft was revenged on the exercitiegenootschap by smashing up a room full of DelftwareDelftware
Delftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around Delft in the Netherlands and the tin-glazed pottery made in the Netherlands from the 16th century....
painted with symbols of freedom, and throwing its inventory into a canal. The Fijnje family went to Antwerp, later to Brussels and finally to Watten
Watten, Nord
-Sights:The village is famous for its old ruined abbey, and for its mill, which was restored in the 1990s. These two buildings are located on the "Mountain of Watten" . Its church dates from the thirteenth century.-References:* *...
(French-Flanders). Johan Valckenaer
Johan Valckenaer
Johan Valckenaer was a Dutch lawyer, patriot and diplomat.- Life :His father Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer was Franeker university's professor of law and, in 1766, was appointed to succeed Tiberius Hemsterhuis at Leiden...
, Herman Willem Daendels
Herman Willem Daendels
Herman Willem Daendels was a Dutch politician who served as the 36th Governor General of the Dutch East Indies between 1808 and 1811....
and Mappa rented - on Fijnje's initiative - a castle, on top of a hill. The four husbands and three bachelors ordered the rooms, grew vegetables and played billiards. Wijbo Fijnje remarried with a Frenchwoman, Marie Françoise Constance Ténar, after Emilie died in 1788. When the members of the association were accused by the local population of growing and selling grain, the commune was dissolved in 1792. Mappa emigrated to the U.S. and began the first printer in New York; Valckenaer moved to Paris.
Batavian Republic
In 1795 Fijnje returned to the Republic, after which he became a member of the committee of vigilance (a kind of purification commission), chaired the provisional assembly of representatives and - together with Samuel Iperusz Wiselius and professor Theodorus van KootenTheodorus van Kooten
Dr. Theodorus van Kooten was a Dutch poet, professor and politician.Van Kooten was the son of the sexton at Leeuwarden, and amazed all visitors to his father's house by translating randomly selected pieces from the Greek bible into Dutch. Van Kooten became Kampen's rector in 1772...
- served on the committee for dismantling the VOC
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
. In all these posts he took radical viewpoints, but he also amused himself. On 22 January 1798, he committed a coup with Pieter Vreede
Pieter Vreede
Pieter Vreede , 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 patriciate....
and Van Langen to guarantee "the unity and indivisibility" of the new republic. The radical and omnipresent Fijnje represented the Executive Government and set up the "Binnenlandse Bataafse Courant" (Interior Batavian Courier). Langen and the other controversial unifiers did not long remain in power, for on 12 June 1798 Herman Willem Daendels
Herman Willem Daendels
Herman Willem Daendels was a Dutch politician who served as the 36th Governor General of the Dutch East Indies between 1808 and 1811....
led a new coup. For the old-exiles with a marked character, there was no longer any place even for democratically elected aristocrats. Fijnje and Van Langen were locked up until the end of the year in the Gevangenpoort, accused of embezzling state money through the then public prosecutor Van Maanen
Cornelis Felix van Maanen
Cornelis Felix van Maanen was a Dutch minister and jurist.Van Maanen was born in The Hague. He studied law in Leiden, and entered legal practice in The Hague, where he later became general prosecutor...
, but never tried.
Fijnje became a private citizen and busied himself with an old hobby, higher mathematics, and stayed indoors for weeks at a time. On advise of Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck , Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch politician of the Batavian Republic and an investor in the Holland Land Company....
, Alexander Gogel and Hendrik van Rays Fijnje became in 1805 editor in chief of the "Bataafse Staatscourant" (Batavian state courier). He got the domain "het Kleine Loo" to disposition. When the editing was moved to Amsterdam, Jonas Daniel Meijer
Jonas Daniel Meijer
Jonas Daniel Meijer was the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands. He has had a significant impact on Dutch law, and is also known for his battle for emancipation of the Dutch Jews....
was appointed editor in chief. Fijnje seems to have been unable through illness to keep up the job, but kept on as a de facto manager.
Works
- 1774 Theoriae Systematis Universi specimen philosophicum (dissertations)
- 1783 Beknopte tijdrekenkundig begrip der algemeene geschiedenis; 2 delen, waarvan het tweede deel verloren is gegaan. (Brief summary of the general history; 2 parts, of which the second part is lost.)
External links
- Parlement & Politiek, on Dr W. Fijnje
- Parlement & Politiek, on the Executive Government
- http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/Repertorium/app/aanstellingen?aanstelling.periode-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.periode.day=0&aanstelling.periode.month=0&aanstelling.periode.year=&aanstelling.timepsan.to.day=0&aanstelling.periode.to.month=0&aanstelling.periode.to.year=&aanstelling.functie-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.instelling-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.lokaal-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.provincie-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.regio-empty-marker=1&aanstelling.actions.zoeken=zoekenaanstelling.actions.reset=wissen&aanstelling.instelling=336&aanstelling.functie=1ING, Repertorium of office holders and civil servants 1428-1861: Positions of Fijnje, Wybo]