Xb. Jacob de Clercq (1710-1777) x 1. Geertruyd Margaretha Verbrugge; x 2. Catharina Fortgens
Son of Pieter de Clercq and Cornelia Block
Jacob de Clercq, born Amsterdam 25 July 1710, died h. ‘Duynlaan’, Bennebroek 16 June 1777, married 1. Utrecht 9 June 1737 Geertruyd Margaretha Verbrugge, born Rotterdam 16 Dec. 1716, died Amsterdam 18, buried there (Nieuwe Kerk) 24 April 1755, dr. of Justus and Cecilia Antwerpen; married 2. Amsterdam 21 June 1756 Catharina Fortgens, born Amsterdam 20 Nov. 1710, died there 8 May 1783, dr. of Isaac and Margaretha van Loenen and widow of Abraham Fock and Gerrit Kuyken.
Portrait of Jacob de Clercq (1710-1777); 19th century lithography after a lost original
Signatures of Jacob and his first wife Geertruy(d)
As well as being an insurer and a merchant, trading on the countries of the Baltic Sea, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and even the Westindian islands, Jacob was also a member of the board of directors of the ‘Oostersche Handel en Reederijen’, from 1752 until 1774. This organisation was a powerful body in Amsterdam, that looked after the interest of the trade on the Baltic Sea, especially the trade in cereal. Jacob was deacon of his congregation in the years 1739 and 1749 to 1755.
In 1753 Jacob bought a capital house on the Keizersgracht (nr. 187). It was a special house, because on the front side it didn't look particularly large, even relatively narrow. But the backside of the house went past two adjoining houses, of which one was the coach house, with stables. So, overlooking the gardens were two large adjoining rooms (halls), of which the largest was decorated with Rococo plasterwork and mahogany wainscot paneling, These panels and other parts of the interior are preserved in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum; they are considered to be highlights of Dutch Rococo woodcarving. But the house itself was demolished at the end of the 19th century.
Jacobs home Keizersgracht 187 (2nd from left) en the coach house with stables on nr. 191 (smaller building, 2nd from right), from the 'Grachtenboek' by Caspar Philipsz, 1768.
Backside of Keizersgracht 187. ‘Verre eglomise’, engraved in silver and gold (50 x 63 cm.), by Jonas Zeuner, 1780.
The mahogany panels and the plastering of the largest room (above), as well as the hallway with the mahogany staircase (left) from Keizersgracht 187, like they were brought over to the museum. The largest room was about 32 feet wide, 23 feet long and 15 feet high. In the museum the walls were stretched with German tapestry, from a castle.
Below are two more recent pictures of the mahogany door and mantle piece, with in the frame the original painting of the baptism of the chamberlain, by Jacob de Wit, a well know Dutch artist.
Jacob had great interest in music and sciences. In the smaller of the two rooms, his pipe-organs covered one entire wall. Also, he owned a beautiful and valuable collection of instruments for experimental physics, especially for hydrostatics and optics. On the flat roof of the house he had an observatory, from where one could examine the skies and look over all of Amsterdam and its region.
On several images of the house, one can see the observatory.
Keizersgracht, seen from the Westermarkt, 1787 (details), by Isaac Ouwater. Oil on canvas, 61,9x77,4 cm.
Detail from the glass by Zeuner.
In 1767 Jacob was one of the co-founders of the ‘Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen’ (= ‘Association for saving drowned people’), which exist until this very day. Jacob and his associates noticed that drowned persons were often already declared dead, while they could still be saved. With education, distributing new techniques and instruments and rewarding savers with money and medals, they tried to change this situation. Soon their initiative was followed in other cities in Europe and also in New York.
Close to the country-seat ‘Vredelust’, that his brother Pieter had inherited from their parents, Jacob had bought a famous country-seat, called ‘Driemond’, where he could spend the hot summers and the weekends. The extensive grounds of this magnificent place contained large two large fish ponds with ornaments, fountains and a small artificial waterfall. There was a beautifully designed menagerie with rare birds, for relaxation there was a ‘kolfbaan’ (a sort of tennis court), and inside the house a billiard hall. Also, behind the formal gardens, symmetrically laid out with their statues and shorn hedges, there was “the maze”, a great favorite those days. Furthermore one could find in the gardens small but graceful buildings, for the guests to play cards or take refreshments, large kitchen gardens and orchards to supply them with vegetables and fruit, and next to the large mansion there were stables and a coachhouse with beautiful horses and the colorful coaches of that time.
The engravings above are four from a series of eight, made in 1719 for a now famous book called 'Zegepraalende Vecht', with engravings of many country-seats in this area.
To maintain the country-seat and serve its residents and visitors, Jacob employed no less than ten persons. As one can imagine, it was all very costly. Therefore, in 1770, after business had not been going too well for Amsterdam merchants, he sold ‘Driemond’ and bought the more moderate country-seat ‘Duynlaan’ in Bennebroek, not too far from Haarlem.
In 1759 Jacob had been visited several times by Bengt Ferrner, a Swedish scientist (and later a nobled governor of the crownprince of that country) who, from 1758 to 1763, accompanied the son of a very wealthy Swedish industrialist and banker on a trip through Europe. Since Ferrner kept a diary from his trip, we thank the detailed descriptions of Jacob’s house and country-seat to him. Of Jacob himself Ferrner said: “he was one of the kindest and happiest persons I have known. He was very polite, without mannerism, rich without being lazy or miserly; highly interested in sciences and due to that so enlightened, that he was able to appreciate them justly. He had a healthy body, because he drank and ate moderatly. He was generous without flaunting, lived in a luxurious way, without showing off. Finally he was happily married, had beautiful and good children, whom he gave, with great care, a decent and sensible upbringing”.
Jacob's only son was Pieter de Clercq Jacobsz.