Jan Hope
Encyclopedia
Thomas Hope (1704-1779)
Thomas Hope was a Dutch banker and administrator of the VOC.-Family:The Hope family originally came from Scotland. Archibald Hope, the father of Thomas, was a Quaker who had eight sons. Archibald – along with his eldest son Archibald Jr. – played a principal part in trade in Rotterdam around 1720...
and Margaretha Marcelis, first cousin of Henry Hope
Henry Hope
Henry Hope was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Boston, in Britain's Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America.-Early years:...
, father of Thomas Hope, and a follower of the Scottish Enlightenment
Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots were among the most literate citizens of Europe, with an estimated 75% level of literacy...
, who is best known today for his Groenendaal Park
Groenendaal Park
Groenendaal park lies at the center of Heemstede, Netherlands.The park includes the grounds of old Heemstede country estates Bosbeek, and Meer en Berg. Along its western borders are the old Heemstede country estates Hartekamp, Huis te Manpad, and Iepenrode. On the eastern boundary is the city...
in Heemstede
Heemstede
Heemstede is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-History :Heemstede formed around the Castle Heemstede that was built on the Spaarne River around 1286. Before 1296, Floris V, Count of Holland, granted Heemstede as a fiefdom to Reinier of Holy...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, where he summered from 1767 to his death in 1784.
Early years
Jan was an only child, born into the famous Hope banking family of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. His father had been the personal advisor to the stadtholderStadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William V
William V, Prince of Orange
William V , Prince of Orange-Nassau was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and between 1795 and 1806 he led the Government of the Dutch Republic in Exile in London. He was succeeded by his son William I...
. His mother was a daughter of the wealthy Amsterdam merchant Jan Marcelis. Originally baptized as Jan in the Mennonite
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...
church, he had himself re-baptized John in the Dutch Reformed church at age 26 in order to become socially accepted in the Amsterdam regency. Unlike his cousin and business partner Henry, Jan wanted to participate in the fashionable Dutch societies that actively propagated the Scottish enlightenment. For this he needed a title and the proper religion. He became a member of the Dutch Society of Science and the Dutch Society of Letters (there he was introduced by no other than the director himself, David Ruhnken
David Ruhnken
David Ruhnken was a Dutch classical scholar of German origin.-Origins:Ruhnken was born in Bedlin near Stolp, Pomerania Province,...
), but only after he had married Philippina Barbara van der Hoeven (1738-1790), the daughter of a Rotterdam mayor, in May 1763 and bought the castle Nederhorst den Berg for the title. Jan and Philippina had three sons, Thomas (1769-1830), Adrian Elias (1772-1834), and Henry Philip (1774-1839).
Fire Machine
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
and Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton, FRS was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the...
and had his own 'fire machine', the first steam engine for a garden, installed on the high wooded grounds of his summer home. The park he purchased and expanded was located on a high sandy ridge of dunes between the Leidsevaart
Leidsevaart
The Leidsevaart is a canal between the cities of Haarlem and Leiden in the Netherlands. It was dug in 1657, making it one of the oldest canals in the Netherlands. It was the major means of transport between Leiden and Haarlem for almost two centuries until the rail connection was established in...
and Harlem Lake
Haarlemmermeer
Haarlemmermeer is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is a polder, consisting of land reclaimed from water, and the name Haarlemmermeer means Haarlem's Lake, still referring to the body of water from which the region was reclaimed in the 19th century.Its main...
. He used the steam engine to pump water into his gardens, which was highly unusual, since most Dutchmen of his day were trying to discover ways of pumping water out of places. The windmill he had previously installed proved unable to provide enough water on windless days for his richly planted garden in the English style. The steam engine was installed in 1781, and worked until well after the French occupation in the 1820s. In 1842 it was broken up, for even as a curiosity it could no longer hold out against the much larger steam boiler of the Cruquius
Museum De Cruquius
The Museum De Cruquius occupies the old Cruquius steam pumping station in Cruquius, The Netherlands. It derives its name from Nicolaas Kruik , a Dutch land-surveyor and one of many promotors of a plan to pump the Haarlemmermeer dry. Like many well-educated men of his time, he latinized his name...
pumping station down the road.
His son Adrian Elias embellished Groenendaal Park
Groenendaal Park
Groenendaal park lies at the center of Heemstede, Netherlands.The park includes the grounds of old Heemstede country estates Bosbeek, and Meer en Berg. Along its western borders are the old Heemstede country estates Hartekamp, Huis te Manpad, and Iepenrode. On the eastern boundary is the city...
still further, including the Belevedere, a tower that has stood for a century on the hill behind the Vrijheidsbeeld, and the Walvisbank, a park bank made up of whale bones.