De Witt (also spelled De Wit, De Witte, De With, and DeWitt) is the name of an old Dutch patrician and regenten family. Originally from Dordrecht, the genealogy of the family begins with Jan de Witte, a patrician who lived around 1295. The family played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age, occupying the centre of the Dordrecht and Holland oligarchy from the end of the 16th century until 1672, and belonged to the Dutch States Party.
History
During the Dutch Golden Age, the republican De Witt family opposed the royalists associated with the House of Orange-Nassau. Together with other republican political leaders at Dordrecht (such as the Van Slingelandts) and at Amsterdam (the Bicker and De Graeff families), the De Witts worked to abolish the stadtholdership. They sought full sovereignty for individual regions so that the Republic of the United Seven Netherlands would not yield to authoritarianism. Instead of a sovereign or stadtholder, political and military power was to be entrusted to the States General and Holland's city regents.
From 1650 into the 1670s, the De Witts played leading roles in Dutch government. Republicans called this era the Ware Vrijheid ("True Freedom"), also known as the First Stadtholderless Period. The family lost its leadership role in the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) of 1672, when Orangists resumed leadership and the brothers Johan de Witt and Cornelis de Witt were brutally murdered by a mob in The Hague.
Notable Family Members
- Jan Godschalksz de Witte (1335–), mayor of Dordrecht in 1375
- Cornelis Fransz de Witt (1545–1622), mayor and regent of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland and West Friesland
- Jacob Fransz de Witt (1548–1621), mayor of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland
- Andries de Witt (1573–1637), Grand Pensionary of Holland
- Jacob de Witt (1589–1674), mayor and regent of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland
- Cornelis de Witt (1623–1672), mayor and regent of Dordrecht, ruwaard (governor) of the land of Putten, deputy of the States to the Dutch Navy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War
- Johan de Witt (1625–1672), Lord of Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard and IJsselveere, Grand Pensionary of Holland (one of the most influential Dutch statesmen of the 17th century)
- Johan de Witt Jr. (1662–1701), secretary of the city of Dordrecht
- Cornelis Johansz de Witt (1696–1769), Vrijheer van Jaarsveld, Burgemeester of Dordrecht, member of the States of Holland
- DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828), early 19th-century American politician and U.S. Senator, Governor of New York, and a driving force behind the Erie Canal, was descended from the Dutch De Witt family via his mother Mary De Witt (1737–1795).
Coat of Arms and Titles
The family bore a coat of arms and held various noble titles, including Vrijheer van Jaarsveld, Heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, and IJsselveere.
See Also
- De Witte family (Belgian noble family)
- Johan de Witt
- Cornelis de Witt
- First Stadtholderless Period
