Nicolaas Beets

Vocation

Dutch preacher, poet and man of letters. Beets was the eldest son of Martinus Nicolaas Beets (19 April 1780, Haarlem - 5 August 1869, Haarlem), a socially active pharmacist and Maria Elisabeth de Waal Malefijt (2 July 1787, Haarlem - 8 April 1855, Haarlem). They married 20 July 1806. Beets had a sister Dorothea (1812) and a brother Adrianus (17 Sept 1820, Haarlem). Beets studied theology in Leiden from Okt 1833 till March 1839. During that time he published under the pen name Hildebrand the Dutch classic "Camera Obscura" (2 Nov 1839). He also wrote romantic poetry under the influence of Byron. In 1939 he got summa cum laude his PhD in theology in Leiden with his study about pope Pius II: Dissertatio de Aeneae Sylvii, qui postea Pius papa Secundus, morum mentisque mutationis rationibus. Haarlem, F. Bohn, 1839. In 1840 beets became a minister in Dutch reformed church of Heemstede. In 1854 he was minister in Utrecht. From 1874 to 1884 he was professor of church history in Utrecht. He died 13 March 1903 in Utrecht. Personal He married two sisters of his study friend Cornelis van Foreest (3 February 1817, Alkmaar – 22 May 1875, Den Haag) at his estate Nijenburg. On 3 September 1840 at Heiloo he married Aleida van Foreest (20 May 1818, Alkmaar - 8 May 1856, Utrecht). They got nine children. After her dead he married 20 October 1859 her younger sister Jacoba Elisabeth van Foreest (6 January 1828, Alkmaar - 10 Augustus, Utrecht) and got another six children. Link to Wikipedia