The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1618 | Page 5

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those who envied him for his position and hated him for his services.
"But I beg you to believe, My Lords," he continued, "that my property
is neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be.
"In the year '75 I married my wife," he said. "I was pleased with her
person. I was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly
paid over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . I
ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got
together so much of real and personal property that we could live
honourably upon it. I had at that time as good pay and practice as any

advocate in the courts which brought me in a good 4000 florins a year;
there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom I was
certainly not the one least employed. In the beginning of the year '77 I
came into the service of the city of Rotterdam as 'Pensionary. Upon my
salary from that town I was enabled to support my family, having then
but two children. Now I can clearly prove that between the years 1577
and 1616 inclusive I have inherited in my own right or that of my wife,
from our relatives, for ourselves and our children by lawful succession,
more than 400 Holland morgens of land (about 800 acres), more than
2000 florins yearly of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of
Delft, some houses in the open country, and several thousand florins in
ready money. I have likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty
years out of the water and swamps by dyking more than an equal
number of acres to those inherited, and have bought and sold property
during the same period to the value of 800,000 florins; having
sometimes bought 100,000 florins' worth and sold 60,000 of it for
160,000, and so on."
It was evident that the thrifty Advocate during his long life had
understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to
imagine "waggon-loads of Spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic
scale from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable
opulence on his part.
"I have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the
custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes.
In the great East India Company however, which with four years of
hard work, public and private, I have helped establish, in order to inflict
damage on the Spaniards and Portuguese, I have adventured somewhat
more than 5000 florins . . . . Now even if my condition be reasonably
good, I think no one has reason to envy me. Nevertheless I have said it
in your Lordships' Assembly, and I repeat it solemnly on this occasion,
that I have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and
found that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates I must
sell property to the value of 60,000 or 70,000 florins. This I would
rather do than leave the charge to my children. That I should have got
thus behindhand through bad management, I beg your Highnesses not
to believe. But I have inherited, with the succession of four persons
whose only heir I was and with that of others to whom I was co-heir,

many burthens as well. I have bought property with encumbrances, and
I have dyked and bettered several estates with borrowed money. Now
should it please your Lordships to institute a census and valuation of
the property of your subjects, I for one should be very well pleased. For
I know full well that those who in the estimates of capital in the year
1599 rated themselves at 50,000 or 60,000 florins now may boast of
having twice as much property as I have. Yet in that year out of
patriotism I placed myself on the list of those liable for the very highest
contributions, being assessed on a property of 200,000 florins."
The Advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies
circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast services
and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have
illustrated the obscurest origin. But as he happened to be of ancient and
honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard.
"I was born in the city of Amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an
Oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation
steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred
years to the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this
day. By my mother's side I