Confronting Grotius’ Legacy in an Age of Revolution: The Cornets de Groot Family in Rotterdam, 1748–98

Extract

In May 1777, a solemn ceremony took place in the vault of the Cornets de Groot family in the New Church in Delft. A coffin containing the body of Hugo Cornets de Groot (1709–77), a great-great-grandson of the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), was lowered into the vault in the presence of his two sons and three daughters. The Rotterdam burgomaster had taken great pride in his lineage. His children were not lacking in ancestral piety either. Indeed, Grotius’ lead coffin was opened as part of the burial proceedings. Although Grotius had been in his grave for well over a century, the corpse was found to be in reasonable shape and still recognisable, ‘with hair on his head and teeth in his mouth’. The children of Hugo Cornets de Groot arranged for a small copper plaque to be affixed to Grotius’ coffin, bearing the inscription ‘het gebeente van H.d.G’ (‘the bones of H.d.G’). The skeleton of their illustrious forefather was too precious to be lost among the remains of other ancestors buried in the vault.¹