Apprenticed with his uncle in Benthuizen

Van Seters' article Can Antoni van Leeuwenhoek have attended school at Warmond? uses circumstantial evidence to speculate that he did so for around five years, until 1646. If that's true, then he spent two years in Benthuizen before he began his apprenticeship in Amsterdam in 1648.

He lived with uncle Cornelis Jacobs van den Berch, who was sherrif (schout). Antony would have been learning more about the Republic's legal system. Perhaps this training influenced his appointment as kamerbewaarder of the magistrate's chambers 12 years later. The kamerbewaarder had to work with the sherrif and magistrates, though his full list of duties is not clear.

If Antony lived in Benthuizen with his uncle and aunt Elisabeth Heyndricks van Waert, he probably lived in this building, known as the sherrif's house (schoutenhuis).

Schoutenhuis Benthuizen

photo courtesy Marcus Pos, Historisch Kring Benthuizen