Swalmius family

The family of Antony's second wife, Cornelia Swalmius, was more educated than the other families Leeuwenhoek was related to. The van den Berch and Hogenhouck families, much larger than the Swalmius family, did not have as much education. But they had more prosperity and influence, especially in city government.

Cornelia's father's family

Cornelia's paternal grandfather, Arnold Swalmius was a Dutch Reformed minister in Westmaas and 's Gravesande from 1592 until 1603. Two of his brothers were also well known ministers. Henricus, who died in 1649, was painted by Frans Hals. Eleazar, who died in 1652, was painted by Rembrandt. See the portraits below.

Cornelia's mother's family

Cornelia's maternal grandfather was Adriaan Uyttenbrouck, whose forefathers had long been influential leaders in Delft.

name	relationship to Cornelia	Council of Forty	mayor	magistrate	treasurer	orphan master
Uyttenbrouck		veertigraad	burgemeester	schepen	thesaurier	weesmeester
Dirk Harperts (1526-1596 01/12)	great great great-grandfather	?-1535		1529, 1530, 1532		1527, 1528, 1538
Jan Dirks (-1559 07/25)	great great-grandfather	1536-1559	1555, 1558	1544, 1553, 1554	1546, 1547	1540, 1541, 1550, 1556, 1557
Dirck Jans (-1535 09/08)	great-grandfather	1560-1596	1575, 1576, 1577, 1578, 1587, 1588	1562, 1563, 1566		1567, 1568, 1572, 1579, 1580, 1585, 1590, 1591

These dates come from Boitet's Beschryving, chapter III, p 81-88. For Dirk Harperts' appointment to the Veertigraad, Boitet notes that records for the Veertigraad are missing between 1485 and 1534.

Dirch Jans was married to Annitge van den Burch, whose daughter Margeretha married Hendrik Duijst van Voorhout, the great grandfather of Leeuwenhoek's fried Maria Duyst van Voorhout.

Note that there seemed to be a seat for the family, with son following a year after the father's death. Note also that, as with the other families, everyone was a magistrate before he was mayor, and no one became a magistrate again after being mayor.


Dirck Jans Uyttenbrouck	Henricus Swalmius

Cornelia's parents and siblings

Cornelia's parents, Johannes Arnolds Swalmius (1596-1661) and Maria Adriana Uyttenbrouck (1595-?) married in 1630 in Delft. Like his father and uncles, Johannes was a Dutch Reformed minister living in Valkenburg when Cornelia was born.

Cornelia's brother Adrianus Swalmius (1631-1667) had a medical degree from Leiden University, and he practiced in Delft. When Adrian married Margaretha van den Burgh (1643-1672) in 1663, he was living on the Pontemarkt and she on the Hippolytusbuurt.

They had two children, Johannes Swalmius (1664-1693), a medical doctor, and Elisabeth Swalmius (1665-1680).

Johannes and Magdelena van Mierop (1665-1737) had a son, Adrian Swalmius (1689- ) who was a lawyer and notary in Delft as well as in 1741 city attorney (pensionaris) of Schiedam and administrator of the W.I.C. (West Indies Company) office in de Maze (Rotterdam). Antony van Leeuwenhoek and Cornelia Swalmius were the witnesses at Adrian's baptism and Leeuwenhoek left him a painting of his Uyttenbrouck relatives.

Cornelia had two younger sisters. Catharina (before 1640?-1674), who never married, lived on the Hippolytusbuurt, as did Cornelia when she married Leeuwenhoek in 1671. Elisabeth (before 1640-1680) married Dordrecht silversmith Paulus Marcel in 1672.

Elizabeth and Paulus' son Arnold Marcel (1672-1748) was a mathematician, physicist and poet who also made lenses. In 1693, Cornelia bequeathed him 1500 gulden. With the help of J. T. Desaguliers, Arnold Marcel wrote a letter that appeared in Philosophical Transactions in 1731. The title appears in the journal's table of contents as:

An Abstract of a Letter, Written in Dutch, to the Illustrious Royal Society of London, by Arnold Marcel (Nephew to the Late Mr. Anthony van Leeuvenhoek, F. R. S.) Communicated by the Revd. Dr. J. T. Desaguliers, F. R. S.