Martinus Stuart


Martinus Stuart was a Dutch pastor and historian. He was appointed by King William I as historian of the kingdom.

Life and work

Stuart was born in Rotterdam in 1765 as the son of merchant Jacob Stuart and Johanna van Eyk. He studied theology at the remonstrants seminar in Amsterdam. In 1787 he was confirmed as remonstrants pastor in Dokkum and in 1790 as remonstrants pastor in Utrecht. From 1793 until his death in 1826, Stuart was a Remonstrants pastor in Amsterdam, but he worked and attracted to non-remonstrants. Politically, he was patriotic Protestant. He was an advocate of a merger of all Protestant churches. An idea that he tried to realize in vain. Stuart was not only a pastor but also a historian. He has published, among other things, a thirty-part work on Roman history and various historical works on national history. Both King Louis Napoleon and King William I appreciated his historical knowledge. He received assignments from both of them to describe national history. Louis Napoleon appointed him Knight in the Order of Merit and member of the Royal Institute. King William I appointed him "historian of the kingdom." From this assignment arose the Yearbooks of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , a sixteen volume. According to the biographical lexicon for the history of Dutch Protestantism, "his work was characterized by a less critical treatment of matter".
Stuart married Theodora Magdalena Robbé on 19 September 1787 in Steenwijk. Fourteen children were born from their marriage. Stuart died in November 1826 in his hometown Amsterdam. The eulogy by Cornelis Willem Westerbaen on December 31, 1826 in the Remonstrant church of Amsterdam appeared in 1827 in print.

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