Francis Adrian Vanderkemp

François Adriaan van der Kemp or Francis Adrian Vanderkemp (Kampen, 4 May 1752 – Barneveld, New York, 1829) was one of the Dutch radical leaders of the Patriots, a minister and publicist who gave the Patriot movement a Christian tint in his blazing speeches. Having been a promising student in Groningen, Franeker and Amsterdam, he led the local militia (exercitiegenootschap) in Wijk bij Duurstede and ended up in captivity. Van der Kemp was released on 9 December 1787 for a ransom of 45,000 guilder and emigrated to the U.S.A.

Adriaan was the son of an army officer, his mother was related to Willem Jacob 's Gravesande, a scientist. He grew up in Zutphen and Zwolle, but in 1766 the family moved to 's-Hertogenbosch. Adriaan studied at the local grammar school and moved to the University of Groningen to study Oriental languages and botany under Petrus Camper. Van der Kemp was offered a role as a civil servant in Elmina, now in Ghana, but did not go. Instead he went over to the Mennonites and studied theology in Amsterdam with Abraham Staal and Wybo Fijnje. Van der Kemp refused an appointment in Goes and Makkum, but accepted one at Westzaan.

In 1775 he moved to Leiden. From the pulpit Van der Kemp proclaimed: "In America the Sun of Salvation has risen, which will also cast its rays upon us if we so wish: only America can teach us how to counter the degeneration of the national character, to curb the corruption of morals, to ward off bribery, to suffocate the seeds of tyranny and to restore to health our dying freedom. The supreme Being has ordained that America shall be Holland's last preacher of repentance".

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