Jacob de Graeff

Jacob de Graeff (June 28, 1642 in Amsterdam – April 21, 1690), was a member of the De Graeff-family from the Dutch Golden Age. He was an Amsterdam Regent and held the titles as 20.th Lord of the Free and high Fief Ilpendam and Purmerland. Jacob de Graeff was a member of a family of regents who belonged to the republican political movement also referred to as the ‘state oriented’, as opposed to the Royalists.

Jacob was the son of Cornelis de Graeff and Catharina Hooft, and the younger brother of Pieter de Graeff. In 1648 Jacob laid the foundation stone for the new city hall on the Dam. Joost van den Vondel wrote a poem to Jacobs Foundation stone. During the summers the family spent a lot of their time at the Palace Soestdijk, and he and his brother played with the young William III of Orange – who later became King of England, Scotland and Ireland and stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands – at the lake and woods at Soestdijk. After he finished his studies at the University of Harderwijk he returned back to Amsterdam. In 1666 he married to Maria van der Does. Maria died 3 months later and they had no children.