Wolter Robert van Hoëvell

Wolter Robert van Hoëvell (14 July 1812 – 10 February 1879) was a Dutch minister, politician, reformer, and writer. Born into nobility and trained in the Dutch Reformed Church, he worked for eleven years as a minister in the Dutch East Indies. He led a Malay-speaking congregation, engaged in scholarly research and cultural activities, and became an outspoken critic of Dutch colonialism. His activism culminated when he acted as one of the leaders of a short-lived protest in 1848. During the event, a multi-ethnic group of Batavian inhabitants presented their grievances to the local government. As a result of his leadership in the protest, van Hoëvell was forced to resign his position in the Indies.

After his return to the Netherlands, he served as a member of parliament for the Dutch Liberal party from 1849 to 1862, and from 1862 until his death he was a member of the State Council. He used his political position to continue critiquing the Dutch colonial system; nicknamed "chief of the colonial opposition", he was the first Dutch politician to do so eloquently and knowledgeably, and inspired writers such as Multatuli.

Van Hoëvell was born in Deventer to one of the last of the old noble families in the Netherlands. His parents were Gerrit Willem Wolter Carel, Baron van Höevell (born Deventer, 21 April 1778), and Emerentia Luthera Isabella, Baroness van der Capellen (born Haarlem, 31 August 1787); he grew up with six brothers and sisters. While van Hoëvell was still young, the family moved to Groningen where he attended Latin school. Van Hoëvell enrolled in the University of Groningen in 1829 and studied theology. In 1830, he saw military action in Belgium during the abortive attempt by the North-Netherlands to maintain the unity of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. He returned from the war gravely ill, but recovered and then returned to the university. He graduated summa cum laude with a dissertation on Irenaeus in 1836, and in that same year married Abrahamina Johanna Trip, with whom he would have two daughters and four sons; one daughter and one son died young.

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