Nicolaas van Staphorst
Nicolaas van Staphorst | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Amsterdam, Dutch Republic |
| Died | 14 June 1801 (aged 59) |
| Occupation(s) | Financier, banker |
| Known for | Securing loans to the United States; co-founder of Holland Land Company |
Nicolaas van Staphorst (January 1742 – 14 June 1801) was a prominent Dutch financier and banker. Alongside his brother Jacob, he played a key role between 1782 and 1794 in securing eleven loans to the United States, amounting to a total of 29 million guilders. Van Staphorst also collaborated with other Dutch investment firms in ventures that eventually became the Holland Land Company.
Life
Nicolaas was the son of Nicolaas van Staphorst (1702–1766) and Maria van Hasselt (1711–1755), baptized in Amsterdam on 14 January 1742. In 1780, he married Maria van Beeftingh; the couple did not have children. A supporter of the Dutch Patriots and an advocate for the French Constitution of 1793, he maintained correspondence with Robespierre and departed Amsterdam in 1794 amid political turmoil. Subsequently, Van Staphorst served in the First National Assembly of the Batavian Republic before retiring in 1799 and passing away two years later.
Career
After the United States declared bankruptcy in 1781, Congress appointed Robert Morris as Superintendent of Finance. In 1782, Nicolaas and his brother Jacob negotiated with John Adams to arrange a Dutch loan of five million guilders—a significant sum at that time. They established a syndicate with the Willink brothers and De la Lande & Fijnje to facilitate America's inaugural foreign loan, followed by further loans in 1784, 1787, and 1788. These financial ventures attracted investors seeking profitable opportunities, well-informed about American creditworthiness.
Following the unsuccessful Patriot revolt and subsequent Prussian invasion in 1787, Jacob fled to France while Nicolaas stayed in Amsterdam, advocating for constitutional reforms inspired by the American system. He recommended consolidating sovereignty under a new constitution to increase popular influence over regents and proposed to Jacques Necker that French debt might be redeemed through Amsterdam’s financial markets.
Van Staphorst’s firm lent funds to Maryland during the Revolutionary War, leading to Van Staphorst v. Maryland, which became the first case recorded by the U.S. Supreme Court but was ultimately resolved outside court.
Thomas Jefferson obtained personal loans from Van Staphorst, some secured by enslaved individuals owned by Jefferson.
Together with Jacob and Nicolaas Hubbard, Van Staphorst founded an investment firm operating from 1787 to 1802 that allied with Pieter Stadnitski, Ten Cate & Vollenhoven, and P. & C. van Eeghen—collectively known as the Club of Four. This consortium invested heavily in U.S. state bonds, canal projects such as the Patowmack, James River and Kanawha, and Santee Canals, as well as Alexander Hamilton’s Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures. Later investments concentrated on extensive undeveloped land holdings in New York and Pennsylvania.
1790s
In 1791, Van Staphorst collaborated with Rotterdam sugar refiners Van Beeftingh & Boon to produce maple syrup in central New York. Led by Gerrit Boon, this enterprise failed commercially and pivoted toward land development, resulting in the founding of Oldenbarneveld. Aernout van Beeftingh was connected by marriage to both Boon and Nicolaas van Staphorst.
The Club of Four undertook a second investment in central New York by establishing Cazenovia under John Lincklaen's leadership. In 1794, this initiative was restructured into a stock company with ownership divided among Van Staphorst and Hubbard (26%), P. & C. van Eeghen (15%), Ten Cate & Vollenhoven (15%), Pieter Stadnitski & Son (33%), and Lincklaen (8%).
Together with the Willink family, the Four Houses formed the Holland Land Company to oversee management of the Genesee Lands acquired from Robert Morris. In 1795, share distribution was as follows: Willinks (28.6%), Pieter Stadnitski (23.2%), Jan and Nicolaas van Staphorst & Nicolaas Hubbard (21.4%), Pieter and Christiaan van Eeghen & Company (14.3%), Isaack ten Cate & Hendrick Vollenhoven (8.9%), and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (3.8%).
By 1793, Van Staphorst lived at Keizersgracht 121 in Amsterdam and purchased an adjacent warehouse in 1794. He conveyed strong political beliefs in letters to Alexander Hamilton, describing himself as a "partizan to the rights of man, and the principles of liberty and equality." During revolutionary unrest in Amsterdam, arms caches were discovered in 1794; Van Staphorst publicly endorsed revolutionary measures should foreign forces threaten the city.
After political disturbances intensified, Van Staphorst fled Amsterdam in October 1794 to Kampen or possibly Hamburg. Following Holland’s liberation by French forces in early 1795, he returned and participated actively in the Batavian Revolution within Amsterdam. The Patriot Revolutionary Committee, including Van Staphorst, aimed to liberate Amsterdam independently from French assistance to reinforce Dutch sovereignty.
On 18 January 1795, under Daendels’ leadership, Krayenhoff demanded that Amsterdam’s burgomasters resign; shortly thereafter General Charles Pichegru planted a liberty tree on Dam Square symbolizing revolutionary change. Van Staphorst was appointed to Holland’s Finance Committee on 23 February and subsequently served on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He resigned from municipal office on 12 April 1796 and was elected to the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic on 3 May.
Van Staphorst family
Among his brothers and sisters were Roeloff (born 1734), Arend (1737–1796, married to Jeanne Lelyveld), Hester (1738–1795, married first to Adriaan Mees and later to Adriaan Caan), Maria (1740–1774, wed to Pieter van Lelyveld), Nicolaas (1742–1801), Roelof (1744–1811, spouse of Maria Anna Martha Laffont), Jacob (1747–1812), and Jan (1748–1800, married Magdalena Jacoba van Son).
In 1796, the nephews of Nicolaas and Jacob—Jan Gabriel van Staphorst and Roelof van Staphorst, Jr., who were sons of their brother Roelof—acted as representatives for the Holland Land Company during the Treaty of Big Tree. Following Hubbard’s departure from the firm in 1801, these nephews became involved in the company.
On 3 January 1801 in Amsterdam, Jacob van Staphorst wedded Elisabeth Charlotte Poupart from Sedan, Ardennes; the marriage produced no offspring.