Smidt, Petrus (1707-1781)
Petrus (Pieter) Smidt, born 10 November 1707, at Amsterdam, died there 12 August 1781, whose great-grandfather was Gerrit Smidt, a Mennonite preacher of Hamburg-Altona, was an elder of the Amsterdam Zonist congregation from 1728 until his death. When the Amsterdam Lamist congregation started a seminary for the training of Mennonite ministers and some Zonists desired a good training for their ministers too, the Amsterdam Zonist congregation decided to open a Zonist seminary, appointing Petrus Smidt as theological professor in 1753. Smidt taught until 1780, when the Zonist seminary was closed; the number of students had always been very small. Smidt did not publish any writings except a sermon in 1728.
Petrus Smidt seems to have been a man of means. Besides a stately home at Amsterdam, first on the Singel, later on the Heerengracht, he owned a country home at Uithoorn. He married Sara de Koker(1702-58). His daughter Maria Smidt was married to Pastor Hendrik van Gelder, whose descendants, still numerous in the Netherlands, bear the family name of Smidt van Gelder.
Bibliography
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1872): 55; (1890): 110; (1918): 78.
Gelder, J. M. van. Stamboek van de familie van Gelder. Amsterdam, 1899: 178-83.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: v. II, 2953, 3146.
| Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Smidt, Petrus (1707-1781)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Smidt,_Petrus_(1707-1781)&oldid=85042.
APA style
van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1959). Smidt, Petrus (1707-1781). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Smidt,_Petrus_(1707-1781)&oldid=85042.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 549. All rights reserved.
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