Hindeloopen (Friesland, Netherlands)

Hindeloopen, a town (1947 population 924, with 80 Mennonites) was once a prosperous city in the Dutch province of Friesland, an important center of Baltic trade, but since the middle of the 18th century has steadily declined both in commerce and in population. It was a seat of a Mennonite congregation dating back to about 1550. In 1562 Leenaert Bouwens visited this congregation but baptized only one member. When the divisions arose among the Dutch Mennonites, the Hindeloopen congregation held to the moderate Waterlanders. Haye Hommes was a representative of this congregation at the large Waterlander delegates' meeting at Amsterdam 1647. (Whether there existed also a High German congregation in 1614 is not clear.)

The Waterlander congregation is said to have numbered 1,000 members in 1653. In this year a new meetinghouse was built, being then the largest one in Friesland. Soon after, a division in the congregation took place, the smaller group being a Waterlander congregation, numbering nearly 200 members, around 1700, and meeting in the Kleine Huys; the other group, more conservative and calling itself Flemish, meeting in the Groote Huys, numbering about 600 members at that time. Through the intercession of the Friesche Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (Mennonite Conference of Friesland) the groups united ca. 1740, but in 1749 a new schism occurred, which lasted until 1810. In this year a part of the Kleine Huys joined the Groote Huys congregation, while other members of the Kleine Huys turned to the Reformed Church. In the meantime the membership had greatly decreased as a result of the decline in trade and population. The membership of the two congregations combined was about 780 in 1700; decreased to about 200 in 1796 and to only 57 in 1838. Since then the membership remained small—43 in 1861, 48 in 1900, 70 in 1929, 57 in 1954.

In 1808-1817 and 1834-1873 the pastor of Hindeloopen also served Molkwerum; in 1870-1949 its pastor served also at Koudum; since 1942 the congregations of Hindeloopen and Staveren have had the same pastor, mostly living in Staveren.

In the first half of the twentieth century Hindeloopen was served by the following pastors: F. J. de Holl 1900-1903, G. A. Hulshoff 1904-1910, A. de Jong 1910-1914, R. Swart 1916-1919, B. P. de Vries 1920-1923, H. Bussemaker 1926, A. L. Broer 1926-1929, Miss J. H. van der Slooten 1932-1939, Miss S. E. Treffers (of Staveren) 1942-1946, L. Laurense (of Staveren) 1949-1953, vacant after 1953. Activities are a Sunday school for children since 1917, a ladies' circle since 1927.

Bibliography

Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Friesland. Leeuwarden: W. Eekhoff, 1839: see Index.

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1861): 122, 136; (1870): 34-37; (1874): 87; (1903): 91.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff.  Mennonitisches Lexikon. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: II, 317.

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884:  I, Nos. 961, 1162, 1180; II, Nos. 1926-41.

Maps

Map:Hindeloopen (Friesland)

Author(s)	A. L. Broer
	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1956

Cite This Article

MLA style

Broer, A. L. and Nanne van der Zijpp. "Hindeloopen (Friesland, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hindeloopen_(Friesland,_Netherlands)&oldid=82070.

APA style

Broer, A. L. and Nanne van der Zijpp. (1956). Hindeloopen (Friesland, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hindeloopen_(Friesland,_Netherlands)&oldid=82070.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 744-745. All rights reserved.

©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.