gramps

For me, the most impressive part of Delft was not the pottery or the churches, it was running into my ever-so-great grandfather's statue in the town square; and then again at the museum. My dad does quite a bit if genealogy and has all but traced our heritage back to the illegitimate birth of a child by the son of Hugo Grotius.


Grandpa Hugh De Groot (he later changed his name to Latin) is known as "the father of international law) and also has his frieze on the Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC; with the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis IX, Moses and Hammurabi.


He was not always liked as an Armenian and was under house arrest once. The story passed down through our family is that he received trunks of books and conjugal visits. On one of these visits his wife suggested that he get in the trunk, rather than putting the books back in it. And, so, Hugo climbed in the trunk and was taken out down a river to where he escaped and fled the country. The trunk said to have carried him (or at least a similar book trunk) is pictured above.


True to Delft tradition, there is a delftware plate of Hugo along with several personal items, letters, hair from his head, his seal, and some of the books he wrote on display at the Het Prinsenhof museum. A room there is dedicated to him.

What a great surprise to see my way-great grandpa and also a fantastic way to finish 2009 in Delft.