Claas Cornelisz Nicolaas Calff

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Met Stoom - Nummer 24 - September 1996

De familie Calff, vrienden van de Czaar

'Denk wel, spreek wel, doe wel. Amen!'

R. Couwenhoven

Nicolaas Calff was only sixteen years old on January 12, 1694, when he signed a 'Contract of Drawing of Assurantie Soo on Ships, Goods as Lijf van Persoonen'. This agreement was found in the archives of notary P. van der Stengh from Zaandam. It never became clear whether this insurance contract related to whalers and catches or to normal commercial shipping, but in any case Aris van Broek, Jacob Cornelisz. Hooning, two members of the Louwe family and two members of the Meyn family - all shipowners - among the co-signers.

Claas, as he was called in the walk, Calff was born on June 20, 1677 as the eldest son of Cornelis Migchielsz.  Calff and Maritje Cornelisd.  Guest, who died in childbirth.  

Nicolaas Calff had already been through a lot at the time of the sale of his share in De Veenboer. His father spared no expense in raising his children. When he was 21 years old, Nicolaas was sent abroad under the guidance of the Haarlemmer Testard. They traveled to England via Brielle on June 10, 1698. From there they moved to Ostend in the southern Netherlands and from there to Paris, where they spent a few months. This is where Nicolaas Calff's interest in art was aroused. He also began to collect antiquities, curiosities and rare tokens and coins. On March 20, 1754, the Nicolaas Calff collection, which was inherited after his death by his great-nephew Jacob Psz. Hoogeboom, auctioned after it got into financial difficulties 'due to accident in the trade'. The catalog stated: 'Rarities and Pennies existing in various Sea, Mountain, Nature and Stone Crops, Sliced ​​and Uncut. Also with Old and Contemporary Silver and Kooperen Pennings. Collected by Wijl den Heer Nicolaas Kalff. Great Kender in his Life and Lover of Excellent Frayigheeden; As part of the Cabinet, used for that purpose. '

Nicolaas Calff brought together the most wonderful things.  There were four ostrich eggs, corn from 't Vrouwe Zand - a shallow in the Zuiderzee near Stavoren - a magic purse, a box with East Indian manna, a Roman elle, a thunderstone or chisel, two toggles of a walrus and a beard of  a whale.  Calff changed company in the French capital.  He went to the south of France with Mr. Van Herzeele.  On the way he visited Lyon, where he took a box of soil for his cabinet of curiosities 'from land on which 19,000 people were tortured'.  Nicolaas Calff eventually ended up in Naples, Rome and Venice.  In Rome he attended the ceremonies surrounding the election of a new pope and in this city he indulged in his passion for collecting.  Calff collected "some Roman relics."  Such as a leg of Saint Clementia Mars;  two pieces of the Holy Gate of St. Peter's Church, Roma Jubel 1699. Furthermore, various petrified objects, ashes, stone and earth from Mount Vesuvius with a historical description in Italian and wood of an Egyptian royal coffin, which did not burn.  He bought complete sculptures and paintings and shipped everything to Zaandam.  Nicolaas Calff was on the road for more than two years.  He left as a young man from Zaan of rich parents and came home as a 24-year-old man from the world, ready to step into and succeed his father's extensive trading house.

Calff Sr. operated ships on the profitable Greenland and Strait of David fisheries, as whaling was then called. When Nicolaas was twenty-five years old, there was already a whaler to his name, and in 1700, just sixteen years old, his brother Cornelis was already co-owner and wind letter holder of the peeling mill De Grootvorst van Moskoviën on the Kalverdijk opposite Zaandijk.

Claas Calff's ship was also named after Czar Peter the Great, with whom Cornelis sr. Had become close friends during the legendary visit of the Russian supreme ruler in 1697 to Zaandam.  The whaler was called 'The Czaar of Moskovien'.  This ship was involved in a remarkable incident in 1702.  A harpoon was fired from one of the sloops of the ship De Bleekster.  A sloop from? The Czaar of Moskovien?  Signeur Claas Corn.  Calff also fired in and killed the whale, sparking a discussion as to who caught the animal.  The skipper of the Czaar brought in the whale and eventually offered 22 barrels of bacon and a quarter of the beard to the commander of De Bleekster.  The Bleekster's crew had to undergo biting ridicule.  When the sloops from the Saar passed them, they shouted: "Shoot another fish. We'll come and kill for you again!"  reported an act of notary Van der Stengh on January 1, 1703.

The young Calff was already in business by then. In 1695 the paper mill De Veenboer was built in Zaandijk by Barend Csz. Peat. Calff Jr. was together with his uncle Jan Csz. Guest and his future father-in-law Lourens Jsz. Louwe one of the financiers. In 1706, after the death of Veen and his widow Aagje Mooij, they and eight others sold their parts, which amounted to 5 / 6th of the total, for 5000 guilders to Jan Tagh and Claes and Grietje Huijsduijnen, who therefore became one of the largest paper manufacturers. of the Zaan region. Tagh and Huijsduijnen already worked with the De Walvisch, Walrus and De Kok windmills. It was therefore no wonder that Cornelis Calff Sr. took Peter the Great with him to De Kok in 1697, when the Russian Czaar had announced that he wanted to visit a paper mill.
The visit is reported by J.C. Noomen, a shopkeeper from Zaandam, who wrote an extensive journal about the Czaar's visit to the Zaanstreek. According to tradition, Peter the Great also visited the yard on the Kalverdijk, where the De Grootvorst windmill was under construction. During a sailing trip, the Russian ruler is said to have ended up here and driven a few nails into the wood with his own hands.

This myth, which made the peeling mill De Grootvorst in 1897 the center of all kinds of festivities around the Czaar Peter commemoration of that time, can be referred to the realm of fables.

Documents from the archives of the Graefigheidsrekenkamer 1446-1728 in the State Archives in The Hague show that Cornelis Calff jr. Was the client for the construction.  On March 20, 1700, notary Paulus van der Stengh from Westzaandam sent a request to the 'Hoogmogende Heeren Raden and the Masters of the Recognition of the Domains and the Westvrieslant'.  He applied 'on behalf of the suppliant as further co-participants' for the wind letter for the peeling mill De Grootvorst van Moschovien, which had recently been built on private land on the Kalverdijk in the banne van Oostzanen.  He stated emphatically that the wind letter was requested "before using the hulling mill."

On April 1, 1700, Calff Sr. paid the lease of 12 pounds, 'as father and guardian of his soon Cornelis Cornelisz. Kalv, your current country side synde '. Given these documents, it is impossible that De Grootvorst was under construction during the visit of the Czaar. Only two years after his departure from the Netherlands, De Grootvorst was hammered, but the name again showed the excellent relationship between the Calff family and the Russian Czaar.
Cornelis Migchielsz Calff himself had long since been a man of distinction. During the eight-day visit of Czaar Peter the Great to Zaandam, where the Russian party arrived in a Cologne boat on August 18, 1697, he had several meetings with the monarch. Wednesday, August 21, Calff received the czaar at his home. Noomen reported in his journal: 'That same evening he was at the home of Cornelis Migchielsz. Calff who asked him to have the meal with him. But because many distinguished persons had come to see the grand prince, he declined that request. He was, however, treated to some jams and weird drink. '

These were foreign liqueurs, which were apparently normal for well-to-do merchants, but not available to the common people.  The mayors Alewijn Willemsz also attended the visit to Calff.  Joor and Claes Arentsz.  Bloem, a shipowner and wood buyer, present.  They asked the interpreter "to tell his lord that the mayors submissively asked him to do them the honor of eating a fish on his Zaandams with them."  But the interpreter said, "We have no lord here. Our lord is yet to come."

The 25-year-old Czaar was in cognito in Zaandam, which he already knew from conversations with Zaandammers, who worked for him in Moscow. The wish to look around the important industrial area in silence soon turned out to be impossible. Peter the Great could hardly walk down the street. People came from far and wide to personally see the mighty Russian ruler. Reason why the czaar left for Amsterdam. Nevertheless, he would return to Zaandam several times afterwards.
At the end of September 1697 the Greenland fishing fleet returned. The 112 ships had had a peak season. They had caught 1197 fish, representing 39,484 barrels of bacon. Calff's ships were in the Vooraan when Peter the Great honored them with a visit. He inspected everything and everyone and was the most interested spectator at a demonstration of the launching of the boats. In April 1698, after his visit to England, Peter the Great sent his first emissary François Lefort, accompanied by Gabriel Golofkin, commissioner of war and governor of Siberia, with a large retinue to Zaandam. Calff senior and Bloem, the later father-in-law of Calff's son Cornelis, showed them around shipyards, along tear distilleries, beard cutting factories, glue houses and other factories.
Peter the Great was, according to Noomen, 'tall and robust in body, simply obese, fluent and easy on the feet. Round in face, cruel in sigt with brown eyebrows and short curled hair '. The Swiss Lefort, who had made it to General, Admiral and Governor of Novgorod thanks to Czaar Peter, stayed at the inn Het Moriaanshoofd, where the innkeeper could not find any goblets large enough for his guests.

According to contemporaries, Peter the Great and Lefort were insatiable drinkers.  The czaar's bizarre parties in Moscow were infamous and sometimes lasted for days.  The members of the diplomatic corps were forced to drink in order not to fall out of favor, but could never survive as long as the hardened Kreml drunkards.  In Het Moriaanshoofd, too, the innkeeper was unable to fill the jars of Lefort and his friends quickly enough.

Yet that did not prevent the strict Mennonite Cornelis Calff Sr., Who detested any drinking, from doing business with the monarch. On December 5, 1698, he and his son Cornelis sent a letter to the Czaar, in which they humbly requested 'Pieter Alexewits, favorable friend and brother in Christ Jesus' to be allowed to buy 200 loads (480 tons) of rye in Russia' in connection with shortages in our regions'. Admiral Cornelis Cruys, an Amsterdammer who had gone to Russia in the service of the Czaar in 1697 to build up the Russian fleet, replied on behalf of the monarch that the cargo was donated 'aen syn Saerdammer vrinden'. When in the autumn of 1703 skipper Auke Wybes from Hindeloopen brought his whistle ship for the roadstead of St. Petersburg, which was just under construction, and the Czaar learned that this ship had been chartered by Calff and his sons, he gave Wybes the right to charge the cargo to enter.

The alcoholism of the Czaar and his followers thus had no influence on the relationship with the Mennonite Calff and his children.  And that while Calff himself took strict measures, when his son Cornelis was suspended by the Mennonite congregation in 1712 for drunkenness.  Calff, himself one of the leaders of this municipality, had the Amsterdam notary Jan van der Ende make a new will on April 22 of that year.  He disinherited Cornelis and appointed Nicolaas as the sole heir to his enormous possessions.  For Cornelis only a legacy remained, which consisted of the lifelong usufruct of 'papers and income, which were not allowed to be traded'.  It was a measure that would never become effective, because Cornelis died on May 30, 1715. The father would outlive his son for six years.

The prestige of Calff and his son Nicolaas was already so great that it was sufficient for his closest employees to say in the largest transactions that they acted on behalf of the trading house Cornelis Calff & Son to obtain any desired credit. 'As sure as Calff' became a proverb, indicating how creditworthy the firm was. When doing business with the Zaankanter, they never had to be afraid of default.
After returning from his long stay abroad, Nicolaas Calff married Aafje Pieters in 1702. Two years later he had a stately and magnificent house built on the Zaan near the Zeemanspad in the Molenbuurt, which would later be registered as Westzijde 38. Czaar Peter was received in this building in 1718, who then paid an official state visit to the Netherlands with Czarina Catharina.

The marital happiness of Calff, who had meanwhile become a prominent member of the Mennonite Congregation in Westzaandam, did not last long. In 1713 his wife died without giving him children. During that period, Claas Calff was intensively involved in the construction of an Orphan and Poorhouse for the Mennonite Congregation of Westzaandam. The merchant was part of the brotherhood of the Municipality and represented it as master builder together with Cornelis Dircksz. Tewis and Dirck Claesz. Muyse, while on behalf of the ministry of the same Municipality of Lubbert Lourens, Cornelis Jansz. Gijse and Dirk Jansz. Schaap had been appointed as builders. By the way, Calff did more than develop plans and supervise construction. He also made a warehouse with accompanying yard on Zeemanspadt available to convert it into an orphanage. This building and the ground were exactly in the corner on the north side of the current Stationsstraat and the Westzijde.

However, the builders rejected the warehouse during their meeting of Monday, January 20, 1713. The report of this meeting, at which Calff was not present, states' Meeting of the architects (Kalf absent) to decide whether the warehouse and the heirs of Kalf were laying behind or  north of the house can be destined to Orphanage '.  The conclusion was: 'No'.  The warehouse was rejected and "it was at most suitable for lugt creation".  But in 1714 the orphanage was finished.  Nicolaas Calff was appointed outdoor father, a position in which he supervised the affairs of the orphanage and poorhouse.

Shortly after his wife's funeral, Calff left for Paris again. According to Denis Diderot, a famous eighteenth century French phyllosopher who described Zaandam at the time of Nicholas Calff, Calff pretended to be Comte De Veau, Count Kalf in the French capital. During his visits to the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King, he dressed in the elegant style of the Paris of the time. But after his return to Westzaandam in September 1714, he put on the traditional Zaanse dress with just as much ease. Diderot was amazed in his book 'Voyage en Hollande' about the lifestyle of the incredibly rich Zaandammer. The famous Voltaire also described in his book 'The History of Russia under Czar Peter the Great' how the Mennonite Calff 'sat down at the table with princesses of the blood, usually found herself playing games with the Duchess De Berry and who more than any foreigner in Paris. The czarina liked to hear him talk about his many travels, but when he returned to Zaandam he put on his peasant clothes again and worked as a carpenter in his father's shipyards.
How and where Calff had his conversations with the czarina, Voltaire does not say. In addition, although Calff Sr. was a ship owner, he did not have a shipyard. Voltaire was eventually exiled to England because of his critical attitude towards court life.
It is no longer possible to ascertain how correct his description of Calff is, but in any case this was the man who received Czaar Peter the Great and Czarina Catharina in his home in 1718. The imperial party had arrived in Amsterdam on December 19, 1717 with a tow boat rented in Utrecht. The Czaar was only able to come to Zaandam on 5 March, because he had been ill for a while. With a few princes he immediately went to Calff's house, where father Cornelis and son Nicolaas received him warmly. A few days later - on March 9th - the czaar and the czarina visited Calff again. On this occasion they brought a toast to father and son, in which their cousin Jacob Pietersz Hoogeboom was also present. Calff Sr. showed the Russian monarch everywhere. Peter the Great had not yet lost any of his curiosity, but old Calff found "that he had changed a lot for the better."

The merchants from Zaandam gave Peter the Great a nice ice boat as a present and accompanied him on a visit to the paper mill De Kok, where he had been twenty years earlier.  The Czaar then visited a starch factory on the other side of the Koksloot.  Here he tasted the sour water and starch and forced members of his retinue to do the same.

On August 30, Peter the Great came to Zaandam for the last time. At midday the Czaar said that "nowhere had he found so many activities and such extensive commerce as in the Zaan region." During this occasion the Czar informed Calff that he wanted to hear a sermon in 'Het Nieuwe Huys' from the Baptist Church, but also that he did not like long sermons. Calff replied, "Let me then recite the conclusion of all exhortations."
The party went to the Admonition opposite the house, Calff mounted the pulpit and said, "Think well, speak well and do well. Amen!" The frost was deeply impressed. He said, "I never heard a shorter and never a more businesslike sermon."
When Nicolaas Calff visited the tear cookery with the Czaar, he was able to provide expert commentary. He himself also had interests in this industry. His ships 't Vergulde Calff and' t Bonte Calff, as well as the Czaar van Moskovien, named after the family's mills, were still in service in 1716. On November 9, 1719, Nicolaas bought 1 / 32nd part in the flute ship Het Gele Paart at an auction and at the same time he also took 1 / 32nd part in a tear cookery in Zaandijk, while he already owned such a cookery on the Hazepad in Zaandam. The company was located next to the wainscot sawmill De Haas and the huge De Olifant line railway. He was also the owner of the flute ships' t Jonge Calff and De Liefde, which he sold in 1722 and 1724 for f 7600 and f 3800.
The prosperity of his businesses allowed Calff to spend a lot of money on his great love of art. He particularly preferred sculpture. This was strongly expressed in his homestead Polanen, which he had built halfway between Haarlem and Amsterdam.
For a long time, this homestead was the only building in Halfweg, as the place would later become known. The homestead was renowned for its wealth and artistic sculptures. In 1804 the Zaandijk merchant Claas bought Adriaansz. Honig at a public auction five statues, representing the Evening, the Night, the Afternoon, the Morning and the god Bacchus. At the time, these statues were supposed to have come from the 'Garden of Entertainment' of Nicolaas Calff's famous House of Polanen. This country house was demolished during that period. Honig had the sculptures transferred to Zaandijk in October 1804, where he had the sculpture garden that still exists today, opposite his home.

Nicolaas Calff remarried Grietje Lourens Louwe on December 28, 1718.  Grietje died soon, but did give birth to a son, Cornelis.  Young Calff did not live long.  On August 9, 1723, his death was declared, so that Nicolaas Calff remained without descendants.  Calff spent the last years of his life in the company of Guurtje Gerrits Ouwekees, who acted as his housekeeper.  When Calff had his will drawn up on April 16, 1734, notary Jurriaan Faber wrote: 'Before me there appeared Nicolaes Calff, alive merchant and art lover;  Siekelijck in body, but having good sense, memory and free speech, who in the meditation of life's brittle and uncertain muse of death, indicated this as his last will. '

Calff appointed his 45-year-old cousin Pieter Jsz. Calff, a son of his uncle Jan Migchielse Calff, as his only heir. In 1726 he had established himself as a merchant in Amsterdam. The total size of the inheritance was not described, but in any case Pieter Calff would acquire the country houses, the pleasure resort Polanen near Halfweg and a farm in the Purmer.
Nicolaes Calff had also had NLG 110,250.00 in cash bequests committed to great-nephews and nieces, who also inherited a series of houses, a timber yard, a farm in the Enge Wormer and lands. So, without a doubt, Calff was a very rich man. How weak he already was when he had his last will drawn up, was evident from his signature, which was extremely shaky and uncertain. On May 4, eighteen days after his last will was drawn up, Claas Calff died at 2:30 AM. The Czaar's friend had turned 56 years old.