Dutch Reformed Minister
Tjeerd Radsma was born on 20 February 1772 in Harlingen, the son of Hermanus Radsma and Aafke Steffanij. He married Anna Dina Kniphorst on 11 August 1799 in Meppel. Following her death in 1805, Radsma remarried on 6 October 1808 in Leeuwarden to Doedtje Nieuwenhuis, who had previously been married to Heert Jans Kingma.
In 1812, Tjeerd Radsma was registered as a resident of Hempens, near Leeuwarden. He was the minister of Hempens and Teerns at the time. It is also noted that he had four children at that point. Three have been identified, all from his first marriage:
- Johanna (Hempens, 1800 – Aalten, 1847)
- Aafke (Hempens, 1801 – Aalten, 1824)
- Anna Dina (Hempens, 1805 – Meppel, 1806)
To Aalten
In 1817, at the age of 45, Radsma moved to Aalten as a minister. Five years later, on 11 August 1822, he commemorated his 25th anniversary in the ministry. On this occasion, he delivered a sermon based on 2 Corinthians 5:9. The opening sentence of the sermon read: “Every individual’s life presents times and days that are more remarkable than others and to commemorate these – provided their multitude does not weaken the impression too much – can be very useful.”
Radsma lived in the Old Reformed Parsonage on the Wehmerstraat.
Death and Grave
Tjeerd Radsma passed away on 4 December 1839 in Aalten, at the age of 67. He was buried in the Old Cemetery on the Varsseveldsestraatweg. His gravestone is one of the oldest remaining funerary monuments there. Also interred in the same grave are his widow, Doedtje, who died in 1855, and her granddaughter, Maria Elizabeth Dodina Bianka Lans, who died in 1835 at the age of eight. Maria’s mother was Janke Kingma, a daughter of Doedtje from her first marriage.
