{"id":188476,"date":"2026-09-17T11:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/?post_type=persoon&p=188476"},"modified":"2026-09-19T21:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:36:48","slug":"westerbeek-van-eerten-bartholomeus-stephanus","status":"publish","type":"persoon","link":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/persoon\/westerbeek-van-eerten-bartholomeus-stephanus\/","title":{"rendered":"Bartholomeus Stephanus Westerbeek van Eerten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minister in Aalten during the Batavian and French periods<\/p>\n\n

Bartholomeus Stephanus Westerbeek van Eerten served as a minister in Aalten for almost thirty years. He came to the village in 1786 and remained there until his death in 1816. As a minister in Aalten, he therefore lived through a turbulent period: from the final years of the Dutch Republic, through the Batavian and French periods<\/a>, to the political upheaval of 1813. A story handed down from the French period shows that his role was not confined to the church walls.<\/p>\n\n

Born into a minister\u2019s family<\/h2>\n\n

Westerbeek van Eerten was born in Wanneperveen. Aalten\u2019s Register Civique gives 24 December 1747 as his date of birth, while the Wanneperveen baptism register records his baptism on 1 January 1748. The two records are readily compatible: he was probably born on 24 December and baptised eight days later. His father is listed as a witness in the baptism register.<\/p>\n\n

He was the son of Willem Jan van Eerten, also a minister, and Margaretha Wigbolda van Westerbeek. Historical sources give his own name in several forms, including Bartholdus Stephanus, Bartholomeeuws Stefanus and Bartholomeus Stephanus.<\/p>\n\n

Minister in Friesland<\/h2>\n\n

His career as a minister began in Friesland. T.A. Romein\u2019s nineteenth-century register of ministers records that on 9 August 1772 he was installed as a candidate in the combined parish of Augsbuurt or Lutjewoude and Kollumerzwaag. He was about 24 years old at the time. Romein also explicitly identifies him as born in Wanneperveen and as the son of Willem Jan van Eerten.<\/p>\n\n

He married during this first posting. On 20 August 1773, the marriage register of the Dutch Reformed congregation of Ruurlo recorded:<\/p>\n\n

Bartholomeeuws Stefanus Westerbeek van Eerten, predikant tot Luttekewolde en Collumerswaag<\/em><\/p>\n\n

His bride was Antonia Johanna Aberson, daughter of Adam Aberson, collector of the land tax in Ruurlo. After three Sunday banns, they married in Ruurlo on 9 September 1773.<\/p>\n\n

Three children are known from their marriage: Willem Adam (1774\u20131813), Lodewijk Frederik (1776\u20131855) and Johanna Catharina (1780\u20131843). Lodewijk Frederik later followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and also became a minister, eventually serving for many years in Varsseveld.<\/p>\n\n

In 1775, Westerbeek van Eerten received a call to Burum and Munnekezijl. He took leave of his first parish on 9 July and was installed in Burum on 23 July 1775. He remained there for more than ten years. On 1 January 1785, he dedicated the new church there.<\/p>\n\n

To Aalten<\/h2>\n\n

In 1786, he received a call to Aalten. Westerbeek van Eerten left Burum on 30 April 1786 and, according to Aalten\u2019s register of ministers, was installed in Aalten on 14 May 1786. He succeeded Adrianus Rudolphus de Roy, who had died in 1785.<\/p>\n\n

This marked the beginning of a ministry in Aalten that would last almost thirty years. In 1813, he is recorded at Aalten 35<\/a>, the Dutch Reformed parsonage at the time. The present parsonage at Wehmerstraat 2 stands on the same plot, but the current building dates from 1920 and is therefore not the house in which Westerbeek van Eerten lived.<\/p>\n\n

On a farm cart near De Pol<\/h2>\n\n

His long ministry in Aalten coincided with major political change. A notable story about Westerbeek van Eerten survives in an article by G.H. Rots, published in the Aaltensche Courant<\/em> in 1938 about the French period in Aalten.<\/p>\n\n

Rots describes how tensions rose in 1799 after an attempt to drive back French and Batavian authority in the region had failed. According to him, ministers held religious services in the open air during this period. Of Westerbeek van Eerten, he writes that the minister climbed onto a farm cart and encouraged fellow believers who had gathered near De Pol<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

It is an appealing detail because it literally places the minister outside his church building, among his congregation. It should be noted, however, that Rots did not record the story until 1938. It is therefore not an eyewitness account from 1799, but a later historical tradition. The original source on which Rots based this specific episode has not yet been identified.<\/p>\n\n

The renovated church organ<\/h2>\n\n

A much more direct trace of Westerbeek van Eerten survives in Aalten\u2019s church records. In a transcription of the old consistory minutes, a note written by him in 1811 appears at the bottom of a page in the eighteenth-century consistory book.<\/p>\n\n

On 16 June 1811, the \u201cconsiderably renewed and greatly improved Aalten organ\u201d<\/em> was brought back into use. Westerbeek van Eerten preached on Psalm 150:2\u20135 and reminded the congregation of the proper use of the organ, both in support of preaching and of congregational singing.<\/p>\n\n

Family and final years<\/h2>\n\n

His wife, Antonia Johanna Aberson, died in Aalten on 22 January 1812. A year later, on 7 October 1813, their eldest son Willem Adam also died in Aalten. Their son Lodewijk Frederik had by then become a minister himself.<\/p>\n\n

Westerbeek van Eerten remarried in Aalten on 22 September 1814, to Johanna Gesina Prins. She outlived him. That she was indeed his widow is also confirmed by a death notice published after her death in 1823 in the Opregte Haarlemsche Courant<\/em>, where she is described as the widow of \u201cB.S. Westerbeek van Eerten, minister here\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Bartholomeus Stephanus Westerbeek van Eerten died in Aalten on 4 January 1816. His date of death is recorded both in Romein\u2019s Frisian register of ministers and in the Aalten ministerial lists. Aalten did not receive a successor until 1817, when Tjeerd Radsma<\/a> took up the post.<\/p>\n\n

\"Opregte
Opregte Haarlemsche Courant, 15 February 1823<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister in Aalten during the Batavian and French periods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[585],"tags":[],"thema":[],"beroep":[1893],"class_list":["post-188476","persoon","type-persoon","status-publish","hentry","category-biography","beroep-protestant-minister-en"],"yoast_head":"\nBartholomeus Stephanus Westerbeek van Eerten | Old Aalten<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/persoon\/westerbeek-van-eerten-bartholomeus-stephanus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bartholomeus Stephanus Westerbeek van Eerten\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minister in Aalten during the Batavian and French periods\" 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