Willem Boreel

Sir Willem Boreel, 1st Baronet (2 March 1591 in Middelburg – 29 September 1668 in Paris) was a Dutch diplomat.

Biography

Willem Boreel was the son of Jacob Boreel (1552-1636), burgomaster of Bergen-op-Zoom.[1] Adam Boreel and the jurist Abraham Boreel were brothers; Johan Boreel was a half-brother.[2] From 1618 Boreel worked for the Dutch East India Company as a lawyer,[3] and was part of a mission to resolve the Dutch and British commercial rivalry in the East Indies by a treaty.[4] He was knighted by James I of England.[5]

Boreel became Baron of Vreendijk and Vreenhove. From 1627 to 1649 he was Pensionary of Amsterdam.[6] During that period he travelled to England, with Johan van Reede van Renswouden, in an attempt to mediate in the First English Civil War.[7] Then from 1650 for the rest of his life he served as Ambassador of the Dutch Republic to France.[6]

Telescope investigation

In 1655 Boreel assisted in the controversy over trying to figure out who invented the telescope. He had a local magistrate in Middelburg in the Netherlands follow up on his recollection of a spectacle maker who told Boreel in 1610 about inventing the telescope. The magistrate was contacted by a then unknown claimant, Middelburg spectacle maker Johannes Zachariassen, who testified that his father, Zacharias Janssen invented the telescope and the microscope as early as 1590. This testimony seemed to convincing to Boreel, who now recollected that Zacharias must have been who he remembered.[5] Boreel's conclusion that Zacharias Janssen invented the telescope a little ahead of another spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, was adopted by Pierre Borel in his 1656 book on the subject.[8]

Notes
  1. John Penry Lewis, List of inscriptions on tombstones and monuments in Ceylon, of historical or local interest, with an obituary of persons uncommemorated (1913) p. 110; archive,org.
  2. (in Dutch) Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Boreel, Jacob.
  3. Siegfried Huigen; Jan L. De Jong; Elmer Kolfin (2010). The Dutch Trading Companies As Knowledge Networks. BRILL. p. 133. ISBN 978-90-04-18659-0.
  4. Bibliotheca Visseriana Disserationvm Ivs Internationale Inllvstrantivm Cvra Facvltatis Ivridicae Lvgdvno-batavae Edita. Brill Archive. p. 131. GGKEY:20UJADURTEJ.
  5. Albert Van Helden; Sven Dupré; Rob van Gent (2010). The Origins of the Telescope. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 21–2. ISBN 978-90-6984-615-6.
  6. Esther Mijers; David Onnekink (2007). Redefining William III: The Impact of the King-stadholder in International Context. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 237–8. ISBN 978-0-7546-8639-2.
  7. Keblusek, Marika. "Reede van Renswouden, Johan van". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23279. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  8. Albert Van Helden; Sven Dupré; Rob van Gent (2010). The Origins of the Telescope. Amsterdam University Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-90-6984-615-6.
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