Page 54 - Poat_to_Poot_Engels

Jan Willem's move back to Delft may have been motivated by a desire to
spend some time with his sickly father. Fourteen months after the baby
died, J.W.'s father, Jan Poot, died in Delft on 27 October 1877. He was 61
years old. Jan's health had been damaged by his many years of working
with silver and related chemicals.

Where the ministry took Jan Willem Poot next is uncertain, but his next
child, Antonia, was born March 24, 1877, possibly in Amsterdam. The
Amsterdam Reformed Church was extremely large, and possessed a large
staff of ministers. New ministers were often given assistant positions
there while they gained experience. By 1878, J.W. had decided to move to
a church in Berlikum, Friesland. This was a dramatic move, because there
were no Poots or Vinks anywhere in the province of Friesland. The Dutch,
like other Europeans, were usually quite provincial, and rarely moved far
from their place of birth. Although Jan Willem was known to possess more
than a little wanderlust, religious conflict probably triggered this move. A
religious controversy erupted in Amsterdam in 1877, the details of which
are unclear, but this seems to coincide with his move to Friesland where
the churches were more conservative. In 1885, another controversy at the
Amsterdam church would have major repercussions in both the national
church and in national politics.

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