Johan Frederik Rudolph van Hooff

Who was Johan Frederik Rudolph van Hooff?

Johan Frederik Rudolph van Hooff was a Dutch Patriot politician and statesman.

Van Hooff was born in Eindhoven in 1755, to Martinus van Hooff and Anna Elisabeth Bols van Arendonck. He studied law, got his doctorate in law at Nancy and opened a law practice in Eindhoven. He was elected co-mayor of the town in 1786. During his career he was mayor of Eindhoven, member of the First National Assembly, the Second National Assembly, the Executive Power and the Legislative Power.

In 1786 he founded the Vaderlandse Sociëteit Concordia together with Amandus van Moorsel; this society was a social club in name, but a Patriot organization in reality. Several town notables joined this society.

In 1787 Jan van Hoff and several other Eindhoven Patriots traveled to Utrecht to join the Patriot Army. This army was defeated by the Prussian Army, after which Van Hooff was arrested for his Patriottic activities, on the orders of the States-General of the Netherlands; he was taken to The Hague and imprisoned. He was released shortly thereafter and returned to Eindhoven. However, he was re-arrested on 12 February 1788, but managed to escape.