Family Life

Abstract

For centuries, the teaching profession had run through the Kapteyn family like a red thread. Teachers performed generation after generation; teaching was in their blood, and, if they did not teach at school or an institute, they would teach at home. The first known teacher was Paulus Captijn, who in 1712 was born in Berkenwoude in the Krimpenerwaard of South Holland. In 1756, the Schelenen archives in the town of Heukelom made mention of him as “Paulus Captijn, schoolmaster in this town.” Many generations had already been teachers before him. Although the archives mention the names, they do not mention the professions. Following Captijn, the position of schoolmaster was passed on from father to son and, as a result, practiced by many in the family. They became quite famous as teachers, and so it was that in an Amsterdam newspaper of 12 July 1868, during a recommendation of candidates applying to be an English teacher, a Kapteyn was introduced as “one who carries the name of a family in which pedagogic capability is traditional.”