Repertorium Patriotten, Oranjegezinden en Bataven. Politieke Sociabiliteit 1781-1798

The Repertorium Patriotten, Oranjegezinden en Bataven. Politieke Sociabiliteit 1781-1798 includes a database of 1104 political-social organisations and movements, especially Patriot, Orangist and Batavian gentlemen’s and civic societies, militias and guilds in the 1781-1798 period in Holland. In historiography, this period is generally referred to successively as the Patriot period (1781-1787), the Orange Restoration (1787-1795), and the first three years of the Batavian Republic (1795-1798), until the 1798 coup d’état. During this phase, the Northern Netherlands took steps towards a new political culture, with new forms of democratic participation. Precisely during these decades, a large number of organisations of various kinds emerged, both in the political and social spheres.

The database is based on a large number of sources, ranging from archival records and contemporary newspapers to secondary literature. It is limited to the territory of the then-province of Holland. This province was much larger than present-day North and South Holland during the Republic of the United Netherlands until the new departmental division of the Batavian Republic of March 1799. It also included parts of neighbouring provinces, including the Langstraat in present-day North Brabant. Efforts were made to include all Dutch political-social organisations and movements that were politically active between 1781 and 1798 in this database. ‘Politically-neutral’ institutions such as militias and guilds have also been included, if they explicitly began to advertise themselves as patriotic or orangist, or if they arose under pressure from the new (provincial) politics.

The database is intended for researchers interested in the Patriot era, the Orange Restoration and the Batavian Republic, the history of Dutch ‘civil society’ and broader political, cultural and social history. The data are also important for local history research.

This project was part of a research programme entitled Society life in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century of the Institute of the History of the Netherlands, a predecessor of the Huygens Institute. Hans Smit led this programme, succeeded in that position by Milja van Tielhof. From 2007 to 2018, Joke Roelevink worked on this project, advised on digital matters by Rik Hoekstra. Her death unfortunately prevented her from completing the work. Marjolein ‘t Hart checked the available data, supplemented them and, with the help of Ger Dijkstra and Rik Hoekstra, made them accessible for this digital publication.