The mayor of Leeuwarden would like to speak to you and you. His ancestor Wiardus (Wite) Willem Buma was a lot more formal. Sybrand van Haersma Buma about his biography of this wealthy Frisian.
From his mayor’s room at the Leeuwarden town hall, Sybrand Buma (Workum, 1965) has a view of two houses from the family history. His predecessor Bernardus, mayor from 1813 to 1815, lived in the left wing of the Stadtholder’s Court.
When King William I had that palace wing purchased for 34,000 guilders, it felt like an expropriation. To make room for the new monarch, the Bumas moved two houses away. To what is now Raadhuisplein 21.
The main character of Wiardus Willem Buma and the memory of Friesland was 12 when that happened. Despite this forced move, the mayor’s son would remain loyal to the royal family all his life.
Conservative
The conservative Wite, as the author calls him in his biography, became one of the most powerful and richest Frisians of the 19th century. The young Buma started as a lawyer, became a deputy in the provincial government and ended up as president of the Leeuwarden court.
As provincial administrator he determined the course of new waterways. His court judgments were also considered groundbreaking. The Leeuwarder Courant made entire front pages for it at the time. Yet those jobs were secondary.
2.8 billion euros
Through inheritances and smart investments, Wite was assured of a generous income. When he died in 1873, he left several houses, lands and 22 farms worth 2.5 million guilders. Converted to today, that is 2.8 billion euros. However, virtually nothing remained of Wite’s capital.
Biographer Sybrand Buma previously described the life of Gerlacus Buma (1793-1838). Now it is his younger brother Wite’s turn (1802-1873). The Buma of 2024 likes to talk about what things were like six generations earlier.
I read in the magazine Domestic Administration that we can tutor each other.
Sybrand Buma reacts in surprise.
Or is that not correct?
“Yes, that is certainly correct, but what exactly does it say? Domestic Administration ?”
In a piece about manners for mayors they write that you like to be addressed as you and you. Because you hope that people will then talk to you more openly.
The mayor picks up the trade magazine for civil servants and administrators and starts reading. “Yes, look, but I agree with that,” he says. “I don’t put a chain of office on a blue polo. I really think a tie should be part of a chain of office.”
Buma continues reading: “Do you really go shopping in your shorts? How do you like it?’ “Yes,” he answers. “But even when I’m wearing my long pants, people are curious about what’s in my cart. So that doesn’t matter.”
“Yesterday I went to the Jumbo. Because this is the last week that you will see those pictures the Liwwarden book can get. So I had to go there, people like that.”
How different that was in the 19th century. Wite Buma was a very formal man, wasn’t he?
“I think things would have been very different then, yes. Have you read my book?”
What impressed me was that note from Wopke Eekhoff.
This bookseller and first city archivist of Leeuwarden got into an argument with Wite in 1872 about a corrected word in his pamphlet. It kept Eekhoff awake at night.
When he finally declined the honor, Eekhoff wrote almost humbly to Buma: ‘I have not been able to learn to dissemble and flatter and on a previous occasion you resented me for speaking what I thought.’
What happened here?
,,Funny right? I think Eekhoff was intimidated by Wite. And so I didn’t dare. Afraid that he would do something wrong again with that Buma.”
Wite wasn’t easy?
“No, I don’t think he was an easy man. This is also evident from the words around him. He was more of someone, as I have written it myself, who commanded respect. Not someone who immediately evoked warm feelings.”
This Buma became quite rich, but his brother Gerlacus, who survived three battles as a hussar, died poor on the Nieuwestad.
“It didn’t work out that way for Gerlacus. I think he was a very sociable man who could make friends. So they were two very different figures from one family. Wite was much more businesslike, harder too. Partly because of this it is also much more successful.”
What kind of relationship do you get with such a Wite? How does that work?
“You really start to imagine such a man. It’s as if you’re walking next to him, so to speak. When he walks to court. You see him doing his work. Even more than in that book about Gerlacus, this takes place in Leeuwarden.”
“That’s why this is so fun to write. I just walk through that city differently. With every building I think: was that already there then? Oh yeah, but there was water here, so he must have taken that bridge. I also look at the province differently. A historical layer has been added.”
Does a mayor have time for this?
“For my work I have to talk to people all day who want something from me. Meetings and trying to find a direction. Then I come home and I can watch Netflix, but writing relaxes me.”
Can you explain that?
“You are forced to have a different focus. I really enter a different world that does what I want. I find documents, letters. That’s a kind of voyage of discovery. When you find something special, it gives you a twinkle. Those are moments of happiness.”
Why not row?
“Because of my work, it is difficult for me to make appointments, because something always comes up. So playing sports in a team doesn’t work. I’m not there half the time.”
“Look, it’s hard for me not to work. I was very much raised with the idea that everything you do should be useful. Even rest is useful, but I enjoy creating more.”
Did Wite have that too?
“He indeed published many historical pamphlets and was a member of the Frisian Society. For example, his archival research has contributed to Schiermonnikoog remaining part of Friesland. Wite was also involved in several church boards.”
“At one point he was even very politically profiled. Wite opposed the liberal constitution and wanted the grietman from the 18th century back. Well, a judge who is politically active, that is not common.”
I read more things that made me think: that would no longer be possible.
“It’s full of things like that. Wite presides over a court case, while his son acts as a lawyer representing the suspect. But also consider a President of the Court who is both a large landowner and a slum landlord.”
“So he can get someone with whom he has a business relationship. Apparently those standards were completely different at the time, because Wite is constantly cited for his integrity. There is no one who says: what are you doing?
“People must have felt very intimidated. They were poor and he, the judge, was filthy rich. Wite also showcased this with dinners that sometimes included more than fifty guests. Any form of modesty was foreign to him.”
When the tax inspector underestimated his assets, Wite promptly objected. He did not belong in ninth, but in fourth place in the ranking of rich Frisians. At the same time, the large landowner protested against paying a quarter for cleaning the Dokkumer Ee.
Isn’t that strange?
“He was one of the biggest querulists in the province. He even walked to the town hall of Leeuwarderadeel to present his objection to the slatting there. Imagine the official sitting there at the time! Then that gentleman appears, undoubtedly dressed in black with a top hat, to object to that quarter. The President of the Court! I would be ashamed to death. And if my father did that too.”
Wouldn’t Wite have wanted to be ennobled?
“I can only imagine that he was somewhat envious every time someone around him became a nobleman. Like his brother-in-law, who was ennobled when King Willem II had lunch with him.”
“I asked the Royal House Archives, and also the State Archives, whether documents can be found there. For example, a list of crossed out names. There isn’t one. At the end of his life, Wite had to make do with a photo of the king, which made him very happy.”
He continued to support the Oranges.
“Yes, I think it’s almost more like raving. He constantly tried to impress those Oranges. Wite stuck his family crest everywhere. You buy a few candlesticks and hatseflats, then the coat of arms is stamped in them. So I think he was disappointed that the king did not ennoble him.”
And yourself?
“Well, it makes a difference. Because of my double surname, people already think that I am a member of the nobility.” Laughing: “I would like to discover something interesting about that nobility. Because I am family myself, I dare more.”
“At the same time, I try not to become too familial. So try to keep your distance. Because Wite’s story applies to the entire self-styled elite of Friesland, which emerged in the mid-18th century.”
“It has happened to all those families like this. They got their money through smart marriage and good management. It is just as interesting to see how that family capital disappeared again.”
How?
“Partly due to fragmentation, but also because if a person does not have to work, that money simply disappears. Wite’s daughter Catharina threw away her entire inheritance in one lifetime. By traveling to expensive hotels in The Hague.”
How many Buma’s are there actually?
“If you add everything up, I think you get about eighty people. The Van Haersma Buma’s and Hopperis Buma’s all descend from Wite. They are from the United States to New Zealand.”
And you have a family magazine?
“Yes, it appears digitally these days. Twice a year even. The editorial staff consists of my son and a second cousin. They are very enthusiastic.”
What do they write about?
“Conversations with family members, who lives where, historical things… Look, just because that name always stands out, you already have a bond. And we have that family cemetery in Weidum, where we meet.”
Can we read that too?
“No, that family magazine will absolutely remain internal. You can’t see that at Tresoar or anything.”
Is there a new Buma biography on the way?
,,Not directly. However, in my search for this book I did find three successive generations of women, all of whom committed adultery. Gerlacus’ wife, her mother and a daughter. You don’t see that much in history, so that’s something.”
“At the same time, while making this biography, I noticed that there is very little to be found about women from that time. They were truly a shadow of the man they sat next to.”