Jacob de Kempenaer

Who was Jacob de Kempenaer?

Jacobus Mattheüs de Kempenaer was a lawyer and politician in Arnhem, where he served as Chairman of the Board of Commerce, a Member of the Board of Arnhem and a Member of the Provincial States of Gelderland.

In the House of Representatives de Kempenaer was considered a liberal, and in 1844 he was among the nine men who initiated the amendment to the Constitution of the Netherlands. De Kempenaer was appointed to the Constitution Commission headed by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke in 1848, and as Minister of the Interior and de facto Prime Minister he played an important role in the creation of the revision of the Constitution. Having resigned his offices in 1849, de Kempenaer subsequently became a conservative, in opposition to Thorbecke.