Engelbert François van Berckel

Engelbert François van Berckel (Rotterdam, 8 October 1726 – Amsterdam, 30 March 1796) was a Dutch politician during the Patriottentijd.

He studied at the University of Utrecht where he received his law degree on 15 August 1748 with a dissertation entitled Dissertatio politica de morali civilis corporis gubernatione.

He married two times, first with Geertruy Roskam in May 1759, and after she died in June 1782, with Jacoba Elisabeth Verbeek on 18 May 1783 in Amsterdam.Both marriages remained childless.

[1] Van Berckel was one of the driving forces behind the attempts to conclude a secret treaty of commerce with the rebelling American Colonies in the Neufville-Lee negotiations in 1778 which resulted in an unofficial agreement.

Criminal proceedings were instituted before the Hof van Holland, but when the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War broke out in December 1780, eliminating Yorke as a plaintiff, the case was dismissed.