Johan Valckenaer

His father Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer was Franeker university professor in Old Greek and, in 1766, was appointed to succeed Tiberius Hemsterhuis at Leiden.

[2] In 1782, Valckenaer was appointed at the University of Franeker, and on 23 September 1785 he gave a speech when it celebrated the bicentennial with an armed parade; the anxious stadtholder cancelled his visit.

Early September Valckenaer supported Court Lambertus van Beyma, trying to create an alternative Provincial States at Franeker.

The leaders of the Patriots, such as Valckenaer, Wybo Fijnje, H. W. Daendels, and Adam Gerard Mappa lived temporarily in a castle in Watten and formed a kind of commune, that jointly bought a billiards set, restored the rooms and grew vegetables.

In his flight from Franeker, Van Beyma forgot to take signed and extremely chargeable documents with him, so that a large group of Frisian patriots could be jailed and within two years condemned.

A difference of understanding between Valckenaer and Van Beyma about leadership in politics, the establishment of an employment project, a shipbuilding enterprise in Gravelines, the care of the administration and the size of the payments brought about an even more violent break between them, with Valckenaeristen and Beymanisten factions of Patriots fighting each other in pamphlets.

They met with Lazare Carnot, and Courtois, members of Comité du salut public and Dutch diplomats whose intention was to hasten an invasion.

Within a few months he was appointed at the University of Leiden, where he prepared papers for a conviction of Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel and the stadtholder.