Johannes Tak van Poortvliet

Tak) (21 June 1839, Engelen – 26 January 1904, The Hague), lord of the manor of Poortvliet and Cleverskerke, was a Dutch politician.

[1] He was born in Engelen, North Brabant where his father, Adriaan Tak, was a Dutch Reformed minister.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1870 and was a strong supporter of Jan Kappeyne van de Coppello, the leader of the progressive liberals.

In 1877 he entered the Kappeyne van de Coppello cabinet as Minister of Water Management and Trade.

Tak van Poortvliet returned to the House of Representatives in 1881 and became leader of the progressive liberals (Kappeynianen).

After the liberals won the parliamentary election in 1891, he was asked to become Minister of the Interior in the Van Tienhoven cabinet.

Johannes Tak van Poortvliet painted by Adri Bleuland van Oordt
Waterways in the Netherlands, 1878. Existing ones in grey, proposed canals in red, Tak van Poortvliet's Canal Act of 1878