Wendela Bicker

As the daughter of Amsterdam merchant and Mayor Jan Bicker (1591-1653) and Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek (1603-1656), she was a descendant of the Bicker-De Graeff clan, the two most influential Amsterdam families of the Dutch Golden Age, and also relative of the families Hooft and of Volkert Overlander and Frans Banninck Cocq.

Johan's father Jacob de Witt urged him to find a wife befitting his rank, to start a family and a "tidy household" with her.

Holland's national poet, Joost van den Vondel, recited a poem written for the occasion at the celebration.

After the wedding, the young couple moved to The Hague, where de Witt worked as council pensioner of Holland and West Friesland in the Binnenhof.

Wendela Bicker was buried on 6 July in the family grave in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk with a large turnout of the population.

Jan Romein's entry about Bicker in the Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, dated 1937 depicts her as a loving and caring spouse, not very bright and not very attractive, low-key and loyal.

Marinka Joosten at Huygens ING sustains that Bicker played a significant role in strengthening her husband's social and family networks, providing the needed stability.