The Zwijndrechtse Nieuwlichters ("Zwijndrecht New Lighters") were a Dutch Protestant sect in the early 19th century, led by Stoffel Muller, a former skipper, and Maria Leer, a prophetess.
[4] Muller's partner was Maria Leer of Edam, a prophetess[2] and domestic servant, 17 years his junior, whom he had met in Amsterdam and with whom he had formed a "spiritual marriage".
The third of the three founders was the local schout (bailiff) from Waddinxveen, Dirk Valk, whose family was involved as well, as were a number of day laborers in the area.
[5] The group settled with Valk in Waddinxveen and formed a congregation, inspired by the Sermon on the Mount and modeled on the early Christian community.
[1] Some historians argue that it was thanks to the group's hardworking nature that they received a measure of acceptance, despite their "communist features" and their despise for social convention.
They were joined by members who made important contributions to the settlement, including a wealthy baker from Krommenie and his wife, who started a bakery; a shoemaker from Middelburg and his family; and a former civil servant from the Dutch Indies.
The congregation asked in vain to be exempt on religious grounds, and when the men were called up and refused to handle weapons, they were mistreated in the detention barracks and one man reportedly died.
[2] A professor from Leiden who was good friends with William II of the Netherlands, J. W. Tydeman, intervened on their behalf, assuring the king that he had nothing to fear from the group since their goals were only spiritual;[1] as a result the members were given only non-combat duties while serving in the military.
Some thirty members left for the United States in 1863, attracted by the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; they kept separate from the LDS, though they established a colony in Utah.
According to E. Cats Wor, for seven years a preacher in Mijdrecht, a group of some forty people, mostly artisans and laborers, from Puttershoek and Zwijndrecht lived communally in a ruined place out in the country.
[8] An article on the group by the Dutch historian and lawyer Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack in De Gids drew international attention, as "a most interesting and instructive chapter in the history of social movements".