Paid the Familiegeld (estate tax)

Date: 
January 1, 1674

Leeuwenhoek paid hundredth-penny tax on capital of 16,000 guilders for Familiegeld of 1674.

The register for the Groot Familiegeld of 1674 has information about the wealth of citizens of Delft worth more than a thousand guilders and includes those who held public office. This tax of wealthier residents, who had not yet fully recovered from the Disaster Year of 1672, was the 200th penny, that is, 0.5% of the estimated wealth.

Leeuwenhoek paid 80 guilders, which put him among the prosperous but not wealthy. It would not have been enough for him to maintain his family's lifestyle so that he could devote all his time to scientific observation.

Document: 

OAD Delft inv. 1763

Sources