BIRTH AND PARENTAGE P| 
ascertained definitively. Antony, their first son and fifth 
child, was born to them ten years later. He was born on 
24 October, and was baptized in the New Church at Delft on 
4 November’, a.D. 1632. (See Plate IIT.) 
It is recorded that Antony had four® surviving sisters— 
Margriete, Geertruyt, Neeltge, and Catharina—though very 
little is now known about any of them. We know,‘ however, 
that Margriete [Margaret] the eldest (born 1623), married one 
Jan Molijn,’ and herself bore five children; and one of these, 
named Maria (like Leeuwenhoek’s own daughter), married 
a certain Cornelis Haaxman from whom Leeuwenhoek’s 
biographer, P. J. Haaxman, claimed descent. Geertruyt 
[Gertrude] was born in 1626, and Catharina in 1637°, and 
1 See Bouricius (1924, 1925). The date ‘5/30 Jan.” given by Schier- 
beek (1980) is incorrect, and should read “ 15/30.”—It has recently been 
alleged by Naber that L.’s father had previously tried to marry one of the 
daughters of the adventurer Cornelis Drebbel (1572—1633), who is 
regarded by some admirers as the inventor of the microscope. Naber even 
avers (p.32) that L.'s father was ‘‘one of Drebbel’s lens-grinders”; and 
would insinuate apparently that what L. himself knew about lenses was 
learned from his father, who in turn derived it from Drebbel. But this 
story is apocryphal. We now know that L.’s father was not a lens-grinder 
but a basket-maker, and that he died when Antony was only 5 years old: 
and we now know also—thanks largely to Jaeger (1922)—a good deal about 
Drebbel. Dr Schierbeek, who first drew my attention to Dr Naber’s 
statements, wrote to ask for his evidence: and as a result of this correspon- 
dence (which Dr Schierbeek kindly allowed me to read) and of my own 
inquiries, I can only conclude that no evidence exists. Cf. Jaeger (1922, 
especially p. 7) and Bouricius (1924). 
* Schierbeek (1923), Bouricius (1924, 1925). Schierbeek (1930), through 
a misprint, wrongly gives the date of baptism as Nov. 14. 
* Haaxman (1875), Schierbeek (1930). Two other children—a sister 
(Maria) and a brother (Jacob)—died in infancy. Haaxman mentions only 
3 sisters, but Bouricius has since discovered the existence of the fourth 
(Neeltge), who apparently attained maturity. The names of Margriete and 
Geertruyt are spelled ‘ Margaretha” and “‘Geertruida”’ by Haaxman. 
* Haaxman (1875), Bouricius (1924). 
* This Jan Molijn (alias du Molyn), who married L.’s sister Margaret 
on 10 May 1643, was himself the son—by an earlier marriage—of the 
Jacob Molijn whom L.’s mother (also named Margaret) married after the 
death of her first husband (L.’s father): fide Bouricius, in litt. 
° According to Bouricius (1924) and Schierbeek (1930).—Catharina, who 
was married to Claes Jansz. van Leeuwen in 1655, is referred to by L. 
himself in unpublished postscripts to Letter 13a (22 Jan. 1676) and 
Letter 39 (17 Sept. 1683), in both of which he requests that the Phil. Trans. 
