28 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIs “LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
when he was not quite 22 years old, Leeuwenhoek married 
Barbara, the daughter of Elias de Mey’ and Maria Virlin?— 
a@ young woman three years his senior.» The marriage took 
place at the New Church in Delft. From this union five 
children were born—three sons and two daughters—all but one 
of whom died in early infancy.*’ The one who survived was 
Maria, the second child, born on 22 September 1656. She 
lived to a great age, but never married. She stayed with her 
father Antony all his life, and ultimately buried him in the 
Old Church of Delft—in a tomb wherein she was herself 
interred in 1745, aged close upon 89 years’. Maria van 
Leeuwenhoek was no “‘ scientist,’”’ but she was a good daughter : 
we shall meet her again later. She kept house when her 
father was at work, she kept himself when he was weak, and 
she housed his body when he was dead. She will not be 
forgotten while her father is remembered. 
The year of Leeuwenhoek’s marriage (1654) was long 
recollected in Delft: for this was the year of the terrible 
explosion of the powder-magazine—a disaster which wrecked 
the whole town, and killed untold hundreds of the inhabitants’. 
The Queen of Bohemia’, writing to Sir Edward Nicholas* from 
The Hague a week later (19 October 1654), says :° 
banns” in an English church), and July 29 that of the actual marriage 
ceremony (huwelijk). 
* It may be of interest to English readers to note that Elias was at one 
time a cloth-merchant in Norwich (fide Bouricius). 
* Maria’s surname is given as “ Viruly”” by Haaxman, but Mr Bouricius 
assures me that this is incorrect. She came from Utrecht—not Delft. 
* Barbara de Mey was born 20 Dec. 1629 (fide Haaxman and Bouricius ; 
and cf. Schierbeek, 1930). 
“The three sons—all named Philips—were born in 1655, 1663, and 
1664. The daughter who died (1658) shortly after birth was named 
Margriete. See the Family Tree, p. 18. 
* Maria died on 25 April 1745. The dates of her birth and death, as 
here given, are those graven on the tomb. 
° Cf. Boitet (1729), p. 564 octies. The explosion involved some 80 or 90 
thousand pounds of gunpowder and happened at 11.30 a.m. on Monday 12 
Oct. 1654. The event is not mentioned—so far as I know—by L. Among 
those who perished was Karel Fabritius, the famous painter—supposed by 
some (on very slender evidence) to have been Vermeer’s master. 
" Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), sister to Charles I of England. 
* Edward Nicholas (1593-1669), Secretary of State to Charles I and 
Charles II. 
* Published in Bray’s edition (1827) of Evelyn’s Memoirs, Vol. V, p. 204. 
