No book about St. Maarten ,would be complete unless it included a chapter on
the powerful van Romondt family, which was the dominant family from about
1820 until shortly after World War II.
The earliest record we have of the van Romondt family is that of Herman van
Romondt, who was born in 1544 in Deventer, Holland, and who died in 1602.
There are also van Romondts listed as having lived in Utrecht, among them:
Jan van Romondt (1642-1710), Diederik van Romondt (1676-1737), and a second
Diederik van Romondt (1723-1764).
The van Romondt who was the ancestor of the St. Maarten branch of this
family is Diederik Johannes van Romondt, born in Amsterdam, Holland, on
February 16th 1781. He arrived in St. Maarten in the year 1801, and died
there on April 19th 1849. In 1804, three years after his arrival, he married
Ann Hassell (1784-1845) who was born in St. Maarten. She was the daughter of
John Hassell and Susann Westerbrand.
Diederik Johannes van Romondt served as Governor of St. Maarten from 1820 to
1840. He entertained Prince William Henry on his visit to St. Maarten in
1835. He was the first member of the House of Orange to pay a visit to the
"Beach Island."
Governor Diederik Johannes was a Methodist and it was during his
administration that Methodism made rapid progress. Not having descended from
plantation owners he was in a position to take a more objective view on the
need to educate the slaves in the teachings of the Bible. At the same time
he opened the way for the white aristocracy to join the Methodist Church
which many had looked on as a church for slaves only.
