Peter J. Van Berckel (418)

Pieter Johan van Berckel (1725–1800) was a statesman, diplomat, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1784. Born in Amsterdam, to a director of the East India Company and his wife, Pieter van Berckel began his career on the Amsterdam City Council in 1761. In 1781 he became burgomaster of Rotterdam, however, he was not in Rotterdam long before the Dutch Government appointed him as the first Netherlands Minister to the United States (1783). He landed in Philadelphia and presented his credentials to Congress that same year. Van Berckel worked as minister until 1788, after which point his son took up the position and the senior van Berckel retired to Newark, New Jersey. He continued to write to George Washington, whom he had met upon his presentation to Congress, and remained active in the New York Society.