66

Tibout Regters (1710-1768)
Bavius Voorda (1729-1799). Painted about 1765. Canvas, 76 × 60 cm.

Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit. Presented in 1799 by the sitter's brothers.

Voorda was born in Franeker, the son of a jurist and law professor who had studied under Zacharias Huber (nr. 62). After studying law in Utrecht and Leiden, he began his career with a practice in Leeuwarden, which he abandoned for a thousand-guilder-a-year chair at Franeker University in 1755. In 1765 he moved on to Leiden, where, as in Franeker, he filled the high post of rector.

In 1788 Voorda ran afoul of the authorities for his Patriotic sentiments, and was relieved of his professorship. With the establishment of the Batavian Republic in 1795 he returned in glory, choosing the university over a judgeship in the high court of Holland which he was also offered. He enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing his charge of treason against the deposed stadholder adopted by the national assembly.

NNBW, vol.3, cols. 1335-1338. Ekkart 1977, nr.383.