Delegates

The States General consisted of representatives from the seven united provinces. These representatives were called ‘delegates’ (gedeputeerden). Each province had one vote in the meeting, but provinces could send multiple delegates at the same time. The regular (‘ordinary’) delegates were sometimes supplemented by extraordinary (‘extraordinary’) delegates. The meetings were chaired by a president; the provinces took turns chairing for one week.

Not all delegates were always present and the number of delegates present varied per meeting. Each report of a session was preceded by an attendance list. In addition to the delegates , the chief clerk was present. The stadtholder of the province of Holland (the Prince of Orange) also often attended the meetings. As a rule, they were not mentioned on the attendance lists. The extraordinary delegates are also not mentioned here.

This dataset contains information about:

• which ordinary delegates are mentioned in the attendance lists per meeting day; 
• which province these delegates represented;
• which of the listed delegates was president on a meeting day

The search screen of Goetgevonden contains a filter ‘Delegates’. This can be used to search for resolutions that were taken during meetings in which certain delegates are listed as present. In the display screen, the delegates listed as present are listed on the metadata panel for each resolution displayed.

We have tried to distinguish all delegates in the attendance lists and, where possible, to identify them with the Repertorium of Office Holders and Civil Servants. We have found approximately 900,000 delegates present, but how well they are identified varies per period. The reporting of the resolutions became increasingly structured over time. In the beginning, the texts were less structured and therefore less manageable for automatic processing. We are still processing some of the attendance lists.

The delegates listed in the attendance lists have also been identified. When a delegate is clicked on in the metadata panel, an entity screen appears where the ‘More information about’ button allows you to click through to the page about this delegate in the entity browser. This page contains a link to the Repertorium of Office Holders and Civil Servants, where more information about them can be found.

Below is a detailed list of the status of the attendance lists for various periods. This only applies to the ordinary resolutions. The attendance registration for the secret resolutions varies greatly. If the secret resolutions were taken in the same session as the ordinary resolutions, the attendees were often the same in both sessions, but this cannot be assumed in every case.

Detailed status information about attendance lists:

period up to 1600 The attendance lists are not yet kept in a very structured manner, delegates are often missing and where they are mentioned, the data is often incomplete; 

period 1600-1630 (May) Here the lists of attendees as included in the resolutions previously published in the Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën have been used. The presidents and attendees of all sessions are listed with the resolutions; identification is still being worked on;

period 1630-1704 The attendance lists have been automatically processed and partly identified. The structuring of the lists varies considerably, especially at the beginning of the period. These attendance lists are still being processed and should be used with caution;

period 1705-1794 In the printed resolution parts the attendance lists have been automatically processed, checked and identified. The presidents and attendees are mentioned in the resolutions, the delegates’ pages have a reference to the Repertorium where applicable;

period 1795-1796 In the printed resolutions, the attendance lists are automatically processed and checked. Identification is under process. The presidents and attendees are listed with the resolutions.