Hooft, a Dutch Mennonite family of Amsterdam since the 16th century. It was a side branch of the Reformed Hooft family, descending from a West Frisian family of captains of merchant vessels. One of the Reformed descendants was Cornelis Pietersz Hooft (1547-1626), who as a burgomaster of Amsterdam always defended the Mennonites and other nonconformists against the presumption of the Calvinist church, and his son Pieter Cornelisz Hooft (Amsterdam, 1581-The Hague, 1647) was an outstanding Dutch poet.

In the Mennonite branch, whose members were merchants at Amsterdam and in the 17th century also at Haarlem, was Jan Gerritsz Hooft (Amsterdam, 1584-1644). He was director of the Dutch Levantine trade and in 1616-1620 a deacon of the Amsterdam Waterlander congregation. In 1625 he sided with Nittert Obbes and came into conflict with the church leaders (Yearbook Amstelodamum XXV, 1928, 85, 100). Some other members of this family also served the Amsterdam congregation as deacons, e.g., Jan Hooft Hansen, serving 1777-1782 and 1787-1792. In Haarlem some Hoofts were deacons and trustees of the Mennonite orphanage. Here Maria Hooft was married to the Haarlem preacher Coenraad van Diepenbroek.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1094. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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