Biography
Eisinga was the son of a wool carder, Jelte Eises from Oosterlittens and mother Hitje Steffens from Winsum. Although he was moderately gifted, he wasn’t allowed to go to school. When he was only 17 years old he published a book about the principles of astronomy. Eisinga became a wool carder in Franeker, Netherlands. Through self-education he mastered mathematics and astronomy, which he also studied at the Franeker Academy. At the age of 24 he married Pietje Jacobs (? – 24 July 1788) and they had three children, one girl and two boys.
- Trijntje (April 1773 – 26 April 1773)
- Jelte (29 May 1774 – 31 March 1809)
- Jacobus (17 March 1784 – 24 March 1858)
Due to a political crisis in 1787, he had to leave Friesland and went to Germany. Later he moved to Visvliet where he worked as a wool comber. He was banned from Friesland for five years and therefore stayed in Visvliet just across the border in Groningen. Meanwhile his wife died, and on 27 May 1792 he married Trijntje Eelkes Sikkema (21 February 1764) in Visvliet. They had one son and two daughters.
- Eelke (14 October 1793 – 28 May 1795)
- Hittje (16 February 1796 – 8 May 1843)
- Minke (4 June 1798 – 17 July 1870)
In 1795 he returned to Franeker.
Eisinga became a professor at the Franeker Academy, until 1811 when Napoleon ordered it to be closed.
Eisinga died on 27 August 1828, at the age 84.
Read more about this topic: Eise Eisinga
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)