Katwijk was an electoral district of the House of Representatives in the Netherlands from 1888 to 1918.
Profile
The electoral district of Katwijk was created in 1888, mostly out of parts of the Leiden district, which was reduced to a single-seat district encompassing only the municipality of Leiden. Katwijk spanned much of the northern part of the province of South Holland, and was named after the coastal town of Katwijk aan Zee. Other municipalities it encompassed were Koudekerk aan den Rijn, Leiderdorp, Noordwijk, Noordwijkerhout, Oegstgeest, Oudshoorn, Rijnsaterwoude, Rijnsburg, Sassenheim, Valkenburg, Veur, Voorhout, Voorschoten, Warmond, Wassenaar, Woubrugge and Zoeterwoude. It was a predominantly agricultural district.
The district's population increased from 46,041 in 1888 to 57,437 in 1909. The majority of the population was Protestant; the share of Dutch Reformed inhabitants dropped slightly from 45.5% to 41.7% in the same period, while the share of Gereformeerde inhabitants grew from 13.3% to 16.7%. The district was home to a considerable Catholic minority, which remained stable at around 39% of the population. The share of "Others" varied from 1.6% to 3.1%.
The district of Katwijk was abolished upon the introduction of party-list proportional representation in 1918.
Members
Katwijk was a safe seat for the parliamentary right, though it was frequently contested between different parties on the right. The inaugural election was won by Johannes Hendricus Donner, who was an incumbent Anti-Revolutionary member of parliament for Leiden. In 1894 he was defeated by the National Conservative candidate Otto Jan Herbert van Limburg Stirum, but the latter was also elected in the district of Schiedam and opted to represent that district. The subsequent by-election in Katwijk was won by Donner. In 1901, Donner was succeeded by Otto Jacob Eifelanus van Wassenaer van Catwijck who, after some party mergers, represented the Christian Historical Union (CHU). He resigned upon his election to the Senate in 1914, and was succeeded by Johannes Theodoor de Visser, later education minister, who represented the district until its abolition in 1918.
ElectionMemberParty1888Johannes Hendricus DonnerAR18911894Otto Jan Herbert van Limburg Stirum1894Johannes Hendricus DonnerAR18971901Otto Jacob Eifelanus van Wassenaer van CatwijckVA1905CHP1909CHU19131914Johannes Theodoor de VisserCHU1917
Election results Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1910s
References