Buitenplaats Ockenburgh

The origin of Ockenburgh was, according to tradition, very romantic. Reinier van Groenevelt, the son of council pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, was, like his father, beheaded by their political enemy Prince Maurits. Reinier's widow fell ill with grief and was treated by Jacob Westerbaen. The comfort she found in him led to a marriage. Westerbaen was a self-made man. Son of a line shifter, he had studied theology and medicine abroad. Returning to The Hague, he started his own practice and after his marriage to the rich widow he could also afford a country house.