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Tetrode, also given asvan Tetrode and spelled variously asTetterode,Tetteroo,Tettero,Thetrode andTetroe, was a Dutch medieval noble family which later became a prominent patrician family inHolland. The most famous member of this family was the 16th-Century sculptorWillem Danielsz van Tetrode, who hailed fromDelft. The coat of arms of the Tetrode family, showing three leaves of theyellow water-lily, is now used as the municipal coat of arms ofBloemendaal (which includesOverveen, formerly the estate of Tetterode).
The family name refers to the medieval clearing of forest in the area of dunes directly west of Haarlem, in what is now Overveen, to make the land suitable for cultivation.Rode means "clearing of land" whileTet may have been the first name of the original owner of the land. The eldest known member of the family is Gerard van Tetrode, who in 1310 donated land in the centre ofHaarlem to build St. John's monastery; the monastery's church still exists today as theJanskerk (St. John's Church). The family had afiefdom called Tetterode in what is nowOverveen, west of Haarlem. There they built a fortified house or castle called Saxenburg. The house was sketched byRembrandt in 1651.Salomon van Ruysdael painted Haarlem from the dunes of Tetterode in the early 17th Century. The place name Tetterode disappears from maps around 1648.
The Tetrodes were particularly prominent inLeiden, where members of this rich and influential family of brewers served as burgomasters and aldermen, sheriffs, militia officers and church officials. Aernt van Tetrode (circa 1430-1471), sheriff and responsible for poor relief (Heilige Geestmeester) inWassenaar, is considered the founder of theSouth Holland branch of the family. His son Willem van Tetrode was a rich brewer who built ahofje for the elderly inLeiden, theSint Stevenshofje (also called Convent van Tetterode). This 15th-Centuryhofje still exists today.
Elisabeth van Tetrode was the grandmother of the Leiden-born painterRembrandt (1606-1669). However, she was actually not a member of the Tetrode family but assumed the noble name because she had a cousin who had married into the Tetrode family.