Maarten Dirk was born in Ternate. His father was Dirk Maartens van Duivenbode. In 1825 he married Carolina Jacoba Weintré (1812–1836). They got three sons and one daughter. The eldest son is called Lodewijk Willem Alexander who became also a trader in naturalia. After the death of his wife he remarried the Chinese born Gim Nio, later baptised Antoinette Elisabeth Johanna. They had three children. One of them is Adolphina Susanna Wilhelmina (1844 – 1919
Delft). In 1865 she married with
Antonie Augustus Bruijn who took over the business in naturalia in Ternate with his brothers in law. In 1867 the Governor of the Dutch Indies granted Maarten Dirk the addition of the name
Van Renesse to his family name.
Wallace and Van Duivenbode Wallace travelled from 1854 to 1862 through the Malay Archipelago. From January 1858 on, he stayed three years on Ternate in a house owned by Van Duivenbode (spelled as "van Duivenboden") and used this house as base camp for expeditions to other
Maluku Islands like
Gilolo. Maarten Dirk van Duivenbode was the man
Alfred Russel Wallace called "...
Mr. Duivenboden, a native of Ternate, from an ancient Dutch family..." Mr Duivenbode served the Dutch Trade Company (Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij) as a merchant. He was the owner of many ships, plantations and the whole district of Doalasi. Because of his wealth he was nicknamed the "King of Ternate". According to Wallace he was richer and more important than the real sultan of Ternate. Wallace also mentioned the sons of Maarten Dirk who accompanied him when visiting Gilolo. During this period, 9 March 1858 he sent the manuscript
Tendency of varieties to depart indefinite from the original type to
Charles Darwin who received this document on 18 June 1858 which urged him to finish his famous
On the Origin of Species. Darwin considered Wallace's idea to be identical to his concept of natural selection.
Duivenbode's legacy The family and company name of a father, son, and son in law Anton Bruijn traded in, amongst other things, specimens of birds, especially
birds of paradise, and thereby giving their name to: •
Duivenbode's bird of paradise •
Duivenbode's riflebird •
Duivenbode's six-wired bird of paradise • Duyvenbode's lory (
Chalcopsitta duivenbodei), also known as the
brown lory •
Elegant sunbird (
Aethopyga duyvenbodei) • and a dragonfly
Brachydiplax duivenbodei They also delivered items to
Hermann Schlegel (
Leiden),
Adolf Bernhard Meyer (
Dresden) and other European museums. The
Zoological Museum Amsterdam received in 1883 about hundred skins, used for the International Trade Exhibition in Amsterdam. ==Sources==