LE NOBEL

First Female Notary in Utrecht

 

Hillegonda Johanna Maria (Gon) le Nobel was born in Giessendam on April 9, 1906. She was the daughter of Cornelis le Nobel (1872–1918) and Johanna Maria Beuningh (1871–1952). She had one younger brother, Cor le Nobel (1908–1968); he later became mayor of Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen. In the 1920s, Gon was one of the pioneers who broke through legal barriers surrounding the practice of notary law. She was a champion and driving force behind the emancipation of women within the notarial profession.

 

Gon attended secondary school and moved to Utrecht in 1924 to study to become a notary. She was trained by Professor Eggens and earned her notary candidate diploma in 1929. She has always worked in Utrecht. For some time she worked with notary Onnen, later with notary Snellen, and after his death with his successor, notary Hellingman, on Muntstraat in Utrecht. Although the Notary Act, since its enactment in 1917, formally allowed women to hold the office of notary, the practice still met with significant resistance. It was she who, after World War II, launched a campaign to make appointments of women in the notarial profession possible.

 

Successful Protest                                                                                                                                                                                             The specific campaign for which Hillegonda Johanna Maria (Gon) le Nobel is known is her successful protest against the refusal to appoint her, as a woman, as a notary’s deputy. Gon le Nobel had completed her training as a candidate notary, but was initially not admitted to serve as a notary’s deputy. It was Notary Snellen who advised her to launch a campaign in 1945 together with female colleagues, which was supported by the executive board of the Brotherhood of Candidate Notaries.

 

Her action concerned the interpretation of Article 46 of the then-current Notary Act (1842). This article governed the replacement and substitution of the notary. Gon’s actions spanned a period of over ten years, with two key milestones: her principled protest in the 1930s (1934–1937) and her eventual appointment shortly after World War II in 1946.

 

Legal Barrier: At that time, the law was interpreted to mean that “persons” in the Notary Act could only be men. This not only blocked her appointment as a notary but even the possibility of temporarily acting for a sick or absent notary.

 

The Core of the Conflict: The Supervisory Board based its refusal on the argument that, under the legislation of the time, a woman (and certainly a married woman) would not have full legal capacity to bear the heavy responsibilities of acting as a notary. This led to parliamentary questions and a fundamental debate over the interpretation of the Notary Act.

 

The ruling: Gon fought this all the way to the highest level. The result was a fundamental recognition that the restrictions previously imposed on women did not apply to the practice of the notarial profession and the acting in that capacity.

 

Philip Bernard Libourel, president of the Brotherhood of Notaries in the Netherlands until 1946, believed that women could not become notaries. He felt that “especially in the notarial profession, men are more suited than women.” Through her persistence and legal action, she compelled the Minister of Justice and the Supervisory Boards to acknowledge that gender should not be a reason to deny someone the right to practice. Her efforts directly contributed to the legislative change

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Appointment as Notary                                                                                                                                                                                In 1946, then-Minister of Justice Hans Kolfschoten opened the notary profession to women. This paved the way for her own appointment by Royal Decree as a notary in Terneuzen in 1946. This was the moment when newspapers of the time (as found in the Delpher archives) wrote that this marked the “crowning achievement of her campaign.”

Until 1955, the notarial profession in the Netherlands consisted of one-person offices: a notary with a few staff members. In Rotterdam, although other factors led to the existence of some larger offices, also associated with lawyers, international shipping practice played a role here. In the rest of the country, the picture was straightforward. At that time, the term “one-person office” was still to be taken literally: that single notary was a man, because women were not appointed as notaries. Fortunately, starting around 1955, the doors were thrown open. Women were deemed eligible for appointment and were, in fact, appointed.

 

First Female Notary

Thanks in part to Gon’s determination, Constance (Conny) Bletz became the first female notary in the Netherlands to be admitted to the Brotherhood of Notaries in the Netherlands on February 7, 1947. Gon le Nobel was recognized as the legal trailblazer.

 

Ten years after Constance (Conny) Bletz’s appointment, it was Gon’s turn. By Royal Decree on September 26, 1957, she was appointed as the first female notary in the city of Utrecht, succeeding the late Mr. Ph. M. Muus.  She maintained her office at Kromme Nieuwegracht 50 A in Utrecht. She was the second female notary in the Utrecht district and the fifth female notary in the Netherlands.

 

A journalist from the *Nieuw Utrechtsch Dagblad* dated October 5, 1957, wrote, among other things: (...) “Of course, the appointment is a source of personal satisfaction for Miss Ie Nobel, who, incidentally, emphatically stated to us that she remains who she was. She does not believe that a woman’s role in the notarial profession differs much from that of a man’ (...) It is interesting that in this interview she did not want to be addressed as “Mrs. Notary,” but as “Miss le Nobel.” Coincidence or not, her brother, who became mayor in Zeeland in 1936, did not want to be addressed as “Mayor”; many called him Cees.

 

On May 1, 1972, after serving as a notary for 15 years, Gon le Nobel was succeeded by J.A.P. Aarts, who had been appointed notary on April 26, 1971, and she stepped down from her position. Gon passed away on February 9, 1987, in Utrecht, at the age of 80.

 

Source: Nieuw Utrechtsch Dagblad, October 5, 1957, among others