Staphorster Boertje

Peter Stegeman (9 October 1840 – 31 January 1922), known professionally as the Staphorster Boertje, was a Dutch carpenter and quack doctor. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Stegeman, who possessed no medical training, achieved considerable fame as a traveling herbalist and salesman of personally prepared remedies, despite being convicted multiple times of practicing medicine without a license. After Stegeman's death in 1922, his descendants and various others continued selling his remedies under the Staphorster Boertje name, the last of whom died in 2020.

Biography Peter Stegeman was born on 9 October 1840 in Staphorst. According to Stegeman, his family was of German descent, and its members, including his grandfather and great-grandfather, had practiced medicine since at least 1611. He was initially employed as a carpenter in Staphorst, and from 1900 he was officially listed in government registries as being employed as a farmer. Stegeman's adopted persona of the "Staphorster Boertje" (literally translated as the Little Farmer from Staphorst) may have been a reference to this listed profession, though a lawyer who supported Stegeman claimed it was instead a reference to the famous Dutch doctor Herman Boerhaave. would remain at home and only treat "severe cases".

His popularity made him a target of the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, an organisation founded in 1881 to combat medical quackery, who frequently published articles criticising him with little effect. Several imitators and impostors appeared under the name Staphorster Boertje as well, seeking to take advantage of Stegeman's popularity.

In 2000, the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij listed Stegeman as number five on its list of the most famous Dutch quacks of the twentieth century.

In 2024, journalist Wim Coster, a great-great-grandchild of Peter Stegeman, wrote a biography about him, in which he characterises the Staphorster Boertje as a figure who was not a mere quack, but possessed valuable knowledge about the medicinal properties of various plants. The book was critically panned by the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, which criticised the author's lack of knowledge and scepticism about the Staphorster Boertje's medical claims and motives.