His son Lodewijk

In 1812, Bilderdijk had again become the father of a son: Lodewijk Willem. The child was named after the two monarchs the parents had loved: stadtholder William V and King Lodewijk Napoleon. The death of Julius, which plunged the Bilderdijk house into mourning, naturally also affected Lodewijk, who was seven years old at the time. Bilderdijk wrote to his friend Johan Valckenaer:

Had I not my Louis, o how would I burst forth and possibly oppose God, but this softens and brings me back. – Pity, everything falls over me and is snatched away; and I, in all weakness, sickness, infirmity, I must carry on a life, whose bitterness no one, no one, knows.

Lodewijk was a weak and sickly boy. That something would happen to him was Bilderdijk's greatest fear. Abraham Capadose later recounted a visit to Bilderdijk. During the conversation, the host instructed his son to go upstairs to get a book. As they continued their conversation, they heard a heavy blow in the hallway, whereupon Bilderdijk, thinking that his child had fallen down the stairs, suddenly threw himself on his knees and started a prayer that penetrated marrow and bone. Bilderdijk spoke to God as if his son lay dead before him, and ended with a word of thanks, because Lodewijk had been spared.

The message that everything earthly is transient and that only faith in God has meaning, was spoon-fed to Lodewijk. This is apparent from a collection of Proverbs (1823; Spreuken), which Bilderdijk compiled to teach him how to write. It contains Bilderdijkian phrases such as: ‘Who always looks at his Saviour, / Will never succumb to sorrow’ and ‘Although the body rot in the earth's womb, / The soul remains alive after death’. This upbringing would mark the child for life.

After Bilderdijk's death, Lodewijk entered into military service, first as a soldier and from 1837 on as an officer. One son was born during his marriage to Michtilde Jisselina Hogerzeil. Lodewijk died on December 22, 1888 in Scherpenzeel in Gelderland.