His firstborn son Pieter Hendrik fought in the Battle of Ocaña (1809) as a captain on the French side. In the Battle of Waterloo (1815), Pieter Hendrik served on the allied side as a colonel and chief of staff of the 2nd Dutch Division. Later he became, like his father, major general of the Dutch cavalry. Pieter Hendrik's son Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt (1819–1894) served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1866 to 1868.