Nicolai Esmit (also called Nicolay or Nicholas and Schmidt) was

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of St. Thomas in the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colonization of the Americas, Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Thomas ...

from 4 July 1680 - November 1682. He was born in

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

. His younger brother

Adolph Esmit Adolph Esmit was a Danish colonial administrator and slave trader who served as governor of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies from 1683 to 1684, and again from 1687 to 1688. He was born in Holstein. His older ...

succeeded him as governor of St. Thomas.Bricka, Biografisk, 599

Biography

According to Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, Esmit served under

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

after finishing school. In 1678, he and his brother were issued deeds for land they owned in St. Thomas. Esmit was the only applicant to the position of governor after

Jørgen Iversen Dyppel Jørgen Iversen Dyppel (February 25, 1638 – 1683), also called George Iversen or Ifversen, or sometimes Doppel in Knox, was the first governor of the renewed establishment of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, from 1672 to 1680. His rule wa ...

's wish for retirement on 9 September 1679 and was instated on the latter's official retirement on 4 July 1680. The island was characterized by a lack of manpower at the time, and

Christian V Christian V (15 April 1646 25 August 1699) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the decree ...

bought slaves from the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n king of the

Akan people The Akan () people live primarily in present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa. The Akan language (also known as ''Twi/Fante'') are a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo ...

for the colony.Knox, Account, 54 However, Esmit appeared to

Danish West India Company The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Denmark–Norway, Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 Atlantic slave trade, enslav ...

to be subverting the work of Dyppel, and in 1682 they were sending Dyppel back.Bricka, Biografisk, 600 However, Dyppel died en route due to a mutiny, and before a new governor could be named to succeed Esmit, his brother Adolph led a revolution that overthrew his authority in 1682. After managing to escape to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Esmit was put on trial, but was declared insane. The court awarded him damages of 20000 rigsdaler from his brother, but he refused to comply. Admiralitetsraad Jens Lassen saw to it that Esmit was paid a small pension until his death.

Bibliography

* Waldemar Westergaard, ''The Danish West Indies under Company Rule (1671 - 1754)'' (MacMillan, New York, 1917) * ''C. F. Bricka'' (editor), Dansk biografisk Lexikon, first edition, 19 volumes, 1887–1905, Vol. IV. Online edition available: http://runeberg.org/dbl/4/ (pages 599 and 600. Numbered as 601 and 602 in the online edition). * John P. Knox, ''A Historical Account of St. Thomas'' (Charles Schribner, New York, 1852)
Online edition available

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esmit, Nicolai Governors of the Danish West Indies Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 17th century in the Danish West Indies 17th-century Danish people