Willem Helot (27 October 1675 – 7 November 1749), was secunde and Acting Governor of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

Career

Helot arrived at the Cape as a soldier in 1694 and

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. Background Simon was the son of Adriaan van der Steland Maria Lievens ...

employed him provisionally as an assistant and he was later permanently appointed to serve as assistant and chief clerk. In 1706 he was secretary of the Council of Policy and on 9 June 1707 he was promoted to assistant merchant. In April 1710 he was given the post of chief merchant, becoming secunde (second-in-command) at the Cape. After the death of Governor

Louis van Assenburgh Louis van Assenburgh (also Assenborch, Assenburg), ( 1657 – 27 December 1711), Governor of the Cape Colony between 1708 and 1711. Early life Van Assenburgh was the son of Pieter van Assenburgh and his wife, Susanna Houwens and was baptized on ...

in 1711, Helot acted as Governor until the arrival of

Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes (1654 – 8 September 1724) was governor of the Dutch Cape Colony from 1714 till 1721. Early life Maurits (or Mauritz) Pasques de Chavonnes was born in The Hague and baptized on 23 July 1654 in de Grote Kerk, The Hag ...

on 28 March 1714. He subsequently again served as secunde or chief administrator, but in May 1714 he was accused of dishonesty and dereliction of duty and after a suspension, he was dismissed from the service of the

VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus * ...

. In 1715 he left with his wife and children for the Netherlands.

Personal life

Helot was married twice. His first marriage took place in 1704, to Christina de Beer, the daughter of the Cape free burgher Jan Dirksz de Beer and his wife, Anna van Veldhuisen. Their three daughters, Wilhelmina, Anna Christina and Louisa Adriana, were baptised in 1705, 1707 and 1709 respectively. After Christina's death in 1709, he married Maria Engelbrecht on 27 July 1710.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helot, Willem 1675 births 1749 deaths Dutch East India Company people from Amsterdam 18th-century Dutch colonial governors Governors of the Dutch Cape Colony

Career

Personal life

See also

References