Willem van Outhoorn (4 May 1635 – 27 November 1720) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1691 to 1704. He was born and died in the Dutch East Indies.

Biography

Willem van Outhoorn (or ''Oudthoorn'') was born on 4 May 1635 at Larike on Ambon Island in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. His father was a

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC) Buyer (''koopman'') there. He was sent to the

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to study

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

. On 28 November 1657 he graduated in Law.

Government career

In 1659 van Outhoorn returned to the Indies, employed as Underbuyer (''onderkoopman''). He was to remain in the East for the rest of his life. Even a journey to nearby Bantam was a journey too far for him. In 1662 he became a member of the Council of Justice (''Raad van Justitie'') in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

. In 1672 he became Receiver-General (''ontvanger-generaal''), and in 1673 he became Vice-President of the Council of Justice. In 1678 he was charged with a mission to Bantam and he became an extraordinary member of the Dutch

Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies ( es, Consejo de las Indias), officially the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies ( es, Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, link=no, ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Amer ...

. He was named a full Counsellor, being confirmed in that post in 1681. He became President of the Council of Justice in 1682 and in 1689 President of the College van Heemraden (dealing with estate boundaries, roads, etc.). That same year he was appointed First Counsellor and Director-General of the Dutch East Indies. On 17 December 1690 van Outhoorn was appointed Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, taking over from

Johannes Camphuys Johannes Camphuys (registered as Kamphuis in the ''Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie'') (18 July 1634 – 18 July 1695) was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1684 to 1691. Camphuys was born in Haarlem, in the Republic of the United ...

on 24 September 1691. After ten years, the Seventeen Lords (

Heren XVII The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

) granted his wish to be honourably relieved of his duties, but it was 15 August 1704 before he could hand over all his official functions to his successor, Joan van Hoorn. He requested that he be allowed to remain on his estate just outside Batavia. Such requests were generally not allowed, for fear that retired governors would interfere with the work of their successors. However, because he was in ill-health and was over 70, he was allowed to stay. He died at age 85 on 27 November 1720 in Batavia. His term of office was not marked by many important developments or events. At the end of his term,

Amangkurat II Amangkurat II (also known as Rahmat; died 1703) was the ''susuhunan'' of the Sultanate of Mataram from 1677 to 1703. Prior to taking the throne, he was the crown prince and had the title Pangeran Adipati Anom. He was the first Javanese monarch ...

Sultan of Mataram died. As 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 ...

did not recognise his son as successor, a long war broke out just before Van Outhoorn left office. In 1693 the French overran

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. During his time, efforts were made to establish

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growing in

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. The first harvest failed because of flooding, but the next harvest had more success. Van Outhoorn was not a very strong ruler. Corruption and nepotism, in which he was also involved, became more blatant during his time. His son-in-law Joan van Hoorn, married to his daughter Susanna, succeeded him as Governor-General.

Sources

Site in Dutch dedicated to the VOC
*Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, part N-Soek *Putten, L.P. van, 2002. - ''Ambitie en onvermogen : gouverneurs-generaal van Nederlands-Indië 1610-1796''.
bezuidenhout.nl''A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outhoorn, Willem van 1635 births 1720 deaths 17th-century Dutch East Indies people Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies Leiden University alumni People from Ambon, Maluku 18th-century Dutch East Indies people