Jeremias van Riemsdijk (18 October 1712 – 3 October 1777) was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as

Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies ( nl, gouverneur-generaal van Nederlands Indië) represented Netherlands, Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, indep ...

from 1775 to 1777. Jeremias van Riemsdijk was born on 18 October 1712 in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, the son to Scipio van Riemsdijk, the minister of

Bunnik Bunnik () is a municipality and village in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. The recorded history of the village dates back nearly 2000 years, when the Romans constructed a fort at Fectio (now Vechten) with a harbour facing the river Rhine, wh ...

near

Houten Houten () is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Population centres The municipality consists of the following towns: * 't Goy * Houten * Schalkwijk * Tull en 't Waal Houten (town) The main town in the municipality is ...

, and Johanna Bogaert. He entered service with the

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 ...

as a sergeant left for the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

, aboard the ''van de Proostwijk'', on 25 February 1735. Very shortly after his arrival in Batavia/Jakarta on 14 September 1735, he entered the civil (as opposed to military) service. Jeremias was the nephew of the future Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier (1737-1741), who at the time was still a member of the . H could therefore expect to make rapid progress in his career. In 1736 he became ''onderkoopman'' (underbuyer/undermerchant), in 1738 ''koopman'' (buyer/merchant), in 1740 ''tweede opperkoopman'' (second upperbuyer/uppermerchant) and in 1742 ''eerste opperkoopman'' (first upperbuyer/uppermerchant) in the castle headquarters at Batavia/Jakarta. In 1743 he became the chief (kapitein) of the company of clerical/writing staff (''pennisten'') and in October Jeremias van Riemsdijk was named Counsellor-extraordinary (Raad extra-ordinaier) to the Council of the Indies. In 1759 he was appointed President of the ''College van Weesmeesters'' (dealing with the affairs of orphans, minors, etc.). On 15 October 1760 he was named ordinary Counsellor (Raad ordinair) and on 17 August 1764 Director-General. On 28 December 1775, following the death of Petrus Albertus van der Parra, Van Riemsdijk was chosen as Governor-General. He had had at the time five marriages, to leading Eurasian ladies. He had learned a lot from the eleven years he had worked with his predecessor, whose great appetite for money he had acquired. During his term in office, there was a shortage of ships and ship personnel. This problem was solved with help from the homeland. However, shortly after his governorship had begun, Jeremias van Riemsdijk died in Batavia/Jakarta. He was followed as Governor-General by Reynier de Klerck

Sources

Complete site (in Dutch) on the Dutch East India Company
* Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, part N-Soek * Putten, L. P. van, 2002. ''Ambitie en onvermogen: gouverneurs-generaal van Nederlands-Indië 1610–1796''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riemsdijk, Jeremias Van 1712 births 1777 deaths Dutch nobility Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies People from Utrecht (city)