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Cornelis Chastelein, also written ''Chasteleijn'' or ''Chastelijn'' (
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, 10 August 1657 – Batavia, 28 June 1714) was born of a notable merchant family. He was the youngest member of a family of eight children. His father, Anthony Chastelein, arrived to the Netherlands from France as a
huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
, and a member of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...
. His mother, Maria Cruydenier, was the daughter of the mayor of
Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...
who served for the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
. On 24 January 1675, 17-years-old Cornelis Chastelein boarded the Ship's ''’t Huis te Cleeff'' and arrived at Batavia on 16 August 1675. In Batavia, Chastelein worked as an accountant in service of the company.


Career

Cornelis Chastelein was successful in his career. In 1682 he was one a big shopkeeper (''groot-winkelier'') in the ''Grooten Winkel te Batavia''. In 1691, he was of the wealthiest "Big Shopkeeper in the Big Store in Batavia", and in 1691 he was "Second Upperman of the Batavia Castle. In that same year, he was resolutely fired on request "with regard to his increasing weakness". It is not unlikely that the appointment of Joan van Hoorn as Director-General, by which he became Chastelein's chief, was the reason for this resignation request. It was known that Chastelein and van Hoorn doesn't go very well together. From 1691 to 1704, Chastelein acquired various estates to the south of Batavia e.g. Siringsing (now Serengseng Sawah, South Jakarta) in 1695, at pole 17 (about from Batavia), somewhere in the middle of the Batavia- Buitenzorg route. On 18 May 1696, he bought a plot of land with an area of 12.44 square kilometres, at pole 21 (about from Batavia), between Ciliwung and Pesanggrahan river. There he established the first of its kind in Java, a Protestant congregation consisting of native Indonesians which was named ''De Eerste Protestante Organisatie van Christenen'' (DEPOC).


Weltevreden

In 1704, Chastelein bought another land which later he named Weltevreden. In this new estate he established the first experimental coffee plantation in the Indies, as well as the first Indies zoo. In the estate of Depok he created a pepper plantation. It can not be a coincidence that Chastelein had let this family work in Depok, slave families like Laurens and Loen from Ambon. During the period he wrote a dissertation in which he established an ethical manifestation against the Dutch East India Company's merchant politics, especially toward Governor General Willem van Outhoorn, who was in favor of aggressive trade policy. Cornelis Chastelein was against slavery and he would give slaves in the colonial land their freedom. The church council of Batavia had ruled that slavery is contrary to the Bible, but this provision was valid only for Christians. Because of this, Chastelein converted his slaves to Christianity and made them free people. Their number in the year 1714 – the year that Chastelein died – was estimated about 200.


Slave families

For his estate Depok, Chastelein bought twelve slave families from various parts of the archipelago: Balinese, Ambonese, Buginese and Sundanese. It is suspected that there were also the descendants of the
Mardijker The Mardijker people refer to an ethnic community in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) made up of descendants of freed slaves who spoke or were culturally Portuguese. They could be found at all major trading posts in the East Indies. ...
s, a group of Portuguese-creole, among his slaves. Of the twelve original slave families, at least five families decided to receive a new Christian name from Chastelein. There were also Roman Catholic families which were converted to (Protestant) Christianity by Chastelein. Isakh, Jacob, Jonathan, Joseph and Samuel are the Biblical names given to Chastelein to the converted slave families. The remaining seven families retained their original names: Bacas, Laurens, Leander, Loen, Sadokh, Soedira and Tholense. After the Second World War, the name Sadokh went extinct. In 1704, Chastelein worked for the company once more as 'Extraordinary Council'. After his first meeting in the Council of the Indies in 1705, he was appointed as Ordinary Member of the Council of Dutch India in November 1708, receiving a monthly allowance of 350 guilders per month. He remained in this position to his death.


Marriage

Cornelis Chastelein was married to Catharina of Quaelborg. She was probably his niece, since her father, Council of India, was married to one Henriëtte Chastelein. They had one son Anthony, while Chastelein's will shows that they have also adopted a mixed blood girl as daughter: Maria Chastelein mixtures (5 June 1693). Cornelis Chastelein died at the age of 56, on 28 June 1714 at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 28 June is still the official day of Chastelein being commemorated. In addition to his great ability as a businessman, Chastelein was a socially moved man who had his time far ahead. His greatest merit, however, was his legacy to his body-owners. In his will, he had found that the twelve original families had the estate Depok, 1240 ha. great, if he would inherit a communal property and thereby obtain their freedom. And thus it was determined that "released bodies and their descendants would have landed forever and used".


Trivia

The name Chastelein does not exist anymore. The people are now called Castelein or Casteleijn.


References


Cited works

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chastelein, Cornelis 1657 births 1714 deaths Dutch merchants Dutch philanthropists Businesspeople from Amsterdam