Cornelis Jan Simonsz ( – ) was a

Governor of Dutch Ceylon The following is a list of governors of Dutch Ceylon. The Dutch arrived on the island of Ceylon on 2 May 1639. Parts of the island were incorporated as a colony administrated by the Dutch East India Company on 12 May 1656. The first governor, Wi ...

from 11 May 1703 until 22 November 1707. Simonsz's exact birth day is unknown, but he is known to have been baptized on 14 October 1661 in

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbor-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade wi ...

. He studied law and married Agnes Anna Emilius in 1683. Hired by 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 ...

, Simonsz sailed from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

on 20 May 1690, to arrive at the Dutch Cape Colony on 3 October, where he was installed as its fiscal independent a week later. He left the Cape in November 1694, to become treasurer of

Dutch Coromandel Coromandel was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company on the coasts of the Coromandel region from 1610, until the company's liquidation in 1798. Dutch presence in the region began with the capture of Pulicat from the Portuguese in Goa and ...

on the Indian southeast coast. In 1701, he left for

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 the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

to serve as vice-president of the council of justice. Two years later, he was elected to the office of

and returned to the Indian subcontinent. and with Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope of September 1720 and February 1731 Simons instructed and directed the dissava of

Jaffnapatnam Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th mos ...

(Claes Isaaksz) to codify the

Thesavalamai Thesavalamai is the traditional law of the Sri Lankan Tamil inhabitants Jaffna peninsula, codified by the Dutch during their colonial rule in 1707. The Thesawalamai is a collection of the Customs of the Malabar Inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna ...

("The Customs of the Land"), which was finished in 1707, and to this day applies to most Tamils in northern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Simons also initiated building the Leper Hospital in Hendala in the

Gampaha District Gampaha District ( si, ගම්පහ දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''gampaha distrikkaya'', ta, கம்பஹா மாவட்டம் ''Kampahā Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administ ...

, which was finished in 1708 under his successor Becker. After his governorship he remained extraordinary member of the Raad van Indië, and, in 1708, he has the title Commissary of the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

. He left that year from Ceylon via the Cape to the Dutch Republic as admiral of a returning fleet of 18 ships, carrying a cargo with an estimated value of five million guilders. He re-established himself in the city of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, where he died in 1727."Mr Cornelis Johannes of Jan Simonsz"
in ''Ceylon tijdens het Nederlandsch bestuur onder de Oost-Indische Compagnie van 1656 tot en met mei 1796 (Deel twee)'', Algemeen Nederlandsch familieblad, Volume 12, pp. 237–248.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonsz, Cornelis Jan 1661 births 1720s deaths 17th-century Dutch people 18th-century Dutch people Governors of Dutch Ceylon People from Enkhuizen People from Utrecht (city) Utrecht University alumni Dutch East India Company people Dutch India Dutch expatriates in India