Egbert Bletterman (born 3 January 1773), was the first official Postmaster General of Ceylon, serving from 1815 to 1817. Egbertus Lodewijk Bletterman was born on 3 January 1773 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

in the

Dutch Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie) was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and its successive states that the colony was inco ...

, the third of seven children to Johannes Matthias Bletterman (1742-1796), a former

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 c ...

official (

Landdrost {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2020 ''Landdrost'' was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction in the Netherlands and a number of former territories in the Dutch Empire. The term is a Dutch compound, with ''land'' meaning "region" an ...

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

) and member of the burgher militia, and Geertruij Catharina née Schot (1752-?). On 17 December 1791 he joined the Dutch East India Company as a bookkeeper for the Chamber of Amsterdam. He resigned from the company on 31 August 1793. On 8 June 1794 he married Geertruida Christina de Waal (1777-?), daughter of Arend de Waal and Maria Josina née van As. In 1795 following

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

's occupation of the

Bletterman's family established a business importing and selling goods in the Cape Colony from across and beyond the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

. Bletterman traveled to

Ceylon 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 ...

in 1803, where he joined the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the ...

and began sending goods to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a 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 it united with t ...

, a practice that subsequently landed him in trouble with the Ceylon government. The

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Frederick North appointed him as First Assistant in the Chief Secretary's office. The subsequent British Governor, Thomas Maitland did not look upon Bletterman with the same favour as North had, transferring him to Customs. Bletterman taking the position of Custom-master of the Port of Colombo in 1806. The next Governor Robert Brownrigg appointed him as the colony's

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsibl ...

in 1815. In 1812 he established one of the first privately owned and operated coffee plantations, obtaining a licence to export the produce. I was ultimately unsuccessful due to the poor condition of the soil. In 1814, Bletterman applied successfully to Governor Brownrigg for permission to export arrack, coconuts, tobacco, coffee, pepper, and saffron to the Cape. In January 1825, he was appointed a special envoy for trading interests of the Ceylon government at the Cape.

References

External links

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Sri Lanka Post
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bletterman, Egbert 1773 births Date of death unknown Postmasters General of Sri Lanka Sri Lankan people of South African descent People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan people of Dutch descent Dutch East India Company people