Jan van Elseracq, also known as Jan van Eserack, was a merchant/trader and official of 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 c ...

(''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC).

Career

Van Elseracq was the VOC ''opperhoofd'' starting 1 November 1641 and ending 29 October 1642. During this period, there were about 20 men at the VOC factory. He was in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

from December 4, 1641, to March 12, 1642. He was also head of the VOC trading post from 8 November 1643 to 24 November 1644. He was in

for a second time in December 1643.

''Breskens'' affair

Van Elseracq was in Japan when sailors from the Dutch ship ''Breskens'' were imprisoned by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

. He played an important role in negotiating their release.Hesselink, Reiner H. (2002)
''Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in Seventeenth-Century Japanese Diplomacy,'' pp. 123-141

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elseracq, Jan van Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan Year of death uncertain Year of birth uncertain

Career

''Breskens'' affair

See also

References