Leopold Willem Ras (1760s–1823) was a Dutch merchant-trader and diplomat.
Life
Ras was the son of Joannes Henricus Ras and Magdalena Elisabeth Putkamer, who baptized children in , a town at the mouth of the
Scheldt
The Scheldt ( ; ; ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to Old Englis ...
river. In June 1785, Ras sailed from near his hometown as a ship's boy on board the ''Alblasserdam'' to work in East Asia with the
Dutch East Indies Company
The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Neth ...
(or ''Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC in Dutch).
[Leopold Willem Ras, on June 13, 1785 in the service of the Dutch East India Company]
at OpenArchives His father had apparently died before his departure, and until 1805 Ras sent payments home to his mother, Magdalena Elisabeth Putkamer.
[
Before 1798, Ras was sent to Japan as a records keeper/bookkeeper or warehouseman. At this point in Japanese history, the sole VOC outpost (or "factory") was situated on ]Dejima
or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...
island in the harbor of Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
on the southern island of Kyushu.
Ras became acting Opperhoofd
is a Dutch word (plural ) that literally translates to "upper-head", meaning "supreme headman". The Danish cognate , which is a calque derived from a Danish pronunciation of the Dutch or Low German word, is also treated here. The standard Ge ...
or chief negotiant and officer of the VOC trading post. His role had to change after the death of Dejima's chief official, Gijsbert Hemmij.[Janetta, Ann Bowman. (2007). ] In 1798, Hemmij died at Kanegawa near Edo during the return journey to Nagasaki after a formal audience at the shogun's court in Edo
Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
.
The difficulties Ras confronted were exacerbated by a fire which destroyed the VOC warehouse and other structures on Dejima.[ He married Christina Abigael Versteegh, with whom he had two daughters before 1815 on ]Banda Neira
Banda Neira (also known as Pulau Neira) is an island in the Banda Islands, Indonesia. It is administered as part of the administrative Banda Islands District (''Kecamatan Kepulauan Banda'') within the Central Maluku Regency in the province o ...
in the Moluccas
The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...
. Ras died there 4 March 1823.''Kwartierstaat van Jeanne Antoinette Lewis'' (Genealogy of ....)
/ref>
See also
* VOC Opperhoofden in Japan
VOC chief traders in Japan were the of the Dutch East India Company (; ) in Japan during the Edo period, when Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate.
The Dutch word (, ), in its historical usage, is a gubernatorial title, comparable to the ...
* William Robert Stewart
Notes
References
* Gourlay, Walter E. (2008)
"A Camel for the Shogun: William Robert Stewart and the Deshima Connection" (abstract paper)
ASPAC 2008. Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...
, British Columbia
* . (1963). ''Historical documents relating to Japan in foreign countries: an inventory of microfilm acquisitions in the library of the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo.''
* Janetta, Ann Bowman. (2007).
The Vaccinators: Smallpox, Medical Knowledge, and the "Opening" of Japan
'' Stanford: Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...
. ;
* Vialle, Cynthia and Ton Vermeulen. (1997). ''The Deshima Dagregisters: Their Original Tables of Contents, Vol. 10, 1790-1800.'' Leiden: Institute for the History of European Expansion.
External links
* De VOC site
Dejima history, ''opperhoofden''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ras, Leopold William
1760s births
1823 deaths
Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan
Dutch expatriates in Japan
Businesspeople from Antwerp