Pieter de Carpentier (19 February 1586 – 5 September 1659) was a Dutch administrator 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 ...

(VOC) who served as

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

there from 1623 to 1627. The

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

in northern Australia is named after him. Pieter de Carpentier was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

in 1586, shortly after the fall of the city to the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

. He studied philosophy in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, from 1603. In 1616 he sailed on board the sailing vessel ''De Getrouwheid'' to Indonesia. There he had a number of functions, including Director-General of the Trade, Member to the

Council of the Indies A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

, and member of the Council of Defence. From 1 February 1623 to 30 September 1627 he was the fifth

Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies (, ) represented Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949. Occupied by Japanese forces between 1942 and 1945, followed by the ...

. He participated in the conquest of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

and helped to build the town of Batavia. He did much for the town, including setting up a school, a Town Hall, and the first Orphanage Home. He also designed the structure of the churches in the town. On 12 November 1627 Pieter de Carpentier sailed from the East Indies as Head of the Fleet. He arrived in Holland on 3 June 1628, with five richly-laden merchant ships, and this, combined with the fact that the Government had recently succeeded in releasing three ships from an embargo laid upon them by the English a year previously, led the authorities to determine to send another fleet of eleven ships to the East, with which General Jacob Specks was to sail. Two ships and a yacht being soon ready to sail, the senate sent them to

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

so as to lose no time. These vessels were the ''Batavia'' (under Francisco Pelsaert) the ''Dordrecht'' (under Isaac van Swaenswyck) and the ''Assendelft'' (under Cornelis Vlack). They left Texel for their destination on 28 October 1628. De Carpentier was made member of the board of the

(VOC) in October 1629. His maternal uncle, Louis Delbeecque, had been one of the initiators of the VOC. Pieter de Carpentier married Maria Ravevelt in Middelburg on 2 March 1630. She died in September 1641 and was buried on in the

Westerkerk The Westerkerk (; ) is a Calvinism, Reformed church within Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Dutch Protestant Calvinism in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the most western part of the Grachtengordel (Amsterdam), Grachtengordel nei ...

in Amsterdam. De Carpentier died in Amsterdam on 5 September 1659, and was also buried in the Westerkerk. They had seven children. One of their daughters, Agnita de Carpentier, married Ernst, brother of Coenraad van Klenck. When Jan Carstenszoon (or Carstensz) and Willem van Coolsteerdt landed the ''Pera'' and the ''Arnhem'' on the west coast of

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

of New Holland (now Australia) in 1623, after the first discovery by

Willem Janszoon Willem Janszoon (; ) was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. He served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 1603–1611 and 1612–1616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of Solor. During his voyage of 1605–1606 ...

in the ''

Duyfken ''Duyfken'' (; ), also in the form ''Duifje'' or spelled ''Duifken'' or ''Duijfken'', was a small ship built in the Dutch Republic. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages ...

'' in 1606, they then named the '

' after the Governor-General, Pieter de Carpentier.

References

''Western Australia: a history from its discovery to the inauguration of the Commonwealth'' by J S Battye (1924) Chapter 1.
* Much of the information for this article was provided by Mr Jaap de Carpentier Wolf, a descendant of Pieter de Carpentier. * The source of the image of Pieter de Carpentier is "''Genealogy of the De Carpentier familie of Holland'' by Edwin Jaquett Sellers, Allen, Lane & Scott, USA, Philadelphia 1909." The original oil painting of this ''gravure'' is hanging in The Hague in one of the buildings of the governmental heart of The Netherlands, the ''Binnenhof''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpentier, Pieter de 1580s births 1659 deaths Businesspeople from Antwerp Governors-general of the Dutch East Indies Gulf of Carpentaria 17th-century Dutch East Indies people 17th-century Dutch colonial governors Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company