Johan van Scharphuizen
Encyclopedia
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, 15 January 1699) was a Dutch colonist, a judge in Suriname
History of Suriname
-Native American period:The history of Suriname dates from 3000 BC when Native Americans first inhabited the area. Present-day Suriname was the home to many distinct indigenous cultures. The largest tribes were the Arawaks, a nomadic coastal tribe that lived from hunting and fishing, and the Caribs...
, a slave-trader, colonial governor from 1689 to 1696 on behalf of the Society of Surinam, (Sociëteit van Suriname) and a considerable plantation-owner.
Life
Van Scharphuizen most probably had his roots in ZeelandZeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
: he was a brother-in-law to both Johannes Basseliers, the first Dutch vicar in Suriname (1668) and a rich planter, and to Jan Meunicx, both originating from Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
, where the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
had a strong base. The Meunicx family, regents and respected traders, settled as one of the first Dutch families in Suriname arriving just before or after Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham
Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham
Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham was an English peer of the House of Lords.He succeeded to the title 14 October 1617 on the death in infancy of his elder brother Henry Willoughby, 4th Lord Willoughby of Parham...
had left the colony.
From 1677 Van Scharphuizen served as a member in the Raad van Politie (Council of Police). From 1678 to 1684 he lived in Zeeland and Holland to guard the interests of the plantation owners in Suriname. In 1682 he was councelled to develop a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
to the Society of Surinam. He was involved in slave trade in 1685 and then moved again to the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
.
On December 20, 1688 Van Scharphuizen was installed as governor of the colony. He set sail on January 14, 1689 and set foot ashore on March 12, accompanied by François van Aerssen (1669–1740), the son of the former and assassinated governor. Van Scharphuizen was immediately involved in several complicated cases: an attack by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
pirate and slave trader Jean Baptiste du Casse; dealing with the complicated legacy of his predecessor, Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck
Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck
Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck was the first governor of Suriname after the establishment of the Society of Suriname in 1683. He was governor from 28 November 1683 until he was murdered on 19 July 1688...
- Van Scharphuizen corrected some illegitimate tax rules, originating from his predecessor - and a case of illegal transport and selling of slaves on his name. Besides Van Scharphuizen got into a conflict with Jeronimo Clifford
Jeronimo Clifford
Jeronimo, Jeronimy or Hierome Clifford was one of the biggest plantation-owners in Suriname in the late 17th century.-Life:Suriname was settled by the English in 1650, but surrendered to the Zeelanders in 1674. Of the 120 English families living there 80 families wanted to leave...
, an English planter, who inherited through marriage the largest plantation in the colony. Clifford wanted to leave and move his equipment and slaves to Jamaica, but was forced to stay in Suriname; he was fined considerably and while he refused to pay for seven years imprisoned in Fort Sommelsdijck. In the meantime his plantation was ruined and occupied. When Clifford was released he requested the Society of Surinam and the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
for 241,894 Dutch Guilders as a compensation, but the money was never paid for unstandable reasons.)
In 1691 Van Scharphuizen gave the Jodensavanne
Jodensavanne
Jodensavanne was an attempt to establish an autonomous Jewish territory in Suriname, South America.Jodensavanne is located in Para District, about 50 km south of the capital Paramaribo, on the Suriname River....
the legal status of settlement, but as a true Calvinist he forbade the Jewish planter to have their slaves work on Sundays. (At that time there was a fierce theological debate between Gisbertus Voetius
Gisbertus Voetius
Gisbertus Voetius was a Dutch Calvinist theologian.-Life:...
and Johannes Cocceius
Johannes Cocceius
Johannes Cocceius , Dutch theologian, was born at Bremen.-Life:After studying at Hamburg and the University of Franeker, where Sixtinus Amama was one of his teachers, he became in 1630 professor of biblical philology at the Gymnasium illustre in his native town...
on the Fourth Commandment
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
: the Sunday’s rest. The debate influenced the planters in the colony as well). Because of the high prices and the lack of fresh vegetables Van Scharphuizen allowed his slaves to sell products from their own and small allotments
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
on the market. In those days 66 Jews were forced to deliver 25,905 pounds of sugar for building a new hospital in Paramaribo
Paramaribo
Paramaribo is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population...
.
Van Scharphuizen awarded a patent to the carpenter to construct waterworks, c.q. a sugar mill working on low and high tides.
Van Scharphuizen is said to have been captured by French pirates in 1695. In October 1696 he was back in Amsterdam and convicted for illegal slave trade and the issuing of promissory note
Promissory note
A promissory note is a negotiable instrument, wherein one party makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other , either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.Referred to as a note payable in accounting, or...
s of the Sociëteit. Being governor he was not allowed to have his interest in more than three ships nor was he allowed to trade. Samuel de Nassy and Baron de Belmonte had made sure Van Scharphuizen returned because Jewish planters could not accept allowing the slaves not working on Sunday
Sunday
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. For most Christians, Sunday is observed as a day for worship of God and rest, due to the belief that it is Lord's Day, the day of Christ's resurrection....
. His successor as a governor was the amicable Paulus van der Veen
Paulus van der Veen
Paul van der Veen Doens was a Dutch colonial governor. From 1696 to 1706 he was governor of Suriname, succeeding Johan van Scharphuizen. For twenty-five years, until his death, he was a member of the board of the Society of Surinam.He was the son of Balthasar van der Veen and Susanna Pels...
.
In 1698 Van Scharphuizen bought a canalhouse on the Keizersgracht, almost next door to the Schouwburg of Van Campen. He died the following year and was buried on the high choir of the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. Jan Munnincx’s children inherited a large sum of money, a house and the plantation Vrientsburgh. Jonas Witsen was the main inheritor of the possessions of Van Scharphuizen, being married to Elisabeth Basseliers (1680–1702); he became the owner of Waterland and Palmeniribo; in 1702, when his wife died during childbirth he inherited also Surimonbo formerly owned by his father-in-law, referent Basseliers. The rest of the legacy went to the staff, his friends Johann Frederick Baghman, a German planter and Nicolaes Witsen
Nicolaes Witsen
Nicolaas or Nicolaes Witsen was mayor of Amsterdam thirteen times, between 1682-1706. In 1693 he became administrator of the VOC. In 1689 he was extraordinary-ambassador to the English court, and became Fellow of the Royal Society. In his free time he was cartographer, maritime writer, and an...
, executor of his will. His house slave or servant became a free man and got an allowance of 200 guilders a year.
In his will Van Scharphuizen had also stated that his slaves only had to work five days a week, allowing them to grow and sell vegetables on Saturdays an Sundays for their own income. In 1707 an uprising occurred in Palmeniribo when these liberties, but also the right to visit other plantations, were limited by the new owner, Jonas Witsen.
There has been a portrait of Van Scharphuizen; the artist is unknown.