Director Generals of the Netherlands West India Company: an accurate list for the eighteenth century

Abstract

In 1970, David P. Henige published Colonial Governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison: 1970). This year, the National Archives of the Netherlands, Algemeen Rijksarchief, plans to publish a guide to their entire African manuscript collection: W. Visser, Voorlopige Bronnengids voor de Ge schiedenis van Afrika (presently in typed manuscript form). Each author lists Director Generals of the Netherlands West India Companies, but, in each case, incorrectly. Many similar lists exist, including the nine teenth century list compiled by D. P. H. J. Weijtingh in his Nether landish translation of Brodie Cruickshank's Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1855), and manuscript lists at the Algemeen Rijksarchief and the Instituut voor Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde, Leiden.1 All include errors and none, to my knowledge, are based upon the Dagregisters of the Castle St. George d'Elmina, kept by the officials of the West India Companies2 or, after 1792, of the Dutch Government. The need for an accurate list is clear. The list included below, that of West India Company Director Generals and Presidents in the eighteenth century, is based upon a careful reading of all the Dagregisters of that century. In addition, some dates were confirmed in other parts of the Archief van de Neder landische Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea and Archief van de