Egbert Bletterman | |
---|---|
Born | Egbertus Lodewijk Bletterman 3 January 1773 |
Died | Unknown |
Nationality | Dutch/British |
Occupation | public servant |
Known for | Postmaster General of Ceylon |
Term | 1815 - 1817 |
Successor | Louis Sansoni |
Spouse | Geertruida Christina née de Waal (m.1794) |
Parent(s) | Johannes Matthias Bletterman, Geertruij Catharina née Schot |
Egbert Bletterman (born 3 January 1773), was the first official Postmaster General of Ceylon, serving from 1815 to 1817. [1] [2]
Egbertus Lodewijk Bletterman was born on 3 January 1773 in Cape Town in the Dutch Cape Colony, the third of seven children to Johannes Matthias Bletterman (1742-1796), a former Dutch East India Company official (Landdrost of Stellenbosch) and member of the burgher militia, and Geertruij Catharina née Schot (1752-?). [3] [4] On 17 December 1791 he joined the Dutch East India Company as a bookkeeper for the Chamber of Amsterdam. [5] He resigned from the company on 31 August 1793. [5]
On 8 June 1794 he married Geertruida Christina de Waal (1777-?), daughter of Arend de Waal and Maria Josina née van As. In 1795 following Britain's occupation of the Dutch Cape Colony Bletterman's family established a business importing and selling goods in the Cape Colony from across and beyond the British Empire. [6]
Bletterman traveled to Ceylon in 1803, where he joined the Ceylon Civil Service and began sending goods to the Cape Colony, a practice that subsequently landed him in trouble with the Ceylon government. The Governor Frederick North appointed him as First Assistant in the Chief Secretary's office. [7] The subsequent British Governor, Thomas Maitland did not look upon Bletterman with the same favour as North had, transferring him to Customs. [7] Bletterman taking the position of Custom-master of the Port of Colombo in 1806. [8] The next Governor Robert Brownrigg appointed him as the colony's Postmaster General in 1815. [7]
In 1812 he established one of the first privately owned and operated coffee plantations, obtaining a licence to export the produce. [6] [9] I was ultimately unsuccessful due to the poor condition of the soil. [10] [11] In 1814, Bletterman applied successfully to Governor Brownrigg for permission to export arrack, coconuts, tobacco, coffee, pepper, and saffron to the Cape. [6] In January 1825, he was appointed a special envoy for trading interests of the Ceylon government at the Cape. [6] [12]
The Kandyan Wars refers generally to the period of warfare between the British colonial forces and the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island of what is now Sri Lanka, between 1796 and 1818. More specifically it is used to describe the expeditionary campaigns of the British Army in the Kingdom of Kandy in 1803 and 1815.
General Sir Robert Brownrigg, 1st Baronet, GCB was an Irish-born British statesman and soldier. He brought the last part of Sri Lanka under British rule.
Burgher people, also known simply as Burghers, are a small Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Portuguese, Dutch, British and other Europeans who settled in Ceylon. The Portuguese and Dutch had held some of the maritime provinces of the island for centuries before the advent of the British Empire. With the establishment of Ceylon as a crown colony at the end of the 18th century, most of those who retained close ties with the Netherlands departed. However, a significant community of Burghers remained and largely adopted the English language. During British rule, they occupied a highly important place in Sri Lankan social and economic life.
Dutch Ceylon was a governorate established in present-day Sri Lanka by the Dutch East India Company. Although the Dutch managed to capture most of the coastal areas in Sri Lanka, they were never able to control the Kingdom of Kandy located in the interior of the island. Dutch Ceylon existed from 1640 until 1796.
British Ceylon, officially British Settlements and Territories in the Island of Ceylon with its Dependencies from 1802 to 1833, then the Island of Ceylon and its Territories and Dependencies from 1833 to 1931 and finally the Island of Ceylon and its Dependencies from 1931 to 1948, was the British Crown colony of present-day Sri Lanka between 1796 and 4 February 1948. Initially, the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka.
Louis Michel Thibault, was a French-born South African architect and engineer who designed numerous buildings in the Cape Colony. He was South Africa's first trained architect and brought with him a distinctive mannered neo-classicism.
The Department of Posts, functioning under the brand name Sri Lanka Post, is a government operated postal system in Sri Lanka. The postal headquarters is the General Post Office which is located in Colombo. The department itself comes under the purview of the Ministry of Information and Mass Media. It was formerly known as the Ceylon Post and Telecommunications Department and is one of the oldest Government departments in existence today.
The Postmaster General of Sri Lanka is the appointed head of Sri Lanka Post, which is a government department. The current Postmaster General is Ranjith Ariyaratne.
The Dutch Cape Colony was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and the successive states that the colony was incorporated into occupied much of modern South Africa. Between 1652 and 1691, it was a Commandment, and between 1691 and 1795, a Governorate of the VOC. Jan van Riebeeck established the colony as a re-supply and layover port for vessels of the VOC trading with Asia. The Cape came under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and from 1803 to 1806 was ruled by the Batavian Republic. Much to the dismay of the shareholders of the VOC, who focused primarily on making profits from the Asian trade, the colony rapidly expanded into a settler colony in the years after its founding.
The Dutch Burghers are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka, of mixed Dutch, Portuguese Burgher and Sri Lankan descent. However, they are a different community when compared with Portuguese Burghers. Originally an entirely Protestant community, many Burghers today remain Christian but belong to a variety of denominations. The Dutch Burghers of Sri Lanka speak English and the local languages Sinhala and Tamil.
South Africa – Sri Lanka relations refers to the current and historical relations between South Africa and Sri Lanka. The Government of South Africa established its resident diplomatic mission in Colombo in September 2007. HE Sirisena Amarasekara is the current Sri Lankan High Commissioner to South Africa while HE Ms RP Marks is the current South African High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Both countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Johan Bax van Herenthals, also written as Joan Bax, and van Herentals, was born in 's-Hertogenbosch and was the governor of the Dutch Cape Colony from 1676 succeeding the acting interim governor IJsbrand Godske. Agriculture developed during his term and he is recognized as contributing to the development of Botany and Ethnobiology. He declared two wars with the Khoikhoi. He died in Cape Town.
Wolvendaal Church is located in Pettah, a neighbourhood of Colombo. It is one of the most important Dutch Colonial era buildings in Sri Lanka, and is one of the oldest Protestant churches still in use in the country.
Sri Lanka–United Kingdom relations, or British-Sri Lankan relations, are foreign relations between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
Louis Edmund Blaze, JP, OBE, BA (Calcutta), was a Sri Lankan educationist and the founder and the first principal of Kingswood College, Kandy (1891–1923).
The Hamilton Canal is a 14.5 km (9.0 mi) canal connecting Puttalam to Colombo, passing through Negombo in Sri Lanka. The canal was constructed by the British in 1802 and completed in 1804. It was designed to drain salt water out of the Muthurajawela wetlands. The canal was named after Gavin Hamilton, the Government Agent of Revenue and Commerce.
Jacob Gotfried Haafner was a German-Dutch travel writer who lived in and wrote extensively on India and Sri Lanka. His travelogues were noted for their Romantic undertones, lively descriptions of Indian cultures and peoples, as well as criticisms of European colonialism, slavery, and cultural domination.
Louis Sansoni served as the second Postmaster General of Ceylon, between 1816 and 1825.
George Lee was the first Superintendent of the Government Printing Office in Ceylon, between 1833 and 1835 and the Postmaster General of Ceylon between 1844 and 1859.
Lionel Frederick Lee, served as the Mayor of Colombo in 1887 and Treasurer of Ceylon in 1899.
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