Jacob Hendrik Bergsma

Jacob Hendrik Bergsma (1894)

Jacob Hendrik Bergsma (born September 7, 1838 in Utrecht , † February 5, 1915 in The Hague ) was a Dutch lawyer , administrative officer and moderately liberal politician who, after a career as an administrative officer and judge in the Dutch East Indies, was minister for between 1894 and 1897 the colonies were in the cabinet of Prime Minister Joan Röell .

Life

Family, school education and studies

Bergsma came from a family of civil servants, academics and politicians and was the son of Cornelis Adriaan Bergsma, who as a professor of chemistry at the University of Ghent as well as mathematics and natural sciences at the University of Utrecht taught.

His cousin Maurits Cornelis van Hall was a member of the First Chamber of the States General between 1896 and 1900 , while his cousins Rembt Tobias Hugo Pieter Liebrecht included Alexander van Boneval Faure , who was also a member of the First Chamber between 1894 and 1904, and Johan George Gleichman who was a member of the Second Chamber and the First Chamber of the States General as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of State . His brother-in-law Willem Adriaan Bergsma was also a member of the Second and First Chambers of the States General.

After attending the municipal high school in Utrecht in 1856, he himself began studying Roman law and Dutch law at the University of Utrecht, which he graduated cum laude on September 27, 1860. He then completed a course for administrative officials in the Dutch East Indies at the Royal Academy in Delft between 1860 and 1862 , which he completed in 1862 as first class civil servant.

Administrative officer and judge in the Dutch East Indies and Colonial Minister

Bergsma was then transferred to the Dutch East Indies and in 1863 initially became a legal assistant and in 1867 head of the office at the civil and criminal court (Rechtbank voor Burgerlijke en Lijfstraffelijke Zaken) in Palembang . During this time he married on March 3, 1864 in Batavia Arendina Wichers, a daughter of the Minister of Justice, who died in 1853, and a member of the Council of State Hendrik Ludolf Wichers . Through the marriage he also became brother-in-law of Hendrikus Octavius ​​Wichers , who was naval minister, acting minister of war, acting colonial minister and temporarily also a member of the Second Chamber of the States General.

Between 1867 and 1869 he was first deputy public prosecutor and then from 1869 to 1871 judge at the Supreme Court (Raad van Justitie) of Semarang , before he was judge for appeals proceedings for East Java and Surabaya between 1871 and 1875 . He then acted from 1875 to May 1, 1876 as President of the District Administrator (Landraden) of Meester Cornelis and Bekasi , a court for civil and criminal proceedings against locals and for non-European foreigners in criminal matters, and then from May 1, 1876 to May 1, 1881 as secretary of the judicial authority in Batavia and thus practically Minister of Justice of the colony.

On June 1, 1881, Bergsma was judge at the Supreme Court of the Dutch East Indies (Hoogerechtshof van Nederlands-Indië) in Batavia and worked there until May 4, 1882.

After he took a leave of absence between May 1882 and April 1884 and stayed in the Netherlands, he returned to the Dutch East Indies and was initially Secretary for General Affairs of the Colonial Administration in Buitenzorg . He then acted between August 1, 1887 and June 5, 1893 as a member of the Council of the Dutch East Indies and was subsequently on leave from June 5, 1893 to May 9, 1894.

On May 9, 1894 Bergsma was finally appointed by Prime Minister Joan Röell as Minister for the Colonies (Minister van Koloniën) in his cabinet, to which he was a member until July 27, 1897. For his many years of service, he was appointed commander of the Order of the Dutch Lions in July 1895 . Then he retired from political life.

Web links

• CV in Parlement & Politiek
• C. Fasseur: Suurhoff, Jacobus Gerardus (1905-1967) , in: Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland , Part I, p. 45