Jurriaan François de Friderici
Jurriaan (Juriaan) François de Friderici (born December 7, 1751 in Cape of Good Hope , † October 11, 1812 in Paramaribo ) was a Dutch military, plantation owner and governor-general in Suriname .
Life
Jurriaan was born in 1751 as the son of Joachim de Friderici and Geertruyd van den Heever from Schwerin . His father had come to South Africa as a soldier in the service of the East India Company and married Geertruyd, who was born in the Cape. Around ten years after his birth, his father joined the Suriname Society as an ensign .
Suriname
In November 1762 the de Friderici family arrived in Paramaribo. Here they were received by Geertruyd's sister and her husband, Ensign Christian Friedrich de (von) Sydow, who was also in the service of the firm.
Like the father, de Friderici's two eldest sons also entered the military. At the age of 11, Jurriaan François and his brother, the only 9-year-old Joachim Simon, were accepted into the militia as cadets.
In Suriname, the parents were apparently not able to cope with the tropical climate, because at the end of July 1763 both died in quick succession. Uncle von Sydow and Governor Wigbold Crommelin took over the guardianship of the orphans . While the two younger brothers moved to the von Sydow family, Jurriaan came into the care of the governor's family. Crommelin resigned as governor for health reasons in 1768 and traveled back to the Netherlands with the family in May 1770. Jurriaan's attempt, supported by his uncle von Sydow, to enforce a marriage promise before departure that the 25-year-old daughter of the old governor, Geertruida Elisabeth had given the 19-year-old, failed because of her father's resistance.
Military career
As early as October 1768, Jurriaan was promoted to ensign by the firm, still at the suggestion of Crommelin. During the slave revolt on Commewijne and Cottica , in the suppression of which John Gabriel Stedman had also participated as part of an auxiliary force sent from the Netherlands from 1773 , he quickly made a career. As the commanding officer, he was in charge of a corps of around 300 former slaves who had been bought free from the owners in Suriname at the expense of the colonial administration. The "Freikorps" - or "Corps Black Jäger" was used in the dispute against the rebels. With this he was successful as a lieutenant in September 1772. The second attempt succeeded in conquering the Marron village and fortification of Buku , in the swampy terrain north of Cottica. In addition to the honors and gifts for this in the form of a silver saber with engraving, a rifle and a pair of pistols with silver fittings, he was also promoted to captain-lieutenant. After the reorganization of the “Corps of Black Hunters”, Jurriaan de Friderici was appointed in 1781 as its chief with the rank of major .
The following year, de Friderici married Catharina Sophia Bake, widow of HJA de Vries, in Paramaribo. He named the sugar cane plantation Catharina Sophia , founded by him in 1797 , on Saramacca after his wife.
governor
After he was promoted to colonel in 1790 and took over the governorship ad interim, he was appointed governor-general or governor-general in 1792. In the course of the history of colonial Suriname, a few governors still carried the additional title of general.
In 1795 the Society of Suriname was released and all Dutch colonies were under the responsibility of a special committee in which the patriots of the Batavian Republic decided . From the Surinamese point of view, the French Revolution had already been viewed with concern. In Paramaribo, it was feared that the spirit of freedom, equality, and brotherhood could also affect the Surinamese slaves. De Friderici had therefore considered in 1793 to occupy the eastern neighboring country French Guiana . The local council, the Hof van Politie , however, felt the risk for a Surinamese military action was too great.
As a result of the coalition wars, the United Kingdom sent a fleet to Suriname in 1799 under the command of Seymour and Trigg. When the British Naval Association appeared before Paramaribo in August 1799, Governor General de Friderici handed over the colony and thus placed Suriname under the protection of the United Kingdom. During the protectorate he remained in office as governor.
From 1799 the plantation colony experienced a revival when under de Friderici coastal areas in Nickerie and Coronie were opened up and given away for cultivation. It was mainly experienced English and Scottish colonists from Grenada and other British colonies in the Caribbean who set up the first plantations here.
Suriname came back to the Netherlands, the Batavian Republic, through the peace treaty of Amiens in 1802 . This also ended the term of office of the Orange- minded Jurriaan de Friderici.
Plantation owner
De Friderici took care of the administration of his 13 plantations after his impeachment in Paramaribo. He died in 1812 and was buried in the still preserved cemetery, the Nieuwe Oranjetuin in Paramaribo.
Descendants of Jurriaan François de Friderici lived in Suriname until 1903.
cenotaph
During the renewed British rule over Suriname from 1804-1816, the domed church of the Reformed Congregation was built in Paramaribo. In honor of de Friderici, a monumental memorial carved in white marble was also erected here. The monument was made based on a design by the Surinamese artist Gerrit Schouten (1779–1839).
The inscription on the column of the memorial reads loosely:
“In memory of the deceased Mr. Juriaan Francois Friderici, former Major General in the service of the United Netherlands, former Governor, Commander and Chief of the Colony of Suriname, died at the age of 61 years in the Colony of Suriname on October 11, 1812 . "
The domed church and the memorial were lost in a major fire in Paramaribo in 1821.
literature
- CFA Bruijning and J. Voorhoeve (red.): Encyclopedie van Suriname , Elsevier , Amsterdam and Brussel 1977, ISBN 90-10-01842-3 , page 208.
See also
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Friderici, Jurriaan François de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Friderici, Juriaan François de (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch military, plantation owner and governor general in Suriname |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1751 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cape of Good Hope |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 11, 1812 |
| Place of death | Paramaribo |