Seneca Imperial Baron von Gelting

Seneca Imperial Baron von Gelting is the black man on the left hand side not the white man in the middle, he never existed has a white man.

Seneca Imperial Baron von Gelting, born as Süncke Zwillingsen, later called Seneca Inggersen, Reich Baron von Geltingen, (* 23. March 1715 in Langenhorn (North Friesland); † < a i=13>December 28th1786 on his Rustenburg estate near The Hague, ± Oude Kerk in Voorburg) was a North Frisian-Dutch merchant and landowner.

Life

Origin

Süncke Ziegensen was the tenth of 13 children of the horse trader Paul Zwillingsen († 1729) and the pastor's daughter Cäcilia Lucia Brodersen (†) who came from Leck 1727) born. He came from a long-established, respected and wealthy family. Among the family members were a number of dike chiefs, bailiffs and pastors.^[1] Through his maternal grandfather, the Protestant pastor Diederich Brodersen, he is widely connected with the composer Johannes Brahms related.

After the bankruptcy and early death of the parents, the six surviving siblings were distributed among the relatives. Süncke Gingersen grew up with an uncle in Old Christian-Albrechts-Koog. Apparently he received training as a barber, through which he also acquired medical skills. However, this training is not verified in the sources.^[2] According to other reports, he was a cabin boy on a coastal voyage and fled home after a fight.< /span>^[3]

Dutch East Indies Compagnie

In 1734, Gewürzen signed up for five years as an Adelborst (Sea cadet) on ships of the Dutch East Indies Company. As usual, when he enrolled he adapted his North Frisian name to the Dutch language and called himself Seneca Inggersen. He served on ships that sailed between the company's Asian trading posts and factories. During this time he was assigned to the ship's surgeon as an assistant.^[4]

After his term of service had expired, Seneca Inggersen returned to Europe in 1739 and passed the examination to become a “senior surgeon” in Amsterdam in September 1739. In this rank he joined the East India Company again in October 1739. In June 1740 he reached Batavia. There, in the fall of the same year, he witnessed the uprising of Chinese workers against the Dutch colonial power, which led to the massacre in which around 10,000 Chinese were killed by Dutch soldiers and Locals were killed. This massacre led to a collapse in sugar production, as it was largely in Chinese hands. Until 1741 he undertook numerous trips in the company's service, including: to China and Ceylon. The contacts and knowledge of languages ​​and circumstances he gained soon promoted his advancement.^[5]

On August 17, 1742, Seneca Inggersen became town pharmacist in Batavia and thus received a higher rank and income than a captain. In this position he was responsible for supplying all company employees with medication. On November 4th of the same year he married Adriana van Loo (1726–1755), the niece of the then Governor General of Dutch East Indies Johannes Thedens,^[6] who, like Inggersen himself, came from North Frisia. Adriana's cousin Jacob Mossel was also one of the leading people in the Dutch East India trade and had been governor general since 1750. This relationship enabled Inggersen to rise in rank and acquire great wealth in the following years. He bought several houses in Batavia and was granted permission to trade privately in products for which the company monopolies claimed. In 1749 he was also officially appointed merchant.^[7] In 1750 he became second administrator of the large shipyards, equipment magazines, sawmills and granaries on < a i=15>Onrust and first administrator in 1751. The two administrators took turns staying on the island for four months each, from which there was a daily postal service to Batavia.^[8]

Inggersen always kept in touch with his family and supported his siblings financially. As soon as he had established himself, he brought his brothers over. Diederich (* 1709) died on the crossing in 1746.^[9] Paul Gewürzen (1717–1792) reached Batavia in 1750 on a Danish ship and remained without an official Employment at the company as his brother's right-hand man, among other things. as captain of his own merchant ship.^[10]

In 1752, Inggersen reached the peak of his career with the company as Opperkoopman. He became the representative and charge d'affaires of the East India Company in Cheribon, a sultanate on Java. The Sultans had given the Company a fertile stretch of coast and the harbor with all rights in return for military support against the King of Bantam. The city-state with its fortified fort had become a trading hub for the company. The Dutch established sugar plantations in the countryside. Inggersen settled in the fort with his family and led a luxurious life befitting the sultans. Among other things, he created a Baroque garden near the fort.^[11] With He had a friendly relationship with the Sultan of Indramayu, one of the four Sultans of Cheribon.^[12] During his stay, the trading office experienced its highest profits. Inggersen earned income for himself through investments in the company's coffee trade, but also through his own sugar- and Rum production as well as wood and - as head of the opium society in Cheribon^[13] a huge fortune. He also gave loans to captains and local merchants. Opium trade –

In 1755, Adriana died on Cheribon after a long illness during her fifth pregnancy. She was buried in the family grave in the Reformed Church in Batavia. After her death, Inggersen sold his property on Java and Cheribon - including around 90 slaves - and gave the office in Ceribon to Pieter Cornelis Hasselaer, Jacob Mossel's son-in-law. In 1757 he, his brother and his daughters left Batavia.

Squire

In 1758 Inggersen reached The Hague. There were numerous precious stones in his luggage. His wealth was unimaginably large even by Javanese standards. The exchange for the assets left behind on Java alone amounted to 410,935 guilders.< /span> from Geltingen, all in the hope that the successful merchant would settle in Copenhagen as an advisor and financier. Seneca Inggersen received a coat of arms and exemption from import restrictions on luxury items. In return, he invested a lot of money in the company for the Danish king. Baron for a special price of 85,000 Reichstaler - supposedly it was worth 100,000 thaler - and appointed him family, which had run down after the bankruptcy of the family at the beginning of the 18th century =13>Gut Gelting the Ahlefeld the arrival of his immensely rich subject. Frederick V immediately had Inggersen summoned to Copenhagen and in 1759 sold him Frederick V. and the reimbursement of the loan for the basic surgical equipment purchased in 1739 - were of no importance. The Danish ambassador to the Dutch court immediately reported to King ^[15] The approximately 8,000 guilders that he was paid upon his return for his 24 years of service with the company - minus the costs of the passage for himself, his daughters and two slave girls^[14]

Although the Danish King wanted to bind Inggersen closer to himself, immediately after the ceremonial takeover in 1760, he leased the previously long-neglected Gelting estate to his brother Paul, who now called himself a captain. Together with Paul, who remained unmarried, his sister Lucia (1712–1799) successfully ran the estate. The siblings tried to improve the working conditions of the serfs, had new houses built and ensured health and retirement benefits for the estate members. Inggersen was also patron of the Geltinger Katharinenkirche and bought a family crypt there. From 1762 to 1781, Inggersen's eldest daughter and her husband lived in the Geltinger manor house. From 1770, Inggersen had it expanded and designed by the garden architect Johann Caspar Bechstedt with an artistic garden in Régence style surround. Shortly before his death in 1786, he ordered the abolition of serfdom, the parceling out of the estate and the leasing of the parcels to the former serfs. The only son inherited the estate, but died unmarried, so that after his death in 1820 it passed to the descendants of his sister Adriana, in possession of their descendants, the family of Hobe-Gelting , which is still there today.

Inggersen often stayed at Gut Gelting or his town house in Schleswig, but he also traveled a lot through Europe and kept his center of life in the Netherlands. He had his Rustenburg estate near The Hague, which he had acquired in 1758, furnished in the Rococo style and expanded the associated Baroque garden to include exotic plants. This house was sold after his death and demolished in 1912 to build the Peace Palace. Some of the gardens have been preserved. He also owned a townhouse in The Hague right next to the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.^[12] Danish politicians considered whether Inggersen could be tied closer to Denmark by marrying him and/or his eldest daughter in Copenhagen.^[16] Nothing came of this . In 1763 Inggersen married the noblewoman Charlotte Louise von Spörcken. She was the daughter of Rudolph Freiherr von Spörcken (1696–1766), chamberlain and envoy of King Georg III. of Great Britain, and maternal granddaughter of Simon van Slingelandt. Inggersen's daughter Gertruyda from his first marriage married his bride's brother, Adolph von Spörcken, on the same day. Both uncles, the Hanover field marshal Friedrich von Spörcken, excluded both of them from his inheritance because of these inappropriate marriages.^{[17 ]} With the death of his father-in-law in 1766, Inggersen's wealth increased again. The legacy included, among other things: the former Emmaus monastery in de Steynpolder, where Erasmus of Rotterdam lived between 1485 and 1493.^{[18]< /span>}, both of which were granted to him. imperial baron and for elevation to the status of knighthood to be accepted into the Schleswig-Holstein Joseph II In 1777, Inggersen asked Emperor

In 1784 he bought his town house in Schleswig and the family grave in the town from a descendant of Johann Adolph Kielmann von Kielmannsegg, a relative of his second wife Schleswig Cathedral. Although he already had a family crypt in the Geltingen church, his wife and youngest daughter Suzanna were buried in Schleswig Cathedral. He himself found his final resting place in the Oude Kerk St. Martinus in Voorburg.

Langenhorn Foundations

While still in Java, Inggersen donated an organ for the St. Laurentius Church in his home community of Langenhorn in memory of Adriana. As early as 1755 he commissioned the “Royal Danish and Grand Prince. Schleswig-Holstein's privileged organ maker "Johann Daniel Busch with the draft of a Disposition . At the end of 1756 he authorized the Langenhorn pastor and the church leaders to carry out the plan he had given.^[19] It was not implemented until 1759. On July 19th this That year, Inggersen concluded a contract with Busch that he would have to complete the organ according to the existing plan within two years and would receive “500 Marcklübsch Grob Danish Cour:” for this.^[20][21] In order to build this organ, which was oversized for a village church, the church's medieval choir had to be demolished and the entire width of the church had to be expanded to the east.Lyk Klagt (mortuary lament) commemorates Inggersen's wife Adriana.^{[22]< a i=18> The marble reliefs were created by J. Luraghi from The Hague.[23]} In 1766 the church received a further 1000 marks with the condition that the organ be decorated with “ my coat of arms, and poetic verses, all engraved in marble, as long as the church would stand.^[24] He also bought some supplies He was supposed to attend the church service in Langenhorn one day.

In addition, Inggersen created a foundation for Langenhorn widows and orphans.

Family

In 1742 Inggersen married Adriana van Loo (born January 10, 1726 in Batavia; † March 24, 1755) in Batavia. From this marriage came:

• Gertruyda Johanna (born March 6, 1744 in Batavia; † 1802) ⚭ Simon Friedrich Adolph Baron von Spörcken (1729–1784)
• Paul (1746–1748)
• Lucia Theodora (born June 9, 1752 in Cheribon; † 1818) ⚭ Joachim Levin Baron von Meerheimb (1742–1802) to Groß Gischow, large and small Gnemern in Mecklenburg
• Adriana Sybranda (born February 22, 1754 in Cheribon; † 1803) ⚭ 1770 Andreas August von Hobe (1739–1802), Danish Chamberlain and Bailiff of Reinbek and Trittau

In 1763 he married Charlotte Louise von Spörcken (* 1733 in The Hague; † 1816 in Hamburg). From his second marriage came:

• Christian Friedrich Rudolf (1764–1820)
• Suzanna Cecilia (1773–1795) ⚭ 1791 Rudolf Ernst Freiherr von Spörcken (1757–1808), Hanoverian chief forester in Celle, divorced, childless