Jacob Christiaan Pielat

Jacques Christian or Jacob Christiaan Pielat (sometimes Pielaat) (27 August 1692, Rotterdam – c. 3 August 1740, Loosduinen) was the 22nd Governor of Ceylon during the Dutch colonial time from 2 December 1732 until 27 January 1734.^[1]

Jacob Christiaan Pielat
22nd Governor of Ceylon
In office 2 December 1732 – 27 January 1734
Preceded by	Gualterus Woutersz as acting governor
Succeeded by	Diederik van Domburg

Pielat was the sixth child of Phinéas Pielat (1645–1700), a Protestant minister originally from the Principality of Orange, and his second wife Jeanne de Vernatti.^[2] Pielat joined the Dutch East India Company and worked his way up to opperkoopman (upper-merchant) in the Dutch Indies. From at least 1720 he was captain and charged with the military accompaniment of goods from Patna to the Dutch factory in Hugly in Dutch Bengal. After a period of being secunde ("vice-governor") in Ternate, he succeeded Johan Happon as governor of Ternate from 1728–29 to 1731.^[3] Subsequently, he was appointed Extraordinary Councillor of India. In that capacity, he was sent to Ceylon as a commissioner to investigate the state of the Dutch East India Company Trading post of Ceylon.^[4] He reported his findings as a "memoir" for new governor Diederik van Domburg,^[5] and returned to the Netherlands where he would die 8 years later. He was buried on 6 August 1740 in The Hague.^[2] He was married to Amarante/Amarantha van der Elst (born 1690 in Delft) with whom he had children born in Batavia and Ternate. In 1719, Everard Kraeyvanger wrote a poem for Amaranta in consolation for the loss of two of her children in Batavia.^[6] His surviving son Diederik Christiaan would become mayor of Schiedam.^[2]