Godefridus van Lanschot

Godefridus van Lanschot and his twin sister Maria Christina were baptised in 's-Hertogenbosch on New Year’s Day 1743. Godefridus, who lost his mother at an early age and who had joined his father’s business at the end of the 1750s, became its owner in 1767.

Godefridus was the right man in the right role at the right time. He didn’t really change anything at the firm, dealing in wholesale and retail in colonial goods, or deviate from his father’s business strategy, but he did strengthen and expand the business. An utterly dependable, reticent man, he quietly and seemingly effortlessly stuck to the course his father had charted, and served as a solid link between his father, whom he revered as an example, and his son Franciscus, who would take over as head of firm and family in the early 1800s. Godefridus was the type of man who doesn’t so much innovate as connect.

He died unexpectedly on 10 January 1799, followed not long after by his wife Anna Potters, who passed away on 10 April in the same year.