Stephanus Versluys

Born into a prominent family of Cornelis Versluys, a mayor of Middelburg and the director of the Dutch East India Company’s Zeeland Chamber, Stephanus joined the company at age of 19 and soon afterwards headed for India. He began his career serving as under-merchant in Pulicat, and four years later he was promoted to the rank of the upper-merchant at Batavia, which was a capital of the Dutch East Indies.

In 1724 he served on the post of Governor of Ambroina in Ternate, and in 1729 he was appointed Governor of Ceylon in Colombo instead of Pieter Vuyst who was dismissed and executed for his misdeeds. However, Stephanus didn’t hold that post for a long time either since he was also dismissed in 1732 due to the “financial malpractice”.

Sentenced to prison by the Council of Justice in Batavia, he was released on 50,000 rijksdaalders bail. Versluys never returned to the Netherlands and died in Batavia in 1736.