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Leopold Willem Ras (1760s–1823) was a Dutch merchant-trader and diplomat.

Life

Ras was the son of Joannes Henricus Ras and Magdalena Elisabeth Putkamer, who baptized children in Lillo (Antwerp) [nl; fr], a town at the mouth of the Scheldt river. In June 1785, Ras sailed from Fort Frederik-Hendrik Berendrecht [fr; nl] near his hometown as a ship's boy on board the Alblasserdam to work in East Asia with the Dutch East Indies Company (or Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch). His father had apparently died before his departure, and until 1805 Ras sent payments home to his mother, Magdalena Elisabeth Putkamer.

Before 1798, Ras was sent to Japan as a records keeper/bookkeeper or warehouseman. At this point in Japanese history, the sole VOC outpost (or "factory") was situated on Dejima island in the harbor of Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu.

Ras became acting Opperhoofd or chief negotiant and officer of the VOC trading post. His role had to change after the death of Dejima's chief official, Gijsbert Hemmij. In 1798, Hemmij died at Kanegawa near Edo during the return journey to Nagasaki after a formal audience at the shogun's court in Edo.

The difficulties Ras confronted were exacerbated by a fire which destroyed the VOC warehouse and other structures on Dejima.

Ras resigned from his post on 30 June 1800. He married Christina Abigael Versteegh, with whom he had two daughters before 1815 on Banda Neira in the Moluccas. Ras died there 4 March 1823.

See also

• VOC Opperhoofden in Japan
• William Robert Stewart

Notes

1. Ras and Putkamer at openarch.nl
2. The area including Lillo, Berendrecht, Fort Lillo and Fort Frederik-Hendrik was part of the Dutch Republic between 1747 and 1786, when it was ceded to the Austrian Netherlands as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785).
3. ^ Leopold Willem Ras, on June 13, 1785 in the service of the Dutch East India Company at OpenArchives
4. National Archives of the Netherlands: "Inventaris van de archieven van de Nederlandse Factorij in Japan te Hirado en te Deshima, 1609-1860," p. 19.
5. ^ Janetta, Ann Bowman. (2007). The Vaccinators: Smallpox, Medical Knowledge, and the "Opening" of Japan, p. 209 n. 13., p. 209, at Google Books
6. Historiographical Institute. (1963). Historical documents relating to Japan in foreign countries, pp. 57-58.
7. Genealogy of Hoboken family
8. Kwartierstaat van Jeanne Antoinette Lewis (Genealogy of ....)

References

• Gourlay, Walter E. (2008). "A Camel for the Shogun: William Robert Stewart and the Deshima Connection" (abstract;paper). ASPAC 2008. Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria University of Victoria, British Columbia
• Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo (東京大学史料編纂所, Tokyo daigaku shiryō hensan-jo). (1963). Historical documents relating to Japan in foreign countries: an inventory of microfilm acquisitions in the library of the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo. OCLC 450710
• Janetta, Ann Bowman. (2007). The Vaccinators: Smallpox, Medical Knowledge, and the "Opening" of Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804754897; OCLC 260125877
• Vialle, Cynthia and Ton Vermeulen. (1997). The Deshima Dagregisters: Their Original Tables of Contents, Vol. 10, 1790-1800. Leiden: Institute for the History of European Expansion. OCLC 634570173

External links

• De VOC site: Dejima history, opperhoofden (in Dutch)

• 1760s births
• 1823 deaths
• Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan
• Dutch expatriates in Japan
• Businesspeople from Antwerp