Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

(Receiver General) of the United Provinces. Doubleth was in turn married to Geertruyd
Huygens, sister of Constantijn Huygens, Secretaris to Frederik Hendrik, the Prince of Orange.
This marriage therefore placed Specx firmly within the inner circles of the Dutch aristocracy.
Finally, in 1642 Specx became a director of the Amsterdam chamber of the WIC and, two years
later, served as the company's chief spokesman during crucial negotiations at the States of
Holland over renewal of the company's charter. He thus had ties to three key constituencies:
Amsterdam merchants, the financial, cultural, and political elite at The Hague, and the company
itself. 47
Burgh and Baute approached Specx on April 25, but with little success: Specx indicated
that he was eager to be of service to the company, and offered to conduct a review of the
company's various overseas possessions, but he refused the office of President in Brazil. 48 The
Heren XIX were not satisfied with this response and resolved to approach Specx again. Specx
held his ground, though, and on May 2 Burch and Baute were authorized to approach the second
candidate on the list, Bernard Julsinck, then Burgemeester of Groningen. Like Specx, Julsinck
was a shareholder in the company, and from 1631, a director of the Groningen chamber. In the
fall of 1641 and 1644 he represented Groningen at meetings of the Heren XIX. Unlike Specx,
however, Julsink's experience was squarely in city government, rather than colonial affairs. He
was Secretaris to the provincial Hoofdmanskamer (High Council) from 1618-1620, a
representative to the Generaliteitsrekenkamer (General Accounting Office) from 1622-1624,
curator of the city's academy in 1627, and either Hoofdman or Burgemeester almost every year
47 See Den Heijer, “Plannen voor Samenvoeging van VOC en WIC.” On Specx connections to the Huygens family,
see Kees Zandvliet, ed., De 250 Rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw: Kapitaal, Macht, Familie en Levensstijl (Nieuw
Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2006), 46.
48 NA 1.01.07 inv.nr. 12564.17, Extract van de vergadering van de Heren XIX, 2 May 1645 en 17 Juny 1645. It
appears that Specx fulfilled this promise: see his review of WIC finances in each of the conquest areas in NA
1.10.78 inv.nr. 8, fols. 115-120, treated in detail in Chapter Six of this dissertation.
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