Abraham du Bois lived 1713-74, and was a director of the Rotterdam chamber of the VOC 1742-74.
The rules for election as a VOC director were stringent and complex, and sometimes gave rise to dubious business ethics. One of the most notorious cases was that of Abraham du Bois. In order to reach the qualification mark of 3000 gulden capital in Rotterdam VOC shares, he is supposed to have borrowed shares from other parties and represented them as his own.
He had become a director of the chamber of the (less important) WIC (West Indies Company) just a year before, but the rules of the VOC obliged him to resign that post.
In other respects, he had a career typical of a successful man of his class. He studied law at the university of Leiden; belonged to the city council 1747-74; was a burgomaster many times during 1752-73; member of the Schieland water authority from 1750; Maecenas of the Batavian Fellowship 1769-72; lord of Molenaarsgraaf, Giessen and Steenhuizen.
He married Geertruda Jacoba Visch in 1742, and at some time after 1744 Jacoba Margaretha Lestevenon.
Circumstances
It was customary during the 18th century for the portrait of every director to be hung in the great hall of the Company's premises in Rotterdam.
