Petrus Albertus van der Parra was born in
Colombo, the son of a Secretary to the government of
Ceylon. His great-grandfather had come to
India and the family has lived there ever since. In 1728, he began his career at fourteen years old. As everyone had to start as a soldier, he began as a "
soldaat van de penne", then became an "
assistent" in 1731, and "
boekhouder" (bookkeeper) in 1732. He had to move house in 1736 to take up a new job as "
onderkoopman" (underbuyer/undermerchant), and at the same time "
collectionist" (collector) and "boekhouder" to the General Secretary at
Batavia/Jakarta. He became "
koopman" (buyer/merchant) and "
geheimschrijver" (secrets secretary) in 1739. He became
Second Secretary to the
High Government (Hoge Regering), becoming First Secretary in 1747. He became
Counsellor-extraordinary of the Indies later that year (November) and in 1751 became a regular Counsellor. In 1752 he became President of the
College van Heemraden (in charge of estate boundaries, roads, etc.). He was later a member of the "
Schepenbank" (the local government and court in Batavia), a
Regent (a board member) of the hospital and in 1755 he became First Counsellor and Director-General (
Eerste Raad en Directeur-Generaal) On 15 May 1761, following the death of
Jacob Mossel, he became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Confirmation of his appointment by the
Heren XVII (the
Seventeen Lords, who controlled the Dutch East India Company) came in 1762. He held a lavish inauguration on his birthday on 29 September. Subsequently, his birthday was a national holiday in the Indies. During his time as Governor-General, he overthrew the
Prince of Kandy, in
Ceylon, though with difficulty, and he conquered the sultanate of
Siak in
Sumatra. Contracts were entered into with various regional leaders in
Bima,
Soembawa,
Dompo,
Tambora,
Sangar and
Papekat. Van der Parra often gave out well-paid posts to his friends if he could get anything in return for them. Preachers in Batavia got gifts, translations of the
New Testament and scholarships from Van der Parra. Although the Heren XVII knew about his behaviour, as five Counsellors had written to them about his pretensions to kingly behaviour, they did nothing about it. In 1770,
Captain James Cook had to ask for his help to proceed on his journeys on
HMS Endeavour (See
Captain Cook's Journal, First Voyage/Chapter 9). At the end of the 19th century, a steamship trading to the Indies was named after him. After over fourteen years in power, he died on 28 September 1775 in
Weltevreden, the imposing palace built for him outside
Batavia. He left a large part of his fortune to the widows of
Colombo, with the remainder going to the poor of Batavia. He was followed as governor by
Jeremias van Riemsdijk He was married to
Adriana Johanna Bake. ==References==