MAETSUYKER, JOAN

(1606–1678). Legal advisor and official. Maetsuyker entered the service of the Dutch East India Companyin 1636 as a legal advisor. At the request of Governor-General An thony van Diemen, he codified the many laws and regulations into a more systematic statute book, the Bataviase Statuten(1642; revised 1766). In 1642, he was appointed a member of the Court of India in Batavia. Between 1646 and 1651, Maetsuyker served as governor of Ceylon, and from 1653, he was governor-general of the Netherlands East Indies.