NO. 58. — 1907.] JOAN GIDEON LOTEN, F.R.S. 



257 



First, as regards the artist de Bevere, I have had no diffi- 

 culty in identifying him as Peter de Bevere, son of David 

 Willemsz de Bevere, an assistant in the Civil Service of the 

 Dutch East India Company. The father, David Willemsz de 

 Bevere, was born in Batavia, whence he appears to have come 

 over to Ceylon some time previous to 2nd March 1721 . On that 

 date he married, at Colombo, for the first time, Christina de 

 Kelcq, natural daughter of Willem de Kelcq (or Kelk), master 

 sailmaker, by one Anna Coere, who, to judge from her name, 

 must have been of Portuguese descent. The only issue of this 

 marriage was the artist Pieter de Bevere, who was baptized at 

 Colombo on the 20th September 1722, with the names Pieter 

 Cornelis. David Willemsz de Bevere afterwards made a 

 second marriage, by which he left several other children. 

 The record of Pieter de Bevere's appointments in the 

 Company's service is as follows : — 



1743, appointed Assistant Land Surveyor on 10 guilders 

 per month. 



1748, advanced to 16 guilders. 



1754, advanced to 24 guilders. 



1757, advanced to 30 guilders. 

 All these promotions were in the usual order except the last, 

 in which he obtains the status and the salary corresponding to 

 that of a Boekhouder in the Civil Service before the expiration 

 of his former bond, an indication, very probably, of the patron- 

 age he was under. It was in this last year that he is said to 

 have accompanied Governor Loten to Batavia. I am sorry 

 I have failed to get any further trace of him in the records ; 

 but sufficient presumptive evidence of his return to Ceylon 

 is, I think, afforded by an old book which came into my posses- 

 sion accidentally some fifteen years ago. It contains studies 

 in figure drawing from designs by the old Dutch artist Abra- 

 ham Bloemart, and appears to have at one time been the 

 property of Pieter de Bevere ; because, inscribed in ink, in a 

 neat and elegant handwriting, on several pages of the book, 

 occur the words : " Van Pieter de Bevere, Batavia den 10 

 Maart 1758."* There is also a later endorsement : " Den 



* ' 4 Belongs to Pieter de Bevere, Batavia, 10th March 1758." 



