BORTHWICK, GEORGE [SSNE 6862]
- Surname
- BORTHWICK
- First name
- GEORGE
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Region
- EDINBURGH?
Text source
George Borthwick probably came from Edinburgh and went into Dutch service in the East Indies with the VOC. He is mentioned in a letter of James Spens [SSNE 6860] was a soldier who served in Sweden and in the Dutch VOC. Spens met up with George in Amstyerdam soon after leaving Dutch service. He was clearly known to him from Scotland as James asked his parents to greet Borthwick's wife and their mutual friends at home in Edinburgh. The men enlisted on the VOC ship the Leiden on 17 November 1631 and the Leiden sailed out of the Dutch Republic on 11 December 1631. The ship continued on from the Texel to Sierra Leone on the Guinea Coast and then to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies in service of the VOC, where it arrived by 16 July 1632.
Sources: National Archives of Scotland, RH9/2/231-242, 12x letters of James Spens to his mother, wife and father 1617-1632, particularly Amsterdam, 12 November 1631.
Amsterdam Notarial Archief, no. 5075, inv.nr. 583, aktenummer 215797, 17-11-1631.
Alexia Grosjean, Steve Murdoch and Siobhan Talbott, 'Drummer Major James Spens: Letters from a Common Soldier Abroad, 1617-1632' in Northern Studies no.47 (2015), pp. 76-101
On the Leiden: https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=11729&fbclid=IwAR1Nat690XOnH5pb6qBznKwLB1LcUJSbrj1EteIF1rkrsQxxyhYg0A6WFI0
This entry updated by Mr Jack Abernethy.
Service record
- THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, AMSTERDAM
- Arrived 1631-11-12
- Capacity VOC SOLDIER, purpose MILITARY
- THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, BATAVIA , VOC, DUTCH EAST INDIES, JAVA, SIERRA LEONE GUINEA
- Arrived 1632-02-23
- Capacity VOC SOLDIER, purpose MILITARY