Adriana Bake

Adriana Johanna Bake (1724 - 1787) was a Dutch governor's wife.

She was born to David Johan Baker (1689–1738), governor of Amboina, and Ida Dudde (1691-1766). She married commander Anthonij Guldenarm (1701–1743), and in 1743 Petrus Albertus van der Parra (1714–1775), general governor of Batavia in 1755-1775.

She was the first governor's wife not born in the Netherlands, and in the position, she became the first hostess of Weltevreden in 1763, and known as the hostess of many spectacular parties with theater, dance and illuminations and festivals. Her hospitality, simple taste and pious nature, which was not common in contemporary colonial society, was admired: she financed translations of the bible, converted her slaves and freed them in her will. She was depicted as an ideal wife in the contemporary Dutch colony, and her family life as a role model for other colonial families. She was the foster mother of a large network of East Indie foster children, many of whom were later to become power holders in the Dutch East Indies.

References

• Adrienne Zuiderweg, Bake, Adriana Johanna, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/BakeAdriana [13/01/2014]