| Office | Governor of Dannemarksnagore
|
|---|---|
| Term start | 28 October 1706 |
| Term end | 30 August 1709 |
| Predecessor | Johan Joachim Michelsen |
| Successor | Wolff Ravn
|
| Born | Template:Circa |
| Born | Template:Interlanguage link, Denmark–Norway |
| Died | 29 May 1719 |
| Place of death | Tranquebar, Danish India
|
| Spouse | Template:Ubl |
| Children | 3, including Template:Interlanguage link
|
Jacob Pedersen PanckTemplate:Efn (alternative spelled Jakob and Panch; Template:Circa – 29 May 1719) was a Danish landowner and colonial administrator, being Governor of Dannemarksnagore from 28 October 1706 to 3 September 1709.
Panck was born in Template:Interlanguage link in about 1648 and began his career as a merchant, later becoming Template:Langx (an executive councillor) of Aalborg in 1678. Continuing in 1680, he became a member of the Guds Legems Lav (Template:Literal translation), but resigned as Template:Langx in 1683. Additionally, he owned 13 properties, being the third largest landowner in Aalborg in 1682. In some of the properties, he got permission to operate hotels (Template:Langx), making him the most notable contemporary hotel owner in the city.
In 1706, he came to the Danish colony of Tranquebar, although he was quickly moved to the Danish factory in Bengal, Dannemarksnagore, where he became governor after Johan Joachim Michelsen's death on 28 October 1706. During his tenure, Panck defended the colony during a siege against a local Mughal governor and had to rebuild and repair various parts of the factory.
He returned to Tranquebar in 1709, eventually advancing to Template:Langx (second-in-command) of the colony's Privy Council (Template:Langx) in 1716 before resigning due to his age in 1717. He died on 29 May 1719 in Tranquebar.
Life in Denmark
Jacob Panck was born in Template:Interlanguage linkTemplate:Sfn in about 1648 to town clerkTemplate:Sfn and later byfoged,Template:Sfn Peder Panck,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Alhed Jacobsdatter Grill.Template:Sfn
Panck began his career as a merchant,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and on 18 May 1678,Template:Sfn he became Template:Langx (an executive councillor) of Aalborg.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Followingly, on 2 November 1680, he became a member of the Guds Legems Lav (Template:Literal translation), which was a powerful merchant guild in Aalborg.Template:Sfn On 26 June 1683,Template:Sfn he resigned as Template:LangxTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with royal permission.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Panck initially lived at 5 Template:Interlanguage link, Aalborg,Template:Efn and owned 13 properties in the city, making him the third largest landowner there in 1682.Template:Sfn This included 12 Template:Interlanguage link, bought for 18 Danish rigsdaler in 1682,Template:Sfn 52 Template:Interlanguage link, which was rented out,Template:Sfn and 13 Template:Interlanguage link,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which his later wife, Ane Harding, inherited from her mother in 1685.Template:Sfn Here, he would eventually reside,Template:Sfn where he also obtained permission to operate a hotel (Template:Langx)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn in 1694Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn from King Christian V.Template:Sfn
Panck was the most notable contemporary hotel owner in AalborgTemplate:Sfn and possibly one of the first in the city's history.Template:Sfn His hotel included good accommodations, as well as a courtyard (Template:Langx) and a horse stableTemplate:Sfn and was expanded on 23 July 1700,Template:Sfn when Panck received 15 Bispensgade next door.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Career in India
In 1706, Panck and his family came to the Danish colony of Tranquebar,Template:Sfn where he was employed in the Danish East India Company as an assistant; however, he was soon moved to the Danish factory in Bengal, Dannemarksnagore.Template:Sfn
Governor of Dannemarksnagore
Template:See also When the governor of Dannemarksnagore, Johan Joachim Michelsen, died on 28 October 1706,Template:Sfn Panck became Interim Governor, as he was the oldest assistant in the colony.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Upon his assumption as governor, Panck revealed Michelsen's accounts to be in complete disorder and now had to negotiate with his creditors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The local creditors demanded that the Template:Abbr should repay all of Michelsen's debt,Template:Sfn and Panck also had a dispute with them concerning the cargo of the vessel Printz Carl,Template:Sfn which had groundedTemplate:Sfn during a voyage to PersiaTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn in 1705.Template:Sfn Additionally, he removed a drunken and lustful assistant, named Christian Crotz, who had caused disruption in the colony.Template:Sfn
Meanwhile, the D.E.I.C. was dissatisfied with the cargo Panck sent to Tranquebar, and Tranquebar's Privy Council (Template:Langx) saw him as inchoate as governor.Template:Sfn Consequently, on 20 July 1707,Template:Sfn Christen Brun-Lundegaard was sent to Dannemarksnagore as an accountant (Template:Lang)Template:Sfn and commissioner.Template:Sfn However, before Brun-lundegaard reached the colony, the conditions there changed:Template:Sfn As Panck declined to repay Michelsen's debt until the colony got money from Tranquebar, the faujdar of Hooghly now demanded larger gifts from the Danes and raised the tariffs. Subsequently, Panck started to fortify the factory, putting both personnel and the factory in the best possible defensive condition.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, the Mughal subahdar of Bengal, Azim-ush-Shan, still began to besiege the factory, although the siege was lifted after Panck agreed to give Azim-ush-Shan some gifts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
In August 1707,Template:Sfn Christen Brun-Lundegaard reached DannemarksnagoreTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with money and resources,Template:Sfn and successfully continued Panck's negotiations with Michelsen's creditors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Meanwhile, Panck discovered that a Danish captain, Adrian Blaumhagen, had practiced embezzlement, and his case was subsequently brought before the court.Template:Sfn In February 1708, Brun-Lundegaard departed again from Dannemarksnagore, as he had left the colony behind with money sufficient for one year.Template:Sfn Panck used this money to improve the factory,Template:Sfn which was in bad shapeTemplate:Sfn and built with weak materials.Template:Sfn As such, the factory's largest warehouse had to be rebuilt as it had collapsed, while the beams over the hall and the main gate were close to disintegrating.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Additionally, Panck had to replace a defensive earth bastion with a tall stone fortification during the siege,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn although much still had to be built from scratch.Template:Sfn Furthermore, although there still was a tariff dispute with the faujdar of Hooghly, the relationship between the Mughals and the Danes had improvedTemplate:Sfn after Panck acquired the village of TellingaporeTemplate:Sfn for the D.E.I.C. for a yearly payment of 169 rupees.Template:Sfn
Already at his assumption, Panck was called an aging man, and in 1708,Template:Sfn he is referred to as being weak,Template:Sfn about 60 years old,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and afflicted with a hernia.Template:Sfn Despite this, he is mentioned as being honorable and capable, yet deemed unfit to serve as opperhoved because of his age, but also because of his jealousy.Template:Sfn Consequently, the Indian historian Lalit Mohan Mitra includes him in a broader categorization of incompetent governors of Dannemarksnagore, claiming he did little to further Danish trade in the colony.Template:Sfn On the contrary, Danish colonial historian Kay Larsen differentiates between Panck and those governors who practised embezzlement,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn stating that the office was burdensome because of harsh circumstances.Template:Sfn
Leaving Dannemarksnagore
Nevertheless, Panck eventually sought to return to Tranquebar,Template:Sfn as the Danish officials in the colony were distrustworthy and uncontrollable.Template:Sfn As such, Panck left the colony aboard the vessel Fortuna around January 1709, but had to return as the ship was damaged while going down the Hooghly River.Template:Sfn Followingly, letters about Panck's desire to resign were sent to Tranquebar by land,Template:Sfn and on 30 August 1709, Wolff Ravn was chosen as the new opperhoved of the colony.Template:Sfn Subsequently, the yacht Gyldenløve departed from Tranquebar on 3 SeptemberTemplate:Sfn with Ravn on board,Template:Sfn reaching Dannemarksnagore soon after.Template:Sfn Panck consequently left the colony again around January 1710 on the Gyldenløve, but also Gyldenløve got damaged, and Panck had to stay in Balasore, only coming to Tranquebar on 9 October.Template:Sfn
Time in Tranquebar
At Tranquebar, Panck became a cashier (Template:Langx) and fourth-in-command of the Privy Council,Template:Sfn as an acknowledgement of his fairness and firmness.Template:Sfn Additionally, he became Template:Langx (churchwarden responsible for a church's maintenance),Template:Sfn and in 1713, he became the chief justice (Template:Langx) of the court in a case against Wolff Ravn,Template:Sfn who also had practiced embezzlement in Dannemarksnagore.Template:Sfn Continuing in late 1714, Panck was installed as lower merchant (Template:Langx) and became third-in-command of the Privy CouncilTemplate:Sfn in 1716,Template:Sfn as the company management did not find any other suitable for the position.Template:Sfn Furthermore, he advanced as Template:Langx (second-in-command) of the Privy Council on 20 October 1716, and became chief justice again in the same year in another case.Template:Sfn
On 2 November 1717, the company management in Copenhagen decided to dismiss Panck due to his age, and he immediately resigned when the management's letter reached Tranquebar on 3 September 1718.Template:Sfn
Personal life
Panck was first married on 9 February 1676Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn to Maren Thøgersdatter,Template:Sfn who was the daughter of Template:Langx Thøger Christensen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, she died on 11 June 1689, and Panck remarried on 1 November the same yearTemplate:Sfn with Ane Harding,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn who was the daughter of Template:Langx Harding Petersen.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Together with Harding, they had three children:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Peter Panck, later Template:Langx (a regional economic official),Template:Sfn Template:Interlanguage linkTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn (Template:Born in),Template:Sfn later governor of Tranquebar,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Vilhelmus Panck.Template:Sfn
Jacob Panck died soon after his resignation, on 29 May 1719,Template:Efn in Tranquebar,Template:Sfn and Harding was in Denmark soon after.Template:Sfn Of his three sons, only Paul Krisk Panck was in Tranquebar at his death.Template:Sfn
See also
Notes and citations
Notes
Citations
References
- Guvernører, residenter, kommandanter og chefer{{#if:Larsen|, Larsen}. Arthur Jensens Forlag(1940)
- De dansk-ostindiske koloniers historie – De Bengalske loger & Nikobarerne{{#if:Larsen|, Larsen}. Centralforlaget & Peter Hansens Forlag(1908)
- The Danes in Bengal{{#if:Mitra|, Mitra}. Prabartak Publishers(September 1952)
- Jens Carl Christian Bertelsen og Emmy Cecilie Kall, deres for- og efterslægt{{#if:Wangel|, Wangel}. J. Wangels Forlag(1996)
- Mester Willem på Bispensgade. Fra Himmerland og Kjær herred({Template:Date).
- Fra Himmerland og Kjær herred 1971{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Historisk Samfund for Himmerland og Kjær Herred(1971)
- Algade i Aalborg. Fra Himmerland og Kjær herred({Template:Date).
- Af Bispensgades saga. Fra Himmerland og Kjær herred({Template:Date).
- Paul Krisk Panck, Gøbel, Erik. Danmarks Nationalleksikon(15 September 2025). Retrieved 12 April 2026.
- Personal-historiske Notitser om Embeds- og Bestillingsmænd i Aalborg i Fortid og Nutid{{#if:Nielsen|, Nielsen}. Jydske Historisk-Topografiske Selskab & Marinus M. Schultz(1879)
- Aalborg Købmænd gennem 500 Aar{{#if:Klitgaard|, Klitgaard}. Adolph Holst A/S & Aalborg Handelsstandsforening(1931)
- Himmerlandske herredsfogeder by- og birkefogeder samt -skrivere{{#if:Færch|, Færch}. Sammenslutningen af Slægtshistoriske Foreninger(2011). ISBN 978-87-90331-48-1
- Bidrag til Aalborg Bys Historie{{#if:Wulff|, Wulff}. Jydske Historisk-Topografiske Selskab & Marinus M. Schultz(1893)
- Two missionary accounts of Southeast Asia in the late Seventeenth Century{{#if:Smith|, Smith}. Arc Humanities Press(31 December 2019). ISBN 978-1641893183
- Anetavle for Jens Christensen (Bertelsen) 1798-1886 og hustru Mette Marie Christensdatter 1810-1895{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Slægtsarkivet(1907)