Jean-Pierre Pury was an explorer, geographer and colonist from the Principality of Neuchatel, a Prussian principality in modern-day Switzerland.
12 Facts About Jean-Pierre Pury
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Jean-Pierre Pury then worked as a corporal for the Dutch East India Company, which inspired him to found his own colony.
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Jean-Pierre Pury established the Colony of Purrysburg and lived as a planter on 12,000 acres.
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Jean-Pierre Pury's colony, made up of mostly Swiss Protestants, was relatively unsuccessful.
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Jean-Pierre Pury's father, who was a tradesman of tin pottery, died when he was an infant.
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Jean-Pierre Pury's mother remarried to Louis Quinche, a patrician and member of the Grand Council of Neuchatel.
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Jean-Pierre Pury's mother died in 1695 and left him a small inheritance.
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Jean-Pierre Pury exported wine from Neuchatel to Holland and England, but the venture did not provide enough income for his family.
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Jean-Pierre Pury had been made a Corporal for Dutch East India Company and helped lead the Huguenot congregation in Batavia.
10.
Jean-Pierre Pury presented the concepts to Christophel von Swol, the Governor of Batavia, with the hopes of being granted permission to start his own colonies in Australia or Southern Africa, but was dismissed.
11.
The colony was relatively unsuccessful, and Jean-Pierre Pury died of malaria in 1736.
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Jean-Pierre Pury was succeeded by his son, Charles, as head of the colony.