Louis Sansoni
Postmaster General of Ceylon
In office
1816 - 1825
Preceded byEgbert Bletterman
Succeeded byGeorge William Stewart
Personal details
Born
Louis Guiseppi Sansoni

c.1775
Died10 February 1831(1831-02-10) (aged 55–56)
Galle, Ceylon
Resting placeDutch Church, Galle fort
NationalityItalian
SpouseLydia née Twynam m.1828
ChildrenJoseph
ParentGuiseppi (Joseph) Sansoni
Occupationpublic servant

Louis Sansoni (c.1775 - 10 February 1831) served as the second Postmaster General of Ceylon, between 1816 and 1825.[1][2]

Louis Guiseppi Sansoni was born c.1775, the second son of Guiseppi (Joseph) Sansoni, the Italian commander of the trading ship Livorna (named after the Italian city of Livorno).[3] Guiseppi was employed by the Dutch East India Company and the ship voyaged between Europe and India/Ceylon in the 1630s to 1830s.[4] Sansoni's older brother, Joseph (1770-1800), was the garrison surgeon at Galle.[5] Sansoni's name was often incorrectly anglicised as Lewis.[6][7]

He served as the Custom master in Jaffna between 1813 and 1815.[8] He was appointed as deputy Postmaster General on 1 September 1816 and took over the role as Postmaster General on 1 October 1816, following the retirement of Egbert Bletterman.[8] A position he remained in until 1825, when he was appointed Collector of Revenue and Customs for Galle and Matara, a position he served as until his death in 1831.[9] He was also the private secretary to two Pusine Justices, Sir W. Corke and H. Byrne, between 1816 and 1820.[8][10] During his tenure as Postmater General he was responsible for establishing the Kandy General Post Office and the Galle Fort Post Office in 1820.

Sansoni's first marriage is unrecorded but he had one son, Joseph, (1800-1857), who in 1824 married Maria Elisabeth Atkinson (1805-1880), the daughter of George Atkinson, the second Surveyor General, in Colombo. Joseph had a second marriage in 1832 to Sara Henrietta Staats (1814-1864).

Sansoni married Lydia Twynam (1810-1892), sister of Captain Thomas Holloway Twynam (1794-1869), Master Attendant of Trincomalee and Point-de-Galle, on 26 February 1828, at the Episcopal Church, Galle.[8][11] They had no children. He died on 10 February 1831[12] and was buried at the Dutch Church in Galle.[6] His wife Lydia returned to England by the ship Symmetry, and in 1834 married Thomas Swindale Harvey of the firm of Hancock and Harvey, tea merchants.

References

  1. ↑ Sueter, Edward Beaumont Fraser, ed. (1913). The Ceylon Manual, for the Use of Officials: Comprising Historical, Statistical, and Other Information Concerning the Island and Its Administration, for 1912-1913. A. M. & J. Ferguson. p. 125.
  2. ↑ Ferguson's Ceylon Directory for 1944. Colombo: Ceylon Observer Press. 1944. p. 134.
  3. ↑ Orizio, Riccardo (2001). Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe. Simon and Schuster. p. 30. ISBN 9780743211970.
  4. ↑ Tazzara, Corey (2017). The Free Port of Livorno and the Transformation of the Mediterranean World, 1574-1790. Oxford University Press. p. 60-61. ISBN 9780198791584.
  5. ↑ Altendorff, D. V. (1955). "The Journal of the Dutch Burger Union" (PDF). Genealogy of the Family of Sansoni of Ceylon. 49: 35.
  6. 1 2 Lewis, John Penry (1916). Ceylon in early British times. Times of Ceylon Company, Limited. p. 44.
  7. ↑ Jamaldeen, Naalir (6 October 2013). "Modern technology for post offices - Networking of post offices already begun". The Sunday Observer. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Lewis, John Penry (1913). List of inscriptions on tombstones and monuments in Ceylon, of historical or local interest, with an obituary of persons uncommemorated. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 183.
  9. ↑ "The Ceylon Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1830". Nicholas Bergman. 1830: 126. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ↑ "Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons". 4. House of Commons. 1820: 89. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ↑ "The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia". 26. Parbury, Allen, and Company. 1828: 752. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ↑ "The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia". 6. Parbury, Allen, and Company. 1831: 23. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Further reading

  • Proud, Edward Wilfrid Baxby (2006). The Postal History of Ceylon. Proud Bailey Company Limited. ISBN 9781872465395.
  • Liyanage, Michael (1987). The History of the Sri Lanka Post Office: 1815-1987. Colombo: Union of Post & Telecommunication Officers, Sri Lanka.
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