Map of the suburb Zeelandia in Paramaribo

Title Leupe: Plan van de voorstad Combé.

In 1785, on the orders of Governor Wichers, 45 garden plots (no export crops were allowed to be grown on them) of about 50 acres each were assigned along the river between Paramaribo and the redoubt Purmerend. They were known as the Combées, a name associated with Nicolaas Combé, an official who had owned a small plantation in this area just north of Fort Zeelandia in the late 17th century. In February 1797 Governor Juriaan François de Friderici (1790-1802) decided it was necessary to extend the town. For this purpose he had had the lands between the Sommelsdijckse Creek and the small plantations given out by Wichers, some 33 acres in all, divided into 66 plots to be assigned to private buyers. Sent along with his report was this allotment plan. It shows the new extension around a central square, as it was originally designed. The latter was never realized but is, for instance, still shown on Hiemcke’s large map of Paramaribo from 1806 (see 4.MIKO 348 in the National Archives of the Netherlands). From the beginning, the new residential neighbourhood came to be referred to as Combé, as were the lands previously assigned by Wichers, but its official name was Voorstad Zeelandia (Surburb of Zeelandia).

North is upper left.