IJsbrand Godske

IJsbrand Godske (also spelled Isbrand, Usbrand, Goske, or Godsken) ( 1626 – after 1689) was the second Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony. After the death of Governor Pieter Hackius's on 30 November 1671, Godske was appointed to succeed him with the title of Governor and Councillor Extraordinary of India. For the time it took him to arrive at the Cape, first the Political Council and from 23 March 1672 to 2 October 1672, the secunde, Albert van Breugel, acted as governor.

Early life Godske was the eldest son of Johan Goske of Holstein, an armourer to the Prince of Orange, and his wife Aefgen IJsbrants of the Hague. His birthday is unknown, but, in a legal document dated 12 September 1671, his age is given as forty-five.

In March 1664 Godske again left for the East Indies and while at the Cape, in 1665, recommended a suitable site for the new fort or castle which was to replace the existing Fort de Goede Hoop. On 11 November 1665, two days after his arrival at Batavia, he became commander of Dutch Malabar and on 1 September 1668 director of the VOC factory at Gamron in Persia, a position he held until 1670. As commander of the return fleet he arrived again at the Cape in 1671. During his three and a half weeks stay at the Cape, he made several decisions concerning the fortification of the settlement and made many recommendations about administration in the instructions which he left for Commander Pieter Hackius. Godske was sent to preserve the peace at the time of Third Anglo-Dutch War. Needed in the Netherlands after the war's end, he returned there in 1676.