[1] She was the daughter of the official Joost Koek (1731-1790) and Catharina de Roth.
She married in 1778 to the official Joan George Abeleven (1747-1781), and in 1781 to Abraham Couperus (1752-1813), governor of Malacca 1788-1795.
Her mother was born as the illegitimate daughter of a European man and a freed slave, which was not at all uncommon of her class.
She was also a friendly and warm person who behaved in accordance with European etiquette; all very common and in the habits of the colonists of the Dutch East Indies, but considered by other Europeans at the time as a sign of the decadence of the Dutch East Indies.
[2] She astonished the British who met her in 1795, when Dutch Malacca was taken by Great Britain and she and her family were taken captive to Tranquebar in India.