When he was 15 he left as an able-bodied seaman aboard a Fluyt (a type of Dutch sailing cargo vessel) called de Haringthuyn, bound for the Indies.

As his family had a coat of arms, he was able to obtain a privileged position, through Dirk van Cloon, and was sent to the Dutch Coromandel (1721).

On 30 March 1730, he married Adriana Appels, the fourteen-year-old stepdaughter of Adriaan van Pla, Governor of Dutch Coromandel.

When in 1750, Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff died, Mossel succeeded him as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.

[citation needed] Jacob Mossel ruled the Indies during a period in which things got steadily worse for the Dutch East India Company.