Van Angelbeek was born in East Frisia in 1727 and in 1751 left the Netherlands for the East, in the ship "Schakenbos",[2] travelling to India and Batavia and returning to the Netherlands in 1755.

In 1756, he joined the Dutch East India Company returning to the Indian Ocean and serving as a merchant at Batavia and in Bengal.

In 1764 he took an official position in the capital of Dutch Ceylon at Colombo and in 1767 moved to the port of Tuticorin in India, serving as Koopman and eventually becoming senior official of the port in 1770, retaining the position until 1783.

Most of the Dutch ports fell rapidly, Colombo the last to surrender in February 1796.

He was married to Jacomina Lever and had two children, both his son Christian and his son-in-law Willem Jacob van de Graaf, husband of his daughter Christina Elisabeth van Angelbeek,[4] were prominent in the administration of the Dutch Indian Ocean colonies.