Lucretia Jans, or Lucretia van der Miles (Amsterdam 1602 – fl. 1641), was a suspected Dutch mutiny leader at the Dutch East Indies 1629.
She was the daughter of merchant Jan (or Hans) Meynertsz and Steffanie Joosten. She was married in 1620 to Boudewijn van der Miles (c. 1599–1629), diamond cutter, and 1630 to sergeant Jacob Cornelisz Cuick.
In October 1628, Jans embarked Netherlands on a ship, the Batavia, to reunite with her spouse in Batavia of the Dutch East Indies. On 4 June 1629, the ship was forced to lay anchor in Australia, and a team left for Batavia to provide help. Meanwhile, the crew mutinied under the leadership of Jeronimus Cornelisz, with the intent of creating a pirate ship. The women were used for sexual comfort and Jans was given to Cornelisz. Jans would at this point, with the rest of the women, have been the first western woman to have set foot in Australia.
When the rescue team arrived from Batavia, Cornelisz was executed on the scene of the crime and the rest were put on trial in Batavia. During the trial, however, Jans was pointed out as the true instigator and leader of the mutiny and the true power behind Cornelisz. Jans was put on trial and denied the charges. The court applied for permission to torture her, but it is unknown whether such a permission was granted. She seems to have been acquitted from the charges. She returned to the Netherlands in 1635.
In 1647, the mutiny was described in the publication Ongeluckige voyagie van ’t schip Batavia, which was based on the trial. This led to a law change which limited female passengers on ships on the grounds that it led to disturbances, with reference to the case.
The opera Batavia commissioned by Opera Australia, is based on historical events.