Grant ( 15 October 1692) to free-blacks Marquart van Ceijlon aka Paaij Ceijlon [from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka] & Jan Lui(j) / Leeuw van Ceijlon – farm registered as Jan Lui [ie ‘belonging to’]
1712
Jan Lui sells to Anna Haecks: / Hoeks:
1715
Anna Hoeks: donates to son Jacob Hasselaar (dies 1719) (from Middelburg) – marries castiesMaria Elisabeth van Coningshoven
1755
Anna Hasselaar (1705-1790) daughter of Jacob Hasselaar & Maria Elisabeth van Coningshoven from whom inherits 6 Jonkershoek farms; marries Christoffel Groenewald (dies ante 1761); mother gives 2 upper farms, Old Nectar & Jonkershoek, as gift (1755) acquiring other 4 farms; sells 2 (1761) upper farms to son Jacob Groenewald but retains others till she dies.
1761
Jacob Groenewald (born 1734) son of Anna Hasselaar & Christoffel Groenewald acquires Old Nectar & Jonkershoek from mother (1761) & transfers them to 2 of his brothers (1774); marries (1stly) 1766 Martha Susanna Conterman marries (2ndly) 1774 Susanna Durand marries (3rdly) 1783 Wilhelmina Catharina van Gent; as church elder argues in favour of re-establishment of Genadendal (Baviaanskloof) mission (1793) & member of church group evangelising slaves, starting religious instruction on Sunday afternoons & evenings & who set up school for slave children at own expense.
1774
Johannes Caspar Groenewald & Christoffel Groenewald – half-brothers each acquire half-share each of Old Nectar & Jonkershoek (1774) from brother Jacob Groenewald
1787 / 1801
Christoffel Groenewald buys in private arrangement (1787) Johannes Caspar Groenewald`s half share of both farms – confirmed (1801) – for f 1900; sells (1813) Jonkershoek for f 24,251 & Old Nectar for f 15,000. massive increases in price indicate considerable property improvements – certainly in wine production & very probably either he or brother build house at Old Nectar (core of present house) & another at Jonkershoek (now an outbuilding); marries cousin Maria Groenewald (1786)
1813
Coenraad Johannes Albertyn (born 1768) – mother is Anna Hasselaar / Groenewald’s daughter & grandmother is widow of Jan de Jonker; marries (1787) Gertruida de Villiers (1788-1808); buys (1790) 4 lower farms in Valley: Mostertsdrift, Lanzerac, Klein Gustrouw (2 parts), from estate of Anna Hasselaar; sells these properties (1808); buys Old Nectar (1813), names it Nektar & builds house that stands today with gable (dated 1815): regranted large area around Old Nectar (1817): sells property (1823) for f76,884. 10 years earlier he had paid f 15,000 – 5-fold increase.
1823
Charles Gerhardus Marais (1792-1854) associated with attempts to improve quality of Cape wines, buys Old Nectar (1823) for f 76,884 (names it Nektar) & granted (1841) large tracts of land on both sides of valley at extremities of holding; farm sold (1847); picture of “Mr Maret’s house Jonkershoek” drawn by D’Oyly (18 October 1832); marries (1stly) 1815 Helena Johanna Krynauw & marries (2ndly) 1821 Petronella Johanna Elisabeth Nielen
1847
Jan Christiaan Marais (born c. 1822) buys Old Nectar (1847) from father Charles Gerhardus Marais (1792-1854) for £1,875, leasing it from 1841 for 10/- per annum & sells it (1854)
1854
Hendrik Ludolf Neethling (1801-1873) buys Old Nectar (1854) for £2,750 & sells it (1861) for £3,000 – marries (1831) Maria van der Byl (dies 1861) whose father owns Spier. Wife dies (1861) – same year Old Nectar is sold, perhaps as consequence.
1861-1896
Jacobus Petrus Roux I (born 1830) owns Old Nectar (1861 to 1896) & son owns it (till 1917); father Jacobus Petrus Roux owns Vredenburg & is closely linked to important Cape property families – sister marries ‘boomkweeker’ van der Byl of Lanzerac, another marries owner of Klein Gustrouw, 3rd marries owner of Jonkershoek & other siblings are also well-connected; bequeathes Old Nectar to son (1896) but lives till 1916.
1896
Jacobus Petrus Roux II acquires Old Nectar as a bequest from his father of same name (1896), though father does not die till 1916; in turn bequeathes farm to son of same name (1917).
1917
Jacobus Petrus Roux III acquires Old Nectar as bequest from father of same name (1917) & sells it 2 years later for £7.850.
1919
Douglas Pleman Tennant owns Old Nectar, which he names Glenconnor (1919-1937) – probably during period Arthur Elliott photographs it; buys for £7,850 & sells for £7,000 at time when property prices generally increased so few improvements seem likely
1937
Edward Stanley Murphy buys Old Nectar renaming it Glen Vashti (1937) for £7,000 – then 100 morgen; sells (1942) house & 12 acres for £3,200 – a much smaller property
1942
General Kenneth Reid van der Spuy (dies 1991) aviation pioneer buys Old Nectar (1942) while away ‘at the war’; wife is Una van der Spuy; his book Old Nectar and Roses describes conversion into a notable garden.
“The frequency of his [Olof Bergh’s] vacillation between free citizenship and Company officialdom has already been noted. In time the dichotomy between transferred officials and free-burghers would become blurred. In a sense Bergh was the precursor to future officials cum colonists and the increasing admission of patrician-type colonists into the colony’s administration …”
Johan Isaac RHENIUS (1750-1808)
Johan Isaac RHENIUS (1750-1808) serves as VOC secunde or 2nd-in-command during the final governorship (2 September 1793-16 September 1795) of the Dutch-occupied Cape of Good Hope under Commissioner-General Abraham Josias Sluijsken(1736-1799). He is the great-great-grandson of Maaij Ansela van Bengale (dies 1721) – the freed private slave who once belongs to the colony’s 1st VOC commander Jan van Riebeeck (1619-1677) and even serves as the colony’s acting governor (24 June 1791-3 July 1792) after the departure of Cornelis Jacobvan de Graaff(1734-1812). It is during this time that he and the Council of Policy resolve (20 November 1787) that Bastard Hottentots – baptized and other – and not in service [literally ‘subsisting among any of the burghers’] but residing in the Colony, are declared liable to all the taxes paid by burghers; and they are therefore directed to be placed on the rolls, and to make the usual Opgaaf.
It is also during this time that Rhenius justifies the private purchase as compensation by local officials of inbound slaves and sanctions the VOC rewarding a collaborative Klaas Afrikaner for massacring Bushmen. In terms of a Council of Policy resolution (20 November 1792) the Hottentot Captain [Klaas] Africaaner receives ammunition as a reward for his good conduct against the Bushmen – he slaughters 113 Bushmen and takes 20 prisoners (women and children) whom at the same time he hands over to the Dutch colonial authorities.
This is at a time when VOC-occupation of the Cape of Good Hope is about to come to its dramatic end. The oft-quipped Vergaan Onder Corruptie is most apt in the circumstances given the nepotistic entrenchment of ruling VOC families. Rhenius, a political survivor and British collaborator, when expounding on the incestuous nature of old Cape colonial families quite conveniently forgets to include his own well-nigh incestuous and equally inter-related family:
“In this Colony intermarriages are so frequent that the whole of the Inhabitants are related. I recollect when General Jansens first took upon him the Government of the Cape of Good Hope he was consulting with a very worthy Friend of mine, a Mister Rheinens concerning the necessity if newmodeling the constitution and if possible indicating the vices and corruptions of the generality of the People. An Herculean labour it would have proved. “How,” cries His Excellency “is this to be done? My friend whose penetration was equal to the goodness of his heart said: “General this may be done by banishing root and branch four of the principal Families of the Cape: The Van Reinens, the Cloetez, The Bredaus and The Exteens.” Now these Families were so interwoven with each other and with nearly the whole of the colony that there must have been a general clearance. This the Governor was convinced of and gave up the Attempt.”
His family connections and even incompetence, however, clearly do not go by unnoticed with his contemporary P.W. Marnitz – lieutenant of the Artillery – ruefully observing:
“… What knowledge except that of the China trade and of paintings did Rhenius display? What service did he provide for the Company or the Colony? Perhaps by favouring his relatives? Are there any other?”
Even his former disgruntled boss the outgoing Governor van der Graaff has little praise for him, describing Rhenius in his Memorie as:
“ … een man die nooyt tot iets anders geemployeerd of opgeleid was dan tot den théhandel in China, en zelfs daarin nog niet anders dan in eenen inferieuren rang daarin was geemployeerd geworden”.
The Europe-born fiscal J.N.S.van Lynden van Bletterswijk also highlights the graaden van vermaagschap des Heeren Leden in deesen Raad … He states further that eene aan elkanderen vermaagschapte meerderheid, aan deese uithoek gebooven, en gevolglyk ally hunne wesentlyke belangen en bezittingen met die van huisgesinnen en familiën in de Colonie zelve hebbe …, concluding … dat in zulke zaaken, waarinne ‘s Comp:[agnie]s interesse met het interesse der Colonie niet volkomen overeenstemde, het te praesumeeren zoude zyn, dat dit Comp:[agnie]s interesse beter zoude worden behartigd door zulke leeden die door Heeren Meesteren direct uit Europa na herwaarts waaren overgesonden.
De Heer Hoofd Administrateur Johannes Izaäc / Johan Isaac RHENIUS (1750-1808) – son of Cape-born 1stlanddrost of Swellendam Johannes Theophilus Rhenius and Helena Maria van der Heuvel; grandson of VOC official Johannes Tobias Rhenius (from Berlin) and Cape-born slave-descendant Engela Bergh; great-grandson of Olof Bergh (1643-1724) (from Göteborg, Sweden) and Cape slave-born Anna de Coninck (1661-1734); and great-great-grandson of freed private slave Maaij Ansela van Bengale (dies 1721); baptised Cape 4 October 1750; joins VOC (1769) and departs for Batavia working with the tea trade with China, returning (1771) to Patria ‘specialising’ in paintings; arrives at Cabo (1786) and appointed (August 1786) president of Court of Justice, onderkoopman, secunde and acting governor (24 June 1791-3 July 1792) after departure of C.J. van de Graaff; under 1st British Occupation appointed (10 October 1795) Receiver-General and Treasurer as well as Commissaris-Politiek (government overseer of the Church) but leaves when the Cape is under Batavian rule; dies Germany 27 July 1808; marries Cape 10 September 1786 Dorothea Hendrika Cruijwagen; daughter of Gerhardus Hendrik Cruywagen and Cornelia Sophia Ehlers; issue unknown.
C.J. van der Graaf, Memoriën van den Gouverneur Van der Graaff over de gebeurtenissen aan de Kaap de Goede Hoop (1780-1806) – eds. H.C. de Vos Leibbrandt & J.E. Heeres (Martinus Nijhoff, ‘s-Gravenhage 1894), p. 31
H.C.V. Leibbrandt, Précis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. 1, p. 22
P.W. Marnitz & H.D. Campagne, Verhaal van de overgave van de Kaap (1795) – translated as The Surrender of the Cape of Good Hope, 1795 (Castle Military Museum, Cape Town 2002), p. 101, n. 15
CA (Cape Archives): C 181 & 182 (resolution: Council of Policy, 6 March 1789) & C 188 (Resolution: Council of Policy, August 1790)
Karel Schoeman, Portrait of a Slave Society – The Cape of Good Hope, 1717-1795 (Protea Boekhuis, Pretoria 2012), pp. 154-155, 166, 295-296 & 1048
Karel Schoeman, Here & Boere – Die Kolonie aan die Kaap onder die Van der Stels, 1679-1712 (Protea Boekhuis, Pretoria 2013), p. 402
Karel Schoeman, Swanesang– Die Einde van die Kompanjiestyd aan die Kaap, 1771-1795 (Protea Boekhuis, Pretoria 2016), pp. 148 & 264-265
Robert C.-H. Shell, ‘Samuel Hudson on Marriages and other customs at the Cape’, Kronos, vol. 15 (1989), p. 49
South African Dictionary of Biography (SADB), vol. IV, pp. 498-499
Mansell G. Upham, ‘Maaij Ansela and the black sheep of the family: A closer look at the events surrounding the first execution of a free-burgher in Cape colonial society for the murder of a non-European’, Capensis, no. 4 (1997), pp. 4-18, (1998), nos. 1 (pp. 22-35), 2 (pp. 26-39), 3 (pp. 21-28) & 4 (pp. 37-40) (1998), (1999), nos. 1 (pp. 38-40) & 2 (pp. 27-38) – https://mansellupham.wordpress.com/2022/05/21/respectability-regained-moeder-jagts-triumphant-reversal-of-her-slave-past/
One of the oldest farms of the Land van Waveren and Het Roode Zand [present-day Tulbagh / Wolsley area of the Western Cape]. The core of the present-day farm De Heuvel started out as the farm De Hoop. This was originally a freehold loan farm granted to the free-burgher Philippe du Pré / des Pres [Philip du Preez] (from Coutrai in Flanders). Prior to that, it was a loan farm loaned to the free-burgher Jan Cloete who ran a mill on the farm.
Jan Cloete (baptised 17 August 1687) was the son Gerrit Jacobsen Cloete (died 1702) (from Cologne) – and Catharina Harmans: (from Middelburg) aliasCatharina Lodewijcks: (died Stellenbosch 1715). He was the grandson of the infamous cattle rustler and corporal at the VOC buitepost at Clapmuts, Jacob Cloete (from Cologne) – murdered in front of the Castle de Goede Hoop in 1693 – and his wife Sophia (Fijtje) Radergorts (Raderootjes) (died Cape 1665) (from Uets, Electorate of Cologne). He married firstly Anna Olivier, secondly married his 1st cousin Petronella van der Merwe and thirdly 1 April 1719 Geertruy Pretorius, the widow of Johannes Wessels. His activities in the Tulbagh / Wolsley region after 1714 need further research. He had the following children and grandchildren:
(1) Johannes Hendrik Cloete baptised 17 November 1715, married 2 July 1741 Elsje Myburgh
(2) Gerrit Cloete baptised 25 September 1717; died 26 April 1798 (Tulbagh); married (1stly) 12 October 1738 Maria Scheepers; married (2ndly) 19 April 1744 Anna Catharina Kuun
(1) Johannes Cloete baptised 13 March 1740
(2) Maria Cloete baptised 21 October 1742; married Hendrik Mostert
(3) Gerrit Coenraad Cloete baptised 12 June 1744
(4) Gerrit Cloete baptised 26 March 1745
(5) Johanna Elisabeth Cloete baptised 27 October 1747; married Adam Keyser; died Tulbagh 20 April 1790
(6) Johannes Hendrik Cloete baptised 28 September 1749
(7) Stephanus Abraham Cloete baptised 13 February 1752; married 2 October 1785 Catharina Rabie
(8) Petronella Cloete baptised 12 January 1755; married 21 June 1772 Cornelis van Niekerk; baptised 23 September 1753
(9) Susanna Catharina Cloete baptised 8 January 1758; married 25 April 1779 Johannes Rabie
(10) Anna Sophia Cloete baptised 7.5.1761; married 8 April 1798 Andries Hough
(3) Petronella Cloete baptised 25 September 1717; married Cape Town 13 April 1777 Johannes Cats (from Middelburg, Netherlands)
The Cloete family can justifiably qualify as one of the most representative South African families. This colonial ‘Afrikaner’ family has more surname-bearing descendants amongst so-called ‘English-speaking white South Africans’ and ‘Cape Coloured families’. Only a small percentage have remained, or appear to be, exclusively ‘white’ and ‘Afrikaans-speaking’. The eldest son of the progenitor (stamvader) Gerrit Cloete was ancestor to the Nama, Griqua and Rehoboth Basters (‘the Cloete Basters’) of Namaqualand, Namaland and Rehoboth.
In July 1714, in terms of a resolution of the Council of Policy (the governing body of the VOC-occupied Cape of Good Hope) 9 loan farms in the Tulbagh / Wolsley area were converted into freehold farms. Freehold farms were purchased unencumbered farms registered in the names of owners having full title deeds. This meant that these farms could be freely alienated (‘sold’) without permission of the authorities. The 9 farms were:
De Hoop
Artois
Arnheim
Amaquaseiland
Leeuwenhoek
Le Rhône
Louisenklip
Montpellier
Weltevreden
Following the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1713 the Tulbagh area was now opened for more permanent colonial settlement.
Both De Hoop and Artois were granted to the free-burgher Philip du Preez. Artois(64 morgen) was granted in August and De Hoop (57 morgen) in September of 1714.[1] In terms of the grant, Philip du Preez had to compensate the previous owner / lessee (Jan Cloete) for the mill standing on De Hoop. The exact whereabouts of this mill appear to be uncertain and there is also some controversy insofar as the mill refers more likely to the one erected on Artois. In 1717 Philip du Preez was (still?) indebted to Jan Cloete for milling licence for the mill at Roodezand (schuldig geweest aan Jan Cloeten wegens molenopacht over de Rodensants mole) according to the Krijgsraad.[2]
Philip du Preez had already utilised Artois for the previous 8 years so that the farm was operational already by c. 1706. Philip was the eldest son the Huguenot refugee Hercules du Pré and his wife Cecilia d’Atis. Philip was married to Elizabeth Prévot (born c. 1683 from Marq near Calais in France). She was the daughter of the Huguenot refugee and master wagonmaker, Charles Prévo(s)t and his wife Marie le Fèvre. They had the following sons:
In 1699 he and his wife were settled on the freehold farm Klipvallei in the Wagenmakersvallei [present-day Wellington].[6] The farm Artois was used by him as a buijtenplaats or ‘grazing farm’.[7] Presumably De Hoop was used likewise. The milling activities are unknown as the mill does not feature later as an asset in the estate. The confirmation of his farming operations in the Tulbagh / Wolsley area are in 1711 when he and his brother were enrolled for road maintenance obligations.[8]Philip and his wife also came to own his mother’s farm De Zoete Inval at Drakenstein (present-day Paarl).[9]
Philip du Preez died on 21 May 1721 and the 3 farms (De Zoete Inval, Artois and DE Hoop) passed to his widow.[10] She remarried the German immigrant Christian Gobrechts, the widower of Sara Gous.[11] Being married in community of property, the farms came to be co-owned by her new husband. After a stormy marriage, the couple divorced in 1728 and the joint estate was dissolved.[12]
The original and historic family farm De Zoete Inval at Paarl was purchased by Isaack de Villiers while the farms Artois and De Hoop Elizabeth Prévot managed to purchase in her own name. She purchased Artoisfor f 700 and De Hoop for f 666.5½.[13] For reasons unknown the properties were not registered in her name but the farm De Hoop was eventually registered in the name of her son, David du Preez, who appears to have never married. He purchased De Hoop for f 2000 from his mother. Although a published genealogy of the Du Preez Family states that he died young, we have evidence here that he reached majority.[14]
Elizabeth Prévot moved to Artois which farm was managed by her eldest son, Philip du Preez. In 1727 her son married Isabella Potgieter, daughter of Jan Hermanz: Potgieter. Elizabeth died at Tulbagh on 18 January 1750.[15]. Her son Philip relocated to Grootvadersbosch in the Overberg. Her son Jacobus and his family relocated to Twee Jonge Gesellen. Her son Hercules purchased Artois from his mother in 1742.[16] He died in 1771 and two years later (1773) his widow Johanna de Maker sold Artois to her son Philip for f 3000.[17] This Philp du Preez was dead by 1776 and the farm was left to his widow Maria de Bruyn and his infant daughter. His widow remarried Schalk Willem du Toit who served on the church council at Tulbagh and Artois remained in his hands until 1818. On 13 January 1818 the farm was transferred to his son Francois but was soon transferred from his deceased estate on 19 January 1818 to his brother Pieter du Toit. The purchase price was f 12 000.[18]
Original Lessee & Owners of De Hoop [present-day De Heuvel]
Loan Farm
Jan Cloete
Freehold
Philip du Preez & Elizabeth Prévot
Elizabeth Prévot, wid. Philip du Preez
Christian Gobrechts & Elizabeth Prévot
Elizabeth Preévot, divorced wife of Christian Gobrects
David du Preez
[1] Cape Archives (CA): Old Stellenbosch Freeholds (OSF) 2/96 (dated 4 August 1714) & OSF 2/98 (3 September 1714).
[7] CA: CJ 2918 (Vendu of common property, dated 4 June 1728).
[8] CA: 1./STB vol. 19, no. 131 (Paden en Wegenrollen).
[9] Deeds Office Cape Town (DO): T 1373, dated 11 March 1721.
[10] CA: MOOC 7/1/3, no. 42 (Will, dated 19 December 1718), filed 21 May 1722; J.A. Heese & R.T.J. Lombard, South African Genealogies: Genealogy of Du Preez Family (GISA, Stellenbosch), vol. 8, p. 334.
[11] The Gobrechts Family are an established Swartland family.
[12] CA; CJ 2918 (Vendu of common property, dated 4 June 1728).
[13] DO: T 1847, dated 9 July 1728 & T 1848, dated 5 April 1728.
[14] J.A. Heese & R.T.J. Lombard, South African Genealogies¸ Du Preez (GISA, Stellenbosch).
[15] J.A. Heese & R.T.J. Lombard, South African Genealogies, Genealogy of Du Preez Family (GISA, Stellenbosch), vol. 8, p. 334.
Paper presented by Dr Hans F. Heese(1944-2024) to the GSSA (Western Cape Branch) meeting held at the Genealogical Institute of S.A. (GISA), Stellenbosch 8 August 1998 and featured inCapensis– Quarterly Journal of the Genealogical Society – Western Cape Branch (editor: Mansell George Upham ) .
Formerly at the UWC’s Institute for Historical Research, Dr Heese was the University of Stellenbosch’s Archivist. He was the author of Groep Sonder Grense: Die Rol en Status van die Gemengde Bevolking aan die Kaap, 1652-1795 and Reg en Onreg: Kaapse Rregspraak in die Agtiende Eeu.
The Dutch-Afrikaner genealogical and cultural heritage
It was at Stellenbosch that Hendrik Bibow (Bibault, Biebouw) exclaimed in 1707: “Ik ben een Africaander”.
It was the Matie Professor, J.L.M. Franken, who introduced South Africans to the character of Hendrik Bibow when he published an article in Die Huisgenoot in 1928 under the title “Hendrik Bibault of die opkoms van ‘n Volk.”1
Bibow played an important role in Afrikaans historiography and received hero-status as a result ofProfessor Franken’s article in the popular Afrikaans magazine way back in the Twenties. The hero-status of Bibow was partly destroyed by yet another (ex-) Matie Professor, Andre du Toit, when he came to grips with Bibow at a conference hosted at the University of the Western Cape in 1992.2
The merit of the argumentation of Franke and Du Toit is beyond the scope of this paper; what is important is the fact that the term Afrikaner can be traced back to Stellenbosch shortly after the founding of the town in 1679. (What is perhaps not well known, is the possibility that Bibow took an aborigine wife in Western Australia and introduced porphyria to that continent).
In previous lectures of the Cape Branch of the South African Genealogical Society, the British and Huguenot heritage had been looked at. To see the (Dutch-) Afrikaner heritage in isolation – and not part of the Huguenot, and later on British heritage – is problematic.
As recently as the 1970s, Afrikaners were still described as Dutch (or Cape Dutch) in the South African-English vocabulary and Afrikaans was still called Cape Dutch by some English speakers. Not only English speakers have problems with Afrikaner identity and the terminology; Germans still refer to the Afrikaners as Buren and Burische culture or Burische Sprache (for Afrikaans). Also, there are people who would be described by fellow Afrikaners as Afrikaners – but who insist that they are NOT Afrikaners but Boere. This small minority still fight for the restoration of the Boere Republieke which ceased to exist at the end of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.
It was the Anglo-Boer War – and the uncomplimentary remarks made by the British about the Boer character and identity3 – which prompted the Dutch academic, H.C. Colenbrander, to write one of the first studies on the genealogical origin of the Boer or Afrikaner people.4
C.C. de Villiers(1850-1887)
South African genealogists (especially Afrikaners) are in the fortunate position that nearly-complete genealogies of the early settler families are available in print. The Geslacht-register der oude Kaapsche Familiën of C.C. de Villiers – edited by Theal – appeared in 1892 and covered the genealogies of all Afrikaner families up the beginning of the 19th century. The works of De Villiers, later revised by Pama and then updated by Johannes Heese,5 remain unique in the world of genealogy.
Theal calculated already in 1897 – using data from De Villiers – that approximately two-thirds of the ancestors of the Boer/Afrikaner families were Dutch. Colenbrander calculated that about 50% of the Afrikaner ancestors came from Holland and about 27% from Germany. At the same time the German Vallentin mentioned that of 1391 progenitors, 745 were Germans. Subsequent studies on the genealogy of the Afrikaners focussed on the European countries from where the founding fathers of the new volk came from. Dr C. Pama already discussed the debate between the “pro-Dutch” and “pro-German” genealogists in some detail.6 In 1972 Johannes Heese published his Herkoms van die Afrikaner in which he concluded that the percentage of Dutch and German genetic origins of the Afrikaner – about one third each – did not differ very much. He did, however, add another dimension to the debate by his finding that about seven percent of the Afrikaner genetic pool came through ancestors of slaves or indigenous South Africans.7
Dr J.A. Heese(1907-1990)
Remarks about identity and Afrikaner identity
In 1975 T. Floyd stated that the formation of identity was shaped by:
1. the family, racial origin and blood ties,
2. a common language and culture,
3. a common history, tradition, religion, beliefs and values,
When Floyd formulated identity back in 1975 – which he applied to Afrikaner nationalism – he probably believed like Andries Treurnicht of the Conservative Party who wrote at the same time that “Nooit sedert die volksplanting in 1652 is die gekleurde volksgroepe tot die volksgeledere van die Afrikaner of as deel van die blanke gemeenskap aanvaar nie.”9
Did Treurnicht, and so many other white South Africans suffer from amnesia or was it just a matter of ignorance; or did he tell lies to gain support for an Aryan cause? The reasons are unknown as he should have known about my father’s research results; also that of Professor M.C. Botha who came to the same conclusions on working on group gene frequencies.
By now we all know that most Afrikaners have a “dark” background somewhere in the past; by digging deep enough one arrives at a slave or two.
Or perhaps the few cases where I, and some of you present, may stem from the Khoisan lady, Eva of the Cape.
Afrikaners – or then Cape Dutch/Germans with a strain of Huguenot ancestry – stem from a merry mix of European, Asian and indigenous African cultures and blood lines. This fact I also illustrated in my study on the origins of the Coloured population of the Cape during the period 1652-1795 and which was published in Groep sonder Grense in 1985.
At that stage – 1985 – I found myself in a political debate and was accused of undermining Afrikaner identity; also the basic apartheid laws based on the Mixed Marriage Act, the so called Immorality Act and the Race Classification Act. In certain circles I found myself persona non grata for reminding politicians that historically and genealogically the rationale for the Treurnicht and Floyd political philosophies did not make sense. Publishing my research results in 1985 – as did my father in publishing his findings on the origin of the Afrikaner people in 1973 – was politically incorrect.
This brings us to political correctness and political incorrect research and views.
Afrikaner genes do not only flow in the Afrikaner group of today. I did not check the genealogy of Floyd – who presumably is of Anglo-Saxon origin – but did look at some other “English” families where Afrikaner genes are prominent – or dominant. Surnames do not always reflect the cultural or “racial” origins of a family or an individual. It may also be that a certain individual may in fact abhor the normal association with his surname and the association formed between his particular surname and a particular cultural or “racial” group; there are abundant examples of such individuals.
“Afrikaner” genes do not only show up in English-South African families; the Afrikaner genes are also found among those who describe themselves as “Black”. The biggest group of “Black” people who share the Afrikaner genealogical heritage is obviously the Coloured People of the Cape.10 During the seventies my father had an article published in Rapport with the title ‘Wit bloed vloei in bruin are’ in which he highlighted this phenomenon.
After my publication on the role and status of people of mixed origin at the Cape until 1800 in Groep sonder Grense, I did not follow it up with a study on Coloured People in the 19th and 20th century. I did, however, remain interested in Coloured genealogy and the origin of the Cape Coloured People as such. In many discussions with people of mixed origin – over the last three decades – I was amazed by the large number of them who had either a Scotsman, Englishman, Hollander or German grandfather among their ancestors; few could however produce documentation to back up their claims.
What struck me as the seventies progressed, and the eighties arrived, was that those of mixed descent did not view themselves as “Coloured” any more but gradually became “Black”. Although this change of identity was in the first place a matter of “political correctness” and not meant in a genealogical or genetic sense, one heard less and less of the English or Dutch or German or Afrikaner ancestry among coloured people. Also, one heard less of the (foreign) slave ancestry while the indigenous Khoisan ancestry became more prominent. The outstanding example in this case is the new identity taken by Benny Alexander of the PAC who adopted the new name of Khoisan “X”. At the time of his transformation to “X”, it was stated that he adopted this new identity until he could trace his indigenous roots or tribal name.
In 1996 I attended a conference in Antananarivo (Madagascar) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in that country. For the Malagasy people it was a momentous occasion as there existed a taboo on the use of the word “slave” and many people attending the conference “came out of the closet” and, for the first time, acknowledged their slave ancestry. On my return, I published an article on the significance of the Madagascar conference in Die Burger. On the same day, the paper also carried a report on the founding of the 1 December Movement in Cape Town; a movement to highlight the slave origins of the Cape Coloured people.
The coming to terms with the slave origin of coloured people marked an important event in coloured identity. The next important milestone was the hosting of an international conference on Khoisan Identity by the University of the Western Cape and the South African Museum in July 1997 in Cape Town. During the conference, numerous groups and individuals of Khoisan – or partly Khoisan – descent became enthusiastic in tracing their roots. This lead to discussions between the Institute for Historical Research and various organisations to develop a centre dedicated to the task of gathering documentation and registers which will enable researchers to study the genealogy of the Khoisan and other related groups; especially documents in which slaves or ex-slaves featured.
The project is well under way. In 1976 I by chance had the opportunity to photocopy baptism and marriage records of the Lutheran Church in Riversdale – registers my great-grandfather started recording in 1868 and kept in his clear Sütterlin handwriting until his death in 1905. In 1991-1992 I had these records entered into an electronic data base. The baptism, marriage and death records of Amalienstein-Zoar were microfilmed during 1993-1994 and the data added to existing electronic database.
The Afrikaner cultural and genetic heritage, the recent past and sensitive issues
There is a strong connection between genealogy and culture, traditions and belief-systems. The genealogical descent of Christ is given in detail in the New Testament and is part of the essential basis of the Christian belief – going back to the prophesies found in the Old Testament. Not only genes are carried over from one generation to the other; culture is also carried over from generation to generation. Popular writers – who are not always popular throughout the total population – applied the before mentioned principles of carried over-genes and culture to the Afrikaners. Examples of such writing are that of Andre Brink and later on James Michener (The Covenent).
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Afro-American Hailey, produced the epoch making Roots in the 1970s. His book – which made headlines – stimulated genealogical research and ended up as a TV series – which was eventually also screened locally. What was perhaps an important outflow of the work by Hailey was the fact that white and black blood-relatives met for the first time as families. (It would be incorrect to use the term family-reunions as they have never physically met before). In a recent TV production on Thomas Jefferson, the White-Black genetic connections between his children (the Jefferson family) and the children of his slaves (the extended family) are highlighted.
Afrikaner families – like all families of all cultural and genetic groups – have extended families. These families and extended families very seldom meet and are often not aware of the existence of one another. Sometimes the facts are denied, or lied about, but usually it is the very convenient – or selective – amnesia that may set in.
In the case of traditional Afrikaner families, the male line of descent had been stressed; the female line with the stammoeders from the Cape or the East ignored. This phenomenon has however changed over the last decade as it became politically correct to have indigenous genetic roots.
In the case of one of the closest, extended family groups of the Afrikaner – the Cape Coloured People – a reverse process is taking place. Whereas in the past the family legend of the Afrikaner (or European) ancestry has been kept alive, amnesia suddenly set in. Political correctness now dictates an indigenous origin.
It may take South Africans decades to draw up a balance sheet of their genealogical origins and make peace with their past. The negative image and caricature of the Afrikaner as a little Nazi with a Herrenvolk mentality may continue for a few more generations. Those who hold this view, conveniently forget that there were Afrikaners on all sides of the political spectrum.
Whatever the future, the Afrikaner remains one of the topics hotly discussed by politicians and academics world-wide. Visitors and tourists from abroad suddenly discovered Afrikaner culture as something worth experiencing – in the same way as viewing the Big Five in the Kruger Park.
It may well be that after the eventual demise of the “White Tribe” in South Africa, foreign visitors doing the cultural trail may come to view a few examples of those who can still produce their genealogies in which the European, Asian and African origins are printed – in Afrikaans.
With the research of my late father in the 1970s, and my own in the 1980s, we angered many Afrikaners (and English alike) when we published our research on South African genealogies and cross-cultural relationships during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. If events that occurred in a family history in the 1790s could produce so much anger when exposed, I fear the reaction one would get when one would dare to uncover unpleasant skeletons from the beginning of the 20th century – which is now fast approaching its end.
The inclusion of Klaas Koen in Linda Zoellner and J.A. Heese’s Berlin Missionaries and their descendants was an honest effort to come to terms with genealogical realities. The question remains if the “extended families” of the Berlin missionaries in South Africa will ever be included in an updated edition in the future. If this is done – and Afrikaans and English descendants of the Berlin missionaries of all shades accept it as a matter of fact – South Africans will have made peace with its genealogical past.
Hans F. Heese
1 Die Huisgenoot, 21 September 1928.
2 A. Du Toit: ‘Hendrik Bibault of Die Raaisel van Prof J.L.M. Franken oftewel Enkele Filosofiese Vrae en Refleksies oor die Afrikaanse Geskiedskrywing’ in H.C. Bredekamp (Red.): Afrikaanse Geskiedskrywing en Letterkunde: Verlede, hede en toekoms, (Bellville, 1992), pp.1-20.
3 H.T. Colenbrander: De Afkomst der Boeren, Amsterdam, 1902; See page 18: From the English side it was said “dat de Boeren eigenlijk bastaards zijn, afkomelingen van slaven-moeders en Hottentotsche vrouwen”
4 It may be appropriate to use the term Boer before 1900 and Afrikaner after the end of the Anglo-Boer War. This is however not a hard and fast rule. I used the term Boere in my Master’s thesis when I wrote about the genealogy of the Dorslandtrekkers who eventually settled in Angola. For my Ph.D thesis – for the same people who returned en masse to Namibia in 1928, I preferred the term Afrikaners.
5 J.A. Heese and R.T.J. Lombard: South African Genealogies, 4 v; ( A-K), (Pretoria, 1986).
6 C.C. de Villiers (Red. C. Pama): Geslagsregisters van die ou Kaapse Families, (Kaapstad, 1966), pp. xviii-xxv.
7 J.A. Heese: Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner, (Kaapstad, 1971).
8 T. Floyd: Afrikaner Nasionalisme, (Pretoria, 1975), p. 9.
9 A.P. Treurnicht: Credo van ‘n Afrikaner, (Kaapstad, 1975), p. 18.
10 The term “Coloured People” may cause resentment among certain people of mixed origin; however a prominent academic and current ambassador, Professor Richard van der Ross, argued some time ago that the term need not be offensive. For lack of a better term, I use the word in this paper. The Afrikaans term “Bruinmense” may be less offensive.
Lammershoek at the Paardeberg in the Zwartland is the birthplace (1716) of my paternal 7x great-granny Johanna Catharina BASSON, born VAN JAARSVELD (born 1716).
The farm is granted – on loan (31 July 1714) and in full ownership (12 July 1718) – to my paternal 8x great-grandfather Adriaen (Arij) van Jaarsvelt / Jaarsveld (c. 1683-1750):
Dingsdagh den 12e Julij 1718, voormiddagh. Alle tegenwoordigh.
Den Edele Heer Gouverneur in vergaderinge kennisse gegeven hebbende dat Zijn Wel Edele al in den jaare 1714 in conformiteijt van ‘t genome raats besluijt, de dato 31e Julij des voorsz jaars, aan den landbouwer, Arij van Jaarsveld, in eijgendom hadde verleent seeker stuk bouland, leggende aan de noorthoek van de Paarde Bergh, gent. de Lammerhoek, groot 60 morgen en 200 roeden, al eenige jaaren bevoorens bij voorne. Van Jaarsveld precario beseten en bebouwt, en dierhalven ook van geen andere gedagten was geweest of den vereijsten erfbrief soude ter voorsz tijd behoorlijk zijn geexpedieert geworden, temeer wijl ‘t selve land op den 9e October 1714 door den landmeeter behoorlijk gemeeten en de caart daar van opgemaakt is geweest, dogh ter consideratie nu weijnigh tijds verleeden hadde ondervonden dat den voorn[oemd]e. Van Jaarsvelt bij gebrek van penningen niet magtigh geweest zijnde te voldoen de zeegels en andere meetloonen aan den landmeeter deeser plaatse, dierhalven den opgemaakte caart onder denselven was blijven berusten en dus verhindert geworden dat den grondbrief ter secretarije niet had konnen worden naer vereijs opgemaakt en geexpedieert; dierhalven als nu desen Raad in bedenken hadd’ willen geven of daar inne niet als nogh soude behooren en konnen worden voorsien, en ‘t voorsz stuk lands hem in eijgendom gegeven; Soo is, diesaangaande gedelibereert en in consideratie genomen zijnde de behoeftigheijd van den gem. Van Jaarsvelt niet alleen, maar dat ook booven dien gem. land langen tijd bevoorens van d’ E.[dele] Comp[agni]e. ter leen beseten en als ‘t eenige middel van subsistentie voor hem en sijne famieli[e] bebouwt en bearbijt heeft gehad, goedgevonden en geresolveert ‘t voorsz stuk lants bij provisie en op approbatie van onse Heeren en Meesters den voorne. Arij van Jaarsvelt in eijgendom te verleenen, en dat dierhalven op die voet d’ erfgrondbrief sal worden opgemaakt en gedepescheert, sullende wijders ter bequamer gelegentheijd deesen aangaande op ‘t eerbiedigts worden geschreeven aan Haar Ede. Hoogh Achtbe.de Heeren 17en, en Haar Edle. Hoogh Achtbe. goedkeuringh versogt … Aldus geresolveert ende g’arresteert in ‘t Casteel de Goede Hoop, ten dage en jaare voorsz. M. DE CHAVONNES. A. CRANENDONK. C. v. BEAUMONT. J. B. CRUSE. JAN DE LA FONTAINE.
The South African stamvader (progenitor) arrives (7 April 1689) at the Cape of Good Hope ex Ceylon [Sri Lanka] on the ship Waterland. He is accompanied by his widowed mother, the Dordrecht-born Catharina Hoffers (1640-1691) and his sister Adriana. He joins his half-brother the Batavia / Jakarta-born Renier van de Sande (dies 1717).
His sister, later in 1694, as a promiscuous and allegedly already pregnant 13-year-old, has sex with a formerly enslaved shepherd boy, Jantje van Batavia. Convicted and sentenced he is spared the death sentence but banished to Mauritius for having had his way with her.
Adriaen (Arij) van Jaarsvelt / Jaarsveld (c. 1683-1750) marries at Drakenstein (Paarl) (22 November 1711) at the Cape the Cape-born Cornelia Nel, daughter of the French-speaking Refugees (Huguenots), Guillaume Niel [Nel) and Jeanne de la Batte.
Their grandson (and nephew to Johanna Catharina Basson, born van Jaarsveld) – Adriaan van Jaarsveld (1745-1801) – is the famous commando leader in the 1st [Eastern] Frontier War (1780) that forces the encroaching AmaXhosa back over the Great Fish River. A founding member of the rebel secessionist / break-away ‘Republic of Graaff-Reinet’ his later arrest and liberation from jail during the ‘Van Jaarsveld Rebellion’ ends fatally, controversially and heroically in his death-in-detention (29 June 1801) at the Castle in Cape Town.
“The magistracy, the representatives of the social system, that declares war against one of its members, in behalf of justice, or in behalf of oppression, appears almost equally, in both cases entitled to our censure …”
– William Godwin (1756-1836), “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Happiness”
Justice Andries Stockenström (1844-1880) – controversial Cape-born British-appointed judge who rules against private land ownership for indigenous peoples on the legal grounds that such peoples are nomadic and thus ipso facto disqualified from owning land – whether traditionally or even privately …
Born in Graaff-Reinet (22 April 1844), 2nd son of Cape-born 1st Baronet Andries Stockenström (1792-1864) and Elsabe Maasdorp (1808-1889). Educated in law in England and Germany.
His father is a direct descendant of the Cape’s 1st freed male slave Evert van Guinea – private slave belonging to VOC Commander Jan van Riebeeck who is freed in recognition for his collaboration by revealing the hidden whereabouts of fellow West African runaway slaves …
His mother is a direct descendant of the indomitable Maaij Ansela van Bengale (dies 1720) – the Cape’s 3rd female slave (and 4th slave) to be freed (1666) who throughout her long life astutely negotiates her rapidly upwardly mobile ascent by selecting caring European VOC officials (Francois de Coninck and Johannes van As) that openly provide for her bastard offspring and acquiring a lawful European husband Jagt – Arnoldus Willemsz; Basson – willing to accommodate her and her four bastards and with whom she spawns a mammoth BASSON clan that permeates not only the entire Zwartland and beyond, but also (together with her BERGH and VAN AS descendants) every aspect of colonial life, amassing land, jewelry, portraits and influence … and who dies revered – even `respectabalising` her humble name Ansela (in Latin ancilla = ‘slave girl’) transforming it into Engela, without ever freeing any of her slaves … not even the biggest of social hiccoughs ever deters her from her meteoric rise to ‘respectability’:
* the execution of her wayward and slow son, Jantje van As, for stealing sheep, kidnapping a slave boy and murdering him at Cape Point;
* the imprisonment of her Swedish son-in-law, Olof Bergh, for appropriating Company property;
* the suicide of a Khoe woman Zara in her sheep pen;
* the spawning of a Batavia-banished bastard son Arnoldus Johannes Basson by her son Jan Basson, with the Widow Putter; and
* the detention on Robben Island of her grandson, Jan van As, for unspeakable immoral impropriety.
Thereafter a great many of her descendants ‘brown-nose’ their way into prominent civic positions in the colony even turn-coating after both the 1st and 2nd British Occupations …
Justice Andries Stockenström is called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple (1865) and admitted (1866) as advocate in Cape Town.
Moves to Grahamstown, where he builds up a large and successful practice.
When his father dies, his older brother Sir Gijsbert Henry Stockenström, inherits family’s Baronetcy.
Appointed (1875) to act as judge in the Griqualand West Land Court by High CommissionerSir Henry Barkly. Britain, recently annexing Griqualand West (read principle diamond fields), sets up a Land Court to rule on the questions of land title within the newly annexed territory – any negative rulings of the court doubtless prevent recognition of any claims or access that neighbouring states might have to this resource.
Justice Andries Stockenström rules that:
• as the Griqua people are nomadic, Griqua chiefs (or captains) are rulers over a people, but not over a fixed territory.
• Griqua people had also only arrived in this part of Southern Africa a little over 50 years before, in the early 19th century.
• Griqua captains therefore do not automatically get the right to own and develop all of the land through which they moved, but only those areas in which they would settle.
• Other areas they can continue to move through, but are not to be given automatic title to own and develop land within Griqualand West.
Ruling results in denial of many of the titles already issued by Cornelis Kok and other Griqua leaders as well as the land claims of powerful Griqua Captain Nicolaas Waterboer, outside of his core areas around Griquatown and Albania.
Decision also validates many official claims of the newly Britain-recognized sovereign independent Orange Free State Republic to the dry diamond diggings, but Cape-born OFS President Brand ‘waives’ his new country’s rights in return for a payment of £90 000.
Ruling is hugely controversial at the time – and still even now – causing the over-worked Stockenström, it has been written, immense distress.
Stockenström nevertheless vehemently denies that he is prejudiced against Griqua agent David Arnot, and sympathetic towards Orange Free State President Johannes Brand.
The size of the furore that arises in the wake of the Land Court findings leads him to finally plea for a full Royal Commission of Inquiry into his rulings.
Barkly’s successor as Governor,Sir Henry Bartle Frere, supports this request which Britain expediently declines, however, on the grounds that the Crown has faith in ‘Mr. Stockenström’s high reputation for the conscientious discharge of his official duties’ and ‘absolute confidence in his integrity.”
Like his famous father and massacred Swedish grandfather Anders Stockenström (1757-1811) from Filipstad in Värmland, Stockenström has a keen interest in politics, and in the final few years before his premature death, becomes increasingly involved in government.
Initially he contests the Grahamstown parliamentary seat (1876), but loses to Richard Southey and appointed (1877) Attorney-General for the government of Prime Minister John Molteno, to replace Simeon Jacobs who retires due to ill health.
However, he soon tenders resignation (1878), ironically, in support of Molteno’s fight against British interference in the Cape’s government and is elected MP for Albert (Burgersdorp) and reappointed judge (1879).
Although unwell, undertakes circuit (1880), but dies that year (aged 36).
Marries (24 December 1867) Maria Hartzenberg of Graaff-Reinet and the couple have a single child, Andries (1868-1922), who becomes (1912) the 3rd baronet.
“Besides the subjugated Hottentots, there were other Africans of the same or of kindred tribes, who were early designated under the term Bushmen, from their disdaining to become bondsmen, and choosing rather to obtain a precarious subsistence in the fields or forests. From their fastnesses, they were apt to carry on a predatory warfare against the oppressors of their race, and in return were hunted down like wild beasts. This state of things is thus described by Captain Stockenstrom :—
The white colonists having, from the first commencement of the settlement, gradually encroached on the territory of the natives, whose ejectment (as is too well known) was accompanied with great injustice, cruelty and bloodshed, the most hostile feelings were entertained by the weaker party towards those whom they considered as their oppressors. The Aborigines who did not become domesticated (as it was called) like the Hottentots, seeing no chance of retaining or recovering their country, withdrew into the interior as the whites advanced, and being driven to depredations by the diminution of the game, which constituted their principal means of subsistence, and which gradually disappeared when more constantly hunted, and as the waters became permanently occupied by the new comers, they often made desperate attacks on the latter, and in their turn were guilty of great atrocities. Some of the rulers of the colony in those days were, no doubt, favourable to measures of conciliation, but the evil soon got beyond their power of control. In proportion as the pastoral population increased, more and more land was taken possession of, and more desperate and bloody became the deeds of revenge on both sides, until the extermination of the enemy appeared even to the Government the only safe alternative, at least it became its avowed object, as the encouragement given to the hostile expeditions, the rewards of the successful commanders of the same, and many documents still extant clearly demonstrate. The contest being beyond comparison unequal, the colonial limits widened with great rapidity. A thin white population soon spread even over the great chains of the Suven and Newveld mountains, whilst the hordes, who preferred a precarious and often starving independence to servitude, were forced into the deserts and fastnesses bordering on the frontier. It will be at once perceived that I am here alluding to a period of the colonial history not long previous to the close of the last century, and that the Aborigines spoken of are the Bushmen and some tribes of Hottentots, for our relations with the Caffres and others are somewhat of a different nature, as I will show in the sequel. Thus the isolated position of most of the intruders afforded the strongest temptation to the savages occasionally to wreak their vengeance. The numerous herds of our peasantry grazing on the usurped lands proved too seductive a bait for the hungry fugitives, who saw the pasturage of their flocks (the game) thus occupied ; but their partial success against individual families was generally dearly bought by the additional loss of life and land in the long run.
In 1774, an order was issued for the extirpation of the whole of the Bushmen, and three commandos, or military expeditions, were sent out to execute it. The massacre at that time was horrible, and the system of persecution continued unremitting, so that, as we have seen, Mr. Barrow records it came to be considered a meritorious act to shoot a Bushman. In 1795, the Earl of Macartney, by proclamation, authorized the landdrosts and magistrates to take the field against the wild Bosjesmen, whenever such an expedition should appear requisite and proper ; a practice to which, in some parts, they needed not much urging ; for Mr. Maynier, in his answers to the Commissioners of Inquiry, says, ‘“‘ When I was appointed Landdrost of Graaf Reynet, I found that regularly every year large commandos, consisting of 200 or 300 armed boors, had been sent against the Bosjesmen, and learnt by their reports, that generally many hundred of Bosjesmen were killed by them, amongst which number there were perhaps not more than six or ten men (they generally contriving to save themselves by flight,) and that the greatest part of the killed comprised helpless women and innocent children. I was also made acquainted with the most horrible atrocities committed on those occasions, such as ordering the Hottentots to dash out against the rocks the brains of infants (too young to be carried off by the farmers for the purpose to use them as bondmen), in order to save powder and shot.”
– “Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index” [IMPERIAL BLUE BOOK, 1837 nr VII. 425]
Anders Stockenström born Filipstad, Värmland, Sweden (6 January 1757) – son of Anders Andersen Stockenström (1707-1764) inspector of mines and mayor of Filipstad, Värmland, Sweden and Caterina Margarita Ekman (born 1723); marries Cape 1 June 1786 Maria Geertruyda Broeders (baptised 11 March 1764)
daughter of:
Peter Caspar Brodersen / Broeders / Broders (from Husum Danish Holsten) (born 29 April 1733 in Rantrum, Slesvig) (son of Peter Brodersen & Maria Tadsen); studies law at Wittenberg and Jena; assistant VOC; dies 1780 on voyage to Batavia & Elsabe Cornelia Colijn – they marry (14 February 1762) / divorce but remarry (1769)
granddaughter of:
Johannes Colijn baptised Cape 26 December 1692 & 1st wife Elsabe Barzenius van Hoff, widow of J.J. Kotze daughter of Lammert / Lambert Lourens Barzenius van Hoff (from Norway) by Margaretha Jans: Vissers: van de Caep & maternal granddaughter of Johannes Coenraedsz: Visser (from Ommen, Overijssel) aka Jan Grof& Jan Wiltschut by Jan van Riebeeck`s slave Maria (Marij) van Bengale
step-granddaughter of:
Johanna Appel daughter of Ferdinandus Appel (1665-1713) & Lavina Cloete (paternal granddaughter of Joris Jansz: Appel (from Amsterdam) by Johanna (Jannetje) Ferdinandus (from Courtrai, Flanders) & maternal granddaughter of Gerrits Jacobsen Cloete (from Cologne) by Catharina Harmens: / Lodewijks: / Jans: (from Middelburg); she marries (2ndly) 21 February 1745 Lambert Myburgh, widower of Anna Clara Koutsing son of Albert Lambertsz: Myburgh & Elsie van der Merwe (paternal grandson of Lambert (Lammert) Lambertsen Myburg (from Stavern, Norway) & Aletta (Aeltje) Alberts: aka Aeltje Hendricks:aliasDe Handschoenmaeckster) & (maternal grandson of Willem Schalksz: van der Merwe (from Broek / Outbeijerland) & Elsje Jacobs: Cloete (from Cologne)
great-granddaughter of:
Maria (Marij) Everts(e) van de Caep / Swarte Maria / Swarten Evert Marij (c. 1663-1713); marries (1stly) Cape (5 November 1679) // legally separated (3 July 1680) Grusias / Gratias / Gracias van Angola alias Jackie Joy& Jacqje van Angola; marries (2ndly) de factoNN Kraak; marries (3rdly) de factoWillem ten Damme (from Oldenzeel); marries (4thly) de factoBastiaan Jansevan s’ Gravensanalias Bastiaan Colijn / Colyn [Sebastiaen Jansz: Colijn (from`s Gravensand)] [Note: See J.L. Dracopoli, Sir Andries Stockenstrom 1792 1864 the Origins of the Racial Conflict in South Africa (p. 9 & the Aquila cartoons) on allegations of non-white blood in Stockenström family].
great-great-granddaughter of the free-blacks:
Evert van Guinea & Hoen/a aka Anna van Guinea
4 sons & 4 daughters
Sails (September 1781) ex Texel as quarter-gunner aboard VOC ship, ’t Zeepaard. Scurvy breaks out in fleet when it reaches Equator and when it reaches Table Bay (December 1782), 1 202 of 2 753 passengers and crew die, and 915 are ill. Four of the most heavily armed ships, including ’t Zeepaard, sail for Batavia, after four weeks, to assist in war against the British. It is not known whether he sails with the fleet, but two years later he is working as an assistant in goods office in Cape Town, where he remains for some years. Also serves on vessel carrying slaves for VOC from Madagascar to the Cape, and afterwards (until 1795) with the British occupation of Cape, he is bookkeeper to the fleet. General J H Craig appoints (March 1796) him secretary to Landdrost AA Faure, of Swellendam.
Following takeover of Cape by Batavian Republic, appointed landdrost of Graaff-Reinet by both Governor Jan Willem Janssens and Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist.
Latter swears him in (14 February 1804), at which time Graaff-Reinet is without a permanent landdrost (since 1801). During eight years as landdrost – under Batavian rule (until 1806), and then under British rule – the district experiences Bushman raids in north and north-west, and an unsettled frontier with the amaXhosa. Public buildings are in need of restoration following Khoikhoi / Xhosa invasion (1802-03) (3rd Frontier War). While commandos are sent against Bushmen, also tries to reconcile Bushmen by having game shot for them, and periodically giving them cattle. When steps are eventually taken against Xhosa (December 1811), in command of burghers of Graaff-Reinet, occupies Bruintjieshoogte to protect area north of Zuurberg.
Commandos of George Uitenhage and Swellendam, together with Cape Regiment, gather at Sundays River mouth and after Christmas, cross the river to drive Xhosa from Addo bush. On 27 December Col John Graham of Fintry sends orders to him to join rest of force at Coerney, whereCol. JG Cuyler (landdrost of Uitenhage) is in charge. Realising that this would leave the area north of the Zuurberg vulnerable to Xhosa attack, he goes to discuss matter with Graham. Sets out at sunset (29 December 1811) with 24 men. About five hours later he encounters a number of Xhosa of the Imidange clan under Kasa on Doringnek, watershed between White and Coerney rivers, on the Zuurberg. Relying on popularity as friend and benefactor of both colonists and indigenous peoples, dismounts and goes to meet war party unarmed. Spends at least half an hour endeavouring to persuade Kasa to return to their country without bloodshed. But when he returns to mount his horse, Imidange surround his party and attack, killing him and eight burghers and an interpreter. Four are woundedbut manage to escape.
Muatze 