De Buys Genealogy

Ione Mary Brand

2012-03-07T06:52:00.000+02:00

Ione Brand aged 16 (1936) in Cape Town

My grandmother on my father's side was known as "Ione Mary Brand" and was this was how her marriage certificate and death certificate lists her names. Ione was born on 01 November 1920 and baptised on 05 November 1920. Ione worked at the Cape Times (a newspaper based in Cape Town, South Africa) until she got married to Pieter Johannes De Buys on 14 May 1939 at St Mary's Cathedral, Cape Town. Ione died on 08 December 1986.

Her parents were Fleetwood Reginald Louis Felix Brand (died 10 May 1962) and Margaretha (Marguerite) Johanna Basson (born 29 April 1888, died in 1961 of at stroke at home, which was 26 Cauvin Road, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa)

Johanna's baptism record

I recently, however, found her baptism record and was quite surprised when I found that it listed her as "Johanna Elizabeth Brand".

Does anyone know of any reason why Ione changed her names and/or when she changed them?

Jerusalem-Gangers: From the Cape to Jerusalem

2012-02-13T09:05:00.000+02:00

The river which the Jerusalem-ganagers believed was the Nile

The first white settler in the Marico was Coenraad De Buys who arrived in the area in about 1815. Other settlers started moving into the region from 1844 onwards. One particular group found around the 1850's, living in the Enzelsberg, became known as the Jerusalem-gangers.

They were visited by Rev Andrew Murray, a well travelled Dutch Reformed Minister, at the time and engaged in fierce theological dispute with him. The group concluded that he must be the antichrist and Rev Murray barely escapes being stoned.

Their spokesman, Jan Adam Enslin elected to lead the group to Jerusalem. Jan was born on the 17th of June 1800 and died in 1852 during a malaria outbreak. Jan's parents were Johann Adam Enslin (born 26 Jul 1772, died 18 Sep 1812, Paarl) and Maria Magdalena Ackerman. Johan Adam married Cornelia Aletta Viljoen and had 3 children.

Their objective was to find the source of the Nile after which it should be child's play to get to Egypt, and from there reach the promised land with the aid of the maps at the back of their Bibles. Enslin, it seems, died of fever before the pilgrimage had commenced.

Undeterred however, they set off, believing steadfastly that if they travelled long and far enough, they would find the Holy Land and a pyramid-shaped hill nearby strengthened their conviction that they had crossed Africa and reached Egypt. They found a north-flowing river and, believing it was the Nile, christened it the Eye of the Nile, which is close to present day Nylstroom. The river was known to the locals as Mokgalakwena ('fierce crocodile'). The village of Nylstroom was laid out on a farm in February 1866. Today the town of Nylstroom has been renamed Modimolle after the prominent hill close by which the locals regard as their holy mountain (Modimolle meaning ‘god has devoured’). It is believed that they did not get beyond the Waterberg area.

Source:
Groot Marico
Modimolle
Kletskerk
North West History: Jan Adam Enslin
Ancestry.com
Image source: http://www.places.co.za/html/nylstroom.html

De Buys information wanted

2012-01-16T12:20:00.000+02:00

I am looking for information on the following De Buys families and/or information about them:

Alfred De Buys (born 1899/08/03, died 1966/11/20) who married Rachel De Bruyn (born 1898/11/02, died about 1979) and they had Alfred, Joyce, Ruben, Agnes, Muriel, Ernest and Cecil De Buys
Coenderaad Wellem (Coenraad Willem?) De Buys (born 1880, died 1925) who was married to Anna Naude (born 1887) and had Pieter Bieno De Buys
Coenraad Willem De Buys (born estimated: 1850) who married/had a relationship with Margaretha Maria Koopman and had Catharina Maria Adriana, Margaretha Catharina and Wilhemina Christina
Coenraad Willem De Buys (born estimated: 1870) who was married to Elsie Susanna De Beer and had Joseph Benoni De Buys (born 09/03/1895, died 10/05/1945)
Elisa Gabriel Michael De Buys (died 1967) who was married to Magrieta Magdalena Ludick (died 1977) and they had Maria, Hendrik, Koenraad, Anna, Mooitjie and Jurie De Buys
Johannes De Buys (born 14/08 year estimated as 1930) who was married to a Catherine and they had Johannes, Frederick, Sarah, Ester, Pixie, Bokkie De Buys
Johannes De Buys (born estimated: 1940) had (at least) 2 children: Manie and Pieter Johannes
Johannes Gerhardus Hendrica Jeremias De Buys (born about 1859) who was married to Elizabeth (born about 1864) and had Catherina, Johannes Gerhardus Hendricus, Carel Frederik, Johanna, Frederica and Maria De Buys
John De Buys (born 24/06/1871, died 25/04/1944) Buried at the Free State, Koffiefontein, Main Cemetery
Pieter De Buys (born about 1854) who was married to Johanna Petronella (born about 1874) and had Susan and Thomas De Buys
Pieter Johannes De Buys (died 24/11/1994) who was married to Joan Elizabeth Maude
Simon De Buys (born 1946/06/16, died 1987/04/19) who was married to a Diana
Willem Frederick De Buys who was married to Isabella Maria Labuschagne (born 02/1894, died 12/09/1959). Isabella had Sophia, Levina, Isabella and Martin Rood from a previous marriage to a Rood.

I have a little more information on each of these families but will not share for privacy reasons and to allow me to verify any information I receive on these De Buys'.

Where dates have been "estimated" I have merely set the date of birth around 25 years before the birth of the child, I therefore, could be badly out.

If you know these families, or other De Buys families who's information you think I may not have please feel free to get in touch with me.

Governor Van Noodt's mysterious death!

2012-01-05T14:13:00.000+02:00

Source: http://www.mysteryghostbus.co.za/photo's.html

Pieter Gijsbert Van Noodt became govenor of the Cape on the 25th of Feb 1727 after a successful career in Java. He became one of the most hated of all Cape governors.

It is alleged that he embezzled monies that should have been paid to the Company’s soldiers; that he refused licenses to trade, and withheld renewals of leases; prevented adventurous youths from prosecuting the trading and elephant-hunting expeditions which had been their wont; and acted in so tyrannous a manner as to cause very nearly a revolt, in the suppression of which he exercised most excessive cruelty.

Matters came to a head in 1729, when 14 soldiers who had attempted to desert were rounded up and put on trial. Various punishments were handed down, with seven of the supposed ringleaders, who had resisted arrest, being sentenced to death. Despite pleas for clemency from all levels of the settlement and administration, as two of the condemned were also theology students, Van Noodt held firm and the executions were scheduled for 23 April 1729 with Van Noodt decreeing, “They shall all be hanged, the brutes! They shall all hang!”, adding that "I will take it on me" in Dutch.

Three of the seven were spared death and given corporal punishment and imprisonment and four were to be hanged. And they were. But prior to the placing of the fatal noose over the head of the last of the men, he cried out, looking towards Government House where Van Noot then was: “Governor Van Noot, I summon you in this very hour before the judgment seat of Omniscient God, there to give account for the souls of myself and my companions.”, he then let the laxman put the rope round his neck and mounted; there another rope was put on; the two fastened to the nail, and then the laxman pushed him off the ladder. He died without a single quiver.

When the execution was over the whole council, escorted by guard, returned to the Governor’s house to report to him the execution of his sentence. There, in the audience hall, sat Van Noodt, to all appearance busy at his official desk. But, on approaching him, he made no sign of recognition; he sat motionless in his chair - dead!

It is said that Pieter Van Noodt haunts the Castle in Cape Town to this day.

Source:
The Story of the Settlement - Grahamstown As It Was, Grahamstown As It Is
T. Sheffield, Published by T. and G. Sheffield, Printers and Publishers 1884

Ghosts of South Africa
Pat Hopkins (Zebra Press) 2006

Cape Town Stories
Madeleine Barnard (Struik) 31 Aug 2007

Siege of Makapan Cave

2011-12-14T09:49:00.000+02:00

At Moorddrift, some 13 kms south of the central Limpopo town of Mokopane, the Nyl River is wide and shallow, with low sandy banks, an ideal crossing point for the migrating herds of animals of the past, or for long lines of barefooted African traders bearing heavy loads on their heads, or for the oxwagons of the Trekkers moving north in their quest to find a homeland somewhere in the African hinterland where they could live an independent existence, far from British Rule.

It was the “Jerusalemgangers” – a Trekker religious sect intent on reaching the Holy Land – that named the river thus, for it was the first river they had encountered that followed a northwards course. They thought, optimistically, that they had at last encountered the headwaters of the Nile in their trek northwards. The Tswana had another more appropriate name for it: they called it the Mogalakwena – “Mother of Crocodiles”, and the river crossing was known as Esikweni Sengwenyama, the “forest of the Lions”.

The story of the murders at Moorddrift and the subsequent siege at the cave of Gwaša belongs to a longer story of unrest in the northern parts of Limpopo as a growing Boer presence impacted on local groups of Sotho and Ndebele living there. The first white person to penetrate this far north was the notorious frontiersman Coenraad de Buys (originally spelt de Bus), with his fabled harem. One of his several indigenous wives was the sister of Mzilikazi. The founding father of “the Buys People”, his numerous family members eventually settled on the southern flank of the western end of the Zoutpansberg, the settlement coming to be known as Buysdorp.

Then came the Trekkers: Johannes Janse van Rensburg – “Lang Hans” – and Louis Trichardt in 1836, with Commandant Andries Hendrik Potgieter hard on their heels. The Trichardt party quarreled with the van Rensburg party over essential supplies such as ammunition and lead which the latter kept borrowing without returning. The short supply of ammunition was soon to prove fatal to the van Rensburg party who decided to push on independently of the Trichardts in an attempt to reach the east coast where they had the possibility of resupply. However, shortly afterwards, in June 1836, the van Rensburg trek was murdered by a raiding party under the Zulu leader, Sakana or Manukosi. The only survivors of the disaster were the children of Frederik van Wyk (the son-in-law of Lang Hans), a six-year-old boy and a three-year old girl, who were taken to live at Sakana’s kraal. It is probable that they died there of malaria.

The Trichardt party, after suffering a terrible journey, reached Lourenço Marques (Maputo) on 13 April 1838, only to be decimated by malaria.

Commandant Andries Hendrik Potgieter (also known as Hendrik Potgieter) ,however, settled on the south side of the Zoutpansberg, naming the town he founded in this pleasantly wooded area Zoutpansbergdorp – which was later renamed Schoemansdal. The road to his supply line in the south lay through the Makapanspoort, the latter so named because Chief Mokopane’s headquarters, Chidi, was nearby. The trekker highway therefore passed through the territory of Chief Mokopane of the Kekana Ndebele, and crossed the river at Esikwini Sengwenyama. This did not please Mokopane, who was even more perturbed when in 1850, permanent settlement in the Makapanspoort, on the site of the future Potgietersrus, began.

Commandant Potgieter had plans to formalize the Makapanspoort settlement by proclaiming a town, and chose the name Vredenburg for it to celebrate his recent reconciliation with his arch-rival Marthinus Wessel Pretorius. However, in December 1852, before he could carry out his intention, he died in Zoutpansbergdorp. His 30-year-old son, Pieter Johannes, took over the reins of leadership and later carried out his father’s wish with regard to proclaiming the town.

But trouble was brewing. Hermanus Potgieter, a younger brother of the old Commandant, had an unappeasable predilection for the livestock, land and labour of the local people. Even amongst his countrymen he had a reputation for rough behaviour and for being a troublemaker. In this very remote frontier region there was little to curb excesses of behaviour and Hermanus Potgieter’s methods to secure what he wanted were chillingly ruthless. He was notorious for demanding tributes of cattle, and more importantly, of children, who were forced into indentured labour under the ingeboekt system, in effect a form of slavery. In 1853, the famous trader João Albisini who ran the safari trade from the Zoutpansberg to the Portuguese port at Delagoa Bay, warned the Boers of incipient hostilities. Messages of mutilation on Boer subjects and livestock were being sent out by the Ndebele rulers.

The last straw came in August 1854 when Hermanus Potgieter shot and killed the brother of Mokopane over a dispute concerning a buffalo that had been shot. The two Ndebele allies decided that enough was enough. A month later, in September, twenty-eight Boers were killed in three separate incidents by the two chiefs. There are multiple versions of these stories, both in the form of varied oral traditions of the Kekana people, and in the recorded and often conflicting testimonies of Trekker history. Mankopane avenged the death of Mokopane’s brother by luring Hermanus Potgieter into his kraal at Fothane with tales of ivory. Once there, he and his support party were tempted away from the wagons by bearers carrying great tusks of ivory. They were caught unaware and killed. Potgieter was flayed alive. Eight persons were also murdered at Fothane – “moordkoppie”.

The other two murders were carried out near Mokopane’s capital in the Makapanspoort. The first was at the river crossing at Esikgweni Sengwenyama. Here, a Boer party camped under the camelthorn trees next to the drift were set upon and murdered, the heads of six children being dashed to pieces against the boles of the trees. Twelve persons were murdered here by Mokopane, and their corpses mutilated in different ways. In subsequent years it was to acquire the name Moorddrift. The third incident involved a smaller party that had gone to trade at the chief’s village at Chidi, on the present-day farms of Pruizen and Twenty Four Rivers just south-east of the newly proclaimed trekker town of Vredenburg. They too were murdered. All the murders were characterized by gory mutilation and brutality, the Ndebele hoping in this way to scare the Boers from territory they deemed to be their own.

Such acts did not go unnoticed, and a commando led by Piet Potgieter, nephew of Hermanus, and M W Pretorius was mounted against Mokopane, even though it had been Mankopane (Mapela) who had killed Hermanus Potgieter. Mokopane and his people had retired to a massive cave in the mountains, some 23 km north-east of Vredenburg. This cave has the local name of Gwaša, which refers to whisperings, breaths or sighs – the “breath” of the cave is said to be foetid with disease. The Boer name for the cave was, of course, Makapansgat, from which the farm on which the historic cave is situated takes its name.

Swiss photographer H R Gros’ 1883 photo of the northern entrance to Makapan’s Cave showing interior fortifications and stone walling

Makapansgat was declared a World Heritage Site in 2005 on account of its rich and multi-layered heritage extending in an almost unbroken record from Ape-man times about three million years ago to the present. The cave of Gwaša, also known as Makapan’s Cave or Makapansgat, is situated on the side of a hill in a narrow valley, in which there occur a number of caves.

Gwaša has two entrances, and the Kekana Ndebele tried to fortify them by partially walling them off with stone and by creating breastworks inside the cave. Sadly, being perched high above the valley bottom, the caves have little or no water, which made the choice of the retreat a disaster. The commando of M W Pretorius and Piet Potgieter caught up with the fugitives on 25 October 1854 and laid siege to the cave. It was blockaded and two small field cannon were dragged up the opposite flank of the valley and attempts were made to fire into the wide mouth of the refuge. Kekana, firing from behind the redoubts they had constructed inside the cave, made it too hazardous to storm. Other tactics were tried. A plan to collapse the roof of the cave by setting off explosive charges was adopted. However, the first experiment failed and gunpowder was too expensive and scarce to allow a repeat attempt. Huge piles of firewood were thrown off the cliffs above the cave and set alight in the hopes that billows of smoke would be drawn into the cave and so smoke the fugitives out.

Attempts to escape under cover of darkness were discouraged by the deadly accuracy of fire of the night patrol – which claimed the lives of more than 700 victims. After this more and more women and children gave themselves up. On 6 November, Piet Potgieter was standing at the edge of the cliff and peering over to see what was going on below, his body probably clearly silhouetted against the sky. From the darkness within, a Ndebele sniper took aim and his bullet found its mark. Piet Potgieter died where he fell, at the mouth of the cave. His body was retrieved by a young Field-cornet Paul Kruger, with the help of João Albisini’s headman, Manungu.

By the time 17 November 1854 came, resistance had collapsed and parties of Boers began entering the cave and on the 21st the siege was called off. A strong consideration in calling it off was the threat of horse sickness which comes on with the onset of the summer rains, and the Boers would have been left vulnerable without their horses.

It will never be known how many Kekana died in the siege. Military reports state figures in excess of 2 000. However, the adage that the first casualty of war is the truth is particularly true of casualty figures. The figure of 2 000 would have left a large number of corpses inside the cave. In fact, further exploration of the cave immediately after the siege was discouraged by the almost unbearable stench of decomposing bodies. The site should be seen as a mass grave. But what happened to all the bones is still a mystery. Photographs taken by itinerant Swiss photographer H R Gros in 1883, almost 30 years later show numbers of skulls which he used as photographic props.

One consequence of the siege was the commemorative re-naming of the rather inappropriately-named town of Vredenburg (town of peace) to Piet Potgietersrust, later shortened to Potgietersrus. Still more recently, it was renamed Mokopane in commemoration of the chief whose tribe was almost destroyed in the cave.

Source: Village Life (June/July 2007) - Dr Judy Maguire

The Hangklip maroons (1724 - 1737)

2011-11-16T15:17:00.001+02:00

The summer of 1736 had not been a particularly dry one, by the Standards of Cape Town, and on three days in February there had been some light rain. Nevertheless, early in the morning of the 12 March 1736, the thatched roofs of the town must have been very dry, and moreover a south-east wind had sprung up in the night, blowing round the Devil's Peak and down the slopes of Table Mountain with a force that made it difficult to walk.

Therefore when, in course of the night, a fire began in the tannery belonging to Jan Nicholaas Beugel, which lay just across from the vegetable garden of the VOC, on the southern edge of the town, it could easily have spread and burnt down the whole of Cape Town. As it was, it destroyed only five houses. The town was saved, the official diarist teils us, 'by the Grace of God and swiftly taken action', a combination of which Oliver Cromwell would surely have approved.

The expedients included spreading an old sail over the thatched roof of the most vulnerable house to ward off the sparks, which it was able to do because the slaves kept it sodden. All the same, the owners of the five houses lost all their possessions, even down to the chickens in Rudolf Allemann's run, which were unable to escape and so were roasted alive, and eaten next morning by his slaves.

The Cape authorities were not certain whether the fire was accidental, for the houses had been destroyed so completely that no clues were left, 110 half-burnt brands as had been found after a similar arson attempt three months previously. They must have had their suspicions, all the same, because at the same meeting of the council they ordered a commando to go out and round up the runaways, both slave and European, hiding in the mountains round the Cape. Later they discovered that it had indeed been a case of deliberate arson, one committed moreover by members of the most notorious band of runaway slaves in the history of the Cape colony, led by Leander Bugis and living on the coast near Hangklip, or Cape False.

Because it was the longest surviving and largest of such groups at the Cape, the Hangklip maroon Community represents the limit of what runaway slaves in South Africa were able to achieve.

The band had first come to the notice of the authorities some eleven years before the fire. The landrost of Stellenbosch had written to the governor informing him that a large number of slaves were hiding in the mountains around Cape Agulhas and asking that the reward for capturing them be increased to ten Rijksdaalders per head.

Around 1725 the group was joined by Lena van de Caab, a slave of the Company. Two years earlier she had run away from Cape Town with Jochem, her husband, and had gone to live in the mountains of the Cape peninsula, about Hout Bay. They survived largely by stealing sheep from the kraal of Jochem's former master, Gerrit Victor. After two years of this precarious existence, they decided that they needed to find a safer spot and moved from the mountains of the Cape peninsula across the Cape flats - presumably along the coast of Falsc Bay - to Hangklip, where they found four men living, Leander Bugis, Arend, Joumath and Andries.

Probably it was not chance that they went there. Communications between Hangklip and Table Mountain were frequent, at least in later years, so it is likely that Lena and Jochem knew of the existence of the Hangklip group and went with the definite intention of joining it.

Hangklip was a very suitable location for a maroon Community because it combined the safety provided by the mountains with the plentiful food supplies of the coast.

The basic biographical data that is available on the fifty known Hangklip runaways (of the period 1724-1737) is listed below. In general it is very deficient, and on occasion, especially as regards the date of birth, rather approximate.

1 Adam, m., slave of Mattheus de Wolff, present in early 1730s.
2 Alexander, m., 1703 born Bengal, slave of Hendrick Thomas, with runaways 1733-5, then captured in Cape Town and sentenced to be flogged, branded, be pilloried under the gallows and to 25 years' hard labour in chains. (It was not known he had been in Hanglip.) Escaped September 1736, went to Hanglip. Was captured 1737. Sentenced to be broken without the coup de grace, after first having eight pieces of flesh pulled out with red-hot tongs.
3 Alexander, m., born 1705, Malabar, slave of Jochem Stolz. In Lena's group, 1730, captured, flogged and sent home.
4 Amil, m., born 1700, Madagascar slave of Jochem Stoltz, Tijgerberg. Went to Hanglip 1726, captured 1730, hung.
5 Andries, m., slave of Jan Zacharias Beck. In Hanglip before 1724.
6 Anthony, m., slave of Pieter Jürgen van der Heijde. In Hanglip 1728, stayed one month and then returned to his master.
7 Anna, f., born 1697, Madagascar, slave of Gysbert Verwey, Tijgerberg. In Hanglip from 1726, captured 1737, strangled.
8 Arend, m., slave of Cornelia Eenmaal, widow Smuts (?, there is no such person on the 'Geslagsregister van Ou Kaapse Families'). In Hanglip before 1725.
9 Aron, m., born 1707 Madagascar, slave of Paul Jordaan, Cape Town. Went to Hanglip 1736, captured 1737, flogged, branded, ten years' hard labour in chains.
10 Barkat, m., slave of Robert Schot, free black, in the Cape flats, went to Hanglip 1736.
11 Batjoe, m., slave of Nicholaas Brommert, In Hanglip, 1735-6.
12 Caesar, m. born 1700, Madagascar, slave of Jan Olivier. In Lena's group, 1730, flogged, branded, 10 years' hard labour in chains.
13 Christina, f., born 1705, Madagascar, slave of Jochem Stoltz. In Lena's group 1730, flogged, branded and sent home.
14 Colon, m.,'born 1697, Ceribon, (Java) slave of Abraham de Hann. Captured 1730, broken with coup de grace, as he had killed his fellow slave Joumath in escaping.
15 Cupido, m., slave of Ernst Heeger. In Hanglip c. 1730, went back to his master after six months.
16 Cupido, m., slave of schipper Jan de Heere. Went to Hanglip 1726-7, present 1736.
17 December, m., born Bali, slave of Hendrick Thomas. In Hanglip c. 1732, killed by Leander.
18 December, m., born 1700, Bali, slave of Jan de Waal, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7, capturad with Lena 1730, broken with coup de grace.
19 Diana, f., born 1711, Rio de la Goa, slave of Jacobus Marshun, Cape Town. Went to Hanglip 1736 - having spent some time in an exclusively 'Delagoan' group in the neighbourhood - captured 1737, when she was pregnant, strangled two months after the trial, after giving birth, only spoke the 'Rio de la Goa' language.
20 Dina, f., born 1712, Rio de la Goa, slave of widow Smiesing. In Hanglip from 1736, captured 1737, strangled.
21 Fortuyn, m., present 1736.
22 Eloris, m., present 1736.
23 January, m., slave of H. Mark, born 1717. In Hanglip from 1734, captured 1734, questioned and released, returned to Hanglip, captured 1737, hung.
24 January, alias Jamboe, m., born 1690, Bugis, slave of widow Nicholas Mulder, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7, captured 1730, flogged, branded, hard labour in chains for life.
25 January, m., slave of Noach Backer, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7.
26 Jochem, m., born at the Cape, slave of Gerrit Victor. In Hanglip from 1725, died c. 1729, killed by order of Leander.
27 Joseph, m., born 1697, Malabar, slave of Coenraad Gross. In Hanglip 1734, captured 1737, hung.
28 Joumath, m. slave of Johannes Cruywagen. In Hanglip before 1725, had brother in Cape Town, leader of splinter group, never captured.
29 Leander, m., born Bugis, slave of Dirk Brand. In Hanglip before 1725, leader of group, last seen running away from the commando, 1737.
30 Lena, f., born 1700, Cape Town, slave of VOC. In Hanglip 1725, captured 1730, flogged, branded, to work in heavy chains for life, in the Company's slave lodge, stole linen again in 1737.
31 Lijs, f., present 1736.
32 May, m., slave of schipper, Jan de Heere, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7, killed by Joumath, after the split.
33 Meij, m., born 1698, Cochin, slave of Willem Das. In Hanglip from 1731, captured 1733, sentenced to work in chains until others caught, presumably dead by 1737.
34 Mars, m., slave of Jan de Heere. In Hanglip 1726-7, in Joumath's group, 1736.
35 Marthinus, m., born Cape, slave of Gideon Joubert. Went to Hanglip November 1736, with brother Pieter.
36 November, m., born 1699, Sumbawa, slave of Cornelis Heufke. Captured 1730, hung.
37 Perra, m., born 1702, Malabar, slave of Jacob de Vries, Cape Town. Went to Hanglip July 1736, gave himself up 1737 after group had broken up, hung.
38 Philander, m., born 1705, Ceylon, slave of Anthony Wagenaar. Went to Hanglip 1726, captured 1730, broken with coup de grace.
39 Pieter, m., born 1702, Malabar, slave of Johannes Swellengrebel. Captured 1730, hung.
40 Pieter, m., born 1721, Cape Town, slave of Andries Grove, Rondebosch. Went to Hanglip, with his brother, November 1736, captured December 1736, flogged, three years in chains, serving his master.
41 Rosetta, f., born Rio de la Goa, slave of Jaconus Marshon. In Hanglip 1736.
42 Salomon, m., slave of repatriated burger Rogiers. In Hanglip from 1725.
43 Sambow, m., born 1707, Madagascar, slave of Ernest Heeger. Went to Hanglip 1730, captured 1737, broken without coup de grace.
44 Sara, f., slave of Gysbert Verwey. In Hanglip from 1725.
45 Scipio, m., slave of Gysbert Verwey, Tijgerberg. In Hanglip from 1725, killed by Leander, 1726.
46 September, m., born 1702, Bugis, slave of Jochem Stoltz. Captured 1730, flogged branded, sent home.
47 Simon, m., slave of schipper Jan de Heere, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7.
48 Titus, m., slave of schipper Jan de Heere, Cape Town. In Hanglip 1726-7.
49 Toesina, m., slave of Johannes Cruywagen. In Hanglip from ? 1728, killed ? 1736, after firing on commando.
50 Venus, m., slave of Steven Niel. In Hanglip from ? 1728.

Source:
Cape of torments Slavery and resistance in South Africa
Robert ROSS

The Dodgsons of Yorkshire

2011-10-17T07:18:00.001+02:00

My Dodgson family tree has been traced back to Benjamin Dodgson who was born in Yorkshire, England in 1796. The 1841 census shows Benjamin as living in Tadcaster, Aberford.

Benjamin married Elizabeth Arnold who was born in 1795. The 1851 census of Yorkshire shows Elizabeth living with her children, mother and niece Eliza Arnold who was 12 and was born in Womersley. Elizabeth is listed as a widow, meaning that Benjamin died before the 1851 census was taken. Her occupation was listed as a labourers wife.

Benjamin and Elizabeth had 7 children, Teresa (born 1835), John (born 1837), Frank (born 1837), Benjamin (born 1841), Amey (born 1843), Arnold (born 1840) and George (born 1850).

My Dodgson family are ancestors are the offspring of George Dodgson and his wife Jane Hall (born 12 August 1854, died 29 February 1908). George and Jane married in Pontefract on the 14th of June 1873.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (born 27 January 1832, died 14 January 1898), is better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all examples of the genre of literary nonsense.

When Charles was 11, his father was given the living of Croft-on-Tees in North Yorkshire, and the whole family moved to the spacious Rectory. This remained their home for the next twenty-five years.

Given the fact that the families lived in Yorkshire at the same time and that Benjamin's family was so big and Charles also came from a large family there could be a link between the two family trees.

Any information on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Source:
Wikipedia: Lewis Carroll

French Refugees who came to the Cape

2011-09-12T12:32:00.001+02:00

List of French Refugees who came to the Cape between 1688 and 1700

(Those marked with an asterisk received pecuniary assistance from the Batavian Fund in 1690. The list of recipients is printed in Theal's "History of South Africa before 1795" vol. 2, pp. 342-343.]

Note.—Names commencing with des, du, la, le, arranged under these prefixes.

Anthonarde, Marie, mother-in-law of Louise Corbonne or her husband Jean Mesnard, q.v., sailed in the Berg China in 1688, then aged 64; probably died on the voyage.

*Arniel, Matthieu, received assistance for himself, wife and two children. An agriculturist at French Hoek, he was married to Jeanne Mille, born in Provence in 1633 (died 17th March, 1731). He died in November, 1719, and, by the joint will in 1718 of himself and wife, left legacies to (i) the Poor Fund of Drakenstein, (2) Susanna Fracasse, daughter of Matthieu Fracasse, q.v. living with her cousin Francois Ree in Amsterdam, (3) Jan Roy (Roi ?), son of the agriculturist in French Hoek, Jan Roy, q.v. After the death of the survivor they appoint Jan Roy, Jr., heir after his father's death.

Avicé or Avis, Sara of d'Chateau d'un, a spinster, sailed in 1688 in the Oosterlandt; probably did not reach Cape.

Avicé or Avis, Marie, living at Drakenstein in 1692; was then the wife of Claude Marais of Plessis, q.v. She died before 172 1, and does not appear to have left issue.

Bache, or Basche, Marguerite, a spinster, sailed in the Voorschooten in 1688, then aged 23. In the Stellenbosch Church books is the entry of baptism of Lysbeth daughter of Hans Pieter van Malcheer and Margarita Basse on 3rd August, 1692.

Barillé, Pierre, with his wife, Dina van Soetermeer, did not require assistance from the 1690 Fund. In 1692 they were hving in the Cape district, and eight years after she is described as a widow.

*Barré, Louis, on 26th February, 1700, Revd. Pierre Simond, q.v., granted a power of attorney in Barre's favour to recover certain money. He returned to Europe in 1705.

*Batté, Pierre, returned to Europe in 1696.

La Bat See Labat.

Belusé, Bleuset or Bluse, Abraham of Calais, born 1665; came in the Schelde in 1688, in 1692 was Hving in the Cape district unmarried, and in 1700 in Stellenbosch. An agriculturist, he married Elizabeth Posseaux of Paris, q.v., widow of Jacob Bisseux, q.v. He died on 25th July, 1735, and was buried near his wife. In his will, filed in 1735, he signs himself Bleuset, and is described as "compagnon" in farming with Jean Manier, q.v. His wife died in September, 1726, and was buried in the churchyard at Cape Town. She appears to have had children by her first husband only.

*Beneset, or Benezet, Pierre, one of the first deacons of the French congregation at Drakenstein in 1691, unmarried. Returned to Europe in 1700.

de Berault or de Beureau, Anne, wife of Revd. Pierre Simond, q.v.

de Berault or de Beureau, Louis, brother of above, arrived in the Zuid Beveland in 1688 with Rev. Simond and party, although he was at the time a sergeant in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He accompanied the first expedition of the Noord in October, 1688, to Rio de la Goa in search of the wrecked men of the Stavenisse. He subsequently left the service and became a "freeman" or free burgher at the Cape, and in 1690 was deacon of the Cape Town Church; the following year he was one of the first elders of the newlyformed French congregation at Drakenstein. Although described in 1690 as married with three children,' his wife and children must have died, for in his will, drawn up at Stellenbosch in 1698, he makes his sister Anne his heiress, and states that for eight or ten years he had not heard from his friends. In 1682 Alexandrina Maxwell, a spinster, was resident at the Cape, and in a list of 1685 she appears as the wife of Lodewyk Brureau, probably intended for Louis de Berault.

Bevernage or Bevernagie, Francina of Meerbrakel, Oudenaarden, married here in 1700 to Jacob Mouton, q.v.

Bevernage or Bevernagie, Joost, born at Brakel, as above, about 1684, brother of Francina Bevernage; arrived as a "freeman" in 1700 in the Helmeet, and died on 30th September, 1738. An agriculturist at Drakenstein, he was married to Anna van der Wey, of the Cape, born about 1687.

Bevernage or Bevernagie, TheuniS, born at Meerbrakel in 1691, and brother of Joost; apparently did not marry. After leaving, by will dated 1724, a legacy to his sister Francina, he instituted his brother Joost as his heir. Will filed in 1736.

Bisseux, Jacques of Picardy, came in the Vosmaar in 1696 as "freeman," and died on 11th June, 1723, and was buried in the churchyard at Cape Town. In 1720 he is described as a baker. His son Pieter, by his first wife Marie le Febre (died 1700), is described in 1729 as from " Middelburg in Zeeland," and appears to have left no issue. Pieter died in 1735. Jacques Bisseux remarried Elizabeth Posseaux of Paris, born 1682, q.v., and their daughter, Elisabeth, married Albertus Bergh, son of Captain Olof Bergh; they also had a son, Johannes Bisseux.

Bourbounais, Jacob of Mons, a sailor in the service of the Dutch East India Company; in 1692 entered the service of Pierre le Febre, a burgher of Stellenbosch, and two years later went over to Pierre Rochefort, q.v. In 1712 he appears on the list of burghers of Drakenstein.

Bouvat, Daniel, see Couvat.

Brasier, Paul, did not require assistance in 1690; two years later was living in Cape district.

Briet, Suzanne, see Taillefert.

*Bruere (now Bruwer and Bruwel), Estienne of Blois, arrived in 1688 in the Voorschooten; then a bachelor, aged 23 years, and described as a wagonmaker. In the 1690 Fund he appears as "Estienne Bruere and his espoused Esther de Ruelle," a daughter of Daniel de Ruelle, q.v. Estienne Bruere signed himself as Bruere. He remarried at Stellenbosch, on 19th February, 1702, Anne du Puis of Amsterdam, q.v. Descendants.

Buisset, Maria, born at Sedan on the French frontier in 1678; married in January, 1700, at the Domkerk, Amsterdam, to Jean Prieur du Plessis of Poitiers, q.v., surgeon before his second arrival at the Cape. By him she had Maria, born 1702, Anna, 1704 and Pieter, August, 1708. On the death of du Plessis, she married Dirk Snith of Nieuwburg, surgeon, in 1711, who died about 1725. She died subsequently about 1751. Maria Buisset practised in Cape Town as a quaUfied midwife. In the church entry of Anna's birth in 1704 the names of the sponsors are Christoffel Buisset and Maria Buisset.

*de Buys or Du Buis (now also found as Buys), Jean of Calais/Paris, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt as an agriculturist; married Sara Jacob of Calais, daughter of the Refugee Pierre Jacob, q.v.

*Carnoy, Antoinette, widow of Phillipe de Clercq, merchant of Doornik, and mother-in-law of Jacques de Savoye of Aeth, q.v., merchant; arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt. In 1698 she signed a power of attorney in favour of Jean Bourla, merchant of Amsterdam.

Caucheteux, see Costeux.

Cellier/Celliers/Cillie/Cilliers/Sellier, Josue of Orleans, born 1667, an agriculturist, vinedresser and carpenter; arrived in 1700 in the Reygersdaal, with his wife Elizabeth Couvret, born 1676 at Orleans. His farm was "De Orleans" at Drakenstein, where he died in October, 1721, leaving five sons and five daughters.

de Clercq, Marie Madeleine of Tournay, daughter of Phillipe de Clercq and Antoinette Carnoy; was married to Jacques de Savoye, q.v.

de Clercq, (now de Klerk), Abraham of Straaskerke alias Serooskerke, Walcheren Island, son of Pieter de Clercq and Sara Cochet, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt, in the service of the Dutch East India Company; married at Stellenbosch, 12th May. 1709, to Magdalena Mouton of Middelburg.

de Clercq, (now de Klerk), Jeanne, sister of above, married Andre Gaucher, q.v.

*Cloudon, Jean of Condé, a shoemaker, came in 1688 in the Oosterlandt; appears on roll of Drakenstein inhabitants in 1700; unmarried.

Cochet, or Couchet, Sara of Oosterhoebrugh, Walcheren, widow of Pieter de Clercq; living in 1687 at Serooskerke, when she came out to the Cape to marry Guillaume du Toit, q.v. See de Clercq above.

*Corbonne, Louis, arrived in 1688 in Berg China, aged 20, then described as a bachelor and cousin of Pierre le Grange; died 1700.

Corbonne, Louise, wife of Jean Mesnard, q.v.

*Cordier (occasionally found now spelt Cortje), Louis, with his wife Francoise Martinet and four children, received assistance in 1690; was an agriculturist, and one of the first elders of the French congregation at Drakenstein; died in 1702. They must have arrived about 1688, for the next year their son, Jacques Cordier, was baptised, and in his will, dated 1713, the latter states his age as 25 years.

Costeux, or Caucheteux, This family came from Marcq, or Marck, near Calais, and their names are found in the Registers of the Protestant church at Guisnes. On the 13th November, 1672, Esaye Caucheteux, labourer, aged 25, son of the late Anthoine Caucheteux and late Elizabeth Chnquemeur (she died at Marcq, 14th June, 1672, aged 69), was married to Suzanne Albert, aged 22, daughter of Pitre Albert and the late Noelle de Bus. The following baptisms of their children ,are noted: Esaye Caucheteux, born 23rd September, 1673, at Fort Brule (sponsor Isaac Carpenter and Sara Albert); Suzanne Caucheteux, born 18th October, 1676, at Marcq; Pierre Caucheteux, born 21st May, 1679, at Marcq; Jean and Marie Caucheteux, twins, born 7th December, 1682, at Marcq (Marie died young).

*Costeux, Esaias, Jean and Susanne Children of Esaias Costeux and Susanne Albert, French Refugees from Marcq, near Calais. In the 1690 list Esaias and Susanne are described as two orphans now living with Nicolaas Kleef (or Cleef). Esaias became an agriculturist in Stellenbosch district, and died in 1708, leaving a widow Anna van Marseveen (van Marcevene) but no issue, his brother and sister being his heirs in 1709. The widow married Abraham Prevot of Calais, g.v. Susanne Costeux married (before 1694) Gerrit Meyer (probably a Refugee) and died about 1714. Jean, like the foregoing, was born at or near Calais, 1682, and married at Cape Town, 22nd May, 1712, Anna Gildenhuys of the Cape, born 1699; he was buried in June, 1713, in the churchyard at Cape Town. He returned to Europe in 1718; signed Costeux.

Couteau, Marie of Soudiere in Dauphine, see Pierre Lombard.

*Couvat, Daniel, The names Daniel Bouvat and Daniel Couvat are met with in the records. I am of opinion they refer to the same person, and I have treated them as such. Described as a French Refugee. Given permission in 1708 to return to Europe. In 1702 he entered into a contract with Pierre Rousseau, and is described in the body of the document as "Daniel Boat, free agriculturist living at Drakenstein"; he signs it D. Bouvat. In 1694 also described as French Refugee Daniel Boat.

Couvret, Paul, arrived in 1700 in the Reygersdaal with his wife Anne Vallete, born at Bazoze near Orleans, and a little child Anna Ehzabeth. He lived at Paarl and was an agriculturist, a vinegrower and shoemaker, and in 1712 returned to Europe with wife and four children.

Couvert, Elizabeth of Orleans, wife of Josue Cellier, q.v. She was probably a sister of Paul. She and her husband also arrived in the Reygersdaal.

Cronier or Crosnier (now Cronje), Estienne and Pierre of Normandy, two brothers, who came out in 1698 in the Driebergen. Estienne an agriculturist, owned the farms "Champagne" and "Olyvenhout" in Wagonmakers Valley. He died, unmarried, 2nd September, 1724. Pierre, born in 1671, married Susanna Taillefert (died 13th February, i724),widowof Jean Garde, q.v.,a.nd daughter of the Refugee Isaac Taillefert, q.v. Pierre Cronier died 2nd September, 1718, and left issue, who were the heirs of his brother. His son Pierre, from whom the South African Cronje descends, married Susanna Roi.

D'Atis, Cecilia, see Dumont and des Pres.

Delport, See de la Porte.

*des Pres or du Pre (now du Preez), Hercule of Cortryk, now Courtrai, arrived in 1688 in the Schelde with his wife Cecilia D'Atis and four children. In 1690 he received help for himself and five children. He must have died about 1695. In the inventory of his deceased estate he is stated to have left six children. The widow remarried Pierre Dumont, q.v. Descendants of Hercule des Pres. The children were:

*des Pres or du Pre (now du Preez), Hercule of Courtrai, a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, and Captain of the Burgher Cavalry, died 9th May, 1721. He married (i) Marie le Febre, by whom he had issue, (2) Corneha Vilhon (Viljoen). He signed himself as des Pres. He took an active part in the movement against Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel.

*des Pres or du Pre (now du Preez), Elizabeth of Courtrai. She was sponsor on 24th May, 1688, to Charles Prevot, baptised on the Schelde. She married Pieter Jansz van Marseveen (van Marcevene), who died 1728, and by him left (i) Anna, married Abraham Prevot, (2) Cecilia, married Charles du Plessis, (3) Pieter.

*des Pres or du Pre (now du Preez), Marie Jeanne, described in her will as of Bethune, married Jacques Theron of Nismes, q.v.

*des Pres or du Pre (now du Preez), Philippe of Courtrai, an agriculturist, married Elizabeth Prevot, born 1683 at Marcq, near Calais, daughter of Charles Prevot, q.v. They had a large family.

des Ruelles, See de Ruelle.

Drouin, Phillipe, came in the Driebergen in 1698, and two years later was living as an agriculturist in the Stellenbosch district. His will, proved 29th September, 1702, instituted as his heir the Refugee Gideon Malherbe "for his true friendship shown to me." On the 7th December, 1701, the Directors of the Dutch East India Company wrote to the Cape Government and said "P.S.—Henri Rou, refugee minister, has given us a bag marked P.D.X.X. containing / 142 : 10 to be delivered to the French fugitive Philip Drouin of the Cape. We could not refuse to accede to this pious request, as it was an inheritance sent to us out of his father's estate, who had died in France." This money was handed over to the Cape Orphan Chamber, which paid it to Gideon Malherbe as heir.

*du Buis, See de Buys.

du Buisson, David of Rochelle, married in August, 1707, to Claudine Lombard, daughter of the Refugee Pierre Lombard, q.v. In 1716 he was living in Hottentots Holland, and died in 1722. He was schoolmaster to the children of Pierre Joubert.

Dumont, Pierre [Robert], an agriculturist at Drakenstein, in 1700 married Cecilia D'Atis, widow of Hercules des Pres, Sr. She died 15th November, 1720, and was then living on the farm "Soetendal" in Drakenstein.

*du Plessis, Jean Prieur, born at Poitiers in Poitou in 1638, a surgeon, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt with his wife Madelaine Menanteau, or Menanto, of Poitiers. In 1694 he returned to Europe with his wife and two children in the ship Sir Jansland, as he could earn very little either by his profession or as a farmer. His wife must have died in Europe, for in January, 1700, at the Domkerk, Amsterdam, he married Maria Buisset of Sedan, q.v., with whom he returned to the Cape. By the first wife he had Charles du Plessis, born 1688, Jean Louis du Plessis, born 1691. According to his will with Maria Buisset, the names of their children are given as Marie, born 1702, Anne, 1704, and Pieter, 1708. There was a Judith du Plessis, who in her will stated she was born in Ireland, probably a daughter born on the return voyage to South Africa.

*du Plessis, Charles, son of the above, born on the Oosterlandt and baptised on board in Table Bay on the i8th April, 1688; married in 1712 Cecilia Marcevene (or van Marseveen), and died i8th September, 1737. On 5th Januar5% at Drakenstein, his widow married Wynand Louw, bachelor, surgeon in the Hospital. Charles du Plessis was probably apprenticed to his father, as we find him practismg as a surgeon.

du Preez, See des Pres.

du Puis or du Puys, Anne Martin, widow of Jean du Puis, by whom she had Anne Madeleine and Susanna. She remarried Salomon de Gournay, q.v. (see will in Stellenbosch Archives made out in her name and that of her second husband).

du Puys, Anne Madeleine of Paris, daughter of above, married David Seneschal, or Senecal, of Dieppe, q.v.

du Puys, Susanna, sister of Anne Madeleine, married 19th February, 1702, to Estienne Bruere of Blois, q.v. In 1695 she stood sponsor at Drakenstein to a child of David Senecal. In the Guisnes Church Register there are several references to the family of du Puis. In 1668 Daniel des Ruelles, who came to the Cape, was present at the marriage of Jean du Puy and Marie Facon. In 1679 Marie du Puy died, and the entry of her death was witnessed by Suzanne and Anne du Puis.

Durand, Jean of La Motte Chalan9on in Dauphine, born about 1669, a surgeon and farmer at Drakenstein, died March, 1727; was heir of Jean Parisel, q.v. He was a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden, and married (i) at Cape Town, 29th February, 1702, Anna Vermeulen of the Cape, born 1686, (2) Wilhelmina van Zijl of Haarlem. Descendants.

Durier, Marie Catarina, widow of Guillaume de Haas, lived at French Hoek; her will, dated nth August, 1718, was witnessed by Jean Gardiol and Andre Huibaux.

du Tuillet, Jean, arrived in 1698 in the Driebergen. He was an agriculturist at Drakenstein.

Fouche, Gasper, sailed in the Voorschooien in 1688, aged 21 years; probably he died on the way out.

*Fouché, Philippe, arrived 1688 in the Voorschooien with his wife Anne Fouche and children, Anne, aged 6, Esther, 5 and Jacques, 3. In 1690 he received assistance for himself, wife and two children, and in 1692 had four children. Descendants living.

Fourie, Louis, an agriculturist in the Wagonmakers Valley, where, in 1699, he received a grant of land and called it Slange Rivier; here he lived until his death, which must have been about 1750, when an inventory in his estate was filed. In terms of his will this place was to devolve upon his son Louis Fourie, who waived his right, and it was purchased at auction by Gabriel Rossouw. He owned another place, Zeekoedrift, on the Gouritz River. Louis Fourie, sen. married (i) Susanna Cordier. daughter of the Refugee Louis Cordier, q.v.; she died about 1715, and he married (2) Anna Jourdan, daughter of Pierre Jourdan, q.v. At his death he left five children or representatives by the first wife and eight children by the second.

*Fracassé, Matthieu of Provence, born 1662, agriculturist at Drakenstein, arrived 1688 in Berg China; married Jeanne Cordier, daughter of the Refugee Louis Cordier, q.v. He had a son Jean Fracasse, baptized 27th July, 1698, and a daughter Elizabeth, baptized 15th May, 1701 (probably died young). His third child was Susanna, who was living in Amsterdam in 1718, having been left a legacy by Matthieu Arniel, q.v. Matthieu Fracasse must have returned to Europe before 17 13, as his brother-in-law Jacques Cordier refers to him as being in Holland.

Furet, Jean, sailed in 1688 in Berg China, a bachelor, aged 18; probably died on the way out.

*Gardé, Jean, an agriculturist at Drakenstein; at the distribution in 1690 he was then unmarried being in partnership with Jean Durand. In 1691 he received a grant of land, on which the farm Rhone is. He married Susanna Taillefert, daughter of the Refugee Isaac Taillefert, q.v. In 1704 her name appears on the list of inhabitants of the Cape district as his widow. She remarried before 1710 the Refugee Pierre Cronier, q.v., and after his death in 1718 she married Jacob Naude, q.v. Jean Garde had two children, Jean, born I701,and Susanna, 1703, who married Josue Joiibert, son of the Refugee Pierre Joubert, q.v. Jean died 27th January, 1784, unmarried, having bought in 1724 the farm Versailles from the estate of his mother. It is interesting to note that attached to the inventory of Mrs. Naude's estate in 1724 is a document of monies due written in French, and that in connection with her funeral expenses this statement appears, "for the service in the church in the French language, 3 rixdollars."

Gardiol, Jean. His name appears on the burgher roll of Drakenstein for 1690, when he was living at Drakenstein, and is mentioned as "compagnon" with the three brothers de Vilhers. In 1700 he was livmg in the Stellenbosch district, being unmarried. At first one is inclined to associate him with the previous name, Jean Garde, and conclude he is one and the same as suggested in a footnote to de Vilhers' hst,^ but this cannot be. Jean Garde died before 1704, as his widow's name appears on list of inhabitants of the Cape district, when that of Jan Gardiol is given as a resident of Drakenstein. We find the signature of Jean Gardiol as witness to an inventory in 1722, and in 1725 his name appears amongst the church members of Drakenstein. He died in 1738. Probably the following two were his sisters.

Gardiol, Marguerite of Provence, born 1674, married before 1695 Jacob de Villiers, q.v., died at Drakenstein in 1716.

Gardiol, Susanne, sister of above, born at de la Coste, Provence; married in 1689 Abraham de Villers of la Rochelle, q.v., who died 31st March, 1720. She married secondly Claude Marais, q.v., with whom she entered into an antenuptial contract on the 13th October, 1721.

Gaucher, (now Gous and Gouws), Andre of Languedoc, came out in the Spierdyk in 1690 to earn his Hving as a blacksmith and agriculturist; married at the Cape, 19th August, 1691 (then a widower), to Jeanne le Clair (de Clercq) of Zeeland. In 1690 he required no assistance from the Fund. Jeanne le Clair or le Clercq (she signed du Klerk) was the daughter of Sara Cochet, q.v., then the wife of Guillaume du Toit and formerly married to Pieter le Clercq. Jeanne was probably also born at Straaskerke in Walcheren Island, where her brother Abraham q.v. was born. Andre Gaucher had been previously married before coming out, for in 1698 monies from his deceased estate were paid into the Orphan Chamber on behalf of his children, Steven (Estienne) aged 14, described as being a child of a former marriage. Pieter 5, Sara, 3 and Andries, 6 weeks. Pieter and Andries left descendants.

Gaucher, (now Gous and Gouws), Steven of Geneva, son of above, married here in 1719 and left descendants.

*Godefroy, Paul, born 1666, arrived in the Voorschooten in 1688; died at Dal Josaphat, Drakenstein, 1699. [Le Maire de la Rochelle en 1627 etait Jean Godefroy aine Sr. de Richard.]

Goiraud, Pierre, sailed in 1688 in the Berg China with his wife Francoise Rousse; he was then aged 30 and she 28 years; they apparently died on the voyage.

*Gournai or de Gournay, Salomon, came in the Zuid Beveland in 1688, an agriculturist at Drakenstein; in 1694 was granted by Governor van der Stel the farm Salomon's Valley at Drakenstein. He married Anna Martin, widow of Jean du Puis (du Puys), and had a child in 1693. His eldest brother, Jean de Gournay, was living in 1712 in London, where Salomon returned in 1718. He held the office of elder in the Drakenstein congregation. Signed himself as de Gournay.

Grillion, Marie, wife of Gideon Malherbe, q.v.

*Gros, Antonie

Hanseres, or Hanseret, Gerard, born at St. Omer in Artois 1652, son of Lyvin Hanseres and Francoise de Beavois, citizens of St. Omer (both died there). Gerard was a mason at Stellenbosch, and married Gabrilla Waerand (or Wavrant, dead in 1702). They had Jan Joseph, born at St. Omer 1684, and Maria Gabrilla, also born there, 1679, both children living at their birthplace in 1702. By a will which he made in 1712, only Maria Gabrilla appears to be living. He left legacies to the following people residing at St. Omer: Anna Gassier, widow, 300 guldens; Nicolaus Dannel. Master mason and his "compeer," Omes du Bois, Master Mason, each a like sum, and 70 guldens to Jan la Mory, Potter. In 1718 he left for Europe.

*Hugod or Hugot (now Hugo), Daniel, born 1663-5, a smith, his name found in the Stellenbosch records on 6th August, 1689. On 1st August, 1691, received grant of the land on which is the farm Sion, Drakenstein, where he carried on agricultural pursuits. Daniel Hugo, who signed himself Hugot, was a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden. He married Anna, daughter of the Refugee Pierre Rousseau, q.v., and died 1724-5. Descendants. See Blignault in list further on.

*Imbert, Jean, born at Nismes, Languedoc, an agriculturist at Drakenstein, received grant of land of farm Languedoc, along the Palmiet River. He died 1723, and instituted as his heir Pierre Joubert of Provence, agriculturist at Drakenstein, in recognition of faithful services rendered. He does not appear to have married.

Jacob (now Jacobs and Jacobse), Pierre of Calais, with wife and three children, received assistance in 1690. In the registers of the Protestant church at Guisnes will be found the baptismal entries of the children of a Jacob and his wife Suzanne de Vos; several of them died in Europe. He arrived here before 1690 with his wife and three children, Daniel, Sara and Suzanne. Pierre Jacob died before 1698. and his widow married Nicolas de Lanoy, q.v.. and in the inventory of her estate in 1708 she gives the names of her three children as above. Descendants. The following three were his children:

Jacob (now Jacobs and Jacobse), Daniel of Calais, born 14th September, 1673, at Vieille Eglise, not far from Calais, son of above. A farmer at Drakenstein, he married Louise Cordier, daughter of the Refugee Louis Cordier, q.v. Their son Pieter was baptised at Drakenstein on 14th October, 1703. According to the inventory in his estate in 1713 he left six children.

Jacob (now Jacobs and Jacobse), Sara of Calais, born 7th October, 1677, at Vieille Eglise. Married (i) Daniel Terrier, q.v.; three children baptised at Drakenstein, a son Pierre in 1699; no descendants in male line. (2) Jean du Buis, q.v.

Jacob (now Jacobs and Jacobse), Suzanne of Calais, married Gerrit van Vuuren, and died about 1696.

Jacob (now Jacobs and Jacobse), Elsie. An Elsie Jacob stood sponsor at a baptism in Drakenstein church on 9th March, 1697, and on several occasions thereafter.

Joubert, Pierre of de la Motte d'Aigues in Provence, born 1663,-1665, arrived in the Berg China in 1688 with his wife Isabeau Richard of Provence, born 1668-1670 According to Captain Hinde he married, on ist February, 1688, Susanne Reyne de la Roque, of d'Autheron in Provence, "tous deux embarquirent dans le vaisseau le Mont de Sinai faissant voile pour le Cap de Bonne Esperance..." He suggests that the wife was the same as Susanne Rene, q.v., who must have died in Holland or on the voyage, as he arrived with Isabeau Richard. He was an agriculturist and possessed many farms at Drakenstein. Pierre Joubert died 31st June, 1732, and his widow 1748. The farms owned at the time of her death were Bellingham, granted in 1695, Lamorin, La Roche, La Motte, La Provence and De Plaisante, the latter being at Waveren (Tulbagh). Descendants.

Jourdan (now Jordaan), Jean of Cabriere, born 1660, arrived 1688 in Berg China, son of Jeanne Marthe widow Jourdan, q.v. He married Elizabeth (or Isabeau) le Long, and died before January, 1699, when he was stated to have possessed the farm La Motte. He left five minor children. His youngest daughter was baptised after his death.

Jourdan (now Jordaan), Jeanne Marthe, widow, sailed in the Berg China in 1688, aged 60 years, probably died on way out.

Jourdan (now Jordaan), Marie, a widow, aged 40 in 1688, when she sailed in Berg China with her daughters Jeanne Rousse (Roux), aged 15, Marie Rousse, 10 and Marguerite, 7. The mother and Jeanne probably died on the voyage. For Marie and Marguerite, see under Roux.

Jourdan (now Jordaan), Paul, born 1666, a bachelor, sailed in the Berg China in 1688, apparently died on board. He was 'cousin germain' to Pierre Jourdaan and Andre Pelanchon q.v.

Jourdan (now Jordaan), Pierre. In the Berg China two Pierres Jourdan, both bachelors and both aged 24 years, sailed from Holland and arrived at the Cape, both appearing on the distribution list of 1690, and in 1692, in a list of inhabitants of Drakenstein, appear the names of Pierre Jourdan in partnership with Louis Barre and Pierre Jourdan of Cabriere. Of the latter the following particulars are found. He was the son of the widow Jeanne Marthe and married Anna Fouche, who died about 1713, leaving children Anna, aged 15, Joseph, 12, Susanna, 16. He next married Maria Verdeau, daughter of the Refugee Hercule Verdeau, q.v. In the joint will of these two, executed in 1719, he described himseLf as between 56-57 and she as 19 years of age. He lived on the farm Cabriere, which came to his son Joseph, in whose deceased estate it is recorded that two silver spoons and one silver fork were given to his children "in remembrance of their grandfather." Pierre Jourdaan died 28th October, 1723.

Labat, Jacques, born at Fontenay le Comte, Poitou, son of Jacques Labat and Susanne Laurent; his name appep.rs on the burgher rolls at the Cape in 1693; in 1605 he was described as from Bordeaux.

Labat, Nicolas, brother of above, married at Drakenstein, 13th June, 1717, to Elizabeth Vivier, when he is described as of Poinetri. His name appears in 1692. and he died 30th December, 1717.

la Batte, Jeanne of Saumur, born 1663, wife of Guillaume Niel or Nel, q.v.

la Grange, See le Grange.

Lanoy, or de Lanoy, Marie of Auhs (died 1704), married at Stellenbosch in 1698 to Hans Hendrik Hatting of Spyer. Another (probably same) Marie Lanoy married Hary Lecrevent, Lescervain or Lekervain. It seems that his name was corrupted into Ary Lekkerwyn, for in the inventory of his estate in 1697 Marie de Lanoy is described as his widow. Their first child, baptised 18th January, 1696: Marie Lanoy, mentioned as sponsor on 22nd April, 1695.

Lanoy, or de Lanoy, Nicolas, Matthieu, his brother and their mother received assistance in 1690. Nicolas married in 1698 to Susanne de Vos, widow of Pierre Jacob, q.v., and she died in 1708, leaving no issue by him.

Lanoy, or de Lanoy, Susanne, was sponsor in 1696 to son of Daniel Nortier at Drakenstein.

de la Porta (Delporte, now Delport), Jacques of Ryssel (now Lille), arrived in 1699 in the Cattendyk with his wife Sara Vitu or Vitout, q.v. He was an agriculturist at Drakenstein, and died on the 9th December, 1739, his wife having predeceased him in 1724. In the Drakenstein (Paarl) church register the following appears: "Jacque de porte et Sara Vitout il on presante eux meme un petit enfant que dieu Leur a donne, au saint bapteme le 4 Octobre, 1699." For reference to the Vitu family see under that name. Several descendants living.

*La Tatte, Nicolaas, likely meant for Nicolas Labat ?

Lauret, see Loret

Lecheret, Legeret, or Leseret, Jean of Champagne, came as a freeman in the Agatha in 1693, a burgher at Drakenstein; returned to Europe in 1716.

le Febre, or le Febure, Paul, a surgeon of Chaurry, married firstly Elizabeth Taillefert, daughter of Jean Taillefert, apothecary at Chateau Thierry, from where Isaac Taillefert, q.v., came. Paul arrived in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and practised as a surgeon at Stellenbosch. He married secondly EHzabeth Sezille (Sisilha), and two children of this marriage were baptised at the Cape in 1699 and 1701 respectively. In 1705 with his wife and two children he returned to Europe.

le Fevre, Marie of Marcq, near Calais, daughter of David le Fevre and Elizabeth le Bleu, married (i) Charles Preuost or Prevot, q.v., (2) H. Eekhoff, (3) Louis de Perrone, q.v.

le Grand, Gideon, a surgeon, in 1698 was living in the Stellenbosch district, and died in 1710, leaving no heirs at the Cape but a brother, Abraham le Grand, living at Haarlem. He was a Heemraad of Drakenstein.

*Le Grange, Pierre of Cabrlere in Provence, born circa 1664, arrived in 1688 in Berg China; married on 16th November, 1704, Margaretha Kool of Amsterdam, born circa 1690. Descendants. le Long, Charles, son of Jean le Long, q.v., arrived in 1688 in the Zuid Beveland as a freeman

le Long, Elizabeth, wife of Jean Jourdan, q.v., and Jacques Malan, q.v.

*le Long, Marie. When she received assistance in 1690 was married to Adriaan van Wyk.

le Riche, Louis, arrived in 1698 in the Driebergen, married Susanna Fouche; died 8th October, 1732.

*le Roux, Jean of Normandy, married to Maria de Haase of Ryssel (Lille). He signed himself as le Roex, mentioned in Stellenbosch records in 1690.

*le Roux, Jean of Blois, born 1667, arrived in 1688 in the Voorschooten, and was married to Jeanne Mouy. On the 8th November, 1711, a posthumous son of his, Daniel, was baptised in the Drakenstein church. He left three sons and one daughter.

*le Roux, Gabriel of Blois, born 1671, brother of the above, arrived in 1688. He married Maria Catherina le Febre. When Daniel le Roux was baptised, a posthumous son of Gabriel was also christened Gabriel on the same day. At his death he left five minors.

*Lombard, Pierre of Pointais (Pontaix) in Dauphine, born 1658; in the 1690 distribution described as "a sick man with wife and one child." He married Marie Couteau of Soudiere in Dauphine, born 1659, who died ist April, 1718. He was an agriculturist at Drakenstein. Descendants.

Loret, Guillaume of Nantes, born 1671, came out in 1695, died at Drakenstein 5th January, 1718; married Elisabeth Joubert, daughter of the Refugee Pierre Joubert. On 18th May, 1696, he signed a power of attorney in favour of Revd. Petrus de Joucourt, minister of the French congregation at Middelburg. He left only daughters. In a letter in 1707 to Governor W. A. van der Stel, the Rev. Beck refers to Loret as a French Refugee who nine years previous was a Roman Catholic, but had made public confession of the reformed religion.

Madan, Antoine, sailed in the Berg China in 1688 with his wife Elisabeth Verdette and daughter. He was 38 and she 23 years and their child ten months. All three probably died on the voyage.

*Magnet, Jean, was made a deacon of the French congregation in 1698, and elder in 1700. See Manier.

*Malan, Jacques, married Elizabeth le Long, widow of Jean Jourdan. He lived at Hottentots Holland, and was a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden of Stellenbosch. She died in 1736, and at her death the estate possessed farms "De Faisante Kraal" on the Bot River and one in Hottentots Holland. In 1713 Jacques Malan was given in freehold the farm La Motte, which he had held since 1694. See Roux, Pierre. Descendants.

*Malherbe, Gideon, bom 1663, arrived in 1688 in the Voorschooten; was then a bachelor; in the 1690 distribution hst he is described "with wife," who was Marie Grillion. Gideon Malherbe was an agriculturist, and died in 1723, leaving issue. Two farms mentioned in his deceased estate were "De Groene Fonteyn" and "Hexenberg," vide Drouin. Descendants.

Manier, (Manie, Manje), Jean, born at Calais, an agriculturist in partnership with Abraham Bleuset at Dal Josaphat. His name is found on 15th March, 1688, and in his will made jointly with Bleuset in 1704, and witnessed by Pierre Rousseau and Jacques Therond, he gave his age as 55 years. In 1700 he stood sponsor to a child of Theron. Is it probable that Jean Magnet and Jean Manier are the same?

*Mantior, Zacharie. In his will, dated 1720 and filed 22nd August, 1731, he is described as an old man, having no relatives or friends, and leaves his property to the Drakenstein church on condition they support him during his lifetime.

*Marais, Charles of Plessis, arrived in 1688 in the Voorschooien with his wife Catherine Taboureux and four children, Claude, aged 24, Charles, 19, Isaac, 16 and Marie, 6. In April, 1689, he was murdered at Drakenstein by a Hottentot. His widow and four children received help from the Fund. Descendants.

Marais, Claude of Plessis Marle, near Paris (the name given to the farm where the Marais family first settled) was one of the first elders chosen for the French congregation in 1691. In 1692 the name of his wife is given as Maria Avice, q.v., and on the 13th October, 1721, he executed an antenuptial contract with Susanna Gardiol, q.v., born at de la Coste in Provence, widow of Abraham de Villiers. She died about 1729, at which time Claude Marais possessed the following property: a house in Cape Town and the farms Meerlust, Lekkerwyn, Plessis Marie and Wei van Pas.

Marais, Charles of Plessis, son of Charles Marais, died 7th August, 1735; married Anne de Ruelle of Guisnes, daughter of the Refugee Daniel de Ruelle, q.v. Many descendants of Charles Marais living.

Marais, Marie, who describes herself in 1716 in her will with her first husband, Estienne Niel, as aged 34 years and born at "Hierpoix," probably Hurepois, south of Paris; she was the daughter of Charles, and married secondly Pierre Taillefert, and thirdly, in 1734, Pieter Booysen.

Mare (Marees), Ignace or Ignatius, married at Cape Town on 7th February, 1706, to Susanna van Vuuren, spinster of the Cape. In the marriage entry he is said to be a widower and of Calabria. In 1707 he was granted permission by Governor van der Stel to live at Drakenstein. Descendants.

Marthe, Jeanne, widow Jourdan, sailed in Berg China in 1688; was then 60 years old; died on the voyage.

Martin, Anne, married Jean du Puis, q.v., and Salomon de Gournay.

*Martin, Antonie, born at Uzes (d'Uses) in Languedoc about 1664, arrived in 't Wapen van Alkmaar in 1688, and lived at Drakenstein. Inventory in his deceased estate dated 1699. He had only one hand.

*Martineau, Michel, living at Drakenstein in 1690 and working in partnership with Pierre Rousseau, Jean Cloudon and Francois Retief.

Martinet, Francoise, wife of Louis Cordier, q.v.

Menanteau, Madeleine, wife of Jean Prieur du Plessis, q.v.

*Mesnard, Jean of Provence, born circa 1659, arrived in Berg China 1688 with his wife Louise Corbonne and six children, Jeanne, 10, George, 9, Jacques, 8, Jean, 7, Phillippe, 6, and a baby of five months. In 1690 he was a widower with four children.

Mesnard, Philippe of Provence, son of above; only one to marry and leave issue; married in 1712 Jeanne Mouy. Descendants.

Mesnard, Pierre of Dauphine, born 1668, arrived in 1688. One of the first deacons of the French congregation; married Aletta de Savoye, daughter of Jacques de Savoye of Aeth, q.v. Descendants.

Mille, Jeanne of Provence, see Arniel.

Mouton, Jacques of Steenwerk (Steenwerck), near Ryssel (Lille), arrived in 1699 in the Donkervliet; was an agriculturist at Drakenstein, and married (i) Catherine I'Henriette, by whom he had Jacob, Antonie and Marie (she remained in Europe and married Pierre le Roy); (2) Maria de Villiers, (3) Francina de Bevernage, q.v. He settled on the farm Steenwerp. Descendants.

Mouy, Pierre of St. Amant, arrived as a freeman in 1699 in the Donkervliet; an agriculturist at Drakenstein; died 31st July, 1735.

Mouy, Jeanne, wife of (i) Jean le Roux, q.v., (2) Philippe Mesnard.

Mouy, Marie, born 1685, wife of Francois Retif or Retief, q.v. [Probably these two were daughters of Pierre.]

*Mysal, Jean

Niel (now Nel), Estienne, born in Dauphine, 1669, a soldier in the service of the Dutch East India Company in 1693, and later lived at Drakenstein and described as an agriculturist. He married Marie (Maria Magdalena) Marais, q.v., of Hierpoix, born in 1673. He died in 1738 and she on 7th July, 1716. When he made his will in 1736 he was living at Rondebosch on the farm Rodenberg, belonging to his son-in-law, Andries Grove. The will states that it was read over to him in the Dutch language, which he understood and spoke well. He left issue, but his only son left a daughter. Signed his name as Niel.

Niel (now Nel), Guillaume of Rouen, born 1663-4; received assistance in 1690 for himself, wife and two children. He married Jeanne la Batte, q.v., of Saumur, born 1663. It is probable (?) that he was a brother of Estienne Niel. When he and his wife executed their will in 1734, filed in same year, they were living in the Cape district. Descendants.

*Nortier or Nourtier (now Nortje), Daniel, a carpenter, arrived in the Oosterlandt in 1688; received assistance for himself, wife and child. He married Maria Vitout. He signed himself Daniel Nourtier. Maria Vitout remarried Matthys Michiels, and at her death in 1711 left Elizabeth Nortier, aged 20, Anthony Nortier, 18, Jonas, 16 and Jean, 14. Descendants.

*Nortier or Nourtier (now Nortje), Jacob of Calais, an agriculturist, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt; died 20th September, 1732. Married at Drakenstein on 8th August, 1717, to Margaretha Mouton of the Cape.

*Nortier or Nourtier (now Nortje), Jean, arrived as above. All three Nortiers are described as "domestiques" of Jacques de Savoye, when they came out. Jean Nortier obtained a grant of land in 1694.

Nortier or Nourtier, The three brothers came from near Calais. In the register of the Protestant church at Guines there are several entries of Nourtiers being sponsors at baptisms: Sept. 1676. Eve Dupont, agée 46-47 ans, femme de Jean Nourtier, dec.: a St. Blaize par de Guisnes le 23. T. Daniel Nourtier. Oct. 1671. Jean Nourtier was sponsor to a daughter of Jean Francomme. Jean Nourtier was witness in 1674 to the death of a son of Nicolas de la Haye; in November, 1669, to death of Marie Selingue, wife of Anthoine Coutteau; and was present at the marriage in 1668 of Jean Liennard and Jeanne Six. On 14th October, 1677, Jean Nourtier "veuf maitre carpentier," aged 46, "demte. a St. Blaize par Guines, married Anne de Sainne, aged 51.

*Parisel, Jean, according to his will dated 13th May, 1707, born at Willebeck, about three hours from Paris, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt. An agriculturist, he instituted as his heir the agriculturist Jean Durand, q.v., of Drakenstein.

Paste, Jean, sailed in the Voorschooten in 1688; was then aged 25 years and a bachelor. As he is not mentioned in the 1690 list, he probably died before then or never reached the Cape.

*Pelanchon, Andre, arrived in the Berg China in 1688, then aged 15 years; cousin germain of Pierre and Paul Jourdan.

de Perrone or de Pirrone, Louis of Nazareth (Mazeres ?), a burgher at Drakenstein, married at Stellenbosch, 19th October, 1692, Maria le Fevre, previously married to Charles Prevot, q.v., and Hendrik Eekhof. de Perrone died in 1696. See reference under L. de Berault.

*Perrotit, Marguerite, a widow, with her two children received assistance in 1690.

*Pinard (now Pienaar), Jacques, born 1665, a carpenter, arrived in 1688 with his wife Esther Fouche, born 1667, whom he married when the- ship Voorschooten sailed from Holland. In 1690 he and his wife received assistance. He remarried Martha le Febre and left two children, Pieter, born 1690 and Jacques 1692, by his first wife, who died about 1697, and five others by his second wife. He died before 1714. Descendants.

Posseaux or Pogeau, Elizabeth of Paris, born 1682, arrived at Cape in 1700 in the Reygersdaal; married (i) Jacob Bisseux, q.v., (2) Abraham Bleuset, q.v. She died about 1726.

Potier (now Potje), Jacques of Moukron (or Moecroon) in Flanders, arrived in 1699 as a soldier in the Westhoven. In 1704 he became a burgher, and lived at Drakenstein. He married in 1705 and died 23rd February, 1739. As his heir he instituted Andries du Toit.

Pouvoir, Daniel, mentioned as a "French Refugee, in 1694. (Crim. Process Papers, 1694, in re Antony Martin—declaration by latter dated 9th October. 1694.) May be meant for Bouvat or Couvat, q.v.

*Prévot, Provo, Provost or Pruvost, Charles of Calais, his wife Marie le Fevre, born 1651, with their three children Abraham, Anne and Elizabeth Prévot, arrived from Amsterdam in 1688 in the Schelde. On the arrival of the latter in Table Bay a son (baptised on board Charles) was born, one of his sponsors being Elizabeth des Pres. Charles Prevot was deceased in July, 1688, as there is an entry then of the widow of "Carel Provo." In 1690 his widow remarried in 1688 to Hendrik Eekhoff of Essen received assistance for herself and four children. She married for the third time Louis de Perrone, q.v., by whom she had two children. From the register of the Protestant church at Guisnes the following particulars of this family are drawn: On the 8th October, 1673, Charles Preuost, "maitre charon," aged 23, son of Henry Preuost and Jeanne de Viffe (de Vief ?),"natif de Dombroy pre de I'llle et demte. a Dunquerque," was married to Marie le Fevre, aged 22, daughter of the late David le Fevre and Elizabeth le Bleu, "natiue de Marcq, et demte. aussi Dunquerque." The children born were: David Pruvost, born at Marcq, March, 1675, died 1685; Abraham Pruvost, born at Marcq, May, 1679; Anne Pruvost, born at Marcq, February, 1681; Elizabeth Pruvost, born at Marcq, November, 1683.

*Prévot, Provo, Provost or Pruvost, Abraham, son of above, married at Stellenbosch on I2th May, 1709, to Anna van Marseveen (Marcevene), widow of Esaias Costeux. They left two daughters.

*Prévot, Provo, Provost or Pruvost, Anne, married Schalk Willem van der Merwe. They lived on their farm Wittenberg at Paarl, and left a very large family, from which a great number of the v. d. Merwe family is descended. She died about 1740.

*Prévot, Provo, Provost or Pruvost, Elizabeth, married Philippe des Pres of Courtrai, q.v., and by him had a large family.

Réné or Resine, Susanne, a spinster, sailed in 1688 in the Berg China, then aged 20. See Joubert.

*Retif (now Retief), Francois, an agriculturist at Drakenstein, born 1663, died 24th September, 1721; married in 1700 Marie Mouy, born 1685, died 21st September, 1758.

Richard, Isabeau, wife of Pierre Joubert, q.v.

*Rochefort, Pierre, born at Grenoble, Dauphine, son of Sieur Eduard Arnout and Virgine Chevalier, citizens of Grenoble, who died there (both dead in 1702). He received the grant of land on which the farm Vlottenburg stands, in the Stellenbosch district. In 1708 he was a deacon of the Stellenbosch church.

*Rol, Jean of Provence, died 1720; married in 1712 Maria Catherina le Febre, widow of Gabriel le Roux. Matthieu Arniel, q.v., left his estate to Jan Roy (Roi ?), son of above.

Rosier, Jan of Morsselen (Monsnay), born about 1673, arrived at the Cape in 1699 as a soldier in the Zion, became a free burgher 13th October, 1711; died on 22nd May, 1724. He married (i) Willemina Willems, (2) Margaretha Harmse Harting.

Rossaux, see under Rousseau.

Rousse, Francoise, see Goiraud and also Roux.

*Rousseau (now as Rossouw and Roussouw), Pierre of Mer or Menars-la-ville (about four hours north-east of Blois), born about 1666; received assistance in 1690 for himself, wife and one child. Was at the Cape in 1688, as in that year he witnessed the will of Jean Manier, q.v. He was one of the first deacons of the French congregation at Drakenstein, and was a Heemraad for Drakenstein. He died in 1719, having married (i) Anne Retief (died 1710) and (2) Geertruy du Toit. Pierre Rousseau lived on his farm "De Boog van Orleans."

Rousseau, Maria. There is a joint will, dated 1702, of Maria Rossar of Blois and her husband, Jan Jansz. van Eden of Oldenburg. She is stated to be 43 years of age. They married in June, 1688. She remarried Cornelis Joosten van Dalen of Cleverskerck, Zeeland. See joint will in 1711, Stellenbosch Archives.

*Roux, Jean, born at la Morin (or Lormarin), Provence, in 1665, was an agriculturist at Drakenstein, and in 1694 was living at Dal Josaphat. On the 17th February, 1705, he made his will and instituted his father, Philip Roux, then living at la Morin and aged 68, as heir to half his estate, and the Drakenstein Poor Fund heir to the other half. He does not appear to have married, and his will is filed in 1738.

*Roux, Jeanne (aged 15), Marie (aged 10) and Marguerite (aged 7) Sailed in the Berg China in 1688 with their widowed mother, Marie Jourdan. The mother and Jeanne died on the voyage. In 1690 Marie and Marguerite, described as "two little orphans," received assistance from the Batavian Fund. Before 1697 Marguerite Roux married, Estienne Viret of Dauphine, q.v., and in their joint will, dated 14th August, 1726, she describes herself as aged 44 years and coming from Provence. In 1690 Daniel Hugo became indebted to "Mary Rou, a minor daughter of the late Jan Rouw" to the sum of 140 guldens. This amount was paid in 1700 and acknowledged by Estienne Viret. Probably their father Jan Roux and Jean Roux of Provence above named were cousins.

Roux, Paul of Orange, arrived in 1688, the first teacher and "Voorlezer" of the French congregation, died at Drakenstein 7th February, 1723. He married (i), before 1694, Claudine Seugnet of Saintonge; (2) Elizabeth Couvret, widow of the Refugee Josue Cellier. He did not require assistance in 1690. On 7th June, 1696, he passed a power of attorney in favour of Rev. Salomon Bernard, minister of the French congregation, and Nathaniel Goutier, merchant of Amsterdam.

*Roux, Pierre of Cabrière. The church register of Drakenstein states he came from Amsterdam, and on 9th November, 1725, a certificate of membership was granted to him on his proceeding to Batavia. In 1700 a Pieter Roux had been allowed by the Cape Government to go to Europe. In his will, dated 17th September, 1739, drawn up at "Morgenster" in Hottentots Holland, the farm of the Heemraad Daniel Malan, Pierre Roux states he has no parents or friends to whom he is indebted, and appoints the said Malan as his heir on condition that he maintains him for the remainder of his life.

*de Ruelle or des Ruelles, Daniel of Guisnes. Between the years 1668 and 1681 the name of Daniel des Ruelles appears in the church registers of Guisnes. On the 12th July, 1671, he was married there to Anne Goudalle. The children of this marriage were the following, all of whom were born at Guisnes; Ester, born 6th November, 1672; Anne, born loth November, 1673; Daniel, born 26th October, 1675, died in infancy; Daniel, born 14th March, 1677; Pierre, born 6th February, 1681, died in infancy; he was born at Guemps, near Calais. It is probable that Daniel des Ruelles, his wife and three remaining children set out for the Cape, but this is not certain. It is also probable that the wife Anne Goudalle and Daniel the son died on the way out, or maybe they were deceased before he left Europe. However, the names of the two daughters are recorded at the Cape, and in 1690 the father, described as a widower with one child—no doubt, Anne—received assistance from the Fund. Ester had already married the Refugee Estienne Bruere of Blois, q.v. Daniel de Ruelle was apparently here in 1688, as he obtained land in Dal Josaphat but did not get title.

*de Ruelle or des Ruelles, Daniel. Daniel des Ruelles appears in 1700 on the list of Stellenbosch inhabitants with his wife Catharina Taboureux (the widow of Charles Marais, q.v., who had been murdered in 1689), and he died on the 3rd October, 1726.

*de Ruelle or des Ruelles, Anne of Guines, born 1673, married Charles Marais, son of the Refugee Charles Marais, q.v.

*de Ruelle or des Ruelles, Ester of Guines, born 1672, married about 1690 Estienne Bruere of Blois, French Refugee, q.v.

*Sabatier, Pierre of Massiere (Mazeres) in Languedoc, arrived in 1688 in the Voorschooten, a bachelor, then aged 22. Settled as an agriculturist at Drakenstein and returned to Europe in 1700.

de Savoye, Jacques of Aeth, born 1636, arrived in the Oosterlandt in 1688 with his wife Marie Madeleine le Clercq of Tournay, daughter of Philippe le Clercq and Anthoinette Carnoy, and three children. His mother-in-law also came with him. The children were Marguerite de Savoye, then 17 years old, Barbere, 15 years, and Jacques, nine months. In writing about his departure from Europe, the Seventeen informed the Cape Governor that de Savoye had been for many years an eminent merchant of Ghent, where he had been persecuted by the Jesuits to such an extent that his life had even been threatened. In order to escape, he had decided to end his days beyond their reach, and to take with him various Flemish farmers of the reformed religion who had also suffered persecution, and had also resolved to leave their Fatherland for the same reason as de Savoye. Amongst his party were the three brothers Nourtier, who are described as his "domestiques." He, with wife and two children, did not require help in 1690. de Savoye became a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden, and in 1712 he and his wife and her mother returned to Europe. On the 17th July, 1689, a daughter, Aletta, was baptised at Cape Town, and married Pierre Meyer of Dauphine, q.v. On the 29th August, 1694, a son, Philippe Rudolf, was baptised at Drakenstein. The latter does not appear to have married; in his will, filed in 1741, he institutes his nephews and nieces Meyer as his heirs. He joined the service of the Dutch East India Company, and was a junior merchant and "Keldermeester" at the Cape, where he died in 1741 and was buried in the church. Jacques de Savoye was buried October, 17 17. His widow buried May, 1721.

de Savoye, Marguerite, married before 1690 to Christoffel Snyman (in the Drakenstein register, Senayment), descendants still living; (2) Henning Vilhon or Viljoen, son of the Refugee Villion, q.v.

de Savoye, Barbere, married (i) Christiaan Eelers, (2) Elias Kina.

*Senecal or Senechal (now Senekal), David of Dieppe, Normandy, arrived in Zuid Beveland in 1688, an agriculturist; before 1694 married Marie Madeleine du Puis of Paris, and died 16th July, 1746.

Senet, Anthoine, sailed in Berg China in 1688, then aged 19, a bachelor; probably died on the voyage.

Seugnet or Seugneté, Glode-Glaudine, Susanne and Jeanne Probably three sisters from Saintonge, were admitted members of the church at Stellenbosch in April, 1689, having brought attestations from Amsterdam. Glaudine married Paul Roux of Orange before 1694, q.v., and Susanne married Francois du Toit of Ryssel about 1690, q.v.

Simond, Pierre of Embrun, Dauphine, arrived in 1688 in the Zuid Beveland with his wife Anne de Berault. Was the first minister of the French congregation at Drakenstein. He had been pastor of the Refugee congregation at Zirikzee. His children were Catherine, baptised in Cape Town 17th March, 1689, one of her sponsors being Commander Simon van der Stel; Pierre, Jacques, Cleophas, Marie and Lydia, born at Drakenstein. In the 1690 Distribution he is described as "with wife and one child," and did not require assistance. He returned with wife and family to Europe in 1702, being succeeded by Revd. Henricus Beck. Anne de Berault, living in London in 1726, was at that time described as his widow. In 1700 Revd. Simond passed a power of attorney in favour of Advocate Johannes Bodaan, Burgomaster and Director of the Dutch East India Company at Middelburg, and Revd. Petrus de Joucourt, minister of the French congregation at the same place.

Sollier, Durand, a shoemaker at Drakenstein; on 4th October, 1697, he and his wife became members of the Dutch church at Cape Town. He died in September, 1739, and was buried in the Dutch church, Cape Town. In 1702 his name is found as married to Martha Petel, who died in 1715. In 1719 he was an elder of the church at Cape Town. Their only daughter Martha married Renault Berthault de St. Jean of Sanoere, a surgeon, q.v., who came to the Cape. Representatives of this family in the family van der Riet.

Sollier, GilliS, brother of Durand, had been a burgher at the Cape since 1697. In 1718 he was permitted to return to Europe with his wife Anna Rouhn and son David. In 1731 he returned to the Cape with his wife Anna Roulin, his stepson Hendrik Melet, and his sister's daughter. In the list of enrolled members of the Dutch Church, Cape Town, Gillis and his wife are entered on 15th December, 1731, with attestation from Montfort. Amongst the inhabitants of the Cape district in 1731 is Durand Sollier (probably his son) and wife Elizabeth de Villiers.

Taboureux, CatherHie, wife of (i) Charles Marais, q.v.. (2) Daniel des Ruelles, q.v.

*Taillefer or Taillefert, Isaac of Chateau Thierry, in province of Brie, a hatmaker and agriculturist, arrived in 1688 in the Oosterlandt with his wife Suzanne Brief and six children. Isaac was the son of Jean Taillefer, or Taillefert, an apothecary and elder of the church at Monneaux, and his wife Ester Jordin. Isaac Taillefer married Suzanne Briet of the valley of the Essomes, and had established himself as a hatmaker at Chateau Thierry. In the church registers of Nogentel, not far from the latter place, are to be found the entries of the baptisms of his several children. His six children who came with him in 1688 were: Elizabeth, aged 14; Jean, baptised at Nogentel, September, 1680; Isaac, aged 7; Pierre, aged 5; Suzanne, aged 2 and a half; Marie, aged 1, baptised by the monks of the church at Essomes in January, 1687. He lived for some time at Monneaux, where his wife possessed some vineyards, and after 1685 went to live with her family. In 1690 he received assistance for himself, wife and four children, and in 1691 he obtained grants of land upon which the farms Normandy and Picardy stand. He died about 1699, leaving four children, Elizabeth, aged 26, Jean, 22, Pierre, 16, Suzanne 13.

Taillefert, Elizabeth, married the Refugee Pierre de ViUiers, q.v. Numerous descendants, from which the late Baron de Villiers was descended.

Taillefert, Jean, apparently died unmarried.

Taillefert, Pierre, married Marie Marais, widow of Estienne Niel. He died March, 1726. Descendants in the female line; one daughter married Pieter van Niekerk, one Hendrik Albertus Gildenhuys, and the youngest Eduard Christian Hauman.

Taillefert, Susanne, married (i) Jean Garde, q.v., (2) Pierre
Cronje, q.v., (3) Jacob Naude, q.v.

Terreblanche (now Terblanche and Terblans), Estienne of Toulon; his name appears in the church books of Drakenstein in 1703; in 1713 married Martha la Febre, widow of Jacques Pinard, q.v.

*Terrier,
Daniel, married Sara Jacob of Calais, daughter of the Refugee Pierre Jacob, q.v.

Therond (now Theron), Jacques of Nismes. Laiiguedoc, arrived in the Oosterlandt in 1688 as a soldier in the Company's service; on 31st May, 1688, he became a free burgher. He married Marie Jeanne des Pres of Bethune, q.v., daughter of the Refugee Hercule des Pres, and died 2nd December, 1739, aged 71 years 6 months. Jacques Theron was a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden, and owned the farm Languedoc. Descendants.

Vallète, Anne, wife of Paul Couvret, q.v.

*Verdeau, Hercule, born 1672, arrived in 1688 in the Berg China, died at Drakenstein in 1722; married Maria Catharina Huibeaux, born 1675. They left only daughters. The widow Verdeau died about 1752, in which year an inventory in her deceased estate was filed.

Verdeau, Jacques, born 1668, brother of above, arrived in 1688; probably died shortly after, as he is not mentioned in the 1690 Distribution List.

Verdette, Elizabeth, wife of Antoine Madan, q.v.

*de Villiers, Abraham of la Rochelle, arrived on 6th May, 1689, in the Sion with his two brothers Pierre and Jacob. He married 5th October, 1689, Susanne Gardiol of de la Costé, Provence, and died on 31st March, 1720. The brothers had been sent out on account of their knowledge of the cultivation of the vine. Abraham was one of the first deacons of the French congregation, a Heemraad and Captain of the Burgher Cavalry Corps at Drakenstein. He left only daughters. In the letter from Holland to the Cape in 1688 the three are described as being from "near la Rochelle."

*de Villiers, Jacob, stated in his will in 17 19 to be of "Borgondien", and aged 58; married Margaretha Gardiol of Provence, born 1674. He died on 17th May, 1735, and inventory in her estate filed in June, 1749. [Pierre deVilliers, Jacque and Paul sortirent du royaume France. lis etirent fils de Pierre de Villiers (Archives de la Rochelle).]

*de Villiers, Pierre, married (before 1699) Elizabeth Taillefert, daughter of the Refugee Isaac Taillefert, q.v. Numerous descendants from the two brothers. Jacob and Pierre. Pierre de Villiers died 22nd January, 1720, and her will is filed in 1735. In his will, dated 3rd February, 1714, Johannes Guillaume de Grevenbroek, Secretary to the Government during the days of Governor Simon van der Stel, bequeathed "to the French Refugee Pierre de Villiers, living with wife and children at the foot of the Paarl Mountain at Drakenstein, my gold ring set with garnets, in acknowledgment of the kindness formerly received from his co-religionists in France." It is probable that Pierre de Villiers had known his wife when her parents and family had left Monneaux in 1688 and gone to live at la Rochelle

Viret, Jean, a bachelor, sailed in the Berg China in 1688, aged 18; died on the voyage.

*Viret, Estienne of Dauphine, born circa 1662-64, arrived in the Zuid Beveland; married Marguerite Roux of Provence, q.v., born 1682. He died 29th October, 1726, and was buried in the churchyard at Cape Town; she died 8th November, 1759. He had five sons, who do not appear to have left descendants in the male line. On 14th September, 1699, a son Estienne was baptised.

Vitout or Vitu, Marie, arrived in 1688 with her husband, Daniel Nourtier, q.v.

Vitout or Vitu, Sara, arrived in 1699 with her husband, Jacques de la Porte, q.v. In the church registers of Guisnes there are a number of entries referring to the Vitu family. There were three brothers, Pierre, Jean and Eustache Vitu. There was a Marie Vitu, wife of Jean Goudalle, relation of the wife of Daniel des Ruelles, q.v. As the Nourtiers came from near Calais, it is possible that the Vitu also originated from there.

*Vivier, Abraham, Jacob and Pierre Three brothers, who received assistance in 1690, farmers at Drakenstein. In 1695 the name of Pierre is found as having come from Normandy. In 1714 there are three separate inventories of the deceased estates of the three brothers, signed by Jacquemina du Pree (des Pres), the widow of Abraham, who was the only one of the three to marry. He left three sons and live daughters. Abraham, the eldest son, died unmarried about 1743; Isaac, the second son, also died without marrying, but Jacob left issue. On the 13th January, 1714. a posthumous daughter of Abraham and Jacquemina du Pree was baptised Anna at Drakenstein.

List of those who came to the Cape before 1688 and after 1700.

*dU Toit, Francois of Ryssel (Lille) arrived in 1686 in the Vryheit; became a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, and died in October, 1731. He married Susanne Seugnet of Saintonge, q.v., at Cape Town, on 12th February. 1690, Descendants of this couple living.

*dU Toit, Guillaume of Ryssel, brother of the above. He probably came out at the same time, i.e., in 1686, as we find that on the 3rd December, 1687, he was granted a licence by the Governor to shoot game. His fiance, Sara Couchet, widow of Peter de Clercq, q.v., who came from Oosterhoebrugh, Walcheren Is., was given a passage out to the Cape to join him in 1688. She was then living at Serooskerke, Walcheren Island. They were married on the i6th May. 1688, and she died in 1714. he having predeceased her. Guillaume du Toit was also a member of the Court of Landdrost and Heemraden. The two brothers du Toit took a prominent part in later scenes connected with the van der Stel troubles. This couple left no surviving male issue.

*le Febre, Pierre, came to Cape in 1683 with wife and child, and in 1690 he received assistance for himself, wife and two children. In 1700 he was living in the Cape district with his wife Maria de Graaf (or de Grave) and three daughters.

*le Long, Jean, with his wife and two children, received assistance in 1690, and two years later had only one child. He lived at Drakenstein, and died August, 1721, having married Maria Coche. Jean le Long must have been one of those few Refugees who accepted the first offer of the Company to settle here in terms of their resolution of 1685. In the title deed of his farm Bossendal, Drakenstein, granted in 1713, it is stated that the land had been given to him in 1685 and 1686.

*Margra, Jean of Lausane. On 26th April, 1688, he was allowed by the Cape Government a passage out for his wife Preyntje or Tryntje Dekker, then living at Middelburg. He was a free burgher living at Stellenbosch, and in 1694 received the grant of land of the present Stellenbosch commonage, which he had held since 1687. In 1692 he appears on the burgher list with wife, son and daughter.

Veron, Amand of Malines, or Mechelen, not far from Antwerp, arrived in the Bosweyk in 1687, a soldier in the Dutch East India Company; became a burgher 28th November, 1690. On 1st February, 1699, he was granted the farm St. Omer in Dal Josaphat, Drakenstein, and died on 12th September, 1723. He is stated to have been born at St. Thomas, and at his death in 1723 was 62 years of age; left no wife or child.

Villion (now Viljoen), Francois of Clermont, arrived in 1671, married in 1676 Cornelia Campenaar of Middelburg. In the registers the name is spelt Signon before 1678, afterwards VilUon. He was dead in 1692, as in the list of inhabitants appears "the widow of Francois Villion, with two children." Descendants of this couple. The eldest son, Henning Villion, married a daughter of the Refugee de Savoye, q.v. On 28th June, 1690, the widow, then married to Wemmer Pasman, passed before the Secretary of Stellenbosch an obligation in favour of the Orphan Masters for the inheritance of her six minor children "Filion," by name Pieter, Anna, Henning, Jan, Cornelia and Francina.

Wibeaux, see Huibaux

Names of those who were no doubt of Huguenot origin and arrived after 1700

d'Ailly, David of Amsterdam, arrived at the Cape in 1713, joined the Dutch East India Company in 1717, and became junior Merchant and bookkeeper. Probably the following two were his brothers.

d'Ailly, Jean of Amsterdam, arrived at the Cape in 1708. In 1696 he was living at Haarlem with his wife Johanna de Potter, daughter of David de Potter and Susanna d'Ailly. She joined him later at the Cape, and died about 1718, leaving by him David, born 1705, and Jan Benjamin, born about 1717. The latter joined the Dutch East India Company, and in 1803 his grandson, also Jan Benjamin, asked the Government for a farm, and in his petition referred to his ancestors who had been persecuted in France, the land of their birth, and had fled to Holland where they had found "powerful help, comfort and support" in their oppression and banishment. He speaks of the names of his ancestors who had filled various Government offices at the Cape, and mentions "the distinguished family from which he is descended."

d'Ailly, Johannes Godefridus, arrived at the Cape in 1708, after a voyage of more than eight months. He came out to assume the office of minister to the Cape congregation, and died here in June, 1726. He married Alida de Lange, widow of the Surgeon Francois Guto, but appears to have had no issue by her. She died about 1733.

Blignault (now Blignaut), Jean of Amsterdam, arrived in the Company's service in 1723, son of Pieter Blignault and Elisabeth Desbordes. In 1725 he married Anne Rousseau, widow of the Refugee Daniel Hugo, and by the union became possessed of much landed property. At the baptism of their first child, Jean Blignault's mother, Ehzabeth Desbordes, stood sponsor. He was a Heemraad of Drakenstein. Died about 1752, leaving two sons and three daughters. He was possessed of seven farms, most being in Drakenstein; some of these were Bethel, where he evidently lived, Sion and Vleesbank. It is stated Daniel Hugot sent for Jean Blignault from Europe to come out and teach his children, the two having known each other before coming to the Cape. Descendants.

Brousson, see Rousselet.

Faure, Antoine, born at Orange in 1685, arrived at the Cape in 1714, son of Pierre Faure and Justina Pointy, who fled to Holland on account of religious persecutions. Pierre had been a merchant at Orange, where he returned in 1689, and died there. Antoine Faure arrived in the Company's service, and in 1719 was appointed "voorlezer" and schoolmaster at Stellenbosch. In 1714 he married Rachel de Villiers, daughter of the Refugee Abraham de Villiers, and left male issue. He must have died in 1736, in which year their joint will is filed, as his widow applied in 1750 for a piece of ground at Stellenbosch.

Guilliaumé, Francois, sent out to the Cape in 1726 to superintend the silk culture, which post he held for some years. He came with his wife Claudine Cloy, or Cloi, and family. On the 25th November, 1726, both were inscribed as members of the Dutch Church at Cape Town, upon presentation of their certificate from the French church at Amsterdam. In 1735 he informed the Government that he intended to remain at the Cape as a burgher.

Guilliaumé, Matthieu or Matthys, born at Berlin in 1711, to which place his father François had no doubt fled. He married on ist June, 1738, at Drakenstein, Susanna Radyn, and left male issue. The name Giliomee and Guillome was known in the Cape Colony fifty years ago.

Guilliaumé, Anna, Johanna and Marie, all of Languedoc, no doubt daughters of Francois (Marie, at least, gives her parents' names as Francois Guilliaume and Claudine Cloy). Johanna married (i) Jan Engelbrecht, ancestor of the Cape family, (2) Jacobus Louw, Jacob's son. Marie married, on 18th October, 1739, Louis Jourdan.

Hucebos,Hucibos or Huibaux (Wiebeaux), Andre, Before 1725 his signature is found to several documents. Andries Wiebaux (who, I am of opinion, is one and the same person as Andre Huibaux) came in 1706 in the Blots from Middelburg, became free burgher 1715. and died 31st July, 1727.

Huibaux (Wiebeaux), Maria Catharina, born 1075, married Hercule Verdeau, q.v.

le Sage, Jean of Dieppe, married at Drakenstein on 31st October, 1717, Margaretha de ViUiers. Died about 1720.

Migault, Francois Louis of Embden, arrived at the Cape in 1713; married, 5th March, 1719, Maria Magdalena Niel. He was allowed to open a school for teaching the youth Dutch and French.

Naudé, Jacob, born at Berlin circa 1696, arrived here in 1710; in 1722 married Suzanne Taillefert of Chateau Thierry, daughter of the Refugee Isaac Taillefert, q.v., and widow of Pierre Cronier. His parents were Philippe Naude and Anna Isnard, who lived at Berlin. When he joined the Drakenstein church in 1718 he brought a certificate of church membership from Hanover. It would be interesting to know what relation he was of Philippe Naude, the theologian and mathematician, born at Metz 28th December, 1654, and died at Berlin in March, 1729.

Naudé, Philippe Jacob, of Berlin, son of the Revd. Roget David Naude, professor at the French College and minister of the French church at Berlin, and Elizabeth Borrel. He arrived here in 1754 in the Company's service, and in 1766 received his discharge and went to reside at Drakenstein. On 4th August, 1774, he married Johanna Elizabeth du Plessis. In 1772 he passed a power of attorney in favour of David Naudé, astronomer, and Revd. Louis Ancillon, minister of the French Reformed Monastery Church, both of Berlin, to receive from the Burgomasters of that city monies due to him from the estates of his late father and mother.

Pouisseon, Martin, His name appears on the Stellenbosch burgher roll of 1685. In 1692 he is described as with wife and three children, and was buried at Cape Town, January, 1713.

Rousselet, Daniel Rousselet Brousson of Amsterdam, where his father Jan Rousselet was a merchant; he married at the Cape, in 1744, Mariana, daughter of Andries Grove and Anna Niei, or Nel.

St. Jean, Jean, born at Bordeaux, Gascony, a burgher at Stellenbosch in 1687.

de St. Jean, Renault Berthault, born 1692 at Sanoere, province of Berry, was the son of Marie Done, living in 1726 at Sanoere. In 1712 he became a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and arrived at the Cape in 1719 in that capacity. His wife Anna Fourdinier and son, who had been left behind in Holland, joined him later on. In 1726 he was chief surgeon of the Company's hospital at Cape Town, where he died on 11th March, 1763. His second wife was Martha, born 1702, only daughter of the Refugee Durand SoUier, q.v.

Serrurier, Johannes Petrus of Hanau, minister of the Dutch church at Cape Town, married 9th November, 1760, Margaretha Elisabeth Timmendorf. He died 3rd February, 1819, aged 84 years and 28 days.

Serrurier, Jan of Hanau, son of Louis Serrurier and Ester de Vis of Hanau; married at the Cape, 5th November, 1747, Catharina Krygsman. He became a Burgher Councillor of Cape Town, and was the owner of Alphen at Wynberg. In 1753 he passed a power of attorney in favour of his brother, Revd. Daniel Serrurier, minister at Leiden, and Hendrik van Alphen.

Dutch East India Company Employees

The following names are a few taken from the roll of men in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Most have a French appearance and it is probable several were refugees who had fled to Holland for safety.

de Chavonnes, Dominiques, Captain and Head of the Cape Garrison 1687-1689; he left for the East Indies. He married Maria Lamy.

de Chavonnes, Maurits Pasques of the Hague; Lt.-Colonel and Governor of the Cape, 1714-1724.

de Chavonnes, Pieter Rocques, member of the Orphan Chamber 1717; Dispenser in 1720.

Ferne, Pieter of Berne, a soldier in 1697.

Ferrier, Boniface, a soldier in 1694.

de la Fontaine, Jan of Leiden, a soldier in 1692.

Levett, Jacques of Geneva, a soldier in 1693.

de Lormel, Pierre of Dieppe, a soldier in 1693.

Morel, Pierre, a soldier in 1693.

Olivier, Pieter of Montcallier, a soldier in 1696.

Orle, Jan of Lausaune, a soldier in 1693.

Orle, Jean of Beme, a soldier in 1695.

Poigner, Jean Baptist, ex corporal, 1705.

Souter, Willem of Berne, a soldier in 1698.

Troullat, Jean of Valenciennes, a soldier, 1694-1696.

Source:
The French Refugees at the Cape by Colin Graham Botha. Published 1921

Note: The text appears exactly as in the book the "I" references in the text above therefore refer to Colin Botha's thoughts and findings

The Bloukrans Massacre

2011-08-11T08:05:00.000+02:00

Piet Retief left Doornkop with a party of 70 men and 30 Coloured servants on 25 January 1838 and arrived at the Zulu capital umgungundlovu on 3 February. After they had spent a few days at the Kraal, a treaty was drawn up in which Dingane granted land to the voortrekkers. This document, dated 4 February, was signed on the 6th at the time of the final interview. On that morning the voortrekkers and their servants were seized and taken to a hill nearby, where they were killed. On the same day Dingane dispatched thousands of warriors under the command of Ndlela Ntuli to exterminate the voortrekkers in the midlands of Natal.

The advanced Trekker camps were spread over a 25 km range between the Tugela from the present-day Colenso to the present-day village of Willowgrange. The remainder were at Saai Laager, Doornkop and in scattered camps further westward.

Four family groups had established themselves in the valley of the Rensburg Spruit, which lies about 10 km east of the present-day Estcourt. Further north, many family groups were located between two streams flowing into the Bloukrans River. (Later they would be named the Great and Little Moord (Murder) Spruits.) Maritz.'s large party was camped between these two groups on the banks of the Bushman's River.

When the Piet Retief party failed to return to their laager on 12 February as had been expected, Gert Maritz became concerned and visited many of the family groups, warning them to form laagers. In some cases he was successful but many disregarded his warnings.

At about midnight on 16-17 February 1838 the Zulus began their assault on the Trekker encampments over a 9 km front along the Bloukrans River. The Zulus fell upon the sleeping Liebenbergs, Besters and de Beers near the confluence of the Umlaas River (also called the Little Murder Spruit) and the Bloukrantz Rivers.

Daniel Bezuidenhout, awakened by barking dogs, managed to escape to the families further west and warn them of the impendinq Zulu attack. Hans Bezuidenhout also managed to escape and warn others in the vicinity. All the Trekker families situated to the west of the Qabango (also called the Great Murder Spruit) were overwhelmed and killed, including the families of Botha, Smit, Breytenbach and most of the Bezuidenhouts. Further to the south, some of the Zulu impi fell upon the Rossouws. Nearby, 36 members of the Engelbrecht and Greyling families sought protection with the Robbertse family who were located between the Little and Great Murder Spruits. This group, however, were overtaken by the Zulus and killed.

Artists rendition of an attack during the Bloukrans Massacre

The Van der Merwe and Prinsloo families were located close to each other to the east of the Great Murder Spruit. Johanna van der Merwe, who was 12 years old, sought shelter with the Prinsloos. She received 21 assegai wounds in the Zulu attack and Catherina Prinsloo received 23. Both were found by a rescue party the following afternoon. Both eventually recovered and lived to an old age.

Therese Viglione, wife of an Italian trader, mounted her horse and rode to as many laagers as possible warning them of the Zulu attacks.

George Biggar, the son of an 1820 British Settler, who was born on board the South African bound ship "Weymouth", was killed at Bloukrans.

Legendary Dick King went to warn the Trekkers near Weenen about the murder of Piet Retief, but as he was on foot, he arrived too late. He was able to render some assistance and helped defend the Maritz Laagers.

Most rivers were swollen from recent rains. At Doornkop, Piet Retief's laager and his immediate followers were now anxiously awaiting their leader's return, wholly unaware that he and his group were murdered by Dingane. This laager consisted of 78 wagons.

Sarel Celliers was with a small laager at the Bushmans River; Maritz’ laager was some 4 miles south of the Bushmans River, before its confluence with the Tugela where it was joined by two small streams.

Further to the south, and east of the Great Murder Spruit, was the Bothma family, warned of an imminent attack, they fled westward, crossed the stream and sought refuge on a nearby koppie. There they initially managed to withstand the Zulu attacks, but eventually the Zulus, using herds of cattle, overwhelmed them and the entire family perished.

The Zulus then plundered and destroyed the camps they had attacked. The camps to the west remained unscathed, and by sunrise a group of 196 men, women and children sought refuge at Doornkop which lies about 8 km west of the present-day Chieveley.

It is apparent that the Trekkers launched counter-attacks on four fronts. From Doornkop, commandant Greyling led a force into the valley of the Bloukrans River. Sarel Cilliers, leaving his camp near the present-day Frere, led a force by a circuitous route to arrive on the ridge to the east of the valley of Great Murder Spruit. He then advanced into the valley and rendered assistance there. Hans (Dons) de Lange left his camp on the Little Bushman's River and made an assault on the retreating Zulus. Gert Maritz, after a successful defence against the Zulus at Saai Laager, went to the aid of the beleagured Trekkers in the valley of the Great Murder.Spruit.

The following day the Trekker pursuit was resumed. At the Tugela they came upon a large body of the enemy, who were trying to drive the cattle and sheep across the river. On being attacked, the Zulus rushed into the swollen river and many were drowned. Unfortunately for the Trekkers, the 25 000 head of cattle and 2000 horses siezed from the camps had already been taken across the Tugela and as it was growing dark and the place that had seemed fordable now looked dangerous, the Trekkers were forced to abandon the pursuit

They returned to the scene of the massacre and joined the survivors in search of the dead, dying and wounded. For ten days burial parties were busy locating and interring the dead. The number slain was ascertained to be not less than 41 men, 56 women, 185 children and 200 servants. The Trekkers spoke of the night's deeds on 16-17 February 1838 as "The Great Murder". Nowadays it is usually referred to as "The Bloukrans Massacre". It is estimated that the Zulu losses amounted to not less than 1 000, half of which incurred during the counter-attack.

It is believed that most of the victims now lie buried in a mass grave on the left bank of the Great Murder Spruit near its confluence with the Bloukrans. At the instigation of General Piet Joubert of the Transvaal, the remains of the victims were exhumed from their scattered graves and re-interred in a communal grave on 17 December 1895 The reburial was a solemn ceremony attended by a large crowd including old Voortrekkers like Marthinus Oosthuizen. The remains of Gert Maritz were also transferred from Maritzdam near Loskop on the Little Tugela where he had been buried. The monument was erected in 1897.

Sources
BLOUKRANS : 16-17 FEBRUARY 1838
South Africa, the country of our birth
Image: The Massacre at Bloukrans

1882 Dutch Reformed Church Griquastad Membership

2011-08-03T13:17:00.001+02:00

Membership of the Dutch Reformed Church
Community of Griquastad 18 September 1882

#	1
Name/Surname	Jacob John Niemand
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	2
Name/Surname	Petrus Willem Ernst Ludik
Parent(s)
Age	18
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	3
Name/Surname	Barend Johannes Koortze
Parent(s)
Age	20
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	4
Name/Surname	David Frederik Gous
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	5
Name/Surname	Johannes Arnoldus van Zyl
Parent(s)
Age	18
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	6
Name/Surname	Gert Johannes Rotze
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	7
Name/Surname	Gert Cloete
Parent(s)
Age	20
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	8
Name/Surname	Hendrik Petrus Cloete
Parent(s)
Age	21
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	9
Name/Surname	Johannes Petrus Matthysen
Parent(s)
Age	27
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	10
Name/Surname	Jacobus Johannes Cloete
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	11
Name/Surname	Schalk Willem Burger Engelbrecht
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	12
Name/Surname	Jan Hendrik Krowe
Parent(s)
Age	45
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	13
Name/Surname	Christiaan Johannes de Klerck
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	25/09/1881
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments	Taken on at Pruiskan 25 Sept 1881
#	14
Name/Surname	Rachel Maria Magdalena Nell
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	15
Name/Surname	Susanna Mararetha Elizabeth De Villiers
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	16
Name/Surname	Elsje Margaretha Marias
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	17
Name/Surname	Louisa Princel
Parent(s)
Age	20
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	18
Name/Surname	Johanna Geertruida Koortze
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	19
Name/Surname	Hester Johanna Christina Engelbrecht
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	20
Name/Surname	Janetta Henrietta Schroder
Parent(s)
Age	16
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	21
Name/Surname	Johanna Abramina Smith
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	22
Name/Surname	Maria Jacoba Kotze
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	23
Name/Surname	Margaretha Elizabeth Small
Parent(s)
Age	16
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	24
Name/Surname	Susanna Jacomina Du Preez
Parent(s)
Age	16
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	25
Name/Surname	Maria Elizabeth Maritz
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	26
Name/Surname	Francina Johanna Wilhelmina Mans
Parent(s)
Age	15
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	27
Name/Surname	Catharina Maria Adriana Fauche
Parent(s)
Age	67
Taken On	04/03/1882
Introduced	04/03/1882
Baptised at
Residence
Comments
#	28
Name/Surname	Hendrik Stephanus v.d. Linde
Parent(s)
Age	22
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Caledon
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	29
Name/Surname	Elizabeth Ann v. der Linde
Parent(s)
Age	16
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Hanover
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	30
Name/Surname	Maria Jacoba van der Linde
Parent(s)
Age	18
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Colesberg
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	31
Name/Surname	Adriaan Jacobus van Tonder
Parent(s)
Age	27
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Willowmere?
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	32
Name/Surname	Argina Fredrica van Zyl
Parent(s)
Age	18
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Riversdal
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	33
Name/Surname	Gideon Jacobus Petrus Kriel
Parent(s)
Age	17
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Zwellendam
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	34
Name/Surname	Henrietta Wilhelmina Jacoba Voster
Parent(s)
Age	16
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Pretoria
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	35
Name/Surname	Martha Elizabeth Cilliers
Parent(s)
Age	18
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Fransburg
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	36
Name/Surname	Maria Cordelia Anderson
Parent(s)
Age	20
Taken On	12/03/1882
Introduced	12/03/1882
Baptised at	Port Elizabeth
Residence
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	37
Name/Surname	Petrus Jacobus Ludik
Parent(s)	P. Ludik
Age	18
Taken On	13/09/1882
Introduced	13/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	??
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	38
Name/Surname	Willem Martinus van Zyl
Parent(s)	M. v. Zyl
Age	21
Taken On	13/09/1882
Introduced	13/09/1882
Baptised at	Riversdal
Residence	Barisakrantz?
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	39
Name/Surname	Alexander Flores Machiel Kriel
Parent(s)	J. Kriel
Age	23
Taken On	13/09/1882
Introduced	13/09/1882
Baptised at	Zwellendam
Residence	Barisakrantz?
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	40
Name/Surname	Koenraad Willem de Buys
Parent(s)	C. de Buys
Age	20
Taken On	13/09/1882
Introduced	13/09/1882
Baptised at	Chichilies
Residence	Danielskuil
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	41
Name/Surname	Christina Paulina Boliestaan?
Parent(s)	J. Rolierster?
Age	17
Taken On	13/09/1882
Introduced	13/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Stinkfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Schmidtsdrift
#	42
Name/Surname	Piet Coetzee
Parent(s)	J. Coetzee
Age	17
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Fraserburg
Residence	Vlakfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	43
Name/Surname	Andries Bartholomeus v d Merwe
Parent(s)	J vd Merwe
Age	16
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	??
Residence	Diepfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	44
Name/Surname	Johannes Gerhardus Coetzee
Parent(s)	J. Coetzee
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Fraserburg
Residence	Vlakfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	45
Name/Surname	Christoffel Francois Kruger
Parent(s)	C. Kruger
Age	20
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Richmond
Residence	Driefontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	46
Name/Surname	Stephanus Petrus Growe
Parent(s)	S. Growe
Age	46
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Beaufort
Residence	Kogelvieu
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	47
Name/Surname	Jan Adam Petrus Koekemoer
Parent(s)	A. Keokemoer
Age	23
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Winburg
Residence	Driefontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	48
Name/Surname	Johannes Petrus Paulus Nel
Parent(s)	J. Nel
Age	19
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Doornfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	49
Name/Surname	Jacob Willem Johannes v.d. Merwe
Parent(s)	N. v.d. Westhuisen
Age	19
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Beaufort
Residence	Modderfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	50
Name/Surname	Willem Hendrik vd Westhuisen
Parent(s)	N. v.d. Westhuisen
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Modderfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	51
Name/Surname	Piet Frederik Cloete
Parent(s)	H. Cloete
Age	26
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Holrivier
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	52
Name/Surname	Pieter Andries Cloete
Parent(s)	F. Cloete
Age	19
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Holrivier
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	53
Name/Surname	Arend Johannes Elisele
Parent(s)	F. Elisele
Age	17
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	54
Name/Surname	Francina Johanna Engelbrecht
Parent(s)	P. Engelbrecht
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Diepfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	55
Name/Surname	Francina Susanna Kruger
Parent(s)	P. Kruger
Age	16
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Burgersdorp
Residence	Modderfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	56
Name/Surname	Cornelia Maria v.d. Westhuisen
Parent(s)	J. v.d. Westhuisen
Age	20
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Modderfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	57
Name/Surname	Johanna Maria Lubbe
Parent(s)	A. Lubbe
Age	16
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Taaiboschport
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	58
Name/Surname	Johanna Jacobus Beukes
Parent(s)	J. Beukes
Age	17
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Taaiboschport
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	59
Name/Surname	Martha Maria Magaretha Fourie
Parent(s)	D. Fourie
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Hopetown
Residence	Sauwkrek?
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	60
Name/Surname	Groudina Maria Eisele
Parent(s)	F. Elisele
Age	20
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	61
Name/Surname	Anna Elizabeth Eisele
Parent(s)	F. Elisele
Age	19
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	62
Name/Surname	Cornelia Elizabeth van Zyl
Parent(s)	P. van Zyl
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Ladysmith
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	63
Name/Surname	Alida Maria Maritz
Parent(s)	M. Maritz
Age	16
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	64
Name/Surname	Martha Maria Petronella Maritz
Parent(s)	P. Maritz
Age	18
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Ladysmith
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	65
Name/Surname	Maria Elizabeth Geertruida van Keuler
Parent(s)	O. v. Keuler
Age	16
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	66
Name/Surname	Elizabeth van der Westhuisen
Parent(s)	O. v.d. Westhuisen
Age	17
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Kyst
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	67
Name/Surname	Hester Magaretha Fourie
Parent(s)	A. Fourie
Age	15
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Sauwkrek?
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad
#	68
Name/Surname	Magdalena Catharina van Zyl
Parent(s)	K. v. Zyl
Age	15
Taken On	16/09/1882
Introduced	16/09/1882
Baptised at	Victoria
Residence	Modderfontein
Comments	Taken on and introduced at Griquastad

Compared to the original register and found to be correct
	F. Du Toit, consultant

Members of Church Committee
	V. de mei Vi
	J L Van Der Merwe
	J J Engelbrecht
	A J Van Zyl
	C H Kruger
	J J De Villiers
	J J Duvenhage
	J H Sekermaar

The Slagtersnek Rebellion

2011-08-01T19:30:00.000+02:00

Slagtersnek Monument in the Eastern Cape

Cornelis Frederik Bezuidenhout, known by the nickname Freek, was the fifth of seven children of Wynand Jacobus Bezuidenhout, a burgher of Graaff-Reinet, and his wife, Maria Terblans, a descendant of Wynand Leendertsz Bezuidenhout, of the Netherlands, master gardener at the Cape, and his wife, Jannetje Gerrits, of Amsterdam. Cornelis was born in the Graaff-Reinet district and baptised on 9 June 1773.

As a frontier farmer, he lived in seclusion in the valley of the Baviaans River, east of Cradock and was said to know no fear, to be full of self-confidence and decidedly arrogant and quick-tempered.

As a result of his views on public affairs he came into conflict with the authorities. Unrest on the eastern frontier, caused by conflicts with the Xhosa, increased the tension, especially after the Black Circuit in 1812. Bezuidenhout was generally known as a vindictive man, unapproachable by most people; he was accused by his servant, Booi, of ill-treatment and of holding back his pay.

He was summoned to appear before the court at Graaff-Reinet. At first he sent poor excuses for his absence; but eventually defied the court's orders.

As a result, he was sentenced in his absence by a circuit court for contempt of court to a month's imprisonment. An order for his arrest was issued and landdrost Andries Stockenström of Graaff-Reinet instructed the Deputy-Messenger of the Court to carry out the order.

Receiving no help from the Field Cornet of the ward, he proceeded to the nearest military post, commanded by Captain Andrews armed with a letter asked for military assistance.

While Cornelis was preparing to resist, by force, his arrest, Lieutenant F Rousseau accompanied the Deputy-Messenger with a patrol of twelve Khoikhoi soldiers.

Cornelis was confronted at the Baviaans River (the present Glen Lynden) on 16 October 1815, where he refused to surrender and fired on the soldiers. With his half-breed son and a casual visitor, Jacob Erasmus, sought refuge amongst the tumbled rocks of the nearby valley. He would not listen to reason and recommenced firing until he was mortally wounded by the soldiers returning the fire. His son and Erasmus, who took no part in the action, surrendered.

Cornelis was buried on the farm the next day by his relatives.

At Cornelis's funeral, his brother, Johannes Jurgen (Hans Jan) Bezuidenhout, swore to avenge himself on the officials whom he held responsible for his brother's death.

He incited the whole community to resistance against British authority. He believed that his decision to chase the British and the Khoikhoi into the sea and to establish an independent state on the eastern frontier coincided with the wishes of all the burghers. About sixty burghers took an oath of vengeance and loyalty and took part in what became known as the Slagtersnek Rebellion.

The rebels’ plans were far-fetched. One proposed to make a deal with Ngqika,. He could take possession of the Zuurveld in exchange for driving away the Cape Regiment, expelling all officials on the frontier and allowing the rebels to occupy the fertile Kat River Valley in the land of the Xhosa. Burghers who refused to join were threatened with death and having their families and property given over to the Xhosa.

Stockenstrom persuaded the influential burghers not to back the rebellion. In the end, there were only 60 rebels, who surrendered without a shot being fired. Forty-six men stood trial in Uitenhage. Some were fined, others lost their farms, and six of the leaders were sentenced to be hanged. One of these men, field-cornet Willem Frederik Krugel, were pardoned by the Governor Somersedt. On 9 March 1916 the remaining five were hanged in public under the makeshift gallows at Van Aardspos, twelve miles south of Slagtersnek. Four of the nooses broke during the procedure and the still living convicts, together with many spectators, including their wives and children, pleaded for their lives, but the executioner ordered that they be hanged a second time. The names of the five rebels who were executed are Hendrik Prinsloo, Stephanus Bothma, Abraham Bothma, Cornelis Faber and Theunis de Klerk.

Cornelis Jacobus Faber’s family stayed with Coenraad De Buys and his family at Nqgika's Great Place for many years where they were married by Van Der Kemp before they returned to the colony. Cornelis’ wife was Christina Magdalena Johanna De Buys.

Emile Badenhorst, curator of the Somerset East Museum, was responsible for bringing the Slagtersnek Rebellion beam back to the Eastern Cape in 2005. The beam was used as a gallows on 09 March 1816 to hang five Boer leaders after the Slagtersnek Rebellion in 1815. Emile discovered the beam in the storage rooms of the South African Museum (now Iziko Museum) in Cape Town. It took 5 years of phoning and organising to bring it to Somerset East. The beam was offered to the museum in the 1980s but the former curator turned it down because it was too sensitive.

The beam still bears the bolt holes which secured it to a wooden structure and turned it into a gallows. The leather riempie rope snapped in mid execution and another had to be found to complete the hanging. Normally prisoners would be set free if the rope snapped but not in this case and the men’s wives and children who were forced to attend the hanging had to watch them being hanged again.

The rebellion was one of the reasons for the Great Trek.

After the hangings the beam was returned to its original purpose which was as a ceiling support in a farm’s pigsty. It was eventually removed and became an icon of Afrikaner nationalism. In 1949, it was transported to the opening of the completed Voortrekker Monument outside Pretoria, after being paraded through Middelburg, Colesburg, Bloemfortein, Winburg, Ventersburg and Parys en route. It ended up at the Cape Town Historical Museum in 1989.

Sources:
Slagtersnek Rebellion beam in museum - Routes and Roots
Wikipedia: CF Bezuidenhout
A Cauldron Of Conflict: The Slagtersnek Rebellion
Image: Ancestry24

The Maritz Rebellion

2011-07-21T17:41:00.001+02:00

At the end of the Boer War in 1902, all Boer soldiers had been asked to sign an undertaking that they would abide by the peace terms. Some, like Deneys Reitz, refused and were exiled from South Africa. Over the following decade many returned home, and not all of them signed the undertaking upon returning. At the end of the Boer War those Boers who had fought to the end were known as "bittereinders" ("bitter enders"); by the time of the rebellion, those who had not taken the oath and wanted to start a new war had also become known as the "bittereinders".

The outbreak of hostilities in Europe in August 1914 had long been anticipated, and the government of the Union of South Africa was well aware of the significance of the common border South Africa shared with the German colony of South-West Africa. Prime Minister Louis Botha informed London that South Africa could defend itself and that the imperial garrison could depart for France; when the British government asked Botha whether his forces would invade German South-West Africa, the reply was that they could and would.

South African troops were mobilised along the border between the two countries under the command of General Henry Lukin and Lieutenant Colonel Manie Maritz early in September 1914. Shortly afterwards, another force occupied the German port of Lüderitz.

When the South African government had offered to invade the German colonies, the commander-in-chief of the Union Defence Force General Christiaan Beyers resigned, writing "It is sad that the war is being waged against the 'barbarism' of the Germans. We have forgiven but not forgotten all the barbarities committed in our own country during the South African War", referring to the atrocities committed during the Boer War. A nominated senator, General Koos de la Rey (who's grandmother was Johanna Elizabeth Du Buis/De Buys), who had refused to support the government in parliament over this issue, visited Beyers. On 15 September they set off together to visit Major JCG (Jan) Kemp in Potchefstroom, who had a large armoury and a force of 2,000 men who had just finished training, many of whom were thought to be sympathetic to the rebels' ideas.

Although it is not known what the purpose of their visit was, the South African government believed it to be an attempt to instigate a rebellion, as stated in the Government Blue Book on the rebellion. According to General Beyers it was to discuss plans for the simultaneous resignation of leading army officers as protest against the government's actions, similar to what had happened in Britain two years earlier in the Curragh incident over the Irish Home Rule Bill. On the way to the meeting General de la Rey was accidentally shot by a policeman at a road block set up to look for the Foster gang.

The Foster gang was a group of criminals who operated around Johannesburg and the Rand, during 1914. The gang, led by William Foster, committed various acts of robbery and murder. After a stand off with the police, the gang members and Foster's wife all committed suicide.

At General de la Rey's funeral, however, many Nationalist Afrikaners believed and perpetuated the rumour that it was a government assassination, which added fuel to the fire; this was even further inflamed by Siener van Rensburg and his controversial prophecies.

Jan Kemp, unknown rebel, Manie Maritz at Keetmanshoop in "German West"

General Maritz, who was head of a commando of Union forces on the border of German South-West Africa, allied himself with the Germans and issued a proclamation on behalf of a provisional government which stated that "the former South African Republic and Orange Free State as well as the Cape Province and Natal are proclaimed free from British control and independent, and every White inhabitant of the mentioned areas, of whatever nationality, are hereby called upon to take their weapons in their hands and realize the long-cherished ideal of a Free and Independent South Africa." It was announced that Generals Beyers, De Wet, Maritz, Kemp and Bezuidenhout were to be the first leaders of this provisional government. Maritz's forces occupied Keimoes in the Upington area. The Lydenburg commando under General De Wet took possession of the town of Heilbron, held up a train and captured government stores and ammunition. Some of the prominent citizens of the area joined him, and by the end of the week he had a force of 3,000 men. Beyers also gathered a force in the Magaliesberg; in all, about 12,000 rebels rallied to the cause. The irony was that General Louis Botha had around 32,000 troops to counter the rebels and of the 32,000 troops about 20,000 of them were Afrikaners.

The government declared martial law on 14 October 1914, and forces loyal to the government under the command of General Louis Botha and Jan Smuts proceeded to destroy the rebellion. General Maritz was defeated on 24 October and took refuge with the Germans. The Beyers commando was attacked and dispersed at Commissioners Drift on 28 October, after which Beyers joined forces with Kemp, but drowned in the Vaal River on 8 December. General De Wet was captured in Bechuanaland, and General Kemp, having taken his commando across the Kalahari desert, losing 300 out of 800 men and most of their horses on the 1,100 kilometre month-long trek, joined Maritz in German South-West Africa, but returned after about a week and surrendered on 4 February 1915.

After the Maritz rebellion was suppressed, the South African army continued their operations into German South West Africa and conquered it by July 1915.

The leading Boer rebels got off relatively lightly with terms of imprisonment of six and seven years and heavy fines. Two years later they were released from prison, as Louis Botha recognised the value of reconciliation. After this, the "bittereinders" concentrated on working within the constitutional system and built up the National Party which would come to dominate the politics of South Africa from the late 1940s until the early 1990s, when the apartheid system they had constructed also fell.

Source:
http://www.wikipedia.com
http://en.vionto.com/show/me/Maritz+Rebellion
Picture: http://streamsandforests.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/deneys-reitz-in-wwi-the-maritz-rebellion/

De Oosterland

2011-07-02T09:14:00.000+02:00

Model of De Oosterland (The Model Shipyard)

The Oosterland (also known as “De Oosterlandt”) was a vessel of 1123 tons and was 160 feet long and 39 feet wide. It was built in 1685 at the Zeeland Yard, in Middelburg, for Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company. It was owned and operated by the Dutch VOC company until it sank off the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa in 1697.

She set off for Asia for the first time in November 1685. Bad weather forced her return after only a fortnight, and it was to be February 1686 before she sailed again, eventually arriving in Batavia in five months later. She left for home at the end of that year, and stopped off at the Cape in March of 1687, loaded with cargo including spices as pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and mace.

The Oosterland's second voyage, a very successful voyage of only 2 months and 10 days, from the Netherlands brought her back to the Cape in July 1688. Most voyages from the Netherlands took between 4 and 6 months! This time she carried refugees from France among her 33 passengers, including some Huguenot families who were to become significant in South Africa's later history.

Individuals:
Name	Origin
Sarah Avicé	Châteaudun, Orléanais
Jean Cloudon	Condé-en-Brie, Champagne
Jean Du Bus	Marck, Picardie, Flanders
Jean Imbert	Nimes, Languedoc
Jacques Nourtier	Saint-Blaise, Picardie
Jean Nourtier	Saint-Blaise, Picardie
Jean Parisel	Villiers-le-Bel, Ile-de-France
Jacques Therond	Nimes, Languedoc
Families:
Name	origin
Pieter le Clerq	Serooskerk, Zeeland
Sara Cochet (wife)	Walcheren, Oost-Souberg
Abraham Zeeland (child 1)
Joost le Clerq (child 2)
Jeanne le Clerq (child 3)
Jacques De Savoye	Aeth, Hainaut
Marie Madeleine le Clerq (wife)
Antionette Carnoy (mother-in-law)	Tournai, Flanders
Marguérite-Thérèse (child 1) 17 years old
Barbe-Thérèse (child 2) 15 years old
Jacques (child 3) 9 months old
Jean Prieur Du Plessis	Poitiers, Poitou
Madeleine Menanteau (wife)	Poitiers, Poitou
Charles (child 1) born at sea
Daniel Nourtier	Saint-Blaise, Picardie
Marie Vitu (wife)	Guines, Picardie
Isaac Taillefert	Chateau Thierry, Champagne
Susanne Briet (wife)	Monneaux, Brie, Champagne
Elisabeth (child 1) 14 years old
Jean (child 2) 12 years old
Isaac (child 3) 7 years old
Pierre (child 4) 5 years old
Suzanne (child 5) 2 years old
Marie (child 6) 1 years old

For six months the ship traded between the VOC's stations in Asia, before returning home in August 1689. Her third trip, undertaken between February 1691 and October 1693, followed a similar pattern.

In July 1694, by now ten years old, the Oosterland left Holland again, this time as one of a fleet of 21 ships. After over a year of trading around Asia, she left Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in February 1697 with a cargo which included diamonds, and again set sail for home, this time in company with four other ships. Eleven people died aboard the Oosterland during her three month voyage to the Cape. It is possible that the quality of the drinking water caused not only these deaths, but also of the illness that struck 35 others of her complement. Having arrived once more at the Cape, in early May, the Oosterland and her companions waited for another dozen ships from Batavia to join them for the voyage home.

On 23 May 1697, a strong north-westerly gale blew up in Table Bay. One ship broke her anchor cables, those of another had to be cut, and the Oosterland was rammed and damaged by her drifting companions. On the next day, when the wind changed, the Oosterland went adrift, and this time hit the sea-bed near the mouth of the Salt River. As soon as she touched bottom, her main mast broke, and the hull began to break up. Of the more than three hundred people on board, only two survived.

Departure	From	Destination	Arrival	Skipper	Cape of Good Hope
25/11/1685	Wielingen	Batavia	31/07/1686		17/05/1686 - 08/06/1686
13/12/1686	Batavia		08/1687	Karel de Marville	20/03/1687 - 20/04/1687
29/01/1688	Wielingen	Batavia	19/07/1688		25/04/1688 - 15/05/1688
25/12/1688	Batavia		09/08/1689	Aamoud Scheiteruit	17/03/1689 - 17/04/1689
08/02/1691	Wielingen	Batavia	28/09/1691	Aarnoud Scheiteruit	17/06/1691 - 20/07/1691
28/02/1693	Ceylon	Rammekens	04/10/1693	Aarnoud Scheiteruit	20/05/1693 - 12/06/1693
16/07/1694	Zeeland	Batavia	11/06/1695	Pieter van Ede	31/12/1694 - 03/03/1695
7/02/1697	Ceylon		24/05/1697

All but the last voyage saw the vessel’s port of origin as Zeeland, the last port of origin was Amsterdam to which the vessel never returned.

The wreck of the Oosterland was discovered in 1988 by divers Graham Raynor, Michael Barchard and Christopher Byrnes. They immediately realised the significance of what they had found, and cntacted Bruno Werz, the Maritime Archaeologist based at the University of Cape Town. When the divers showed him photographs of two bronze cannon, found lying on the seabed, he identified them as having once belonged to the Dutch East India Company, and the National Monuments Council were then also informed of the find.

The wreck lay in only 6m of water, a few hundred metres from the entrance of the Milnerton Lagoon, where a combination of strong winds and currents, cold water temperatures and bad visibility, made diving very difficult.

The Oosterland excavation was notable because it was the first proper "maritime archaeology" project carried out in South African waters. The justification for "doing archaeology" lies in its ability to provide information that is not available in the documentary record. In the case of a shipwreck, such as the Oosterland, information can be gathered about what goods were carried on the ships, both as cargo and as personal effects, and also can be seen how they were packed. The complement of crew and passengers had to be self sufficient in both skills and equipment, due to the long periods of time spent at sea. Archaeology can help to learn about the social and technological aspects of this self-sufficiency.

Sources:
Bruijn, J.R., Gaastra, F.S., Schöffer, I. Dutch-Asiatic Shipping In The 17th and 18th Centuries (3 Vols). The Hague, 1979, 1987
Turner, Malcom. Shipwrecks & Salvage in South Africa, 1505 to the present. Cape Town, 1988
The Huguenots Story (from France to South Africa) By Leon Coetzee and Frans Jordaan

VOC Shipwrecks (No longer exists)
Image: The Model Shipyard, Mossel Bay, South Africa

Alfred De Buys

2011-06-20T18:58:00.001+02:00

I'm trying to find out more about Alfred De Buys and his ancestors...

Alfred De Buys (Around 1950)

Alfred De Buys was born in Middleburg on 03 August 1899 (although some documents show other possible birth dates we assume this to be correct) and died of a heart attack on 20 November 1966. He was a labourer before he joined the military where he assumed full time duty 28 August 1941. Alfred served as a chef in the Cape Corps.

His military papers reveal the following:

01/10/1941 - 05/10/1941	Hospitalized with bronchitis
30/12/1941	Left for Suez with the 2nd SAA
18/12/1941	Disembarked Suez
06/10/1942	Placed on x4 list from 7th Squadron
1942	Injured during bombings in Tobruk, Libya
12/11/1942	Placed on GL EX 2 F P
10/03/1943	Promoted to T/H Cpl with P & A
01/02/1944	Posted to NEAS DEP
23/02/1944	placed on x2 list - hospital (Chest? unclear)
10/03/1944	Struck of x2 list
17/02/1945	Left Suez for Union

Record of the Medals that Alfred was to receive

Alfred was awarded the following medals:

1939-45 Star
Africa Star
Defence Medal (British)
The War Medal 1939 - 45
Africa Service Medal
8th Army Clasp

Alfred's discharge papers states that he was suffering from chest pain and pain in his legs.

After the war Alfred married Rachel De Bruyn (born 1898/11/02, Richmond, died ~1979). Alfred had 4 sons and 3 daughters.

If you have any information with regards to Alfred's family and or military career I would love to hear from you!

Kwaai Martha

2011-06-06T19:18:00.000+02:00

Martha Johanna Ferreira was christened on 25 Oct 1772. She married Petrus Hendrik Ferreira in 1791 and died around 1839.

During the Black Circuit of 1812 - 1813, which was held in George, she became known as "Kwaai Martha" (Afrikaans for "Angry Martha") and was accused of beating her slave. Martha was described in court records as "a woman bearing all the appearance of a better than ordinary farmer's education".

Fort Frederick in Port Elizabeth

At her trial witnesses testifed that Martha beat her slave Manissa almost daily with a shambok (type of whip) and even caused Manissa to loose one of her eyes. On one particular day Manissa was sent to fetch wood. when Manissa didn't return after a while Martha followed her, but returned home without her. Coenraad De Buys was one of the communit members who testifed againsst her.

Later, about a half hours walk from the farmhouse, a bundle of firewood which was tied with twine was found. At that same location was a trail of bloody footprints, puddle of blood, a piece of taaiboshout (hardwood), dragmarks, 'n karos and the small footprints of Martha Ferreira.

This incident took place while Martha lived in the Blockhouse; this was more than likely at Fort Frederick. Fort Frederick was built in 1799 to defend the mouth of the Baakens River, Fort Frederick stands overlooking the Port Elizabeth Harbour.

Martha testified that Manissa, a Mozambican slave, was bought from an Englishman bought while they lived in Algoa Bay. She said that Manissa was very young, tender and small and that she had only chastised her except that she once hit on her back with a cane about five times.
Martha further testified that Manissa suffered from "Mozambiquean sickness" and that she died from bloodletting, adding that the night before her death, Martha looked after her for the whole night, reporting her death to Veldkornet Jan van Niekerk, her brother. She had another of her slaves, Esua bury Manissa's body.

Ten other charges were brought against Martha, for cruel and repeated ill treatment which had occasioned the death of no less than seven persons, namely the slave Steyn, the Hottentots Griet, Koosje, and Abigail, and the Hottentot Rachel, and the wounding or maiming the Hottentots Lys, Hendrik, and Klaas, most of all which under such circumstances as must strike with horror every person possessed of the least sense of feeling, and which, if proved, could not be attributed to sudden passion or anger, but to a most malicious and deliberate cruelty, such, as among others that after having inflicted several wounds on the Hottentot Rachel and maimed her in the head and other parts, she intentionally had her burnt alive with the hut in which she lived; and that the Hottentot Hendrik, who was very young, having remained some days out in the fields with the calves, she put his feet into a pot of boiling water, and having made a fire under it, the toes fell off in consequence.

During the hearing at George concluded. Martha Ferreira was completely acquitted of some of the cases, while others were dismissed due to lack of adequate witnesses. The only charge to which she was convicted, was wounding a slave on his head, for which a fine was imposed.

Martha's husband, Petrus, was also charged during the Black Circuit. He was accused of taking away a little Hottentot named Kleinveld, and drove him on before his horse in such a manner that the horse trod on his stomach, in consequence of which he died four days afterwards.

Coenraad's testimony further alienating himself from the community there. A short while later, in 1813 Coenraad moved north to the central region of the Gariep River and gathered his extended family together with allies from the Khoi, Oorlams Afrikaners, Basters and Xhosa.

Sources:
Geni.com: Martha Johanna Ferreira
Reeler Family Tree
Hornby Lodge

How little they owned...

2011-05-19T18:16:00.000+02:00

Johanna Dorothea Muller and Coenraad Willem De Buys were married at St. Mary's Church, Barkly West on 28 January 1882. Johanna was already pregnant with their first child, Petrus which could be why they got married in an Anglican church instead of in the Dutch Reformed Church. Coenraad was listed as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Griquastad in 1882. The marriage certificate shows that Johanna could not write as she signed her name with a cross, Coenraad, however, could write.

Johanna and Coenraad's 1882 marriage certificate

When Johanna died on 16 October 1892 at the tender age of 29 years old her estate listed only the following possessions:

Bed (complete)
cupboard
Stoel
2 pots
tin kettle and 1 blanket
2 plates, 2 kommetjies (?), 2 cups and saucers
2 knives, 2 forks and two spoons
1 bread pan
1 grid

Dutch inventory of Johanna Dorothea

She had given birth to three children: Petrus who was 10 years old; Coenraad Willem, who was 8 years old and Susara Gesina, who was 6 years old when Johanna died. Coenraad died several years later, in 1901. Coenraad and Johanna are my great-great-grandparents.

Killer in the family

2011-05-08T21:07:00.000+02:00

When Coenraad De Buys was around 7 years old, in September of 1769, he saw his father sitting on a chair "with his legs drawn up as stiff as planks". He was clutching his stomach and screaming. All that night he writhed in pain and died the next day.

Coenraad walked to his half sister, Geertruy Minnie's house and told her about the death. Geertruy told Coenraad that she had seen another man die in same way - her father, Christina's first husband, Dirk Minnie.

It is widely believed that Christina had poisoned them both. Coenraad decided not to go back home and lived with Geertruy and her husband, David Senekal, raising the livestock he received from his father's estate. Christina married David's brother, Jacob Senekal within six months.

Dr Muller, a toxicology expert, and Cherylynn Wium, Medical Scientist, both from the Tygerberg Poison Information Centre feel that the only poison available in sufficient quantities which would cause the symptoms mentioned in the documents of the time would be Strychnine. Christina could possibly also have used arsenic although the symptoms described don't quite match those of arsenic poisoning.

The plant in which Strychnine is found

Strychnine is a poisonous, colorless, crystalline, alkaloid that is obtained from seeds of the nux vomica tree (S. nux-vomica) and related plants of the genus Strychnos. Strychnine is one of the most bitter substances known. Strychnos, named by Linnaeus in 1753, is a genus of trees and climbing shrubs of the gentian order. The genus contains 196 various species and is distributed throughout the warm regions of Asia (58 species), America (64 species), and Africa (75 species).

Daisy De Melker (Source: Ancestry24.com)

South Africa's first serial killer, Daisy Louisa C. De Melker (1 June 1886 - 30 December 1932), (nee Hancorn-Smith), who was a trained nurse, poisoned two husbands with Strychnine for their life insurance while living in Germiston in the central Transvaal (now Gauteng), and then poisoned her only son with arsenic for reasons which are still unclear.

The state, however, could not prove that she had murdered her husbands, so Daisy de Melker was hanged for the murder of her son alone on Friday, December 30th, 1932, at Pretoria Central Prison. She is historically the second woman to have been hanged in South Africa.

Interestingly enough Sarah Gertrude Millin wrote a book on Coenraad De Buys, King of the Bastards, in which she describes Coenraad's fathers poisoning and on book on Daisy De Melker, Three Men Died, in which she describes her murders.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Daisy de Melker
Crime Magazine: Daisy de Melker
TrueCrime Library - Execution by hanging: Daisy de Melker
Encyclopedia Britannica: Strychnine
Wikipedia: Strychnine
Top 10 Source: 10 Most dangerous poisons around the world
King of the Bastards - Sarah Gertrude Millin
Dr Muller/Cherylynn Wium, Tygerberg Poison Information Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences

The Massacre at Zuurberg

2011-05-03T20:25:00.000+02:00

Following the re-establishment of British authority at the Cape in 1806, the British found themselves increasingly drawn into the conflict between the indigenous peoples and the Boers. By 1810, the major confrontation was with the Xhosa on the Eastern Frontier due to the westward intrusion of the Xhosa who were still settled in the Suurveld.

In October, 1811, the new Governor, John Cradock, resolved to clear the Zuurveld of the Xhosa, and to drive them back to east of the Fish River. He appointed Colonel John Graham to this task. By December, Graham had raised three forces. The southernmost was near the mouth of the Sundays River, while a second was in the area of Coerney near Addo. The third was a Commando from Graaff-Reinet, led by the Landdrost, Anders Stockenstrom. They were stationed north of the Zuurberg, to protect Bruintjeshoogte and Graaff-Reinet against Xhosa intrusions from the south and east.

The commandos gathered at the mouth of the Sundays river crossed after Christmas in order to expel the enemy from the Addo bush. On 27 December Graham sent orders to Stockenstrom to join the other soldiers and burghers at Cuyler's camp at Coerney. Stockenstrom responded with about 24 of his men, who left their camp at sunrise on 28 December 1811 to travel south over the Zuurberg.

Near the peak of the Zuurberg, Stockenstrom's party encountered a group of Xhosa of the Imidange clan, under Kasa, on Doringnek, the watershed between the White and Coerney rivers, in the Suurberg.

View from Zuurberg (Suurberg)

The burghers wished to ignore them and proceed, but Stockenstrom, relying on his popularity as the friend and benefactor of both whites and Bantu, reined in, dismounted and went to meet them unarmed. In the course of a long conversation he spent half-an-hour endeavouring to persuade them to return to their country without bloodshed. During the conversation about a hundred of the Imidange surrounded the white men unnoticed, and when Stockenstrom remounted to proceed they were attacked from all sides. Stockenstrom, eight burghers and a half-caste interpreter were killed, and four men were wounded, although they managed to escape. Among the dead was Jan Christiaan Greyling, whose widow married Piet Retief, the future Voortrekker leader, in 1814; and Philip Buys who is believed to be "a Baster Hottentot" son of Coenraad De Buys and Elizabeth. Philip was, more than likely, acting as a guide and/or half-caste interpreter for the group.

When the news of the murder of the landdrost and his companions reached the camp at Bruintjieshoogte; his son, Ensign Andries Stockenstrom, together with eighteen mounted burghers, hastened to Doringnek, where they surprised a number of the murderers, shot thirteen dead, and recaptured eight horses.

Sources:
Keith Meintjes - The Massacre at Zuurberg
A. H. Tromp - Anders Stockenstrom
Photo: View from Zuurberg (Suurberg)

History of the Huguenots

2011-04-16T11:00:00.005+02:00

The name Huguenot was given to French Protestants who were influenced by Martin Luther's preaching early in the 16th century, and who later established a reformed church following the teachings of John Calvin, who preached in Geneva from 1537 to 1564.

The Reformed Church was established in France by the mid-1530s and by the middle of the 16th century, there were about 2,000 congregations and perhaps 1.5 million believers.

The new religion rejected the excesses and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and the French monarchy.

Protestant theologians such as Calvin taught that a universal priesthood of believers could find salvation, not through the interventions of a church, but through individual faith alone. The Bible was translated for the first time into the vernacular languages and the new faith was based on the study and individual interpretation of the Bible.

From the 1530s to 1560, the French Reformed Church experienced rapid growth, particularly among the nobility. By the 1560s, the Huguenots had their own churches, schools, garrisoned towns, manned castles and fortifications. But as the Protestant Church grew, conflict with the Roman Catholic Church and the Crown intensified. As early as the 1530s, the first religious refugees began to leave France.

In 1561 Catherine de Medici, as Regent to her minor son Charles IX, granted certain privileges to the Protestants, but the peace was short-lived. In March of the following year a group led by Francois, Duc de Guise, a staunch Catholic, attacked a congregation of unarmed Huguenots who were worshipping in a barn at Vassy, killing over one hundred people. This began the Wars of Religion, which tore France apart for thirty-five years until relative peace was established following the Edict of Nantes in 1598.

In 1570 Catherine de Medici declared the Peace of St. Germain, primarily to keep the Protestants from taking Paris. By that time Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of the French Navy and Governor of Picardy, had become a leader and spokesman for the Protestant cause. In August 1572, Prince Henri de Navarre, a Protestant, was to marry Marguerite de Valois, sister of Charles IX, in Paris. The Roman Catholic leaders, together with the Regent, thought that this was an opportunity to assassinate Coligny and many of the Protestants who would be in Paris for the wedding.

During the night of August 23, 1572, those plans were carried out. The young King Charles IX was there with his mother and brother Henri d'Anjou (later Henri III). After he had been pressed to agree to the plan he was reputed to have ordered "the death of all the Protestants of France, so that none would remain to reproach him later."

The work of extermination began suddenly in Paris with the ringing of church bells.

Painting by François Dubois (1529-1584) of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris which François is reputed to have eyewitnessed

Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (1519-1572), the first victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, was stabbed and his body thrown out a window. The murderous frenzy spread then through Paris and throughout the provinces, resulting in the deaths of an estimated three thousand men, women, and children in three days.

French soldiers and the Roman Catholic clergy fell upon the unarmed people, and blood flowed like a river throughout the entire country. Men, women, and children fell in heaps before the mobs and the bloodthirsty troops. In one week, almost 100,000 Protestants perished. The rivers of France were so filled with corpses that for many months no fish were eaten. In the valley of the Loire, wolves came down from the hills to feel upon the decaying bodies of Frenchmen. The list of massacres was as endless as the list of the dead!

Many were imprisoned and many were sent as slaves to row the king's ships and some were able to escape to other countries... The best and brightest people fled to Germany, Switzerland, England, Ireland and eventually the United States, and brought their incomparable manufacturing skills with them... France was ruined... Wars, famine, disease and poverty finally led to the French Revolution; the guillotine; the Reign of Terror and the fall of the Roman Catholic monarchy/atheism/communism

Following the death of Charles IX in 1574 and the murder of his brother Henri III in 1589, Henri de Navarre was crowned King Henri IV. Although Henri IV had converted to Catholicism for political reasons, he established basic rights for the Protestants.

When Henri IV was assassinated in 1610, the Protestants lost much of their protection. The rise of the absolute monarchy began with his son and successor, Louis XIII, who regarded the Protestants as a threat to the monarchy. His regent, Cardinal Richelieu, was obsessed with eliminating all Huguenot communities in France. Protestant freedoms were restricted and, in 1622 the Crown began the first of three Huguenot Wars that ended in 1627 with the siege and fall of La Rochelle and an uneasy peace.

Louis XIV, who had ascended the throne as a young boy in 1643, believed that there should be "one king, one law and one religion" for France. By 1665, Huguenot churches and schools began to be abolished and more restrictions were gradually imposed. Huguenot men and women were imprisoned and their children kidnapped or forcibly removed and sent to orphanages and convents to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith. The families of these children were billed for their room and board.

Between 1681 and 1686 royal troops were forcibly quartered with Huguenot families in several provinces in order to compel them to renounce their faith; these "dragonnades" were carried out in several provinces where Protestants were numerous. The Huguenots were expected to pay the soldiers board and the "booted missionaries" punished those who resisted. Those who did not agree to become Roman Catholics and who could not flee the country were often imprisoned, tortured or put to death.

By 1685, Louis XIV believed that years of intimidation and persecution had largely done away with the Huguenots, and the Edict of Nantes was revoked. The Revocation led to the destruction of the last Protestant churches in France and forbade any assembly of non-Catholics. Protestant ministers were given fifteen days to leave France or face execution. The property of those who had already fled was forfeited to the Crown. Protestant men and women caught attempting to leave France were condemned to galleys or imprisoned.

The remnants of the Protestant church in France went underground, holding secret worship and becoming known as the Church of the Desert. They worshipped in private homes, in deep woods and in caves - wherever they could gather together. Those who were caught attending these secret worship services were relentlessly punished; men were sent to the galleys and women to convents where they were forcibly converted.

Prior to the Revocation, there were about eight hundred thousand Huguenots in France. In the face of horrible persecution, approximately five hundred and fifty thousand of them recanted their faith. During the next twenty years, it is estimated that about a quarter of a million Huguenots left France. Many fled to friendly neighboring countries such as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and parts of Belgium. Others escaped to England and Ireland from where they embarked for the West Indies and British North America, especially to the Carolinas, Virginia, New York and New England. Some eventually migrated as far as South Africa.

The Huguenot refugees who left France were generally merchants, artisans, craftsmen, weavers or were skilled in specific trades. Many were well-educated, and some were able to establish new roles as entrepreneurs or professionals where they settled. They were generally well-received where they located, and became industrious members of their new communities. Some of these immigrants and their descendants played significant roles in the history of their newly adopted countries.

Important Huguenot Dates

1533	John Calvin flees Paris
29 January 1535	General Edict urging extermination of Heretics (Huguenot)
1536	John Calvin becomes pastor in Geneva, Switzerland
1550s	Calvinism comes to France with thousands of converts
1555	A group of Huguenots was part of the French colonisers who arrived in Brazil to found France Antarctique
25 May 1559	First Synod of the French Reformed Church held in Paris, followed by persecutions and issuance of Edict prohibiting "heretical" worship
1559	Attempt to replace Catholic Guises with Huguenot Conde (nobility) as regent
1560	Huguenots petition the King and threaten revolt if persecution persists
1 March 1562	Massacre at Vassay begins French religious wars; Conde assassinated
1562	Huguenots sign manifesto saying they were forced to take arms
1 May 1562	Arrival at St. John's River, in Florida, of the first pilgrimage by Huguenots to North America
1564	Death of John Calvin at the age of 54 years
1564	A group o Norman Huguenotsunder the leadership of Jean Ribault established the small colony of Fort Caroline, America (present day Jacksonville, Florida)
1565	Huguenot colony massacred at St. John, Florida by the Spanish
24 August 1572	St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in which tens of thousands of Huguenots were killed.
1585	Huguenots/Protestants expelled from France
13 April 1598	Edict of Nantes by Henry of Navarre which granted religious and civil liberties to the Huguenots promises protection
1671	Individual Huguenots settle at the Cape of Good Hope, beginning with the arrival of Frantois Villion (Viljoen)
18 October 1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV which was published 22 October 1685, and resulted in persecution of the Huguenots; 400,000 flee France
31 December 1687	The first organised group of Huguenots set sail from Holland to the Dutch East India Company post at the Cape of Good Hope
1692	Huguenots settle on the south shore of Staten Island, New York
28 November 1787	Promulgation of the Edict of Toleration, issued by Louis XVI of France, ended persecutions of non-Catholics - including Huguenots
1791	Protestants were finally granted full citizenship

Source:
The National Huguenot Society
The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre
The Huguenot Society of South Carolina
Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution

Pieter Johannes De Buys' World War 2 Movements

2011-04-06T17:01:00.002+02:00

Pieter Johannes De Buys

Pieter Johannes De Buys was born on 21 April 1915 at Daspoort, Transvaal, South Africa. He died on 05 July 2003 in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Pieter is my grandfather, left home at a very early age and joined the South Africa Defence Force as painter. Through years of service Pieter was promoted and, in 1935, he was posted at the SAA Castle in Cape Town and was serving as a Bombardier.

On 05 February 1938 Pieter was hospitalized for an injury sustained while serving in the 1st Heavy Battery. On 27 August 1939 he was moved from 1 Heavy Battery, Cape Artillery Battery (CAB), to the 4th Heavy Brigade, Durban Garrison Artillery (DGA).

Pieter was promoted to a Lance Bombardier on 01 July 1940). He was then transferred to the Cape Peninsula Artillery Brigade on 12 February 1941 from the First Batallion, Durban.

Pieter was transferred to SATE on 19 March 1943 and embarked from Durban with the Pretoria Regiment and arrived in the Suez Canal on 30 April 1943.

He departed for Egypt on 30 May 1943. The 6th South African Armoured Division spent a year in Egypt training. Training began in the desert at Khataba, north west of Cairo and was focused on tank operations and integrating the Rhodesian elements into the division.

This picture must have been taken at Khataba, north west of Cairo between 30 May 1943 and 3 March 1944. The weapon that Pieter is using is a Vickers heavy machine gun. It was used by the British during World War I, Chaco War, World War II, Indo-Pakistan War of 1947, 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Korean War and the Congo Crisis.

From 22 September 1943 to 01 October 1943 Pieter was placed on the x2 list and hospitalized with sandfly fever. He was discharged from hospital and taken of the x2 list on 01 October 1943. He rejoined the Pretoria Regiment upon being discharged.

On 01 September 1943 he was granted the War Substantive Rank of Corporal. (A War Substantive Rank is a rank which may revert at the end of war, the holder will then revert to previous rank held)

On 30 October 1943 Pieter was sited for contravening Section 40 (1) of the Military Disciplinary Code. This was for a minor offence contrary to the good order and military discipline.

On 11 May 1944 he was transferred from 6th South African Armoured Division to the South African Artillery Corps

Pieter was crossposted from 6th South African Armoured Division (prov. coy (v)) to the South African Corp Of Military Police (SACMP) on 24 May 1945.

On the 09 September 1945 he left Italy for Egypt and remained there until March 1946.

Pieter was admitted to hospital with tonsilitis and placed on the x2 list on 20 September 1945 and released on 27 September 1945, but was re-admitted, this time with scabies, on 05 October 1945 and stayed until 20 October 1945 (Each discharged note states that he was taken off the x2 list upon leaving the hospital.)

On 10 March 1946 he disembarked in Durban, South Africa and reported to the Provincial Department Showgrounds in Pretoria on 12 April 1946

Pieter was awarded the 1939/45 Star, The Africa Star, the Italy Star, the Defence Medal (British) and the War Medal (1939/45)

Many thanks to Marc Norman, Graham C. L. Du Toit and Audrey Portman

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Armoured_Division_%28South_Africa%29
http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/6SAdiv.htm
http://orbat.com/site/ranks/rankexplanation1.html

Health Diseases, Epidemics and Treatments

2011-03-16T14:26:00.002+02:00

Blood-letting (breathing a vein) James Gillray 1804

Once reaching the Cape they suffered from contagious diseases; smallpox, dysentery, measles, and infectious diseases. The ship Joanna Cathaerina in 1673 brought 221 slaves and within fourteen months 129 slaves had died. The ship Voorhout brought 257 slaves, mainly children in 1676 and within three and a half months 92 were dead.

Relying solely on the primary data provided in J.G. le Roux’s Hugenote bloed in ons, one can get a partial idea of mortality between 1688 and 1700. In that twelve-year period, a total of 86 refugees died, meaning that as many as 79 may have lived on (48 refugees had no death-dates listed). A cursory gleaning of the wills left by Huguenot men before 1700, indicates that the death-rate among the newer arrivals was high. About ten per cent of them left probated wills and this number gives an indication of deaths in the first decade there. Surely the death-rate was higher. Only those who were able to write a will, or had access to materials on which to write it, with witnesses available, did so.

Yellow Fever epidemics caused considerable loss of life for the refugees. Yellow Fever was one of the many diseases that killed many people in the 1700s. Death from Yellow Fever was common because no cure was available. The symptoms start with headaches, chills, and a general ache in back, arms, and legs. This is followed by a high fever for about 3 days, after which the fever goes away, but only for a couple of hours. The high fever then returns and as red blood cells are destroyed the skin and eyes turn yellow. The patient then begins to vomits black blood because of bleeding in the nose, gums, and intestines. As the person's pulse grows weak they start to become confused and delirious. Also, tiny red bumps may appear on the skin. Death follows shortly after.

Gout troubled the adults and Kolbe believed the condition derived from excessive consumption of alcohol. Another source agreed, noting that gout generally attacked those aged persons who “have spent most of their lives in ease, voluptuousness, high living, and too free use of wine and other spirituous liquors”. “Putrid fevers” (probably typhoid) also afflicted the refugees.

At the Cape, epidemics also took their toll. When smallpox broke out in Cape Town in 1713, the epidemic followed two years of drought. Just as the much-needed rains started falling, the colony had to deal with this epidemic that was introduced via the linens on a ship. Smallpox was especially hard on the Khoi, who had no natural immunity, but it also had a severe impact on the Europeans. The Huguenots were mostly located in the Drakenstein, at Franschhoek, around Stellenbosch, and a few had moved into Wagonmakers Valley by that time. Too many people were dying in the outlying districts and were not able to seek out a notary to make wills. As a result, there is very little data regarding the deaths of Huguenots – both women and men.

Surely Anne Fouché and Elizabeth Joubert succumbed to smallpox as their wills were probated in 1713. The “pokkies” claimed at least 1 585 Europeans that year. J.A. Heese found that of these, 875 were children. One report to the Netherlands in June 1713 noted that there were not “20 healthy people in Drakenstein”.

Interestingly, Marie Grillion makes the point that her husband, Gideon Malherbe, died of natural causes, yet when the distraught widow and mother was forced to make an accounting of their holdings that, in turn, revealed that her husband and three of her children had died due to smallpox.

Other afflictions troubled the Huguenots at the Cape - anxious mothers had to deal with sore eyes – a “distemper” that was worse in summer months. While old people suffered from “a scalding rheum that issued abundantly from the eyes”, the “greatest rate falls on the children”, and thus efforts were made to keep them out of the rays of the sun. One of the Huguenot surgeons treated these eye conditions with drops and “Spanish fly”. Kolbe added soreness of the throat to the list of chronic illnesses.

Worms afflicted them too, especially the children. Intestinal parasites were common in that era. In London, the Spitalfields Project involved the excavation and examination of primarily French Huguenot skeletons that had been buried from 1729 to the mid-nineteenth century. Between eight hundred and a thousand bodies were exhumed, with about half of them examined. Among the findings was a high incidence of infant mortality, which the examiners attributed to intestinal worms. Traveller and physician Anders Sparrman referred to worms as a “troublesome disorder in rural areas”. Another traveller wrote about “dirty scabby children” whose condition he thought was caused by intestinal worms. Certainly intestinal worms contributed to anaemia, but probably were not directly responsible for the deaths that the medical examiners in the Spitalfields Project noted in their study.

Another source of illness was rotten teeth. Dental caries and gum diseases were problems in eighteenth-century Europe, where there were some rudimentary forms of treatment available. At this time it was commonly believed that dental caries were caused by worms in the teeth that had to be dislodged “by compounds of myrrh and aloes”. Periodontal diseases were not being diagnosed at that time and one can only infer that such agonies as infection and abscess had to run their course until the teeth simply fell out.

In discussing epidemics and diseases, treatments and the persons responsible for administering them, have barely been mentioned. Clearly, when a doctor, whatever his limits of training, was available in these first decades on the frontier, the Huguenots availed themselves of him. As has been seen, Gideon le Grand treated the refugees at the Cape. Despite the role of the ruling hand of the patriarch in others areas of their lives, it was primarily the women who treated their own illnesses and those of their children. Men were probably responsible for gleaning knowledge of local herbs, roots and plants from “others” that were long resident in specific areas. The Khoi had their own treatments for various ailments that plagued them – as had been witnessed by observers such as Laguat at the Cape.

At the Cape at least one Huguenot had some background as an apothecary. Isaac Taillefert’s father had been an apothecary in France, as was one of his brothers. While he is often listed as an apothecary, Taillefert’s skills were those of a hat-maker. He was also a farmer, and it is likely that he drew on memories of herbal medications from his father’s pharmacy. In 1698 a French Huguenot traveller remarked on his garden “[It] may very well pass for fine. Nothing, I think, there is wanting”. In fact few medications as we know them, were available. For purposes of treatment, most people made do with herbs, roots, leaves, and even fruits and vegetables.

This period in Early Modern European medical history was influenced by the humoral theory posited by Galen, with medical treatment predicated on balancing the humors. The primary means of achieving this aim were through laxatives, emetics, and bleeding – with the occasional blister applied to relieve “pressure” on an affected area of the body.

At the Cape, they certainly had a copy of Pharmacopoeia Belgica, or the Dutch Dispensary Revised and Confirmed by the College of Physicians in Amsterdam, which was translated into English in 1659. This volume would have been invaluable not only as a medical reference for herbs, roots, plants and various trees, but also to advise gardeners what to plant. In these volumes, one finds references to vegetables ranging from asparagus to artichokes, parsley and radish (used as a diuretic). Felix fern was “good against worms”, while tameric [turmeric] was “good against yellow jaundice” and fennel “good for the eyes”. Rhubarb strengthened the liver; ginger “warms the stomach and expels wind”; pomegranate seeds “dry and bind very much”; while aloes (in abundance at the Cape) “comforts the brain”. Lavender and rosemary were good against colds, and St. John’s wort cured sciatica. Melon “seeds moves urine” and natrutil seeds of cretfes “kills the child in the womb”. Other medications especially useful for women and children were date stones (presumably ground) and sage. Damask plums were used to “loosen the belly” while “sour prunes bind the belly”. Elephant’s teeth and ivory (also in abundance at the Cape) were “good to coat and stop Fluxes of blood”. Leeches were used to “suck away melancholy bloods”. Gideon le Grand employed “cinnamon, terebinth, crocus, ginger, piper and sweet oil...

Usually every household was provided with a “Huis Apotheek”, or a box of Halle Medicines which was in much repute here. So great was the faith in these remedies that only in extreme cases was the aid of a physician sought. Even when his services were required the distance that he lived was so great that the patient would probably have succumbed before his arrival if home remedies were not tried. The wife, or one of the elderly matrons, was generally well acquainted with the use of the medicines and from them help was looked for. This threw the country people upon their own resources, and they learnt not only the use of the homeopathic medicines but also the medicinal properties of many of the indigenous plants and herbs.

Three types of African wood sorrel were employed to treat scurvy, while garden garlic had a multitude of uses. A physician and a European resident both discounted rhinoceros horn. Still, “the fine shavings were taken internally” and were thought by the locals to cure convulsions and spasms in children. Women in the country brewed a local bush tea (Bobonia cordata) as cure for various internal ailments. They learned to do this from the Khoi or San, while the San also taught them to turn to rooibos tea that had medical properties when taken internally or when ground leaves and bark were applied externally.

Several of the first aid remedies used for restoratives were the same as in Holland. Vinegar or lavender water was rubbed on the temples of the patient who was made to inhale the smell of it, and was given to drink hartshorn in a little wine. The colonists had learnt from the Hottentots the use of many of the herbs; these were given as purgatives, emetics, cathartics and diuretics. A plant most commonly used was the buchu. When preserved in brandy it was good for stomachic complaints, and when in vinegar, as an embrocation in rheumatic pains or for sprains and contusions. The Hottentots placed great faith in the use of Buchu Asyn (Buchu Vinegar) as a wash to cleanse and heal a wound. This antiseptic was made by putting the leaves of the buchu into a bottle of cold vinegar and allowing them to steep. The longer they were left to infuse the more efficacious the vinegar became. In sandy tracts of the Colony where the Hottentots fig, Mesembryanthemum Acin Acforme Lin, was found, few other plants were so common in domestic use as this. The juice from the succulent leaves was taken internally to check dysentery and acted as a mild diuretic, it was used as a gargle for malignant sore thr at or in the form of a lotion in burns and scalds. An old Hottentot remedy was the use of the Davidsworteltje which in the form of a decoction acted simultaneously as an emetic, cathartic and diuretic, and the tincture or infusion of the root in wine or brandy was a powerful emetic and purgative. The tops of branches of the rhenosterboschjes, which covered immense tracts of land in the western districts, when infused in wine or brandy gave a good stomachic bitters and was frequently used as a tonic m dyspepsia. The “Boschjes-stroop” made from the sugar bush was considered a good cure for a cough or pulmonary affections.

Some believed in cures from the blood, the urine, the excrement, the fat, the skin and flesh of animals. Though it might seem incredible there are country places today where the people have faith in this. Goat fat was used for chest complaints, the excrement of the goat infused was given to a patient to bring out measles. In case of inflammation the patient was wrapped up in the warm skin of a sheep immediately after it was killed. In various parts of the country there were mineral hot springs which had different healing properties; these were visited by people suffering from a variety of illnesses. Many of these waters are today much sought after.

Image source:
James Gillray, published by H. Humphrey, St James's Street, London, January 28, 1804.

Health in the early Cape

2011-03-16T14:22:00.000+02:00

The French Huguenots who settled at the Cape in 1688 and 1689 were eventually afford to buy slaves or hire the Khoi and the refugee women and their children interacted with the “other” women as household servants, or to assist with births or during emergencies. Without doubt life was extremely difficult for these Huguenot women, beginning with the rigours of sailing across or down the Atlantic.

Respiratory diseases, “fever” (undiagnosed beyond that) and malnutrition were afflictions that passengers and crew alike suffered from during these voyages. The longest voyage (by a few days) on which the refugees departed, took place from March to August 1688 on the Berg China. This ordeal resulted in the deaths of 30 of the refugees, including six women. Interestingly, Pierre Joubert left the Netherlands married to one woman and arrived at the Cape married to another, leaving us with the assumption that his first wife had died en route.

Earlier, the Oosterland, carrying 29 passengers, 107 seamen and 105 soldiers, saw the loss of a woman, but witnessed the birth of a child during the voyage. The child’s mother was fortunate in that her husband was the surgeon, Jean Prieur du Plessis. Another baby was born on one of the ships that were moored in Table Bay. In that case, one may assume that the other women on board assisted with the delivery, aided perhaps by the ship’s doctor (who would have been a barber-surgeon). Jean De Bus was onboard the Oosterland which arrived in the Cape on 25 April 1688.

Records indicate that deaths on t’Wapen van Alkmaar, numbered 37, with 104 survivors placed in the VOC hospital on arrival. It is known that some of the dead as well as some survivors were French Huguenots. As noted earlier, the new arrivals suffered from weakness, if not fevers and malnutrition, as a result of the hardships and deprivations experienced during the months under sail. Add these disabilities to the pre-existing weaknesses that prevailed among the majority of the refugees – they had endured the hardships of hunger and whichever type of temporary lodging they could find, often in woods or, if they were fortunate, in lean-to shelters as they made their way out of France into the New Netherlands or to the western coast, where they hid away on various types of small vessels in order to get to England. Once the majority of the refugees were safe from their French pursuers, they had little money to secure decent lodging or work in their respective places of exile, which is why most of them elected to sail on to the Cape. Thus one may postulate that many of them were not in robust health when they set off on the long voyages to these remote frontier settlements.

After the refugees had survived the rigours of the long voyage and were relocated, they had to adjust to a new and different climate. The climatic changes were dramatic in comparison with what they had experienced in Northern Europe. The disease environment, too, was different. In those days diseases were closely associated with climate, and diagnoses were often made based on the prevailing conditions. At the Cape, the seasons were reversed - rain fell heavily during the winter as a result of westerly winds meeting with a warm front, and also causing piercingly strong, chilly winds. This rain and wind often produced respiratory illnesses. The summers were insufferably hot for the little band of French Huguenots, yet this was the season when the crops had to be gathered, vegetable gardens cleared of produce, canning and preserving done, as well as the demanding labour associated with grapepicking (many of the Huguenots engaged in viticulture).

Typical of the weather, was an entry in the diary of Adam Tas, which reads that in early January 1705, a “north wind blew on the 5th... still raining with no let up on the 8th” and part of a neighbour’s crop – that of a refugee – had been destroyed.

Medical care was inconsistent. Huguenot surgeons were few and the language barriers separated especially the women in terms of seeking treatment from respectively English- or Dutch-speakers. Jean Prieur du Plessis had arrived at the Cape in 1688. He was followed by Paul Lefevre, an employee of the VOC and thus based in Cape Town where very few of the refugees were close enough to avail themselves of his services. Gideon le Grand had arrived at the Cape by 1698 and was based in Stellenbosch. Last among this group was Jean Durand, who settled on a farm by 1690, but seems not have been active in practising medicine, preferring instead to engage in farming and local administration. Le Grand kept a journal regarding his practice. Only partial entries survive, but it is known that he treated French Huguenots, including Maria Jeanne du Pré, plus various children of the refugees. He, Gideon recorded, in January and February 1710, bled “Jeanneton”, a daughter of Jean du Buis. There are, however, no baptism records available for her. Many records where lost early in the 18th century, which could explain why no record was found; alternatively it could be possible that she died while still very young. It’s also possible that the “Jeanneton” to which Gideon referred was Johanna Terrier (Jean’s step daughter) because Gideon also saw “Suzon”, who he documented as the daughter of Jean Du Buis. The “daughter” he referred to was the step daughter Suzanne Terrier. Gideon le Grand lived in Paarl and passed away some time in 1710.

In terms of medical knowledge, almost all of the authorities believe that these men at the Cape and in Carolina were barber-surgeons. By the 1670s, the French Protestants had been virtually shut out of universities. France had a guild of barber-surgeons dating from the thirteenth century. They were broken down into two categories – that of "petit bourgeoisie" or the lesser "barbitonsores". There is no way of knowing into which category these men fell, or if they were divided between the two.

How informed they were regarding modern medical knowledge at the time, is unknown. It would depend to some extent on personal and professional relationships between university-trained physicians who were Roman Catholic, and the dissident barber-surgeons in their respective provinces.

Bachelor Peter Kolbe (an astronomer) judged that the women at the Cape gave birth much more easily than in Europe. Swedish physician Carl Peter Thunberg, who as far as is known, never delivered a baby at the Cape, also made this same assumption. These stereotypes are contradicted in part by a contemporary obstetrician who noted that the more children a woman bore, the more likely a quicker and often easier labour would be. On the whole, the Huguenot women were prolific in childbearing and they tended to produce, on average, a child every two years, with some women bearing eleven to twelve children in total.

It was a French Protestant doctor who first opened a school of midwives in sixteenth-century Europe and it was Ambroise Paré who insisted that women take to the bed to deliver. It is not known if the refugee women delivered on a bed, used a birthing stool, or assumed any of several positions – from kneeling to squatting – to aid the child down the birth canal. At the Cape both Kolbe and Thunberg found that women nursed their own babies, although when the mothers died or were incapacitated, the children would be farmed out to other nursing mothers, including perhaps the “other” in both places.

Records of the number of still births and mortality among infants at either of these frontiers are lacking. Published genealogies at the Cape, which account for less than half of the number of refugee families, bare hints of childhood mortality. Bachelor Kolbe noted that European women at the Cape who breast-fed their children were “most grievously afflicted with sore breasts... their breasts are frequently very cruelly pained and their nipples are almost always the same”. As a result he thought that they weaned their children too fast.

Du Plessis returned to Europe within a few years after his arrival. His first wife died there, and he returned in 1700, married to midwife Maria Buisset. She was the only French-speaking midwife at the Cape. Surely Buisset was kept busy, but most of the births at the Cape were presided over by female members of the family and neighbours (including those who spoke no French).

One may assume that the rigours of successive child-bearing took the life of Ann Retief, who had borne four sons and six daughters at the time of her death in 1710, when she was only thirty-nine. Jacquemine des Prez died at thirty-six leaving behind eleven children. Complications from child-bearing included breech births, haemorrhaging and puerperal fevers. In addition there were holes and tears to the wall and mouth of the vagina. Those who survived the fevers and damage done to their bodies, would have required time to heal, but in most cases women were up and about very quickly – some even on the very day they gave birth. One aid to the pain of childbirth was a bit of brandy, and it was common practice during labour to rub the body with oil, or to provide women with a variety of herbs to consume.

In this era many medical authorities believed that the uterus was the source of conditions such as hysteria among women. No doubt many held this view at the Cape, where it was commonly believed that conception could only take place when a woman achieved orgasm along with her male partner. The dual pleasure theory held that the female egg was released from the uterus at orgasm while the male sperm was sent out to join it through copulation. There is no hyperbole in Peter Kolbe’s statement that women at the Cape were “generally modest, but no flinchers from conjugal delights. They are excellent breeders.

It is unlikely that the devout French Huguenot women resorted to abortion. Deformed babies were thought to result from indecent sexual relations. These included any position for coitus except with the man on top, burrowing into his vagina field as he might otherwise sow his crops from above. At the Cape at least two children were probably crippled at birth. These were Stephen, son of Martha Rousseau and Francois du Toit, and Jacob, the son of Susanne Gardiol and Abraham de Villiers. Babies were taken to breast on demand. At which age solid food was introduced, is not known, but the timing no doubt depended on the inclination of the mother. Weaning in France (and Northern Europe) ranged from twenty-one to twenty-four months in the seventeenth century, to ten months in the eighteenth. Children ate what was served at the table as soon as they were able to chew. Prior to that, in what will seem unhygienic to modern readers, mothers would often partially chew the food and then pass it on to their babies.

6th South African Armoured Division

2011-03-14T08:53:00.004+02:00

A while ago while my parents were still flea marketing they came across an interesting framed map in one of their buys.

It was a framed map of Italy with insignia's of several brigades who had served in Italy during World War 2. Because I was researching my De Buys genealogy and the fact that we had known that my grandfather, Pieter Johannes De Buys (born 21/04/1915, died 05/07/2003), had served in Italy during World War 2 they gave me the picture.

I stored the picture intending to investigate it again at some stage.

Many months later I was going though some of the items I have stored pertaining to the family and I saw the framed map again. By that time I had received documentation from another family member giving Pieter's service records during World War 2. I got goosebumps when I looked at the insigna's and realized that my grandfather had served in the 6th South African Armoured Division which is a the head of the brigades indicated on the map!

The South African 6th Armoured Division was the first armoured division in the South African Army and was formed during World War II.

This division, the first true armoured division in South African military history, was formed in South Africa on 1 February 1943 from new recruits and units that had served in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd SA Infantry (and Armoured) Divisions.

It was based on a nucleus of men from the former South African 1st Infantry Division who had returned to South Africa after the Second Battle of El Alamein. The Division was initially transferred to Egypt for training, after which the division landed at Taranto, Italy on 20 April 1944. In Italy, the Division was deployed as part of the British Eighth Army and was then transferred to the United States Fifth Army for the remainder of the Italian Campaign. The Division operated as a strongly reinforced division and was frequently used to spearhead the advance of the Corps and Army to which it was attached.

Despite leading the advance on Rome, the division was denied the honour of "taking" the city (entering the city first) by the United States Army. “However, the division was one of the first allied units to enter Florence two months later. The division's active role in the war ended when the German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2, 1945. Major General WHE (Evered) Poole was the sole divisional commander during its existence.

They returned home after the end of the war in Italy and were disbanded in 1946.

Sources:
Wikipedia
DefenceWeb

Jean De Buis's farm: Palmiet Valley

2011-03-01T09:53:00.001+02:00

Palmiet Valley's guest house

The Huguenots who arrived at the Cape during the 1680's were given loan farms by the Dutch East India Company who ruled the Cape at the time, as many of the French were farmers by profession. The land at the Cape was undeveloped and required a lot of work before it yielded any fruit.

In 1694 Jean De Buis received a farm in Klein Drakenstein. It was later called "Palmiet Valleij", then "Palmietvlei" and is now called Palmiet Valley.

In 1712 he was given the farm "Knolle Vallei", this farm is adjacent to Palmietvlei.

On 18 June 1716 he sold both farms to Charl du Plessis. The farm's original building, today's guesthouse, was completed in 1692. Several pieces of other walls which formed part of the building still exist today.

When Fred Uhlendorff bought the Palmiet Valley in 1996, the homestead and its vineyards were in a desolate condition. Fred began restoring the farm, and then began uplifting it into the wonderful boutique hotel.

While the farm has always been a wine farm first, less lofty fruits have their history here too. Bordering the pool area, are nine of the country's very first Guava trees!

Jean, who was born 06 September 1670 in Guines, Calais, France, married Sara Jacob, the widow of Daniel Terrier. She too was born in Guines on 6 October 1677 and was a daughter of Pierre Jacob and Susanna de Vos. Sara Jacob had 4 children by Daniel Terrier and 4 by Jean De Buis. All of these children would have spent some years on the farms before it was sold.

Jean is the "Stamvader" (progenitor) of the De Buys/Buys surname in South Africa.

Fred kindly let me walk around the farm and discussed its history with me a short while ago. Fred has modernized the farm, but has kept a lot of the original tradition alive in the orchards, guesthouses and in the hospitality he affords his guests.

The website for Palmiet Valley Wine Estate is http://www.palmiet.co.za/

Dr Johannes Theodorus Van Der Kemp

2011-02-18T16:30:00.003+02:00

Dr Johannes Van Der Kemp

Dr Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp was the second son of Cornelius van der Kemp, Rotterdam's leading reformed clergyman, and Anna Maria van Teylingen. Johannes was born on 17 May 1747 in Rotterdam, Holland and died on 15 December 1811 in Cape Town. He attended the Latin schools of Rotterdam and Dordrecht. He subsequently enrolled at the University of Leiden in 1763 where he studied medicine, but when his elder brother Didericus was appointed as professor of church history he abandoned his studies.

Johannes joined the dragoon guards and fathered an illegitimate child, Johanna (‘Antje’), whom he brought up himself. In 1778 he fell in love with Christina (‘Stijntje’) Frank (d. 1791). He lived with her for a year before being reprimanded by the Prince of Orance on this irregular state of affairs. As a result he both married Stijntje, on 29 May 1779, and quit the army.

Returning to his medical studies again, this in Edinburgh, he completed his Medical Doctorate within two years. He also prepared for publication a treatise in Latin on cosmology, entitled Parmenides which was published in 1781. He returned to the Netherlands, where he practised as a doctor first in Middelburg and then near Dordrecht. On 27 June 1791, his wife and daughter Antje were drowned in a yachting accident from which he only just escaped. As a result of this incident he experienced an emotional conversion back to the reformed Christianity of his family.

He served as a medical officer during the revolutionary campaigns in Flanders and then as hospital superintendent at Zwijndrecht, near Dordrecht. Whilst there in 1797 he came to hear of the formation of the London Missionary Society

After making contact with the Society he helped found the Dutch version Nederlandsche Zendinggenootschap. He was ordained in London in November 1798 and began recruiting men for the society. He sailed from London in December 1798 as one of the first three agents sent by the society to Cape, arriving in March 1799.

Whilst there he set up the first mission press and in 1799 printed the first work in book-form in South Africa, which was an 8-page translation into Dutch of the London Missionary Society's letter to the inhabitants of the Cape.

He then went into Kaffirland to work among the Xhosa people at Ngqika's Great Place (near present day King William's Town). On 21 September 1799 Johannes met Coenraad and very quickly became good friends at Ngqika's Great Place. Dr Johannes Van Der Kemp was the first missionary to cross the Fish River.

From the Xhosa he received the name Jank' hanna (‘the bald man’). Van Der Kemp refused to wear shoes or a hat. This was quite odd in the day because these offered protection from the harsh environment.

The age difference between Johannes and Coenraad was about the same as that between Coenraad and Ngqika.

It was during this time that Coenraad was offered a pardon by George Dundas (which was done to persuade Coenraad to move away from, and therefore stop influencing, Ngqika). Coenraad turned the offer down.

On Christmas day in 1799 Ngqika asked Johannes to pray to his God for rain, which the doctor did. A few hours later it began to rain, breaking a severe drought. Ngqika was impressed. Coenraad immediately seized the opportunity and demanded several head of cattle from Ngqika for introducing Van Der Kemp to Ngqika.

On 31 Dec 1801 Coenraad Van Der Kemp, 5 English deserters, 4 other burghers and all Coenraad's wives, concubines and their children left the Great Place under the pretence of going to hunt elephants. They were attacked several times by bushmen and this was when Coenraad saved Van Der Kemp's life.

In May 1801 they arrived in Graaff-Reinet where Van Der Kemp remained to work amongst the many Khoi-koi and Hottentots assembled there.

Coenraad returned to Ngqika's Great Place to repair his relationship with Ngqika around the second half of 1802. Before Coenraad left Johannes gave Coenraad a tortoise shell and silver bible which Coenraad promised to read the bible to his family daily.

In 1803 he established a mission settlement for vagrant Hottentots at Bethelsdorp where local farmers accused him of harboring lawless elements. He countered with a list of alleged ill-treatment of the Hottentots by local farmers, but the evidence proved unsatisfactory and the farmers were acquitted.

On 7 April 1806 he married Sara Janse, a freed slave 45 years his junior, and had four children with her. This situation and his attitudes caused great opposition from within the colony, and he was for a time ordered by the government to leave Bethelsdorp.

Armed with a background in European and classical philology, he pioneered in the study of Xhosa and Khoikhoi languages.

Together with his marriage, van der Kemp's attitudes caused great opposition from within the colony, and he was for a time ordered by the government to leave Bethelsdorp. He died a few years later, in Cape Town, on 18 December 1811, of fever, and was survived by his widow.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_van_der_Kemp

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
King of the Bastards – Sarah Gertrude Mullin

of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets – Max Du Preez