Claasz Gerritz van Bengale, SV/PROG

Jette (Henriette) CLAESZ, sy was die dogter van die slawe Christiaan en Sara VAN SOLOOR. Sara van Soloor was eers getroud met Claas Gerrit van Bengale en later met Christiaan. 3.3.1686 trou Claas Gerrits van Bengale met Sara van Siloor (sic) "daar present waren 4 kinderen". Die kinders was Henrietta =29.10.1673 (sy is herdoop op 17.9.1684 saam met haar twee broers), Meindert en Gerrit =17.9.1684 en Hendrik = 6.3.1686. Sodoende het Gerrit Sara se kinders gewettig. Sara was ook bekend as diedes meyt'. 3.9.1679 is die doop inskrywing van "Sara Seloor dide meit beijaard" - 'n verwysing na Willem van Dieden. Dit is nie bekend wanneer Sara en Gerrit uit slawerny ontslaan is nie.

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Sara VAN SOLOOR was afkomstig van 'n Indonesiese eiland met die naam van Solor. Sy was eers 'n slavin van Willem van Dieden. Sara word in 1673 gedoop. Sy het vier kinders gehad toe sy op 13 Maart 1686 met Claas GERRITSZ VAN BENGALE getroud was.Sy doop 'n voorkind Henrijtte op 29 Oktober 1673. Hierdie kind het later die van Wittebol gebruik. Die vader van die kind was die VOC landmeter Johan Wittebol, van Amsterdam (Hy trou met Maria van Ruijven). Kyk ook onder stamouer Johan Wittebol. Sara word groot gedoop 3 September 1679.Sara en Gerrit het die volgende kinders (ouderdom word gegee van kinders toe Gerrit oorlede is in 1697): Hedriette (23) (Claas Gerritsz was nie die vader nie) Meijndert (16) Gerrit Claas (11) Hendrik Claas (10)Claas is in 1697 oorlede. Sy trou toe in 1698 met Harmen BUYS van Batavia, hy was heelmoontlik 'n vryswarte. In 1707 skei sy van hom weens kindermishandeling. Buys het ook twee ander kinders gehad van die slaafin Diana van Trankebaar (want hulle word gedoop 10 Maart 1709 Sara en Pieter).

KINDERS b1 Henrietta * 1674 gedoop Kaapstad 17 Sep 1684 b2 Meyndert * 1681 gedoop Kaapstad 17 Sep 1684 b3 Gerrit * 1683 gedoop Kaapstad 17 Sep 1684 b4 Hendrik * 1685 gedoop Kaapstad 6 Maart 1686Die oudste dogter was bekend as Hendrietta Claasz en was ook bekend as Hendrietta Wittebol, sy het getrou in 1690 met Johannes Claus Moller, en die tweede keer in 1699 met WL Wiederholt

Bronne: Heese en Lombard K Schoeman, Armosyn van die KaapWillem Kempen se webblad http://www.kempen.id.au/main.htm (Bevat inligting van Mansell Upham)

CLAAS GERRITSSZ VAN BENGALE at the Cape of Good Hope On 16 October 1685 Claas Gerritz van Bengale purchased an erf in Block A in Zee Straat in the Table Valley (ie the present-day Strand Street in Cape Town) from the official Guilliam Heems. The size of the erf was 21 r 5’ (300,3 sq m). He married SARA van Soloor on 13 March 1686. According to the Doopregister she was the slave of Willem van Dieden one of the Cape most influential personages where she is described as Sara Seloor dide meit and the meyt van Willem van Dieden). She originated from the island of Solor in the Indonesian archipelago.

The islands of SolorSolor (Lohajong or Lawayong, Solor Island): (08°27'S - 123°04'E) Fort with five stone bastions

   1561 settlement, 1566 fort - 18 Apr. 1613

    to The Netherlands  (18 Apr. 1613 - 1615 ?)

          abandoned       (1615 ? - 1618)

    to The Netherlands  (1618 - 1629/30)

          abandoned        (1629/30)

  1630-1636

          abandoned    to The Netherlands  (1646 -        )  the fort is renamed Fort Henricus.

Leitao "Os Portugueses em Solor e Timor de 1515 a 1702" Villiers "The Dominican Mission and the sandalwood.."

Part of the area of Indonesia now known as Nusa Tenggara (literally south-east islands) the Solor and Alor archipelagos are a small chain of islands stretching out from the eastern end of the much larger island of Flores: volcanic mountainous specks separated by swift narrow straits. Andonara is directly opposite Laratuka; south of Andonara is Solor where the Portuguese first established themselves in the 16th century; further east is Lembata (formerly Lomblen), with the fishing village of Lamalera where whales are still hunted with small boats and harpoons and beyond that the islands of Pantar and Alor whose people were still head-hunting just 30 years ago. The Solor Archipelago - Solor, Adonara and Lembata - has close cultural links the Larantuka area on Flores and together these people are known as the Lamaholot. Pantar and Alor are the main islands of the Alor Archipelago. Her toponym or provenance is sometimes referred to mistakenly as Ceylon, rather than Solor. Anna Böeseken, equates her (incorrectly?) with Sara van Ceylon who was manumitted on 10 June 1676 by the skipper of the ship Voorsightigheijt Ouwel Jansen with the option of either returning to the East or staying at the Cape. Her ownership by Willen van Dieden, however, is clear from the church records. Sara from Soloor described as the meyt van Willem van Dieden baptised a voorkind on 29 October 1673. The child is described as een onbekent christens kint Henrijtte … Her daughter was re-baptised later together with Sara’s other voorkinders. In this way she was legitimised by the marriage of her mother to Claas Gerritsz van Bengale and by the joint baptism together with her de jure siblings (even though they were actually her half-siblings). Sara’s (initially) illegitimate daughter Henrietta (Jette) came to be known and use the surname Wittebol(s) throughout her adult life. Once legitimised by her mother’s marriage to her step-father, she also used (and was known by) the name Henrietta Claasz. Indications are that the identity of her biological (or ascribed) father - even though she had merely been referred to in her baptismal entry as een onbekent christens kint - was no secret or unknown Christian. He was the surveyor and VOC official Joan / Johan Wittebol (c. 1648-1681) from Amsterdam who was quick to marry Maria van Ruijven / Reuven from Delft at the Cape on 16 September 1674, by whom he had one son, Johan. Wittebol had arrived on the Gecroonde Vrede in 1669 as a midshipman and commenced working a provisional assistant of the Council of Policy and surveyor. As assistant and shopkeeper, he maintained the Company’s books of merchandise. Promoted to junior merchant in 1672, he was discharged and demoted for defects in his administration in 1672 and 1673 and until 1678 no longer served on the Council of Policy. In 1676 the VOC’s visiting commissioner Nicolaas Verburgh described him favourably … een man van goede bequaamheijd en deughdelick comportement ... and he was appointed as secretary to the Orphan Chamber serving on the Council of Policy from 1678 until his death in 1681 when holding the position of president of the Orphan Chamber. Sara van Solor herself was only baptised as an adult on 3 September 1679. The baptismal entry (no witnesses are recorded) reads as follows:

Sara Seloor dide meit beiarde

Although no record of her manumission has been found, she was probably freed just prior to her marriage on 13 March 1686 or at least some time after her baptism on 3 September 1679. We find Claas Gerritsz and Sara van Solor listed as a married couple in the muster roll (Opgaaf) for 1688: Jan [sic] Gerrits from Bengal: 1 man; Sara van Ceylon [sic]: 1 wife: 3 sons; 1 daughter; 1 snaphaen [flint-lock]; Cape District A month after his marriage to Sara van Solor, the free burgher Claas Gerritsz van Bengale purchased the slave named Pieter van Madagascar from the English slave trader Will Deeron for Rds 55 on 26 April 1686.

The family appears in the muster roll for 1692:

Claas Gerrits 1 man Sara van Ceylon [sic] 1 wife 3 sons [Meyndert, Gerrit & Hendrik] 1 daughter [Henriette] 1 adult male slave [ie Pieter van Madagascar] 1 flintlock 1 rapier Cape District The family appears again in the muster roll for 1695 (no. 286): Claas Gerritsz van Bengale died in 1697 leaving a house and erf valued at f 3 000. There were 2 slaves in the estate who were sold for Rds 79 each and 2 flint-locks sold for f 36. According to Anna Böeseken, the …plates for daily use were made of tin; the iron pots were used for cooking. There were a mirror and a painting on the wall. Claas Gerritsz and his family must have been hospitable people, for there were 32 “tea-cups” and 38 saucers. The assets of the estate amounted to f 4000, after subtraction of the debts which came to f 247:10. The inventory was signed on 5 November 1697. At the time of his death, his children were the following ages:

Hendriette Claas - 23 Meijndert Claas - 16 Gerrit Claas - 11 Hendrik Claas - 10. His widow remarried in 1698 Herman Buys who hailed from Batavia and appears to have been a mestizzo or ‘half-caste’. She obtained a divorce from her second husband in 1707 because he ill-treated her and her children from a previous marriage. Buys had illegitimate children by the slave woman Diana van Trankebar. After her divorce Sara van Solor was granted an erf in Table Valley [Block A] the size of which was 9 r 120’ (ie 140,4 sq. m) on 20 January 1709 with the right to occupation for 16 years. The property was adjacent to the property of her first husband. Again on 22 September 1713 she was given a second grant, an erf in Table Valley in Block A, the size of which was 3 r 123’ (ie 55,0 sq. m) with similar conditions of occupation as the previous grant. Land grants to free blacks were rare in early Cape colonial society. Clearly she was still being favourably treated. Her divorced husband was still in the neighbourhood as we find him baptising two slave children on 10 March 1709:

Twe Slave-kinderen van Harmen Buijs. de moeder was Diana van Krankebaar [sic]; de Getuigen Moses van Macassar; en Sara van Macassar - 1. Sara; 2. Pieter

Genealogy The genealogy appears in the main text under Claas Gerrits(z) van Bengale.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Cape Archives Repository (CAR) Council of Justice (CJ) CJ 2652 (Joint Will of Willem Pas & Geertruy Wiederholt) No 55.CJ 2653 (Joint will of Hendrik Lodewyk Wiederholt & Geertruy Loots, wid/o Adam Albertyn ) No 66.

Master of the Orphan Chamber (MOOC) MOOC 8/1 (Inventory of the free Black Claas Gerritsz van Bengale) No. 28 (5 November 1697).MOOC 13/1/2 Boedel Reekeningen van Henrietta Wittebol Laast Wede:e Willem Lodewijk Wiederholt Num:o 31.

Deeds Office, Cape Town (DO/CT) Land Grants (G) G 132 G 2/172 G 2/242

Land Transfers (T) T 234. T 1256

Dutch Reformed Church Archives (DRC/A) G1 Vol. 1/1 (Notule, Doopregister & Huweliksregister 1665-1695) G1 Vol. 8/1 (Doopregister 1695-1712) SECONDARY SOURCES Böeseken, Anna J.; Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Tafelberg, Cape Town 1977).Böeseken, Anna J.: Uit die Raad van Justisie, 1652-1672 (Die Staatsdrukker, Pretoria 1986).Nienaber, G.S. & Raven-Hart, R.: Johan Daniel Buttner’s Account of the Cape / Brief Descriptions of Natal / Journal Extracts on East Indies (A.A. Balkema, Cape Town 1970).Cummings, Joe, Forsyth, Susan, Noble, John, Samagalski, Alan & Wheeler, Tony: Indonesia: a travel survival kit (Lonely Planet Publications, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia 1990).Heese, Hans F., Groep Sonder Grense (Die rol en status van die gemengde bevolking aan die Kaap, 1652-1795) (Wes-Kaaplandse Instituut van Historiese Navorsing, Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland, Bellville 1984).Heese, J.A. & Lombard, R.T.J.: South African Genealogies Vols. 1-5 (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1986, 1989, 1992 & Genealogical Institute of South Africa, Stellenbosch 1999).Hoge, J.: Personalia of the Germans at the Cape 1652-1806 Archives Year Book for South African History / Argief-jaarboek vir Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis (Government Printer, Cape Town 1946).Kannemeyer, A.J.: Hugenote-Familie Boek (Unie-Volkspers, Kaapstad 1940).Malan, Antonio: ‘The Material World of Family and Household’ in Wadley, Lyn (ed.): Our Gendered Past: Archaeological Studies of Gender in Southern Africa (Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg 1997).de Villiers, C.C. & Pama, C.: Genealogies of Old South African Families (A.A. Balkema, Cape Town 1966).Visagie, J.C.: ‘Wittebol, Johan’, Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol. V, pp. 895-896 (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria 1987).de Wet, G. C.: Die Vryliede en Vryswartes in die Kaapse Nedersetting 1657-1707 (Die Historiese Publikasie-Vereniging, Kaapstad 1981).

Researched, compiled & written by MANSELL UPHAM (October 2000)
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Inventaris en tacxatie der goederen, nagelaten en met de dood ontruijmt van den overleden vrije swart Klaas Gerritz: van Bengalen voor en ten behoeven van sijn egte huijsvrouw Zara van Zoloor ter eener; en

zijn vier kinderen, gen:t

• Hendriette oud 23
• Meijndert oud 16
• Gerrit oud 11, en
• Hendrik Klaasz: oud 10 jaren

...

Aldus geinventarisseert en geprijseert aan Caap de Goede Hoop den 5:en Novemb:r 1697.

- Inventories of the Orphan Chamber Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference no.: MOOC8/1.28 on http://databases.tanap.net/mooc/

---------------------------------------------------CLAASSEN Claas Gerritsz VAN BENGALE Posted in A - C

Claas Gerritsz VAN BENGALE: Sy nageslag het die van CLAASSEN aangeneem. In sommige gepubliseerde bronne word 'n fout gemaak om hierdie familie onder die verkeerde Claassen op te neem (Cornelis Claesz van Utrecht, ook bekend as Kees de Boer). Claas Gerritsz word deur sy eienaar, Jochum Marquart, op 23 Desember 1676 vrygestel. In 1671 was hy reeds aan die Kaap.

Hy word op 10 Februarie 1686 in Kaapstad groot gedoop. Op 13 Maart 1686 trou hy met Sara VAN SOLOOR. (Kyk ook onder Sara van Soloor)

Op 29 Oktober 1673 doop Sara 'n voorkind, Henrijtte. Hierdie kind het later die van Wittebol gebruik. Die vader van die kind was die VOC landmeter Johan Wittebol, van Amsterdam (Hy was getroud met Maria van Ruijven).

Sara word groot gedoop 3 September 1679.

Sara en Claas Gerritz het die volgende kinders (ouderdom van die kinders word na sy dood in 1697 aangegee): Hendriette (23) Meijndert (16) Gerrit Claas (11) Hendrik Claas (10). Hy trou met Maria Booijs.

Claas Gerritsz is in 1697 oorlede. Sara hertrou in 1698 met Harmen BUYS

Bron: Willem Kempen se webblad http://www.kempen.id.au/main.htm (Bevat inligting van Mansell Upham)

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• Reference no.: MOOC8/1.28
• Testator(s):
• Klaas Gerritz: van Bengalen
• 5 November 1697
• Inventaris en tacxatie der goederen, nagelaten en met de dood ontruijmt van den overleden vrije swart Klaas Gerritz: van Bengalen voor en ten behoeven van sijn egte huijsvrouw Zara van Zoloor ter eener; en
• zijn vier kinderen, gen:t Hendriette oud 23
• Meijndert oud 16
• Gerrit oud 11, en
• Hendrik Klaasz: oud 10 jaren