Christoffel Snyman - Was he actually ever a slave?

Please do. Add yourself under your mtDNA & Y-DNA ancestors on the project

oh, oops: Not under the Y DNA one :-)

That would be your brother or father, you need to add there.

This is how Christoffel baptism record read. There is no mention made that he or his mother was slaves when he was baptize.

[De]n [g.] Maert 1669
een soontje van Groote Catrijn wiert genaemt Christoffel
tot getuyge stont [Ansi] Angila.
http://www.eggsa.org/sarecords/index.php/church-registers/cape-town...

Thanks Marie. Good to note.

Christoffel Snyman was an officer (corporal) in the Infantry Burgher-Corps of Stellenbosch. I believe this has not been mentioned anywhere by Mansell Upham or Delia Robertson. Is this new information?

Sharon, please note the date of Christoffel Snyman's death on Geni. Perhaps it should read +bef.September 12, 1705.

In 'Letters despatched, 1696-1708' & 'Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope - Volume 3 - Page 272' ... it mentions that the cavalry included in it's ranks the following persons dated 12 Sept. 1705:

''Jacob Cruse and Johannes Swellengrebel deputed to be present at the parade and parrot exercise on the 15th and 18th.

Jan Elbertsz to be captain of the cavalry in the place of Pieter Robbertsz.

Francois du Toit to be lieutenant.

Claas Elbertsz to be cornet.

Lourens Verbrugge to be quartermaster.

Jan Harmensz Potgieter to be cavalry sergeant.

Nicolas Cleeff to be standard bearer.

Hans Jacob Conterman to be sergeant vice the disrated Hans Henske.

Jacobus van Driel to be corporal.

Hercules du Preez to be captain vice Barend Burchard deceased.

Willem van Zyl to be lieutenant.

Jan Mague to be ensign.

Nicolas de la Noy to be sergeant.

Jacob Nortje to be corporal vice Christoffel Snyman, deceased.

Please see the image of the baptism at this link. It is quite clear the witness was Angila - the preceding word which looks like Ansl NOT Ansi has been crossed out (she was variously named in the record as Ansela/Ansla/Engela etc.). The fact they were not identified as slaves speaks to the unusual ties that Groote Catrijn (and her friend Maaij Ansela who was manumitted in 1666) had with a very powerful group of VOC officials. Quite clearly by the time of Christoffel's baptism, Groote Catrijn's status had become blurred, and her slave/convict status rarely mentioned. In 1656 Groote Catrijn was recorded as a slave at Batavia who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her lover. This sentence was commuted two days later and she was sent as a convict to the Cape. At the Cape her convict status overshadowed her slave status - however in a 6 January 1672 report sent to the Heeren XVII it was recorded that she had been pardoned *and* freed. Although not thus identified at his baptism, legally Christoffel was born a slave - his mother was still legally enslaved at the time of his birth.

This is the link to the baptism record.

http://e-family.co.za/ffy/e635.htm

There is something odd about the letter of 1705. Christoffel's daughter Elisabeth was baptised on 21 March 1706, and her father was not described as deceased in the record. This is very unusual. Secondly, in Reference no.: MOOC8/2.80 (tanap) his children seem to have been provided for by the Weeskamer in 1706 *not* 1705.

Thank you for all the very useful info, and for the updates on the profile.

*Private User - do you think the 'deceased' could have been added later? I wonder if we could find original copies anywhere?

*September 1705 is pretty close to 1706, though. Could the orphan chambers' docs have been batched into quarterly reports?

The simplest explanation would be a transcription error of the year.

Indeed.

Sharon Doubell - The letter notes that the listed officers were to be present at the parade and parrot exercise on the 15th and 18th of September 1705 where they would receive their respective ranks and participate in the exercise as indicated in the text, suggesting that Christoffel Snyman had died prior to the 12th of September 1705.

The parrot exercise was a yearly competition on the parade ground known as de Braak in Stellenbosch. This would have been the ideal opportunity for the officers to be promoted.

Alex, what is your opinion of the chances that the 1705 was a typo for 1706?

Sharon Doubell - I don't think that there is a typo as the respective parrot exercise was abolished in 1705 as is evident in the following:

From 1686 to 1705, parrot-shooting was a regular feature during the annual military review (Stellenbosch Three Centuries: Official Commemorative Volume, Stellenbosch Town Council, 1979).

On November 29, 1705, the High Government in the Indies had ordered the Cape Government to abolish the annual custom of shooting at the parrot at Stellenbosch (The Huguenots in South Africa, Manfred Nathan).