Lourens Badenhorst, b2c10 - Lourens Badenhorst

Badenhorst Family Tree Correction
(By Christa Badenhorst)

Many genealogy websites credit Lourens Badenhorst (b2c10), one of the grandsons of the Badenhorst progenitor, with three wives: Johanna Catharina Swart (c. 1781 – c. 1801), who gave him three sons (including his namesake Lourens, b2c10d3); Catharina Elizabeth Moolman, who gave him another eleven children; and Maria Magdalena Howell (nee Eksteen), who is said to have given him a son: Ignatius Stephanus Badenhorst, born in June 1836 and baptised in February 1837 in Uitenhage.

Lourens’ third son, also named Lourens, is credited in turn with two wives: Maria Catharina Kleinsmit (c. 1799 – c. 1830) and Johanna Dorothea Elizabeth Meyer (born 1813) – with Kleinsmit he had six children, and with Meyer four.

However, in August 1836, the c10 Lourens Badenhorst is cited as a witness at the baptism of his grandson Lourens William Badenhorst
(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK6-3QKD-S), and in September 1837 at that of his granddaughter Catharina Elizabeth Odendaal – both in Swellendam, hundreds of kilometres away from the Swartkops Rivier (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK6-3QK9-Q) Standing in as witness together with c10 Lourens is his wife, Catharina Elizabeth Moolman.

This tells us two things: (1) Catharina Elizabeth Moolman was still alive in 1837, more than a year after a Lourens Badenhorst and a Maria Magdalena Eksteen baptised their son Ignatius Stephanus, and (2) the elder Lourens and his family was still living in Swellendam between at least August 1836 and September 1837, which is more than 500 kilometres away from Uitenhage, where Stephanus Ignatius was baptised in February 1837.

In fact, Catharina Elizabeth Moolman actually outlived her husband by seven years: she is cited as the surviving spouse in his estate papers in Winburg in 1852, and died on a farm in the Colesberg region in 1859.

It is rather unlikely that c10 Lourens were fathering children both in Uitenhage while married and being a doting grandfather at the baptisms of grandchildren in Swellendam at the same time – which means that his identification as the husband of Maria Magdalena Howell (nee Eksteen), and as the father of Stephanus Ignatius Badenhorst is incorrect.
The first clue to the correct identification of the Lourens Badenhorst mentioned in Stephanus Ignatius’ baptism comes in a report written by Veldkornet Thomas Fereirra in April 1837, detailing “persons from the Uitenhage District now outspanned at Zwartkops Rivier on their way to Port Natal.” In this list, he mentions “Louw Badenhorst”, whose party includes himself and his wife together with ten children.

“Louw Badenhorst” probably refers to c10d3 Lourens, the son of c10 Lourens. C10d3 Lourens is known to have trekked in close company with the Uys family – many of whom are listed together with him encamped at the Zwartkops River. His father c10 is also not known to have left the Colony before about 1839, by way of Colesberg, if a memoir written by his son c10d6 Petrus Johannes (1808-1870) and quoted in the book “Geslagsregister van die Badenhorst-familie in Suid-Afrika” by F.J. & M.J. Badenhorst is to be believed. Intriguing, however, is the reference to a wife and ten children. Maria Catharina Kleinsmit, c10d3’s first wife, is said to have died in 1830 – and he did not marry Johanna Dorothea Elizabeth Meyer until 1840. So who is the wife he is mentioned with in 1837? Further, if you count the children c10d3 Lourens had by his first wife, you only get to six, not ten – so where did the other four come from? It seems very unlikely that a man of his time would remain unmarried for a whole decade while having young children to raise. Two possibilities come to mind – firstly, that Maria Catharina Kleinsmit did not die in 1830, but lived on throughout the 30s and gave birth to four more children before 1837… Or that there is a “missing” wife for c10d3 Lourens for the period 1830-1840.

Th answer must lie in the latter. C10d3 Lourens is clearly located in Uitenhage from at least July 1834 (possibly earlier), when he co-authors a letter to the newspaper “De Zuid-Afrikaan” objecting to the proposed new Vagrancy Laws. The paper’s editorial cites him and his co-authors as “three of the most respectable inhabitants of Uitenhage”
A close examination of the baptismal records for the district of Uitenhage, where Stephanus Ignatius Badenhorst was baptised in 1837 also show the baptisms of at least two more children for Lourens Badenhorst and Maria Magdalena Howell (nee Eksteen), who are not usually included in published genealogies: Anna Magdalena, born in September 1832 and baptised in February 1833, and Johanna Catharina, born in July 1833 (a mere ten months after her sister!) and baptised in September 1834. Another item that may be cited as being of significance is that two of the witnesses at Stephanus Ignatius’ baptism are Pieter Lafras Uys and his wife Alida Maria – for the next five years c10d3 Lourens would be very closely associated with the Uys family, far more so than his father c10 (despite the latter being married to a Moolman related to the Uys family)
The letter Lourens co-authored in July 1834 mentions that he has a wife and twelve children to support, the eldest of whom is sixteen. The numbers bear out if you count Maria Magdalena Eksteen’s children from her first marriage – the eldest was at this time a man grown at 24 and probably not dependent on Lourens, but the second was a 16-year-old son, Michael Howell – just a few months older than Lourens’ own 16-year-old eldest son, c10d3e1 Lourens Petrus Badenhorst. In addition to Michael and Lourens Petrus, Lourens had at this time five more children from his first marriage (ages ranging between 5 and 14), 3 more Howell step-children (ages ranging between 7 and 14), and the two girls from his second marriage to Maria Magdalena Eksteen (Stephanus Ignatius would only be born the following year). That counts up to twelve children on the dot.

The likelihood is that c10 Lourens had been misidentified as the father of Stephanus Ignatius Badenhorst, whose correct father should be c10d3 – and whose own number should then be c10d3e9.

Pictures:
Ignatius Stephanus Badenhorst baptism entry