Adolph Daniels, v.d.K - The case of Manna of Boegies confirms family connections in the Danielsz and Jansz van Ceylon families

The below case of Manna van Boegies from :

PRECIS OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

REQUESTEN (MEMORIALS)

1715-1806.

H. C. V. LEIBBRANDT,
Keeper of the Archives

page 425-426

1772

confirms that :
Adolph Danielze was the husband of Apollonia , daughter ( or step-daughter) of Johannes Janz of Ceylon.
Maria who married Jan Hendrik Christoffel Smith, was Apollonia's sister.
It establishes that Apollonia and Johannes Jansz were deceased in 1772 but that Maria (wife of Jan Hendrik Christoffel Smith) and Adolph/Adolf Danielsz only died after 1772.

"Eeden (Judith van) ; widow of the late agriculturist,
Hendrik Swanepoel ; mentions that her late husband in 1 764
bought from the late free black, Johannes Jansz of Ceylon, a
slave named Manna of Boegies, who, especially since the death

of her husband, has shown himself very obstinate and un-
bridled, so that, for fear of disaster, she had been obliged to do

away with and sell him in another country. Accordingly having
brought him into town from her place in the country, in IJ7 1 > she requested the Provost, Jan Jacob Doeksteen, to send him
away to India, in charge of one or other seaman, in order to be
sold there. He accordingly entrusted him to the junior mate of
the Ceylon ship

" Velzen," viz. : Arnoldus Pietersz : who how-
ever found himself unable to carry out his commission ; for hav-
ing brought the said slave to Colombo, the latter maintained

that he was no slave, but a free man. Accordingly the Court
of Justice there decided that the Deed, authorising Pietersz to
sell the slave, was sub, and obreptitious (had been obtained
under false pretences), so that the slave was given his liberty
until the contrary had been proved, as will appear from the an- nexed letter of Pietersz, written from Point de Galle, as well as from the sentence of the Court. Memorialist therefore, in order
t~> show that Manna legally belongs to her, submits besides 3 secretarial declarations, that he was formerly the property of Johannes Jansz of Ceylon ; also a note of hand given by her late husband to Jansz, dated i/j-th January, 1754, for Rds. 20, the
balance of the purchase amount, and which was in due course properly paid to the seller. As in consequence of this vile action

of her slave, she will never be able to prove her right of owner-
ship in him, without your powerful assistance, she feels herself compelled to ask you to write in her favour to the Colombo

authorities, that the said Manna may by la\vful authority once more be declared a slave, and publicly sold for the benefit of his owner, or sent back to this place. And in case he be sold in Colombo, that the purchase amount may be transmitted to her,
less the costs. (N.B. Letter of Pietersz annexed, also sentence

426

1 772. of the Court of Justice at Colombo, and attestations showing
that Manna was a slave, etc.) The first is of the freeman Adolf
Danielsz, who states that about two years ago, a slave unknown
to him, called at his house, and asked him whether " Nonje
" Apollonia was at home, to which he answered,
" she is already

dead." He asked the slave thereupon who he was, and he re-
plied,

"
I was a slave of the Father of

" Nonna " Apollonia, who
was a daughter of deponent's long since deceased father-in-law,
Johannes of Ceylon, and deponent's first wife. The slave,
Manna, who had a
" riem " round his body, to which was sus- pended a large knife in a sheath, thereupon asked whether there were other children or his former master alive ? Deponent had
replied
" Yes, there was still a daughter named Maria "
; the
slave then asked to be shown her house, and he sent him with

his young son to the residence of the burgher Jan Hendrik Chris-
toffel Smith, who had married the said Maria Johannissen. The

latter's statement is as follows : " That one afternoon, about 2 years ago, a slave arrived at her house, and having greeted an
old slave sitting in the hall, deponent at once, when she heard it, left her room, and went to the hall, (voorhuijs), where she not
only found an elderly slave, but also a son of her brother-in-law,
Adolf Danielsz, who however at once left. The slave however,
having wished the deponent good-day, asked :

' Does Nonna

not know me ?

' Deponent replied :

' No, Paaij, I do not know

you.' He then said : "

I was a slave of your father, but you,
Nonna, were at the time very small, and now you are so big."
At the same time Danster, a Hottentot still living with deponent,
who had many years previously lived also with her late parents,
said :
' Yes, Nonna, this man, Manna, was a slave of your father,
but you were still a little girl at the time '

; and as the said

Manna had a

' riem ' round his middle, to which was suspended
a sheath with a large knife in it, she, deponent, returned to her
room, the slave boy leaving after that. The Hottentot Danster

deposed that some years before the small pox raged here, in 1755 as he thinks, for about 10 years he had lived with the de-
ceased free black, named Johannes of Ceylon, that the latter shortly before the small pox broke out, or during the time it raged here, had bought from the deceased burgher Frederik

Horling, a slave named Manna of Boegies, who was at the time

not only full grown, but also of medium stature, thick set, yellow-
ish colour, with black hair on his head. And as he would do no good under Johannes, whom he did not like, Johannes returned

him to Horling. Deponent however, not exactly knowing what
the agreement was between Horling and Johannes, cannot say
whether the sale was cancelled, or whether Horling, who made a

business of buying and selling slaves, had to sell Manna to some-
one else for account of Joliannes. Deponent was still living

vith the children of the late Johannes at the house of the
burgher J. H. C. Smit, married to Maria, daughter of the late

427

Johannes. About 20 months ago, or in October, 1770, Manna 1772. called at the house in the afternoon, and having- said good-day

to Smit's wife, the latter asked who he was. He replied by ask-
ing :

' Do you not know me ? I was a slave of your grand-
father.' In the meanwhile deponent, coming from the back to the front, at once recognised Manna, and said to Smit's wife,

' Nonje !
' he was a slave of your father, but you were small at the time, and accordingly do not know him. The slave at the
time said that he came from the country, and was going back

thither." Here follows the note of hand given by J. Swane-
poel to Joh. of Ceylon for Rds. 20, the balance of Rds. 100 for which he had bought a slave from the latter in 1754; also acknowledgment of H. Pietersz : that he had received the slave Manna from Doeksteen, in order to be sold by him in India. "