Born: 1684, Celigny, Geneve, Switzerland

Marriage: Catharina BOCK on 6 Mar 1718

Emigration: from Holland on the ship "Spierdijk", 1691, Le Pont-de-Montvert, Lanquedoc, France.

Passengers:
André Gouws (died 1698) from Languedoc
Etienne Gouws (born 1684) from Languedoc (Étienne, a French analog of Stephen or Steven, is a masculine given name. An archaic variant of the name, prevalent up to the mid-17th century, is Estienne )

Andre & Etienne Gauch in Boucher

The blacksmith Andre Gauch came from Le Pont-de-Montvert on the Tarn, in the Saint-Germain-de-Calberte colloquy of the synodal province of the Cevennes.76 Among others from this region of Gevaudan who are known to have become fugitives were Jean and Jacques Gauch. Andre was the son of Pierre Gauch and made his escape to Switzerland.78 An account of his further history before emigrating to the Cape of Good Hope will be found in the next chapter.

Calvinism resisted sporadic attempts to eradicate it in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In was here in the Cevennes that the protracted Camisard revolt took place, spearheaded by Abraham Ma- zel’s attack to free Calvinist prisoners in 1702 at Le Pont de Montvert, home of the Gauch family.

• M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 6: Cape settlers II: from the Rhone to the Atlantic p157

One young settler at the Cape was apparently born in or near Geneva about the year 1684. Although no baptismal entry for Etienne Gauch has been found, we are indebted to C. Graham Botha for the discovery in 1920 of the entry on January 13, 1683 of the marriage at Celigny of his father Andre Gauch from Le Pont-de-Montvert in the Cevennes to Jacqueline, daughter of the late Louis Deere of Sauverny.Celigny is in a small enclave of Geneva on the western shore of the Lake of Geneva towards Nyon. It is evident that Andre Gauch had left France some time before the revocation; his bride’s father was also probably a refugee, as Sauverny is in the Pays de Gex.

Andre Gauch became a member of the Walloon church in Amsterdam on April 16, 1690 and was accompanied to the United Provinces by his wife and son. A daughter Marie was born to them in the Dutch seaport and baptized on May 28, 1690.18 The family may have spent some time in Basle before leaving Switzerland. A Jean Gauch came to Amsterdam from that city in March 1697. Andre Gauch and his son Etienne reached the Cape in 1691 aboard the Amsterdam East Indiaman Spier-dijk, commanded by Siarwert de Jonge. Whether Jacqueline Deere and Marie died in the United Provinces or on the outward voyage has not been determined.

• M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 7: Cape Settlers III: from South-Eastern France and Adjoining Territories p173

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Ettienne (or Estiene which is Stephanus in Dutch) was born in Celigny. He married Catharina Bock. She was the daughter of Christian Bock and a slave girl, Anna Groothenning of Bengal, India. (Anna Groothenning is also referred to as Antjie van de Kaap.) ( Another source has it that Ettiene himself married the slave girl Antjie van de Kaap.) Stamvader André Gouws se oudste seun, Estienne, of Steven soos hy ook bekend was, is op 6 Maart 1718 getroud met Catharina Bok. Sy was die dogter van Christian Bock, uit Wolfenbutel, Noord-Duitsland, en Anna Groothenning van Bengale. Bock was 'n 27-jarige soldaat toe hy aan die Kaap gearriveer het in 1696 saam met Hans Casper Geringer, 'n bakker. Hy en Geringer het 'n besigheidsvennootskap aangegaan. Anna Groothenning was 'n slavin uit Bengale in Indië en die eiendom van Geringer. Hy het in 1703 by haar 'n dogter, Maria, gehad. Anna Groothenning het daarna 'n verhouding met Christiaan Bok aangegaan en vier kinders is daaruit gebore. In 1709 het Geringer Anna en haar kinders bevry. Hulle is almal op Nuwejaarsdag 1713 as Protestante gedoop in Kaapstad, en op 5 Februarie van daardie jaar het Christiaan Bok met haar getrou. Dit was nie ongewoon vir blanke mans aan die Kaap om met slavinne uit Indië of Indonesië te trou nie: hulle was geen barbare nie, maar in baie gevalle opgevoede vrouens. Valentijn, in Bescrijvingen Vol III no 2 p136, sê: "De vrouwen zyn door de bank veel schooner, netter besneden van wezen, en veel blanker, dan menig andere vrouwen ... waarom zy by die meeste Hollanders voor alle andere slavinnen gezogt worden, te meer dewyl zy seer fraai van oogen, mooi, dog wat plat van weezen, zeer vriendelijk, lieftallig, n doorgans zeer beleeft en wel opgevoed zyn. ... Deze vrouwen zyn in haar ijgenland ook zeer moedig, en trots, en weten haar fatsoen zoo wel, als de beste Hollandze juffrouw, te houden" Catharina Bok was Christiaan en Anna Bock se tweede kind. Sy is in 1705 gebore en was dertien jaar oud toe sy met Estienne Gouws getroud is op 27 Februarie 1718. Haar jonger suster Johanna is (op 14-jarige leeftyd) in 1724 met Andries Bester getroud en is die stammoeder van die Besters in Suid-Afrika. Christiaan Bock is in 1716 dood en sy weduwee Anna het daarna nog 'n kind, Jacob, gehad uit 'n verhouding met Jacob Marik in 1718. Estienne Gouws en Catharina Bok het twee seuns en vyf dogters gehad:

Bronne:

1. Drakenstein Census 1737

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The Gous Family Tree – first generations (by Richard Ball):

André Gauch, smith and farmer, living in Drakenstein Born: Le Pont-de-Montvert, Languedoc - died 26 February 1698 x Jacqueline Decré 13 January 1683 Celigny, Geneva died before 1691 (assumed); xx Johanna de Clercq 19 August 1691 Stellenbosch, born Zeeland, died circa 1748 His own signature gives his name as André Gauch. At the Cape the name was variously spelled; mostly ‘Gausch’ and ‘Gousch’ in the early documents (reproducing very closely the sound of the French name using Dutch spelling) and later apparently taken to be the word 'Gouws' and spelt thus or as 'Gous'. I have decided to standardise the form of the name as Gous from his children onwards. The marriage entry in the Celigny, Geneva, register gives his father's name as the late Pierre Gauch of Pont de Monvers aux Sevens, but does not record the bridegroom's age at that date. So far as I know there is no source for his date of birth.

The children and grandchildren of André Gauch and Jacqueline Decré:

b1 Steven Gous, born between 1683 and 1684 at Geneva, died before March 1758 farmer, of Berg en Daal, Koeberg, x Catharina Bok, 6 March 1718 Cape Town ( born: circa 1704-1705 at the Cape, died circa December 1779 father: Christiaan Bok, mother: Anna Groothenning [A slave woman - Sharon Doubell 2014] )
I have assumed that he was the son of Jacqueline Decré. There is, so far as I am aware, no proof of this. He gave his birthplace as Geneva at the time of his marriage, so it seems very likely. Although he appears as 'Etienne' in SAG, De Villiers / Pama, Boucher’s French Speakers at the Cape, and many of the web sites which list this family, I have found not a single historical source for this name. So far as I know we have no record of him other than what is housed in the Cape Archives where his name is always Steven.

b1.c1 Stephanus Gous, baptised 1 September 1720 Cape Town and died (in all probability) between 1720 and 1721 as an infant. Although given a large progeny by SAG this child almost certainly died as an infant. The opgaaf (tax cum census) returns for this family list no children for the year 1721. Later returns of 1725 to 1738 list only daughters in this family. The return of 1741 lists 1 son and 5 daughters. In addition the will of Catharina Bok, widow of Steven Gous, 17 March 1758, lists her 5 daughters and her one son, Andries Stephanus and the estate accounts of Clara Bok, who died without children of her own in 1798, lists the then living children and descendants of her late sister Catharina Bok, 'procreated within marriage with her likewise deceased husband Stephanus Gousch' as Andries Stephanus Gousch, Sara Gousch and Clara Gousch.
b1.c2 Anna Gous, baptised 30 September 1721 Cape Town
b1.c3 Catharina Gous, baptised 1 August 1723 Cape Town
The two daughters above were still living when their mother made her opgaaf return in 1773 but had died by the time the estate accounts of their aunt, Clara Bok, were drawn up in 1798 (MOOC 13/1/22, 4).
b1.c4 Gous, baptised 18 March 1725 Cape Town, died circa 1792
b1.c5 Sara Gous, baptised 6 April 1727 Cape Town, date of death unknown, except that it was probably after 1798 since she is mentioned as one of the heirs of her aunt, Clara Bok (MOOC 13/1/22, 4).
b1.c6 Clara Gous, baptised 20 July 1732 Cape Town, died circa July 1821
b1.c7 Stephanus Gous, baptised 12 June 1740 Cape Town, died circa October 1814 x Maria Hendrina Mulder born at the Cape. This couple had no children of their own but their apparently unrelated adopted son, Andries Stephanus Faculyn Gous, left a large progeny (see SAG).

b2 Marie Gous, baptised 31 May 1690 Amsterdam, Oude Waalse Kerk, died presumably before her father arrived at the Cape.

• http://www.ballfamilyrecords.co.uk/gous/I076.html##I079
• http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g5/p5221.htm

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