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Historical records matching Johannes Hendricus Blankenberg, b2
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About Johannes Hendricus Blankenberg, b2
From: Gerda Pieterse
Mike Rushby <rushby@dnet.aunz.com>
Date: Sunday, 15 September 2002 6:39 AM
Subject: From Johannes Henricus Blanckenberg to Marie Koopmans-de Wet
Mike,
I did some research in Hoge's "Personalia of Gemans at the Cape" and found the following, very interesting, information on the Blanckenberg family.
In Boxer's book about the Dutch Seaborne Empire he mentions that much of the trade was in the hands of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had connections with German banking families and Flemish and Walloon traders from the days of the Hanse accord. Wherever the Dutch VOC established trading stations and factories, the German Lutherans had family representatives to take care of business. They were traditionally trusted by the merchants and traders to conduct fair business practises. I don't have the exact quote, but would like a copy if you can find it.
I believe they came quietly. Sometimes as immigrants and sometimes as soldiers in the service of the VOC and once landed they set about their business discreetly and effectively and established their local family network by making contact with other like-minded people and bringing out family and business acquaintances from their home towns and other settlements. Traditionally the would have had dealings with all trading nations whether they were Danish, English or Dutch, with no preference for anyone in particular.
Something which I don't think has been picked up before is the fact that a cursory examination of Hoge's book shows that the balance of public power, namely attorneys, secretaries, clerks, orphan masters, burgher representatives, members of the marriage board as well as ranked positions in the civil defence force, at the early Cape was mostly held by these Lutheran immigrants. Almost to the exclusion of anyone else. Many of the family names that appear on the petition requesting to allow a Lutheran Church to operate at the Cape married into the de Witt/Blanckenbergh family and that of the other kinsman, Thomas de Wit, at one stage or another.
I doubt that any of these merchant families had great loyalty to the Dutch masters of the VOC, which is illustrated by their readiness to victualise English ships in a time when there was little love lost between the Dutch and the English, and also in how readily they embraced the new order when the British came to rule the Cape. The fact that they were well versed in English, carried over from their forefather Jan's country of birth and maintained by contact with the English ships when they arrived, stood them in good stead when the British took over.
GEDCOM Note
Zie project Groninger Kwartierstatenboek
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Johannes Hendricus Blankenberg, b2's Timeline
| 1708 |
September 2, 1708
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Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
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| 1735 |
1735
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Western Cape, South Africa
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| 1736 |
1736
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1738 |
1738
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1739 |
1739
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1741 |
1741
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1742 |
1742
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1744 |
October 1744
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Cape, South Africa
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| 1747 |
1747
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Cape, South Africa
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