Isabella van Angola1

F, #13938, b. circa 1645

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Last Edited28/08/2016
Birth*Isabella van Angola was born circa 1645 in Angola.1
 
ConcubineAlleged* On 25 March 1661 de Caep de Goede Hoop Isabella van Angola and Cornelis Claasz were alleged to have been in a relationship, when Kees de Boer was accused of fathering a child by Ysebelle. This was not proven and is unlikely.2,1 
(MotherDisproved) DNASix direct matrilineal descendants of Catharina van Malabar have tested for mtDNA haplogroup U2c1 — four descendants of Adriaantje Gabrielsz, one of Maria Cornelisz, and the sixth of Catharina Cornelisz. U2c1 is Asian — with modern descendants found across central and south Asia. It is further broken down to U2c1a and U2c1b - with the former predominantly found in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and the latter predominantly found in Pakistan and India. This should lay to rest the notion that Adriaentje was the daughter of Isabella van Angola. 
(Slave) ShipVoyage On 14 October 1657 the Amersfoort departed Vlie enroute to de Caep de Goede Hoop where it docked on 28 March 1658. With more than half the journey completed, on 23 January 1658, probably off the coast of Angola, the Amersfoort sighted a Portuguese slaver with 500 slaves on board. After a 24-hour chase, the vessel was captured, and 250 slaves were taken aboard the Amersfoort for the journey to the Cape. The crippled Portuguese vessel was abandoned to whatever fate might befall her, 250 slaves and her crew.

Of those, when the Amersfoort heaved to in Table Bay two months later, only 174 had made it alive, most them, according to Jan van Riebeeck "girls and small boys" - among them were Isabella van Angola.3,4,5 
NotesIsabella van Angola and Isabel van Angola should not be confused with each other - they were separate individuals.6,7
Slave TransactionsOn 14 April 1672 Isabella van Angola was sold by Jan Reinersz to Wynant Landersz van Bezuidenhout de Caep de Goede Hoop.8,9,7
Property TransactionsOn 30 August 1659 Jan Reijniersz, in deep financial stress due to heavy debt sells to Jan van Riebeeck, 16.666 morgen of land as stipulated in his Land Grant of 15 April 1657 on which there was now a derelict house, erwe, kraal, and damaged farm implements. The land and house was located at the voet of pas between False Bay and the Table Bay harbour, east of Windberg [Wynberg?] to the east the fresh water river Liesbeecw, to the west the hereweg [main road], to the south Hendrick Hendricksz Boom's developed land, and to the north the Company's wild and undeveloped land. He was paid f 525.3.6 in cash which went toward unpaid taxes and debt, except for f 125 in half compensation for two unnamed absconded slaves, and one unnamed deceased female slave, as well as f 100 for a female Angola slave, presumably Isabella van Angola, for whom he was still indebted to the Company in the sum of f 225 - this amount also included 2 sheep and some of the implements/tools. This slave was given to his wife to help him build up again. The transaction also included his cattle and sheep stolen by the Hottentotte. He had owned the property in partnership with Wouter Mostert, but in a transaction on the same date, the latter's half-share was been sold to Cornelis Claasz who, on the 16th of the following month sold it to Jan van Riebeeck.10

Citations

  1. [S654] Mansell Upham 'What can't be cured, must be endured … Cape of Good Hope - first marriages & baptisms (1652-1665)', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (http://e-family.co.za/ffy/ui66.htm), January 2012. "25 March 1661:     Cornelis Claessz: [‘Kees de Boer’] (from Utrecht) [Isabella van Angola] - Mansell Upham notes that the relationship between Kees de Boer & Isabella van Angola was alleged, but never proven, and unlikely."
  2. [S647] Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope, Letters Despatched 1652-1662 to which are added land grants, attestations, Journal of voyage to Tristan da Cunha, names of freemen, &c. Vol III, H.C.V. Leibrandt; (Cape Town, South Africa: W.A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1900), p.450. 25th March. Declaration of Claas Lambertsz:,of Alsmeer, cook, and Arent Gerritsz van der Elburgh, cooper, stationed here and made at the request of the burgher Jan Reyniersz:, that Cornelisz: Claasz:, of Utrecht, also a burgher, had confessed to them that the child of the female slave Ysabelle owned by J. Reyniersz:, was his child, &c.. Hereinafter cited as Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope.
  3. [S665] Mansell Upham 'Johanna Kemp - An enquiry into the ancestry of the Cape-born Johanna Kemp (c. 1689-1778) - wife of Jacob Krüger (from Sadenbeck)', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (This article is under review), March 2012. "This was followed by the arrival of the Amersfoort (March 1658) offloading a cargo of mostly Brazil-bound Angola slave children (170 of whom 125 were not sent to Batavia) captured from the Portuguese off the coast of Brazil (sometime in January 1658)..."
  4. [S646] Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope, JVR Journal II, 1656-1658, H.C.V. Leibrandt; (Cape Town, South Africa: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, Castle Street, 1897), p.113; March 28th. N. W. breeze. The Amersfoort casts anchor; had 323 men on her, 29 dead and 30 sick. The weakest brought on shore and exchanged for others. Was provided with refreshments for the crew and the slaves who were brought on shore, already reduced to 170 in number. Many of them still very ill; most of them girls and small boys, from whom for the next 4 or 5 years very little can be got.. Hereinafter cited as Precis of the archives, JVR Journal II 1656-1658.
  5. [S522] André van Rensburg, "Capensis (The Amersfoort)," October 2000. Hereinafter cited as "The Amersfoort."
  6. [S629] Personal communications between Mansell Upham and Delia Robertson, 2010-present. re the two Isabellas ... there were indeed TWO ... one belonging to VR and sold to Hendrik 'Snijer' [Zuerwaerden] and whom was manumitted ito of his will 1672 following his death ... she becomes the likely childless free-black Maaij Isabella while Reijniers sells his Isabella before repatriation to the Bezuidenhouts.
  7. [S432] Robert C-H Shell compiler, Changing Hands, A calendar of bondage in southern Africa, 1550 to 1888, CD-ROM; ISBN 1-86918-063-1; (Cape Town: Ancestry24, September 2007), Sequence IDNO:       0086     
    Slaves First Name:       Isabel     
    Presumed Place Of Origin:       van Angola     
    Day Of Sale:       14     
    Month Of Sale:       4     
    Year Of Sale:       1672     
    Type Of Name:       Christian     
    Continental Origin Code:       West_Afr     
    Slaves Age:       30     
    Slaves Gender:       Female     
    Price In Rixdollars:       100     
    Sellers Last Name:       Reijmersz     
    Sellers First Name:       Jan     
    Sellers Civil Status:       burgher     
    Sellers Gender:       Male     
    Sellers Domicile:       Transit-at sea     
    Buyers Last Name:       Leendertz     
    Buyers First Name:       Wijnantz     
    Buyers Civil Status:       burgher     
    Buyers Gender:       Male     
    Buyers Domicile:       Table valley     
    Primary Reference:       Leon Hattingh     . Hereinafter cited as Changing Hands.
  8. [S607] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Kaapse notariële stukke waarin slawe van vryburgers en amptenare vermeld word (II), Die tweede Dekade 1671-1680", Kronos (Die notariële stukke II) 15 (1999): 14.4.1672     CTD 5, p. 220
    Jan Reijmersz, burger alhier en nou terugkerende na die vaderland, verkoop aan Wijnant Leendertsz, medevryburger alhier, die slavin Isabelle, 30 jaar, gebore aan die Angolese kus vir 100 Rds.. Hereinafter cited as "Die notariële stukke II."
  9. [S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), p. 130. 14.4.1672, V, pp. 220-221: Isabella from Angola (30), sold by Jan Reijniersz to Wijnant Leendertsz, both Free Burghers of the Cape, for Rds. 100.. Hereinafter cited as Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700.
  10. [S853] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Kaapse noteriële stukke waarin slawe van vryburgers en amptenare vermeld word (1658 - 1730? 1670)", Kronos - Kaapse noteriële stukke waarin slawe van vryburgers en amptenare vermeld word (1658 - 1730? 1670) 15 (1988): 30.8.1659     T3      TI6     CTD I, p.140
    Jan Reijniersz van Amsterdam, vryburger, verklaar ten einde uit sy nood en groot ‘ireparable’ skuld gehelp en gered te word, verkoop hy aan kommandeur Jan van Riebeecq sy 16 en twee-derde morge grond, synde sy helfte te wees van sy gesamentlike besitting met Comelis Claesz van Uijtrecht, asook die helfte van die ‘qual[lijk] halft volmaeckte ende sonderwandt oft muijr gansch reddeloos vervallende huijs, erwe, crael ende tegenwoordigh gans wijnigh by synde verdorven onbequame landtbouw gereedtschapen die alfoor wijnigh maer veel minzes voorsz huijs gebruijckt cunnen worden sonder alvooren noodigh reparatie met groote costen te doen daer toe sich den vercoper en transporteur onvermoogen bent, ende mits 't roven vande beesten soodanigh in't underspit ende-schuldigh leght dat noodtsaken daer aen een stercke handt verrijst tot weder op reghtinge …’ Die land en huis is geleë aan die voet of pas tussen ‘Baaij falce’ en Tafelbaaihawe, oos van Windberg, aan die oostekant daarvan die ‘verserivier Liesbeecq’, aan die westekant die groot hereweg, aan die suidekant Hendrick Boom se bewerkte land en aan die noordekant die woeste en onbewerkte grond van die Kompanjie, volgens die grondbrief van 15 April 1657. Die word verkoop vir f 525.3.6 in kontant waarmee al sy belastings en skulde vrygekoop word, behalwe f 125 vir die helfte van twee weggeloopte slawe en een ‘gestorven slavin’ asook f 100 vir ‘n Angolese slavin in sy besit. Die slavin, op rekening van die Kompanjie gekoop, twee skape en party van die gereedskap, saam f 225, bly hy nog skuldig. Die slavin, ‘alleen ten vollen waerdigh’, word aan sy vrou gelaat om [hom] weer op die been te help. [Kantaantekening: Hy doen ook afstand van die beeste en skape wat die Hottentotte van hom geroof het. As hulle ooit teruggevind word, is hulle inbegrepe in die oordrag.] [Comelis Claesz het op die dag die eienaar van die ander helfte geword toe hy dit van Wouter Cornelisz Mostert gekoop het. Sien T5, p.147. Met T7, p.149 verkoop Cornelis Claesz op 16 September 1659 ook sy helfte aan Jan van Riebeeck.]
    1.9.1659     CTD I, p. 125 [Deels verlore]
    Jan Reijniersz van Amsterdam, vryburger, skuld die Kompanjie 225 carolus gulde Waarvan f 100 vir die koop van ‘n ‘Angoolse’ slavin is en f 125 vir die helfte van twee weggeloopte slawe en 'n afgesterfde slavin wat hy van die Kompanjie gekoop, en met die verkoop van sy huis, nog uitstaande was. Hy belowe om die bedrag sover moontlik in geld te betaal maar ook in sodanige goedere as wat die Kompanjie bereid sal wees om te neem. Die slavin word as pand beskou. [Geen name en ouderdomme van die slawe is vermeld.]. Hereinafter cited as "Kaapse noteriële stukke waarin slawe van vryburgers en amptenare vermeld word (1658 - 1730? 1670)."
 

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