Jan Herfst

M, #6197, b. circa 1660
ChartsDescendants of Lijsbeth Sanders

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NGK (Cape Town) Baptisms 1665-1695NGK (Cape Town) Baptisms 1665-1695
NGK Drakenstein Marriages 1717-1740NGK Drakenstein Marriages 1717-1749
Last Edited30/01/2015
Birth*Jan Herfst was born circa 1660.1
 
Marriage De facto*Jan Herfst and Lijsbeth Sanders were in a defacto relationship after January 1699 Drakenstein.2 

Family 1

Cecilia van Angola b. c 1650
Child

Family 2

Lijsbeth Sanders b. b 2 Mar 1659, d. c 1743
Child
Names in the record, in publications, etc.Circa 1660, the name of Jan was written in the record as Jan Herbst.3
1 October 1702, the name of Jan was written in the record as Jan Hars.4
NotesClara Herfst has widely been assumed to be the biological daughter of Jan Herfst but the events in the life of her mother Lijsbeth Sanders and in her own life make this highly unlikely. It is far more likely that her biological father was Willem Teerling and that Herfst was her step- or de facto adoptive father.

Starting with the most recent key event in the timeline is the birth of Clara's daughter Johanna Potgieter before 3 May 1707 - the date on which she is baptised. Even given the very early age of motherhood for some women at the time (for example 14 years), Clara must have been born at least as early as May 1693, but probably even earlier.

On 6 April 1689 Lijsbeth confessed that she was four months pregnant with Teerling's child. She said she had become sexually involved with Teerling after he left the employ of Louis van Bengale. Two and a half months earlier she refused in court to marry Louis because of his abusive treatment including hitting her and threatening to kill her.

Teerling's child was due in September 1689, and this date fits a logical birth date for Clara who then would have been 17 when her daughter Johanna was born - a not unusual age for the birth of first children in that period.

I am of the view that Lijsbeth Sanders and Jan Herfst only became romantically involved around 1699/1700 after she was released from a three year term in a chain gang. Her only biological child with Herfst would then be Gerbregt with Clara becoming his de facto adopted or step-daughter.5

Citations

  1. [S21] Date estimated by compiler, Delia Robertson and, unless there is corroborating information, should not be considered as anything more than a guide.
  2. [S326] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Die Blanke Nageslag van Louis van Bengale en Lijsbeth van die Kaap", Kronos (Die Blanke nageslag . . .) 1 (1979). Hereinafter cited as "Die Blanke nageslag."
  3. [S326] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Die Blanke nageslag", pg 7.
  4. [S325] Lorna Newcomb and Ockert Malan, compilers, Annale van Nederduits Gereformeerde Moedergemeente Stellenbosch No 1.., CD-ROM (Stellenbosch) Die Genootskap vir die Kerkversameling, 2004 0-9584832-1-3), Baptism Register, Gerbregt (gedoopt den 1 Octob 1702) d' vader Jan Hars, d' moeder Lysbet Sanders, d' getùygen Jan Jacob, en Lysbet Lowies.. Hereinafter cited as Palmkronieke I Baptisms.
  5. [S658] Mansell Upham 'Made or Marred by Time - the Other Armozijn & two enslaved Arabian 'princesses' at the Cape of Good Hope (1656)', 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), March 2012. "Pp.49-50."
  6. [S397] NGK G1 1/1, Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, Kerken Boek (Bapt.), 1665-1695: eodem dito (19 Aug) Angenietie
    Cicilia van Angola, de vader Jan Herfst
    Margarita van de Caep, transcribed by Richard Ball, Norfolk, England, (May 2006), Genealogical Society of South Africa, eGSSA Branch http://www.eggsa.org/. Hereinafter cited as Nederduitsch Gereformeerde Kerk, Kerken Boek (Bapt.).
  7. [S326] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Die Blanke nageslag", pg 9.
 

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