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Catharina
VAN BENGALE some have referred to her as OPKLIM she
was born in 1651 . She was a slave from Bengale, India.
She got married 7 November 1694 to Jan Willemsz VERMEULEN.
Sijn in den huwelijken stant bevestigt Jan Willemse
Vermeulen jongman geboortigh van Utrecht met Catarina
VAN DE CAAP vry swartinne jongedochter. India became such an imported part of the VOC trade that the VOC established direct sailing between Netherland and south India, without sailing to Batavia as the custom at first was. There were two sailing routes from the Cape to India, between August and January the ships would sail north following the coast of Africa, through the Mozambique strait and then round Madagascar to India. The other months they would sail east from Cape Town three hundred miles and then head north towards India. The journey to India took about 80 days. The return trip was usually done between the months of October and February. Who was Catharina van Bengale? Catharina van Bengale - was the slave Catrijn van Bengale who was 26 years old when sold on 23 December 1677 by Hester Weijers van Lier to her son in law Tobias Vlasvath, for Rds 80. Catrijn was sold with two daughters Martha 6 years and Magdalena 3 years old (Boeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks, p 134). When was she set free? She most probably was already free when she and Jan Willemsz Vermeujlen baptised on 27 May 1685, Sybrand. She is not referred as being a slave in this entry. Hester
van Lier, widow of Mostert, sold the following slaves: VC 39, Vol. 1 bl. 68 1691 1692 1693 1700 In
Resolusies - 14 Junij 1682. De wijle den gewesene
fiscaal deser residentie Tobias Vlasvath met de jongst
gerepatrieerde retourvlooth na 't vaderlant is vertrocken. HER
CHILDREN Catharina van Bengale had a daughter Magdalena born 1674 Catharina van Bengale had a daughter Margareta born c March 1680, and was baptised 19 April 1680, the father was Jacob van Bengale. This child, Vlasvat gave to Titus van Bengale to be raised.
Martha
Manuels baptised the following children:- Ene
Martha MANUELS doop verskeie kinders en tree Jan Willemsz
Vermeulen en Catharina Opklim op as getuies. The child Margaritha was baptised on 19 April 1680 with Jacob van Bengale as the father and Catarina, slave of Vlasvath as the mother.
He got baptised on 12 April 1682 on the ship Africa by Bortholomeus Heinen as "Maurits Jacobsen". The mother was indicated as Catharina van Bengale and the father was supposedly the skipper Jacob Maurits, "Waervan zoude sijn schipper Jacob Maurits de vader, so men seyt." The baptism was recorded in the Cape baptismal book. The entry prior to this one was dated 28 June 1682, and the next entry as 6 September 1682. This indicates that Maurits Jacobsen was baptised not on a ship anchored at the Cape, but on the way to the Cape and once they reached the Cape it was recorded in the Cape baptismal book. The obvious question is, what was this slave Catharina van Bengale doing on the ship? It is most likely that Catharina van Bengale escorted someone as a servant to the East, and then on the way back to the Cape she must have had this baby on the ship. It is also worth noting that Bartholomeus Heinen performed the baptism but the hand writing in the baptism book is that of ds Johannes Overney. Even though this child Maurits Jacobsen used the surname Vermeulen, Jan Willemsz Vermeulen was not his biological father.
b5
Jannetje baptised at Cape Town 30 Januarie 1695 witness
Catharina Niemans van Amsterdam (wife of Christoffel Groenewald) On 5 November 1685 Vermeulen was prosecuted for illegal trading. Jan Willemsz Vermeulen purchased in 1689 some cabbages from the slave Valentyn van Madgascar who stole them from the garden of Olof Bergh. In 1692 it was reported that Vermeulen was not able to sustain his family, he thus received financial assistance from the church. SOURCES: Thanks
to research:
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