Notes |
- Soldier in the employ of the Dutch East India Company (VOC): Arrived at the Cape on 28 Apr 1774 on the ship 'Bredenhof', which departed Texel on 7 Dec 1773. (From 'The Dutch East India Company's shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595-1795': Details of voyage 4178.1 from Texel to Batavia).
Reference: 'The Swiss in Southern Africa 1652-1970' by Adolphe Linder, 4.11 Their Names live on:
Of the estimated 311 Swiss who arrived before the First British Occupation in 1795 and remained permanently at the Cape (including members of the Swiss Regiment Meuron), only 32 contracted legal marriages and of these the names of only 14 live on through their male descendants. Their names are Claas Loubser (1676), Michiel Ley (1696), Jan Oberholster (1696), Jan Vorster (1717), Jan Melchior Frick (1721), Abraham Matthee (1743) Johan Coenraad Gie (1751), Jan Christiaan Yselle (1754), Jan Caspar Gie (1764), George Christoffel Wolhuter (1773), Johan Hendrik Stoeder (1773), Johan Hendrik Esbag (1774), Charles-Daniel de La Harpe (1783), Frederik Furter (1786), Charles-Daniel de La Harpe (1783) and Jacques-Gideon Tredoux (1787).
Reference: 'The Swiss at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1971' by Adolphe Linder, pp 142 - 143:
Stoeder, Johan Hendrik born Zurich [Studer], arrived 7 Dec 1773 on the ship 'Bredenhof' for Kamer Haarlem. 1774-1779 corporal, 1780 1st corporal, 1781-1891 sergeant,1 & 2 1795 Ensign.3 1781-1782 Stoeder gave authority to a firm in Delft to send part of his pay to Switzerland. 4 1791 married Anna Barbara Kapp, baptised 1769, daughter of Philipp Kapp of Seebach, Germany.
SWISS BLOOD IN THE KNYSNA FOREST
Dalene Matthee in her best-seller Circles in the Forest describes the life of woodcutters in the Knysna Forest. Through their veins actually runs a little Swiss blood introduced by Johan Hendrik Studer. Studer was a professional soldier who, in the service of the Company, had advanced to Ensign, when the English occupied the Cape in 1795. After vainly trying to find alternative employment he joined his father-in-law, Philipp Kapp and his family, working in the Tzitzikama as cattle farmers and wood-cutters. When he died there 1804, he was survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters with 19 trek-oxen (for transporting wood by oxwagon? and 34 head of cattle.5
The children of Johan Hendrik Stoeder (b. c1720? d. 1804):
1. Anna Maria m. Salomon Terblans baptised Cape Town 4.11.1793. Recorded 1826 as living in the Plettenberg district and having the widow Stoeder and Johannes Hendrik Stoeder staying with them.9
2. Johannes Hendrik baptised Cape Town 10.8.1794, married 1831, died 1871, had 3 daughters, 1 son.6 The son, Johan Hendrik Jacobus 1831-1880 had 5 sons and 3 daughters and farmed on Goedekloof, District Humansdorp.7 The elder son, baptised Johan Hendrik after his father, lived to the ripe old age of 78 and died on his farm surrounded by a son and three daughters.6 This son, baptised Johannes Hendrik Jaobus, also a farmer, had 5 sons and 3 daughters, thus ensuring the continuance of this family name.7
3. Ernest Frederik baptised Cape Town 8.4.1798.
4. Sara Elisabeth born 1801? baptised Swellendam 6.1.1803. Married Thomas Berry.
5. Johannes Jacobus born 19.6.1802, baptised Swellendam 6.1.1803, married George 1830 Susanna Jerling, had 2 daughters, died 26.3.1836.8 The younger son, Johannes Jacobus, became a wood-cutter living in a simple cottage in the forest at Krommerivier. He employed 4 Khoi to help with the tree-felling, and had a wagon and two spans of trek-oxen to transport the wood. He was only 33 when he was tragically killed by a tree falling on him and his bloody corpse was carried back to his young widow and their two daughters.8
1 KAB, MR 1775-1782, 1783-1789; NL, ARA MR, 1774-1787; 2 KAB, ZA 2/9/6 MR 1791; 3 KAB, BO 193; 4 KAB, CJ 2833, 15.12.1781 (S); 5 KAB, J 318; 6 KAB, MOOC 6/9/137 Estate 7578/1871; 7 KAB, MOOC 6/9/521 Estate 1253/1880; 8 KAB, MOOC 6/9/80 Estate 1536/183; 9 KAB, J 408 CR Tsitsikama 1826
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