Amersfoort

F, #13812
Mother*Ship

Copyright / Terms of Use Notice


The material on this website is subject to copyright.
Facts (names, dates, and places) are not copyright. You are free to transcribe them but not cut and paste into your data provided you use the correct attribution and citation.
I have created the narratives, sentences, and citations; they are copyright and may not be used.
You may not add them to your genealogy, your personal documents, your tree on Ancestry, nor in the data or profile sections on Geni, nor anywhere else.
Many of the images are also copyright. You may not copy them without the consent of the copyright holders.
You must use the correct attribution and citation, viz.: Robertson, Delia. The First Fifty Years Project. Here you add the page URL.

Last Edited06/04/2024
ShipVoyage On 10 June 1655 the Amersfoort departed Vlie where it docked on 7 November 1655. Among those on board was Tietje Douwes.1 
ShipVoyage* On 4 December 1656 the Amersfoort, Wapen van Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Wapen van Holland, Westfriesland and Prins Willem, ships of the return fleet, left Batavia enroute to the Cape where they docked on 21 February 1657. The Prins Willem brought the recently convicted and banished slave Catharina van Paliacatta, while the Amersfoort brought the slaves Angela van Bengale, Elisabeth van Bengale, Jan van Bengale, Claes van Bengale and Anna van Bengalen.2 
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 Anthoniij van Angola, Catarina van Angola, Cecilia van Angola, Cecilia van Angola, Christijn van Angola, Claes Kelder van Angola, Claesje van Angola, Domingo van Angola, Dorothe van Angola, Elisabeth van Angola, Francyn van Angola, Isabel van Angola, Jackie Joy van Angola, Jan Meeu, Manuel van Angola, Manuel van Angola, Marij van Angola, Mathijs van Angola, Ouwe Jan van Angola, Simon van Angola, Thomas Keuken van Angola, Marij Pekenijn van Angola and Isabella van Angola.3,4,5 
ShipVoyage On 18 November 1669 the Amersfoort, and other ships of the return fleet, departed Batavia enroute to the Cape where they docked on 9 February 1670. Among those who arrived was VOC Commissioner Sijbrand Abbema who brought with him four private slaves, who at present remain to be identified.6,7 

Citations

  1. [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.306. Tietje Douwes, of Bil, boatswain; arrived in the Amersfoort in 1655.. Hereinafter cited as Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope.
  2. [S815] Mansell G. Upham 'Documented Slave Arrivals at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-1677)', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (Unpublished), 16 November 2014. "21 February 1657:     Return Fleet ex Batavia arrives:
    Prins Willem brings exiled convict (Company slave)
    Catharina (Groote Catrijn) van Paliacatta [Pulicat]
    Amersfoort brings 5 private slaves
    Angela / Engela (Maaij Ansela / Moeder Jagt) van Bengale [sold to Jan van Riebeeck]
    Elisabeth (Lijsbeth) van Bengale [misrecorded as Domingo [sic] - sold to Jan van Riebeeck]
    Jan van Bengale [sold to Jan Vetteman]
    Claes van Bengale [sold to Jochum Cornelisz: Blancq (from Lübeck)]
    Anna van Bengale [sold to Jochum Cornelisz: Blancq (from Lübeck)].    "
  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. [S351] Grahame Naudé, "Dutch East India Company Shipping", Familia (DEIC Shipping) 43 Number 1 (2006). Hereinafter cited as "Dutch East India Company Shipping."
  7. [S815] Mansell G. Upham 'Documented Slave Arrivals at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-1677)', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "9 February 1670: VOC commissioner Sijbrand Abbema visits Cape in Return Fleet bringing at least 4 private slaves."
 

Bookmark and Share