First Fifty Years - a project collating Cape of Good Hope records - Gegeima van Guinea
Gegeima van Guinea
Gegeima van Guinea1,2,3
F, #13741, b. circa 1628
BirthOrigin* Gegeima was from Guinea and may have been born there circa 1628.4,5
Maria van de Caep21 b. b 19 Jan 1664
Names in the record, in publications, etc. Gegeima van Guinea was also known as Jajenne van Guinea.5
Between 16 January 1672 and 17 January 1672, the name of Gegeima was written in the record as Lobbitje van Guinea.8,2,9,10,3
Slave Transactions On 18 September 1659 Gegeima van Guinea and Oude Hans van Guinea were given by Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck to Jochum Elbertsz:, Thomas Christoffel Müller and Gerrit Harmens in exchange for Jackie Joy van Angola and Jan Meeuw van Angola.11,12
In 1668 Gegeima van Guinea was sold by Thomas Christoffel Müller to the Company, the transaction specfically excluded her daughter Maria.13
Slave Emancipations Maria van de Caep was emancipated by Thomas Christoffel Müller, on 19 January 1672 de Caep de Goede Hoop, He testified that he had sold her mother, whom he identified as, Gegeima van Guinea, to the Company in 1668 and that the transaction had explicitly excluded Maria. He stipulated further that the Company had never contributed toward Maria's clothing, care, and alimentary needs. In the preceding days, at his request, Muller's associates also testified to the council about their knowledge of Maria, who all identified the mother as Lobbitje. First, on 16 January 1672, the former managers of the company gardens.14,15,16
Slaves owned by individuals Between 6 May 1658 and 18 September 1659 Oude Hans van Guinea and Gegeima van Guinea were owned by Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck.17
Property Transactions On 5 June 1661 Thomas Christoffel Müller, agreed to enter a partnership with Bartholomeus Boorn, in the Saldanha trading business. Borns had previously been in Müller's service in the same enterprise. In terms of the agreement Borns would take ownership of half of everything in the business including vehicles, small houses, pigs, sheep, aksie [?], debts, creditors, all small poultry, etc., whether at the Cape, Dassen Island or Saldanha Bay previously owned by Mülller in partnership with Gerrit Harmens. A condition of sale was that Müller would retain ownership of two male slaves and one female slave. At the time he owned Pieter van Guinea, Pauwels Das, Oude Hans van Guinea and Gegeima van Guinea either wholly or in partnership. Born would acquire the child of the female slave, this may have been a child of Gegeima, but was most likely not Maria van de Caep.18
On 8 June 1661 Gerrit Harmens, sold to Thomas Christoffel Müller, his partner and co-Saldanha trader, his half of everything the two owned in partnership, including vessels, small houses, slaves pigs, sheep, all poultry at the Cape, Dassen Island and Saldanha Bay; along with all their debt and credit, for 250 carolus guilders. The slaves were not named but at the time the two appear to have owned the following slaves in partnership Pieter van Guinea, Pauwels Das, Oude Hans van Guinea and Gegeima van Guinea. Müller signed an acknowledgement of debt in the sum of f 450 the same day. Hermans sold it to Pieter van der Stael on 7 February 1662.19
[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): 19.1.1672 CTD 5, p. 160
Thomas Christoffel Muller, vryman alhier, verklaar die Guinese slavintjie Maria, ongeveer agt jaar oud, vry. Haar moeder Gegeima.... Hereinafter cited as "Die notariële stukke II."
[S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), 129. 19.1.1672, V, pp. 160-161: "16.1.1672: Lobbitje, a young slave girl belonging to the VOC, had not been maintained by the Company according to the testimony of Leendert Leendertsz and Wijnant Leendertsz."
[Note: Böeseken confused these transactions. See Hattingh citation.]. Hereinafter cited as Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700.
[S607] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Die notariële stukke II", 16.1.1672 CTD 5, p. 150
Leendert Jansz van Gijselingh verklaar ‘dat het kint van lobbitie noijt ransoen ofte kleasie van die compaij heeft genoten so lanck ick de commande hebbe gehadt over de thuijn.’.
[S810] Mansell Upham 'UL 20 At Earth's Extremest End…', Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), "Circumstantial evidence points to the last-mentioned as being the same person as Gegeima / Jajenne van Guinea later nick-named Lobbetje."
[S606] J.L. (Leon) Hattingh, "Foute en regstellings", Maar Müller verklaar egter uitdruklik, en ons volg die oorspronklike document verder, dat hy dit doen omdat, toe hy haar moeder Gegeima in 1668 aan die kompanjie vir 100 Rds. verkoop het, dit uitdruklik sonder die dogtertjie was. Hy het ook die vorige dag aan die Politieke Raad twee "attestasies" voorgelê wat aandui dat die kind nooit enige "lÿf oft levens middelen" as onderhoud van die kompanjie ontvang het nie. Met die nagaan van die kompanjie se boeke vir die jaar 1668 het dit ook aan die lig gekom, verklaar hy, dat met die verkoop van die moeder die dogtertjie nie deel van die transaksie was nie.
Thomas Christoffel Muller, vryman alhier, verklaar die Guinese slavintjie Maria, ongeveer agt jaar oud, vry. Haar moeder Gegeima het hy in 1668 aan die Kompanjie verkoop vir 100 Rds met die uitdruklike uitsluiting van die dogtertjie wat hy ook gister ten tyde van die Raad se vergadering met verskeie bewyse aangetoon het dat die kind nooit van enige ‘lijff of levens middelen’ deur die kompanjie voorsien is nie. Soos dit ook uit die revisie van die boeke van 1668 geblyk het, was die dogtertjie nie by die koop van haar moeder ingesluit nie, daarom is hy deur die Raad vrye gebruik van haar gegun ‘tot naeder en contrarie ondervindingh.’ Van die datum mag sy vry uitgaan en haar sodanig onderhou totdat sy tot haar verstand gekom het of dit raadsaam vind sonder enige verdere aanspraak ‘slaven doenswegen oijt meer subject en onderworpen te sijn.’ [Onderteken Thomas Muller.].
[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), Slave First Name: Maria
Toponym: van Guinea
Owner Surname: Muller
Owner First Name: Thomas Christoffel
Manumitter Age: 30
Sale Transaction Day: 19
Sale Transaction Month: 1
Sale Transaction Year: 1672. Hereinafter cited as Changing Hands.