Estate inventory, 11 March 1830

Inventory · taken at the place Spreeuwfontein, 11 March 1830

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⚠ Caution — this is probably not our Spreeufontein

This inventory sat in the folder for months labelled only "not yet verified not yet transcribed", and the farm name is a trap.

The Winterveld field cornetcy of Graaff-Reinet lay well to the north-east, toward the Compassberg. By 1830 the Prince Albert country had been in the Beaufort West district for twelve years, so a farm of ours could not be described as Graaff-Reinet in this year. On the face of the record these are two different farms with the same name, and the surnames in it — Jacobsz, Faber, van Nieuwkerk, Viljoen, Lubbe, Erasmus, Koekemoer — are not ours either.

It is kept in the collection because it is a superb picture of an interior farm household in 1830, and because the near-miss is itself worth recording. This is precisely the same-name failure the project's standing rule about place data is meant to catch.

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The record itself

By 1830 the Orphan Chamber was working in English, and this inventory is in English throughout — one of the clearest markers in the whole folder of the anglicisation of Cape administration after 1828.

Inventory of all such good and effects as have been possessed in communion by the late Johannes Jacobsz Pietson born in this Colony died on the 4 December 1829 aged 78 years at the place Spreeuwfontein situated in the fieldcornetcy Winterveld district of Graaff Reinet and surviving widow Johanna Maria Faber ab intestato

Furniture and household

four tables · seven chairs · one canope · four chists · four buckets · three halfaums · one anchor · two tubs · two watercasks · four small tubs · one writing desk · three foot stools · three stoves · one small bellow · two bedsteads · two beds, seven pillows and blankets · one mill

Kitchen and table

three kittles · two chafing dishes · three candle sticks · one snuffer · one tea urn · one koffy pot · five small racks · few camsters · one saltcellar · one pepper box · two sugar camsters · two small tea pots · one coffee mill · one mortar · two frying pans · one iron · two saucepots · eight tin dishes · three earthen dishes · four tin plates · twenty four earthen plates · six cups and saucers · four basins · two jugs · two earthen milkpots · twelve spoons · twelve forks · one case with six bottles · four bottles · five earthen jars · one tin jar · one wooden box · six ironpots · one soappot · one sieve · one large spoon and fork · two teapots · one slate · two pair of scissors · one wine glass · two tumblers · two porcelaine pots · one kist · two tea trays · one sauce pipe · one small chist

Tools

sundry tools · one stock and sett of bitts · three hatchets · two chissels · one saw · one vice · two large bitts · two spades · two pick axes · one iron trap · one plough · one drawing knife · one lanthorn · two hammers · sundry old iron · some waggon wood

Books — the only library in the folder

one Bible · one sermon boek · two prayers books · two hymn books · one book /shuters/

Six books, listed as assets. Compare the three Tarka inventories in this collection, where not a single book appears.

Transport, arms, and the watch

five guns · two saddles and bridles · one watch · one ox waggon · one horse waggon · two harnesses · eight bitts · one gridiron

Cattle

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Credits — and what they show

Needles, tobacco by the pound, whip sticks. This household was running an informal shop for its neighbours, in quarter-rixdollar amounts, and keeping the book. Debts: unknown.

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Heirs

Eleven heads, one of them a deceased daughter with ten children of her own, each named with a birth date — the fullest heir list in the folder.

1. Catharina Elisabeth Jacobz, m. Jan Anthony van Nieuwkerk
2. Anna Maria Jacobz, deceased, who left ten children by Fredrik van Nieuwkerk: Jan Albert (b. 24 Oct 1796) · Pieter Johannes (b. 1799) · Helena Elisabeth (m. David Stephanus Jacobz) · Jacomina Elisabeth Jacoba (b. 29 Jul 1804) · Anna Maria Johanna (m. Andries van Tonderen) · Fredrik Anthony (b. 4 Aug 1806) · Guilliam Michiel (b. 1812) · Joachim Jacobus (b. 25 Aug 1815) · Catharina Elisabeth (b. 9 Jun 1816) · David Gerhardus Cornelis (b. 26 Jul 1819)
3. Joachim Jacobus Jacobz, b. 5 March 1781
4. Jacomina Louisa Jacobz, m. Johannes Hendrik Lubbe
5. Jacoba Christina Jacobz, m. Henning Johannes Viljoen
6. Johannes Philippus Jacobz, b. 11 April 1786
7. David Hermanus Jacobz, b. 9 November 1788
8. Johanna Christina Jacobz, m. Jan Viljoen Alb: son
9. Louisa Sophia Jacobz, m. Christoffel Johannes Jacobz David son
10. Maria Magdalena Jacobz, m. Albertus Viljoen Alb: son
11. Hester Elisabeth Jacoba, m. Andries Petrus v.d. Merwe Pietson

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Closing formula

Thus done and inventoried at the place Spreeuwfontein situated in the field cornetcy Winterveld, district of Graaff Reinet this 11 day of March 1800 thirty according to the declaration of Johanna Maria Faber widow of the late Johannes Jacobz Pietson …

Jahanna M: Faber wedewe Jacobes As witnesses: G:J: Broekhuisen, H:P: Olivier In my presence: J: Auret, Agent

The widow signs in Dutch phonetics inside an English document — wedewe for weduwe. The administration had changed language; she had not.

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What this record establishes

1. A same-name farm, and the discipline to say so. Until the district and field cornetcy were read, this document could have been quietly attached to our Spreeufontein and would have corrupted the land record.
2. Books, a writing desk and a slate — literacy as a documented household asset, in a way none of the Tarka estates show.
3. 1,804 sheep in 1830. Against 538 (1818), 1,540 (1823) and 148 (1826) on Rondabel, the interior flocks of this decade ran from under two hundred to nearly two thousand on neighbouring ground.
4. Trade by the pound. The nearest shop was days away, so someone in the district kept needles and tobacco and sold them on credit at a quarter of a rixdollar a time.

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Filed 29 July 2026. Transcription © Cape Town Archives Repository; publication permitted only with repository and reference number named, as done above.