Estate inventory, deed MOOC8/44.48, 29 October 1829

Inventory of the joint estate · taken on the farm Rondavel, 29 October 1829

A true and perfect inventory of all and every the goods, chattels, wares and merchandise as well moveable as not, debts, credits and other personal effects of Maria Catharina Elisabeth Venter and deceased husband Jan Adriaan Venter which latter died at the place Rondavel on the 23:rd July last between the hours of 11 and 12 p:m: within the field cornetcy of Hermanus van der Westhuisen in the Traka district of Beaufort

This is the earliest document that places a household on the Koup Rondabel beyond doubt — the farm, the field cornetcy, the Traka and the district of Beaufort are all named. (Contrast the 1818/1823 "Rondabel in Tarka" inventories, which name none of these — see LEAD-0014.)

---

Goods

707 sheep and goats · 10 oxen · 1 mare · one ox waggon /defect/ · one waggon chest · one chest /small/ · one table · three chairs · one footstool · one copper kettle · one iron /smoothing/ · one lanthern · one teapot · four ironpots · one bed · one saddle and bridle · one grid iron · one ladle · four plates · three forks · six spoons · one brass candlestick · two earthen jugs · one handhatchet · one ox · one saw · two augers · one rasp · two files · one pair of pinchers · one chissel · two planes · one paring knife · one adze · sundry pieces of iron · one hammer

A single bed, three chairs, four plates, a defect wagon — and 707 sheep and goats. A young family (five children under eleven) living thin on the veld, their wealth walking. No slaves, no cash, no credits. Compare the 1823 de Bruin estate's 1,540 sheep, three enslaved people and a brandy still: whatever farm that was, it was a far more established household.

Ready money · Credits

nihil · nihil

Debts of the estate

Every debt is to the widow's own family — the household was being carried by the Venters. not yet verified which Jan Louis is which: the tree has the widow's father Jan Louis Venter (PER-000120, b. 1754) with his wife Johanna Jacomina Smit dying in 1824, yet a "widow of Jan Louis Venter" is alive here in 1829, and a Jan Louis Venter witnesses a family baptism in 1837. At least two, probably three men of the name. See LEAD-0015.

Heirs of the estate

The tree carries two further children absent from the heirs list — Martha Catharina Joachemina (~1822, born Riet Rivier) and Christina Wilhelmina (~1825) — presumably died young.

Closing formula

Thus done in the Traka in the district of Beaufort at the place the Rondavel on the 29:th day of October 1829 according to the statement of Maria Catharina Elisabeth Venter...

For the statement: Mark of + the widow of the late J:A: Venter Witnesses: J: Baird, C: Wilsenach J:J: Meintjes, A: V:c:

She signed with a mark — the widow could not write.

---

What this record establishes

1. The first beyond-doubt household on the Koup Rondabel: Jan Adriaan Venter died on the farm 23 July 1829, four years before Stretch's survey. Farm, field cornetcy (Hermanus van der Westhuisen), Traka and district of Beaufort all named.
2. The household is the root couple's own family: the widow Maria Catharina (b. 1783) is the elder sister of Adriana Cecilia Venter (PER-000002), wife of Ockert Almero Oosthuizen (PER-000001). The Oosthuizen–Venter web sat on Rondabel a full decade before the 1833 survey and four decades before the 1868 Oosthuizen grant.
3. The Venter run of ground: son Jan Louis born at Wolve Kraal (1821), another child at Riet Rivier (~1822), the family on Rondavel by 1829 — and Wolwekraal granted in 1841 to Johannes Hendrik Venter, most probably the widow's brother Johannes Henricus (b. 1796, d. Prince Albert 1870) not yet verified.
4. Sharpens LEAD-0014: when a Cape clerk meant this farm, he wrote the field cornetcy, the Traka and Beaufort. The 1818/1823 inventories say only "in Tarka" and sold sheep to Grahamstown — the de Bruin/du Plessis records lean ever more strongly toward an eastern namesake farm.

---

Filed 30 July 2026 from the TANAP transcription supplied by Frans. Transcription © Cape Town Archives Repository; publication permitted only with repository and reference number named, as done above.