Hi, my apologies for writing this in English but my Dutch is not good.
Firstly I would like to thank Jan and Corney in particular and all others who have contributed to adding a bit more to the puzzle that is my 5th great grandfather and the progenitor of this Langerman family in South Africa.
There are many questions that have yet to be solved about Frederik.
One of them is certainly whether he was actually born in or around Hildesheim or whether it was simply his last address before going to the Netherlands.
I take the point that it is quite possible that he was christened in a Lutheran Church. While his first son was christened in the Dutch Reformed Church and I have so far been unable to track down christenings of most of his subsequent children, these children certainly christened their own offspring in the Lutheran Church.
It is also interesting that he is described in at least one document as having been a Hanoverian.
I was fascinated that he was engaged before he left Amsterdam as I had always thought there might have been a family left in Germany or Holland given his possible age. None of the records I have examined at the Cape Archives have mentioned an overseas family.
We have a family portrait supposedly of him – I will try and track a copy down in my hard drives and post it if I can find it – which shows a man dressed in what I think is the Batavian uniform at the Cape, a blue jacket with white piping. The man in the picture is certainly not young. Probably in his late 50s, early 60s. As far as I am aware his VOC contract finished in 1793 but he did serve as an officer in the local military in the Muizenburg area when the British occupation occurred in 1795 and his name as a ranking officer is also on the lists of those who signed the British lists after the occupation. As far as I am aware this was the end of his military service but even if he had dressed up for the portrait in an old uniform in the early 1800s it is quite possible his birth may have been in the 1840s rather than 1850s as commonly given.
He was certainly not a “jongman” when he married in 1803! Incidentally was this wedding in the Dutch Reformed or Lutheran Church?
His relationship with Anna Catherina Heckrodt (Heckroth/Heckroodt/Heckrouwd) and her first husband Johannes Andries Bruyns (Bruijns/Bruins) is certainly interesting.
It is clear he knew them well. He was a witness at the christening of their son Carel Frederik Bruyns in 1780 when his name was given as Carel Frederik Langerman. (Carel, Johannes and Christiaan are names linked with his better known name of Frederik on various VOC and other official documents and were passed on as names for his son though his name of Frederik was never used. Various derivations of Anna Catherina were used for his daughters)
Johannes Andries Bruyns is commonly stated to have died somewhere between 1884 and 1885 and given that Frederik’s first son Johannes Christiaan Langerman was born about 1884 (based on his death certificate) it seems clear the relationship started very soon or even before his death.
There has been some confusion about the offspring of Frederik and Anna Catherina. Christening records, apart from that of Johannes Christiaan have been difficult to find. While Frederik was originally based at the Cape Town Castle (there is even a house of Langerman on an old plan of the Castle) it seems that from somewhere around the 1790 period he was living in or around the Muizenburg/Simonstown area and it is possible his children may have been christened outside of Cape Town.
Anna Catherina certainly held title to land at Poespaskraal in the Noordhoek Valley and at least one of his sons at one time owned sea front land that stretched from the outskirts of Simonstown to the outskirts of Muizenburg.
Working from death certificates and wills I have the following information on his children.
1 Johan Christiaan Langerman (b 1784 based on his age of 56 at his death in May 1840). He was christened in the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town on 10 July 1785, was deemed “onegt” and the putative father was given as Frederik. He never married as was described as simple minded.
2 Catherina Alesia Langerman (Aug 1789 to 16 May 1836). She married Jan Willem Stuckeris and had two children. The name of her husband has been carried down in the family. My great grandfather was John William Stuckeris Langerman and his uncle Sir Jan Willem Stuckeris Langerman was a Transvaal politician heavily involved in the gold mines and the right hand man of J B Robinson which might not be a point to be proud of today or even then!
3 Carel George Langerman (1790 to 20 Jan 1840) He died at Kalk Bay where he had the beachfront farm. He married Anna (Johanna) Maria Cornelia Greffrath (Griffrath) and they had seven children, several of whom died young. When he died intestate, aged about 40, the land was sold and the surviving children and their mother moved to the Eastern Cape where two of the daughters married into early English pioneering families. His widow and a son returned to Cape Town and had a small farm but I have been unable to track information on what happened to the son.
4 Carl (Carel) Willem Langerman (Jan 1791 to 4 April 1824). This was my 4th great grandfather. He married Bernadina Magdalena Rudolph (Roedeloff) and they had three sons and a daughter.
5 Anna (Johanna) Carolina (Catherina) Langerman (1794 to 8 Nov 1872). She married Johannes Richert (1791-1843, the daughter of Andreas Richert mentioned below in connection with Sara Maria Bruyns). They had no children
6 Catrina Maria Langerman (6 May 180s to ? but she may have died young as she is not mentioned in later wills and death certificates). She is a puzzle who pushes back Frederik’s death from the commonly accepted 1804 mark to at least 1806. However none of Frederick’s other sons were named Frederik and are anyway unlikely to have been of an age to sire her. Her father is definitely given as Frederik in the St Frances Anglican Church record of 17 Jan 1819 where several grandchildren of Frederik’s were baptised in a group family event.
And so onto a final puzzle.
Frederik is given as the “husband” of Sara Maria Bruyns, his stepdaughter, in several South African genealogies. So far I have been unable to find any definite proof in the way of baptismal documents of this. In one of the wills of Sara Maria Bruyns which has been referred to as a source document her three children are simply listed as “natural” children. Sara Maria who was christened in 1778 later married Andreas Richert (1763-1840)
Her three children were Johannes (Jan) Louis Langerman 1799-1840, Anna Catherina Wilhelmina Langerman and Fredrik Willem (Ferdinand?) Langerman.
It is possible that Frederik simply gave his name to her children, it seems extraordinary even in those days that he was having children with his de facto wife and her daughter, his stepdaughter, at the same time??!!
The only link I have so far made is in the 1840 death certificate of Johannes Langerman. His mother was listed as Sara Maria Bruyns but the father was left blank in the original recording. His widow firmly wrote in Fredrik Langerman when she signed the document!
Several of Frederik’s sons and grandsons were merchants and wine merchants in Cape Town. Many died intestate and left wonderful records of their lives as a result as the items were sold up. One was involved in building houses on the now infamous Hanover Street in District Six when he died. My great great grandfather owned a huge area of land along the coast from Cape Town in what is now known as Milnerton. He was a mayor of Sea Point and his brother was Sir Jan Langerman. My great grandfather’s generation were active in horse racing and breeding and he founded the Milnerton racecourse before the area he once farmed became part of Milnerton estates and was sold for housing.
I hope this has not been too boring for you but I have tried to give a small picture of what lay behind a few records in Amsterdam!
Best wishes, Melissa
