22-25

Slave bloodlines at Coornhoop Slaves did the hard and ‘dirty work’ of farming along the Liesbeek River from the early days of settlement. Some slaves managed to buy their freedom, however, and take over the farms that their ‘masters’ had once owned. ARMOZYN CLAASZ VAN DE KAAP Western Cape Archives and Records Service: M375Table Valley – she owned a property Stel’s slaves. They were both freed was born into slavery sometime between in Parliament Street – and became and Claas Junior went on to become 1659 and 1661.1 The slave woman who a successful member of Cape society. a VOC soldier. Clearly fond of his mother, ABOVE The remaining rear wing of Coornhoop 18th century). A later owner, gold prospector is said to have been her mother was Armozyn`s son Claas Jonasz married he named his daughter Armozyn Jonasz House, which dates back to the 18th century Harry Struben, demolished the older front Isabella van Angola,2 owned by Jan Dina van Bima7 who had been one after her.8 (although it was restored to its 19th-century section of the house in the late 19th century Reijniers of Uitwijk, and her father was of Governor Willem Adrian van der appearance). The homestead was once much and used some of the old timber to build his most probably another free burgher He and his wife became farmers in home in Rosebank – Strubenholm, now the by the name of Cornelius Claasz (or TOP Coornhoop was owned by ‘free blacks’ the Liesbeek Valley and Armozyn junior bigger and extended forwards, being H-shaped University of Cape Town’s College of Music. Claes),3 who co-owned Uitwijk with throughout much of the 18th century. later took ownership of Coornhoop.9 during Servaas van Breda’s ownership (late Jan van Riebeeck in 1659.4 ABOVE In the early days of settlement, Claas junior also had a son, Claas Jonasz Being brought up in the harsh de Jonge, who married a white woman, environment and inhumane, damp and slaves were sometimes chained together Anna Maria Brits. He owned the farms overcrowded conditions of the Slave to prevent them from escaping. Liesbeek, on which Bloemendal was later Lodge, undoubtedly gave her a strong built, and Raapenberg on the Black River, will. By 1697, when she was in her where the Pinelands City Lodge hotel mid-thirties, she had given birth to stands today. about eight children, only four of whom survived the disease-ridden Claasz spent her twilight years with conditions at the lodge. These four one of her daughters, Machtelt Ley, children were Claas Jonasz, Manda and her German husband. When she Gratia van der Caab, Marie Stuart died at the advanced age of about 73 van der Caab, and Machteldt Ley.5 (an impressive age for anyone in those Keen to better her lot, Armozyn days, let alone an ex-slave), Armozyn became a matron and school mistress was able to leave her children and at the lodge. It was only in her forties family a sizeable amount of property that the big day came when she was and money for someone who was born manumitted (in around 1704)6 by the into bondage. highly unpopular Governor Willem An- driaan van der Stel. Her freed brother Not forgetting her humble roots, Claas was one of the free-black farmers Claasz left 15 guilders to the poor. 10 assisted by the Van der Stels to found Her funeral was a grand affair and she the Drakenstein settlement. In 1701 was buried in the grounds of Groote she also was granted land in the Kerk in Adderley Street – testimony to the respect that she had earned in her lifetime – a stone’s throw away from the Slave Lodge in which she was born. 22 I WHEATFIELDS & WINDMILLS – THE OLD HOMESTEADS AND FARMS OF OBSERVATORY & SURROUNDS 23

Coornhoop's old wheatfields were cut in two Western Cape Archives and Records Service: AG 13 281 when Settler's Way was constructed ABOVE Coornhoop in 1818, as seen from the Valkenberg bridge by A. Van Breda (Western Cape Archives and Records Service: AG 13 280). Note the double-storey building (now gone) to the left of the gabled homestead, seemingly matching the dovecot on the right, though this may be an er- ror on the artist’s part. This was long before the front of the house was demolished. Western Cape Archives and Records Service: AG 13 276 TOP LEFT A late 19th/early 20th-century Western Cape Archives and Records Service: AG 13 277 view looking to the left of the original ABOVE This simple outbuilding, now demol- right) and bore a strong resemblance to ished, stood directly opposite Coornhoop’s various other fowlhouses at the Cape – such Coornhoop barn (seen on the far right with dovecot, which can be seen in the background. as Morgenhof in Stellenbosch – and possibly its thatch and end gables that match the It also appears on the 1818 drawing (top remaining barns). It was demolished for served the same purpose at some point. the building of Settler's Way. MIDDLE LEFT The same view today. RIGHT A photo dated 1880, said to be of the Coornhoop homestead. This appears to be the front section of the house that Struben demolished just over a decade later. Today, all that's left is the rear wing. Note the pillars, which are almost identical to those at the back of Bloemendal nearby (page 118). 24 I WHEATFIELDS & WINDMILLS – THE OLD HOMESTEADS AND FARMS OF OBSERVATORY & SURROUNDS 25