Cemetery Information India

In August 1752, head merchant Abraham de la Haye feels that his time is almost up. Only 43 years old, he becomes sicker and weaker by the day, realising the uncertainty of his life. Life had looked so promising. He had joined the VOC in Batavia in 1723 as a ‘soldier of the pen’ and had risen to the rank of head merchant. For the past two years, he had served as the provisional supreme commander of Cochin and the Malabar Coast. Just a year ago, his family had grown with the addition of a son. He had named him Robbert Christoffel — Robbert after his own father, and Christoffel after his father-in-law. Robbert was baptised in St. Francis Church in Cochin, close to his home. The same church where he will soon be buried. Before it comes to that, he still has some matters to settle, including changing his will. Together with his wife, Geertruijda Walling, he had already made a will, but back then there were no children; now there are three. He has held administrative positions all his life as an accountant, tax officer, chief administrator, and secretary. He was born in Colombo and, as a child, moved with his parents and his brother Huijbert to Batavia. With his own family, he went to Surat in northern India, and now the end is approaching in Cochin.

On 22 October 1655, the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) approved the decision that at least 4,000 men would be transported to the Dutch East Indies with the upcoming winter fleet because of the great lack of personnel.^[i] After only a week, they started hiring staff. On November 8, 1655, corporal Barend Hermanszn van Groningen was hired for the ship Ter Tholen with a salary of fourteen guilders per month. Already on the 23rd of November the decision was made to appoint him as a sergeant with a salary of eighteen guilders.^[ii].^[iii] On 30 December, the drums were beaten to allow the people of the ship Ter Tholen to board, after which they anchored off Vlissingen until favourable weather for departure. On 6 January 1656, skipper Daniel Looper left the roadstead and needed 6 months and 13 days to arrive in Batavia.

Just as would have happened in the Netherlands, Robbert Lindzaij, administrator and secundo over the coast of Malabar, Canara and Wingurla, was buried in the church after his death. In this case, in St. Francis Church in Cochin. After closing his eyes forever on New Year's Eve, 31 December 1690, he was the last to be buried in the family grave. His wife, Margrita Minnes, and her parents, Pieter Minnes and Adriana Boogaerts, had preceded him. The tombstone makes it clear that Robbert Lindzaij is the most important person in the grave. Because of his high position, the funeral must have been accompanied by much ceremony.

Trumpeter in the service of the VOC

In the winter of 1739, Johan Hendrik Medeler from Braakel^[i] boarded the ship Gaasperdam of the Chamber of Amsterdam to sail to Ceylon as a trumpeter. Sub-merchant Jacob Balde immediately had his hands full with sick crew members who wanted to make their wills, but also with statements from various passengers about the behaviour of the quartermaster Jacob Jansz Kerkemijer who threatened, deceived, defrauded and mistreated the ordinary people "with great inflation on their character" in all kinds of ways. The ship's council had to be involved while the ship was in disarray at a boatyard in Portugal^[ii]. Kerkemeijer was condemned to ^[iii] be beaten with a rope and demoted to sailor for nine guilders a month. The belongings of all the deceased crew members were immediately inventoried and sold at the mast. After the death of the second master on 7 May 1739, Johan Medeler bought his 8 "medicineese" books for three guilders. ^[iv] A curious purchase for a trumpeter.

On 6 April, 1663, little Lea de Kouter walked with her mother to the cabin of a ship on the roadstead of the Cape of Good Hope. A girl with the beautiful name Virena would be baptized that morning. ^[i] The vicar who was to baptize the child, Balthasar de Meter, had just arrived from Holland and was due to sail on to the Indies. She had just arrived from the Indies and was going to travel through to Holland, a unknown country to her. Would they have consciously seen each other? Would Lea remember him when, years later, she arrived at Cochin and found his tombstone in the church, not aware that they would soon be buried together in the same church forever?

On 11 August 1646, the Heren XVII took the decision to do something about the shortage of clergymen in Asia with the coming outgoing fleet. Six ministers, not Germans, but only educated men, would be sent out. The chambers Amsterdam and Zeeland would each take care of 2 ministers and the Zuider- and Noorderkwartier each for one minister.^[i]

In the wall of the St. Francis church in Kochi is the tombstone that Lucas van der Dussen had made in memory of his Sara. Sara was given the dubious honor of being the first Dutch woman to die in Kochi and her stone is the oldest known Dutch tombstone in this area on the Malabar coast.

Over the past 130 years, several inventories have been carried out at the Dutch Cemetery, of which Cotton's List of inscriptions on tomb and monuments in Madras (1905/1945) is the most famous. However, Cotton did not identify all monuments as Dutch, which were recognized in later inventories. Some monuments, on the other hand, have disappeared or their text plate is no longer legible. The table below offers an overview of several inventories of the Dutch Cemetery. And presented here is an visual overview of grave monuments found in 2020 by the joint team of Dodenakkers.nl (René ten Dam) and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Leon Bok and Nanette de Jong). Also are mentioned the two monuments previously recorded by Cotton and the one by Singh, which all three not found by the 2020-team. 

The funerary monument of the Wolff family does not provide many clues about who is buried here. No first names and even the surname of the woman is not known with certainty, nor the place where they were born. Despite the fact that they are buried in the Dutch cemetery, the name could just as well indicate an English, Belgian or German origin.

Jacob Kraus van Edenburg, captain-lieutenant and commander of the artillery, was born on 13 February 1735 in Edenburg and died 26 January 1787 in Kochi. He was married to Klara Elisabeth Schaak. Maria Elisabeth de Rode was born 22 October 1771 and died on 10 January 1798 in Tranquebar. She was married to Johan Casper Kautz and adopted daughter of Jacob Krantz and Klara Elisabeth Schaak.