Fort Kochi - Daniel van der Sloot (1737-1807)

Daniel van der Sloot was the youngest of ten children of Abraham van der Sloot and Maria Weijns. An exact date of birth or baptism is unknown, but he must have been born in Kochi around 1737 and was buried there in July 1807.

Abraham Abrahamszn van der Sloot was baptized on 10 March 1690 in Amsterdam and came in 1711 as a soldier with the Wateringen to Batavia (modern day Jakarta, Indonesia). Once arrived, he was able to show that he had more to offer. In 1716 he was appointed as a schoolmaster in Kochi and was later also appointed as a sexton.^[i] He married Maria Weijns around 1716, who was probably born in Batavia. The six sons and four daughters of this marriage all received a good education and were good at reading, arithmetic and writing. They all reached adulthood and most of them married partners who in almost all cases also came from VOC families. An extensive network was created from which they will all have benefited for a number of generations.^[ii]

The birth date of none of the ten children is known, but Abraham, as headmaster, had to keep a record every year in August of which children he taught, what their ages were and who their parents were. The progress of the children was also recorded. His own children are also on these lists.^[iii] A large family also meant relatively high costs and Maria Weijns worked as a canteen woman in the hospital.^[iv] In addition to the family, the household of Abraham and Maria in 1740 also consisted of 1 enslaved man, 5 enslaved women and 3 enslaved girls. Abraham was sickly in 1745, when he had his will drawn up.^[v] On June 11, 1748, his will was registered with the orphanage, thus declaring his death. His eldest son Abraham was thirty years old, Daniel just ten years old.

Monsterrol VOC showing Daniel van der Sloot enlisted as a soldier for 9 guilders (NL HaNA 1.04.02 12522 scan 0008)

All the sons of Abraham entered the service of the VOC at a young age, including Daniel. He was fourteen years old when he entered service, as a soldier for 9 guilders a month. In 1757 he was promoted to third surgeon for 14 guilders, in 1757 to second surgeon for 20 guilders and in 1762 to surgeon for 30 guilders a month.^[vi] He would eventually make it to chief surgeon. On 11 March 1759 he married Hester Amalia van Dorpen, daughter of Gerrit van Dorpen and Maria Abrahamsz. Their only son would bear the names of both grandfathers; Abraham Gerrit. He was christened on 10 April  1763 by his grandmother Maria Abrahamsz and uncle Coenraad Seijffer^[vii] and married in 1788 Cornelia Zeijsig, sister of Dorothea Lambertina Zeijsig. Father and son were left together when Hester died around 1769.

Izabel Adriana de Crouse became Daniel's second wife.^[viii] On 19 January 1777 they are together the baptismal witness of  a child named Jan Daniël Kustwald. Their first child, as far as we know, was baptized on December 21, 1777; Jan Daniel. Jacob Wendelin, Johanna, Isabella Augustina, Hester Amalia and Wilhelmina Dorothea^[ix] would follow him in the period up to July 1789.

Daniel seems to have been a beloved man. As a baptismal witness alone, he performed eighteen times in the limited time for which the baptismal records have been preserved. Both his wives were also regular baptism witnesses. As the youngest of a large family, he saw most of his brothers and sisters pass away and when his sister Rachel died in 1790, only Willem and Daniel were left alive. They therefore inherited a nice amount from this agile lady who had managed to invest her money well.^[x]

Little is known about the personal life of Daniel and his family. As a chief surgeon, he belonged to the upper class of the inhabitants of Kochi. He regularly acted as a witness in the various deeds, which show that he had a busy social life. Much also changed for him and his family when the English took over authority in Kochi in 1795. For one thing, he was out of a job almost immediately. He was also confronted with the consequences of his son Abraham's financial problems and the creative accounting that he and the other orphan masters thought they had to do in order to solve their own problems. The fact that they let many orphans suffer with this is only revealed just before the death of Abraham in 1804. He left his family behind with a large debt of 9,000 rupees. To prevent his daughter-in-law from also having to hand over Daniel's meager inheritance to creditors, Daniel decided, in addition to his other children, to name his grandchildren of Abraham as heirs and to keep their mother out of the inheritance. In his will, Daniel stated that he deeply regretted that he had been without work and had no income for so long and therefore was not able to give his children, still living at home, the education he had in mind.^[xi] He died in July 1807, not knowing that on 13 September 1807 Sara Harmensz, widow of Adriaan Poolvliet, died and named his wife heir of half her estate, making her a wealthy widow.

Notes 

^[i] NA 1.04.02.12455 scan 0067

^[ii] From the marriage of Abraham and Maria were born: Abraham (1718), Wilhelmina Constantina (1719) Isaaq (1720), Rachel Augustina (circa 1723), Willem (circa 1725), Gillis (1728), Catharina (1730), Hester Jacoba (1731), Carolus (1735), Daniel (1737).

^[iii] NA 1.04.02.9009 scan 0538

^[iv] NA 1.04.02.9030 scan 1410. There are 128 sick in the hospital and she asks for more coconut oil, firewood, a large copper kettle, 2 washtubs and 2 buckets.

^[v] NA 1.04.02.6865 scan 0774

^[vi] NA 1.04.02.12522 scan 0008

^[vii] Baptism Cochin, Gens Nostra 1992

^[viii] She was almost certainly the daughter of Johannes de Krouse van Batavia (bookkeeper and first clerk of the police) and Johanna Abrahamsz, but this cannot be proven due to the gaps in the baptismal book. Johannes died around 1 November 1774 and Johanna was still alive in 1789 when she acted as a baptismal witness for her granddaughter Wilhelmina Dorothea van der Sloot.

^[ix] Wilhelmina Dorothea was already married in 1807 to military captain Sijdenham Smiths.

^[x] NA 1.11.06.11.1354

^[xi] NA 1.11.06.11.1494 scans 108 up to and including 113