Fort Kochi - Aletta Augustina Thiel (1760-1784)

The lives of VOC women are hardly described and difficult to reconstruct. Only based on the information about their fathers and husbands is it possible to give some insight into their lives. For example, in Kochi Aletta Augustina Thiel is buried. We only know her date of birth and death because of the inscription on her tomb: Born 21 April 1760 and died 30 November 1784. So, she was only 24 and a half years old, and she was the wife of Jan Lambertus van Spall, a junior merchant from Utrecht (the Netherlands) who worked his way up to be the last Dutch governor of Kochi. He served as governor between 1793 and 1795.

The Thiel family

The German Hans Caspar Thiel^[i] from Holstein entered the service of the VOC as a soldier on 25 September 1743 and had sailed with the ship Huigenwaard of the chamber Hoorn. He earned 9.00 guilders a month. He died on 30 April 1769 at his home in Kochi, leaving behind a wife and children. He is the father of Aletta Augustina Thiel.

In August 1747 Hans Thiel was employed in Kochi as a master servant in the armoury under Pieter van Spall, a relative of the later governor Jan van Spall.^[ii] Archive documents show that on 31 January 1748, he asked for some more time to learn the trade properly. It is immediately reported that he cannot read and write.^[iii] It is probably around this time that he decided to remain in Kochi and in the service of the VOC. He requested that he be allowed to withdraw the letter that he had given in favour of his mother of three-monthly salaries per year, partly because she had died.^[iv] In 1750 he was promoted to master blacksmith's servant with a salary of 24.00 guilders per month. During his life, his salary was increased twice more until in 1761 he earned 36.00 guilders per month as a master blacksmith, cooper^[v] and was in charge of the blacksmith shop. In addition, during his time in Kochi he earned a nice penny as a slave trader. At least 38 slave sales were registered in his name.^[vi]

Hans Caspar Thiel was married to Aletta van den Berg before 16 Aug 1751, because on that day they made their will. Aletta was born in Kochi as the daughter of sergeant Johan van den Berg and Catharina Sprangen.^[vii] Hans and Aletta had at least six children of which Aletta Augustina was baptized on 4 May 1760.^[viii] Aletta van den Berg's sister, Anna, was married to parish clerk and schoolmaster Jan Jurgen Rexraad.^[ix] It is therefore to be expected that the children Thiel have received a certain degree of education at the school in Kochi.^[x] Aletta Thiel was only 9 years old when her father passed away. Her mother was barely 40 and was left with children between the ages of 4 and 18. VOC payments ceased immediately after death, leaving the family without a source of income. Aletta van den Berg remarried in 1770 to Anthony Alexander Cornelis Ter Schmitten, lieutenant of the honourable militia.^[xi]

Jan van Spall

Jan Lambertus van Spall was baptized on 9 January 1748 in Utrecht as the son of Pieter van Spall and Debora Rademaker.^[xii] The wealthy Van Spall family lived in Utrecht for generations, and they were known as notaries, brokers, and merchants. Several members from both the paternal and maternal side had already left for the East Indies, to successfully build a life and career. When Jan was about to leave in 1765, things were well arranged, as you would expect with such a family. Jan made his will in favour of his parents. His father was given the legal authority to oversee all matters for Jan during his absence and to collect all the money he owed from the VOC and to act as he saw fit. Father Pieter had it recorded that he gave his son 2,500 guilders and that if anything should happen to Jan during the voyage, the chief merchant and the skipper had to secure his possessions and return them to him in Utrecht.^[xiii] The ship Huis te Bijweg of the Amsterdam chamber took him to Batavia in less than eight months, where he quickly traveled on to Kochi. The place where he would spend the rest of his life. His father collected at least 480.00 guilders each year at home in Utrecht in the period 1765-1794. A little under 14,000 guilders in total. Money that Jan did not have at his disposal in Kochi, while he did have a beautiful house on Heerenstraat and, as time went on, had to feed a multitude of children, and send them to school. Jan has therefore also found his way to support himself in a different way.

Jan Lambertus van Spall was still a young man when he left Utrecht. There were plenty of suitors in the Indies, but if he married a native woman, he was never allowed to take her and the children from this union back to the Netherlands. So, he had to be careful when choosing a partner. Nevertheless, he married three times to women born in Kochi. The first time he married, around 1769, Maria Margaretha Dirkszdr. Bers. He had three children with her. The second time he married Aletta Augustina Thiel. Probably around 1778. Together they had five children, four of whom would live to adulthood. Daughter Margaretha, born 30 May 1779, died before her mother en was buried in the St Francis Church on 6 October 1779.^[xiv] The children were all baptized Protestant, with all kinds of relatives of the Van Spall family acting as witnesses, who, however, have never been to Kochi or even to the Indies. Substitutes thus presented the children for baptism. Yet Jan Lambertus also had brothers living in his area. His brothers Francois and Cornelis had also entered the service of the VOC, and both left (in 1790 and 1792) for Kochi, where they also started a family.

Tomb of Alletta Thiel (photo René ten Dam, 2020) 

After the death of Aletta, Jan Spall had to "prove" his children their inheritance according to Dutch custom. He had to submit a statement of his possessions and an inventory of his estate to the orphan masters of the city. This would show how prosperous Jan was. That was usually not in the interest of a VOC servant. It would soon become apparent from this that there were also other sources of income that were usually not in favour of the VOC. It was well known that VOC servants tried to enrich themselves in several ways. Jan van Spall would have been no exception. He is said to have frequently traded in enslaved people. To prevent his practices from being discovered, Van Spall suggested surrendering a sealed record and inventory, as well as pledging to give his four children from this marriage half of his possessions if a third marriage ever took place. The orphan masters did not agree, but in the end left the decision to the government in Batavia.^[xv] How they decided is not known, but that was in all cases too little too late, since Jan remarried on 10 December 1786 with Maria Petronella Cornelisdr van Cochin. She was the daughter of the Kochi-born Reverend Pieter Corneliszn and the Dutch Elisabeth van Sompel. From this marriage Jan van Spall had another seven children. Descendants of Jan Lambertus Spall still lived in Kochi on the "Fernandes Garden" estate until about 1970. The house is said to be the best-preserved Dutch house in Kochi.^[xvi]

Notes

^[i] He was the son of Catharina (Trijntje) Thiel.

^[ii] NA 1.04.02.9040 scan 1058

^[iii] NA 1.04.02.9040 scan 1140

^[iv] NA 1.04.02.9041 scan 10

^[v] NA 1.04.02.14432 scan 199 and 200

^[vi] Matthias van Rossum, ‘Slaafgemaakten en bestuurders van de VOC in Utrecht en Azië’in: Slavernij en de stad Utrecht (2021)

^[vii] This couple also had daughters Anna and Elisabeth and a son Lodewijk.

^[viii] The other known children were baptized in Kochi, Pieter on 15 April 1754, Jacob date unknown but before May 1760, Caspar on 3 March 1763, Catharina on 4 November 1764. Source: baptism book Cochin.

^[ix] In the will that this couple made on 8 November 1763, the two sons of Hans Thiel were included, being Pieter and Jacob. His daughter Aletta Augustina, born in 1760, was not mentioned. And where Hans Thiel deals in enslaved people, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law decide after their death to give their enslaved Sophia the freedom and a small starting capital. The will was signed for agreement by Jan L. Spall and J.A. Daimichen.

^[x] NA 1.04.02.6883 scan 767 and 768

^[xi] She made a will with him on 20 October 1770, in which Johan Wolff acted as a witness and P.A. Daimichen as secretary of the council of orphan masters.

^[xii] Witnesses were Lambertus Bernardus Frijkenius and Anna Catharina Rademaker. Their son Simon Hendrik would die on 6 June 1797 in Batavia. Source: Dutch Lion 1926, column 27.

^[xiii] Notarieel Archief Utrecht invnr. 1337 akte 40 12.4.1765

^[xiv] NA 1.11.06.11.1113 scan 0006

^[xv] NA 1.04.02.3752 scan 0156

^[xvi] Fort Cochin in Kerala 1750-1830: the social condition of a Dutch community in an Indian milieu, A. Singh (2007)