Fort Kochi - Johannes van Blankenberg (1749-1794)
Johannes van Blankenberg was born on May 18, 1749 in Nieuwvliet in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen as son of Johanna Boone and Jannis van Blankenberg. In India he probably married in 1779, aged 30, the fourteen-year-old Anna Helena Daimichen, daughter of Johan Andreas Daimichen and Pasquelle Lucas Smit. They had a daughter, Johanna Susanna, baptized in Kochi in July 1786.
On 25 January 1777 Johannes van Blankenberg, as first mate and right-hand man of the Gorcum skipper Justinus van Gennep on the Willem de Vijfde, left Zeeland for Ceylon.[i] There they arrived on August 20, 1777. It was not the first time he left with a VOC ship, but this time he would stay away for good. He is most likely the Johannes van Blankenberg from Nieuwvliet who left with the Pallas on 20 November 1764 as a ‘hooploper’ (helper of the sailors) and returned with the same ship in 1766.[ii] And on 15 December 1768 he departed aboard the Geijnwensch as third watchman[iii] and returned to Zeeland on 10 June 1772 with the Huis om. On 26 December 1772 he sailed back and forth to Batavia with the Oud Haerlem from the Zeeland chamber as a second mate.[iv]
In 1778 Johannes van Blankenberg was no longer in Ceylon, but in Kochi. When he left the Netherlands, he had left his mother a monthly letter for three months' pay. She only collected it twice and after her death in 1785 this letter expired. From that moment on, Johannes send his complete salary bill of 576 guilders per year to the Netherlands, where it was collected by a chargé d'affaires. In this way, 9,542.55 guilders would come to the Netherlands. Like many others, Johannes thus found a secondary source of income that enabled him to build a pleasant life in Kochi and to remain in the service of the VOC as captain-lieutenant at sea and overseer of the equipage. Through his marriage to Anna Daimichen he had become part of a family that had an extensive network within the organization of the VOC, but also the local elite. The couple lived in a house on the Ossestraat.[v] Anna is known to lend substantial amounts at a fee of 6% interest.
Tombstone Johannes van Blankenberg
On 27 August 1785, Adriaan Poolvliet made their will in their own home. Johannes, 36 years old, and Anna, 20 years old, were both healthy and “having their memories”. They destroyed the codicils of all previous wills and out of love for each other they named each other universal and sole heir. They had no children, but if they did come, the longest-living had to support them until they got married or when they came of age. If they died without children, Johannes' mother and/or Anna's parents would each receive their parental share, but nothing more.[vi] The fact that they had no children at the time of their will also meant that their daughter Johanna Susanna, who was supposed to have been born around June 1780, had died.
Detail tombstone Van Blankenberg
Van Blankenberg died on 2 April 1794, at the age of 44, and was buried in the cemetery in Fort Kochi. The funerary monument has a striking display of a coffin on top as a symbol of mortality. The upright stone of the monument is richly decorated and has in the edge a plant pattern trimmed with rope. The image in the center is somewhat weathered, but two angel figures are clearly visible. With a sextant on both sides that refers to Van Blankenberg's role as sea captain. Under the sextants there seems to be a basket with flowers or food, with an anchor and rope next to it. The text: Hier rust / Ter zalige opstandinge het lyk / Van wylen den E. heer / Johannes van Blankenberg / in leven kapitain ter zee en Equipagemeester / Gebooren te Nieuwvliet in Staats / Vlaanderen de 19 mai 1749 Obit den 2 April / Ao 1794. In translation: Here rests / awaiting his resurrection the corps / of the late sir / Johannes van Blankenberg / in life captain at sea and ‘equipagemeester’ / Born in Nieuwvliet in Staats / Vlaanderen on 19 May 1749. Died April / Anno 1794.
After the death of Johannes, Anna remarried in the same year, with VOC servant Frans Josef von Wre(e)de from Heidelberg (Germany). Von Wrede applied for permission from the VOC on 18 October 1794.[vii] As a result, Von Wrede became the brother-in-law of his compatriot Johan Adam Cellarius.
Notes
[i] NA 1.04.02.13222 scans 0207, 0208,0209, 0210, 0211, 0810, 0811
[ii] NA 1.04.02.13137 scan 0562
[iii] NA 1.04.02.13164 scan 0194
[iv] NA 1.04.02.13191 scan 0196
[v] NA 1.04.02.0758
[vi] NA 1.11.06.11.1279 scan 0255
[vii] NA 1.11.06.11.1372c scan 0135
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