According to the muster roll of 1670 he came from Minden and
was a free burger, working in company with Pieter van der
Westhuisen, and in 1672 he is called a 'free worker', presumably
working as a hired hand, and again in 1672, he is mentioned in
evidence to the Council of Justice, along with Pieter van der
Westhuisen, as one of the partners of Hendrik Baart.
(Uit die Raad van Justitie, 1652-1672, edited by A. Boeseken,
1986, page 403, CJ 282, pp.201-203)
A note in the above publication says that he was from Wedum, a
town in Friesland to the south of Leeuwarden, but it doesn't quote
a source for this statement. The muster roll quoted above (1670)
lists him as from Minden.
In the muster rolls of 1696, as Hendrik Koster, he and Dirckje Evers
are listed under the Drakenstein District but all their children that
we know of were baptised in Cape Town.
At the baptisms of his son, Hendrik, in 1705, his name was recorded
as 'Hendrik Jochemse'.
In 1717 he testified before the Council of Policy, at the request of
Maria van Brakel, saying that In the year 1668 he was employed
as a hired man by Jan Pietersz. Louw on his property beside the
Liesbeek River.
The Resolutions of the Cape Church Council mention Maria and
Hendrik Koster as being wards of the said Council in 1719.
(Personalia of the Germans at the Cape, Hoge, 1947, p.214)
He is mentioned as her residuary legatee by his daughter, Maria
Coster, in her wills of 1722 and 1731, made in Cape Town, as a burger
and can therefore be assumed to have been still living then. |
