As for mansell Upham’s continued suggestion that Jonker van Makassar was the same person as the exiled Prince of Ternate in a new version (UL28B) of his 2013 Jonker article, there is in absolutely NO EVIDENCE to support such an allegation, and plenty of evidence to refute it:
The Prins van Ternate was exiled to the Cape due to being found guilty of rape and sentenced to execution. Having been a family member of the King of Ternate he was exiled to the Cape in 1704 to save the King embarrassment. As a political exile he was free to buy slaves of his own which he is recorded to have done as early as 1705 (Arend van Ternate) and 1706 (Slammat van Makassar). He was never a slave (or ‘quasi slave’ whatever that may be, as suggested by Mansell Upham), he never called himself Jonker van Makassar or a slave, in fact he insisted in calling himself the Prins of Ternate at every opportunity.
Jonker van Makassar on the other hand was as clearly stated in his will a manumitted slave. He was freed between Jan 1717 (absent in the 1716 Opgaafrol) and 24/05/1718, when as a free man he purchased a slave called ‘November’. His wife Rosetta also from Indonesia (van Java/Boegies/Makassar) was manumitted around the same time – she too is absent in the 1716 Opgaafrol but appears with Jonker van Makassar and their family from the 1719 Opgaafrol onwards as FREE persons at the Cape until their respective deaths – Jonker in Oct 1727 and Rosetta in Dec 1731. These details are confirmed by TANAP researchers [Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope (22 Des 1722): C. 62, pp. 22-35 – reference 13: “Jonker van Macassar was 'n vrygestelde slaaf, en was getroud met Rosetta van Java. Hy is in 1727 oorlede. (Sien M.O.O.C.7/4 Testamenten, 1726-1735, no. 33.)”].
It is also confirmed by numerous Opgaafrol entries:
• 1719: Opgaafrol # 333: Jonker van Macasser & Rosetta van Macasser with 2 sons
• 1721: Opgaafrol # 336: Jonker van Macassar & Rosetta van Java with 2 sons
• 1722: Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope (22 Des 1722): C. 62, pp. 22-35, Fishermen petition signed by Jonker van Makassar, likely while the Prince of Ternate was already incarcerated on Robben Island. At the time Council of Policy meetings were held 2-3 times a week, and the Fishermen Petition was only tabled on 22 Dec 1722, on the 8th meeting after the date of the Prince of Ternate’s incarceration on Robben Island.
• 1724: Opgaafrol # 342: Jonker van Macassar & Rosetta van Macassar with 2 sons and 3 daughters
• 1725: Opgaafrol # 396 Jonker van Macassar & Rosetta van Macassar with 2 sons en 2 daughters (one daughter appears to have died around 1724/5)
• 1731: Opgaafrol #380 Bastiaan van Ceylon, no wife, 4 sons, 2 daughters
• 1735: Opgaafrol #407 Bastiaan van Ceylon with his new wife Pieternel v d Kus, 4 sons and 2 daughters
And is in agreement with the 1726-1733 Monsterrol entries [VC 50 – Monsterrollen – Vrije Lieden]:
• 1726 Jonker van Maccassar & Rosetta van Java
• 1727 Jonker van Macasser & Rosetta van Java
• 1728 Rosetta van Java
• 1729 Rosetta van Java
• 1730 Rosetta van Java
• 1731-3 Neither appears
It is also significant to also note that:
• Jonker van Makassar signed a petition with other fishermen, tabled at the Council of Policy meeting on 22 Dec 1722, a month and 8 Council of Policy meetings AFTER the Prince of Ternate had already been incarcerated on Robben Island.
• Jonker van Makassar is recorded buying and selling a slave called Mercurius on 30/1/1725 and 5/9/1726 – at which dates the exiled Prince of Ternate had already been incarcerated on Robben Island for a few years.
• Free Indonesians Jonker van Makassar and his wife Rosetta had 3 daughters between 1722 - 1724 while the exiled Prince of Ternate was incarcerated on Robben Island
• Jonker van Makassar, his wife Rosetta van Java/Boegies, all 3 their own children [son Abdul(lah) born ~Oct 1718 and believed to have been baptised Adolf on 25 Jan 1733 as well as 2 daughters Jamela en Raja born 1722-1725] plus Rosetta’s half-European voorkind Jacob Janse were recorded as FREE persons at the Cape in all the Cape Opgaafrolle from at least 1719.
Prior to the Prince of Ternate’s incarceration on Robben Island in Nov 1722, he had 3 children named Amel, Talie and Adel with his slave Rosette van Ceijlon (a completely different person to the wife of Jonker van Makassar, originating from a completely different part of the world – an island off the south-east coast of India – now Sri Lanka). As their father and owner, the Prince requests in 1733 for his 3 SLAVE children be manumitted [Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope (11 Feb. 1733) C. 91, pp. 108-117]. At this time 2 of these children were said to be living with onderkoopman Abraham Decker and the other with the widow Thibault. No mention is made of the whereabouts of their slave mother. It is clear that there is no connection between the SLAVE children the exiled Prince of Ternate had with his slave Rosette van Ceijlon prior to his incarceration in 1722 and freeblack fisherman Jonker van Makassar’s FREE children born between 1718 and 1725 to a different mother.
Jonker van Makassar died in 1727. He drew up his will whilst already ill and bedridden in the Cape on 24 Jan 1727 when the Prince of Ternate had already been incarcerated on Robben Island for several years. Jonker’s will is handed in to be finalised after his death 9 months later on 20 Oct 1727. Jonker van Makassar disappears from both the the Opgaafrolle and Monsterrolle after this date.
After Jonker’s death his widow Rosetta and their children are recorded in the Opgaafrolle with her new husband Arij Bastiaans with whom she had 2 more sons. Sometime during the 3 years following Jonker’s death Rosetta accepted the Christian faith and started baptising her children in the Dutch Reformed Church. On 24 Sept 1730 she baptises their son Johannes (ref Heese: Johannes Bastiaans). On 14 Jan 1731 she baptises their 2nd son Adriaan Bastiaans. Shortly before her death at the end of 1731 she also baptises her and Jonker’s two daughters and gives them the Christian names Johanna and Catharina.
In the Opgaafrol taken at the end of 1731 Rosetta had died but all 6 her children were recorded as living with Arij Bastiaans van Ceijlon. After Rosetta’s death Arij too appears to convert to Christianity and undertakes a Christian marriage on 30 Mar 1732 to Pieternel van die Kus. In the 1735 Opgaafrol all 6 Rosetta’s children are recorded to still be living with Arij Bastiaans and his new wife Pieternella van die Kus (entry #407). This extended Jonker-Bastiaans family maintains strong relationships life-long, evidenced by mutual witnessing at future family baptisms for years to come.
Note that the Jonker children were looked after and living with their stepfather Arij Bastiaans during the time period 1731-1736, NOT living with Abraham Decker and the widow Thibault as the Prince of Ternate’s slave children did in 1733 [Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope (11 Feb. 1733) C. 91, pp. 108-117]
The exiled Prince of Ternate’s children are never heard of again. He is recorded in the Robben Island Bandiet Rollen until his death in 1747. His self-stated status of ‘Prince’ appears to not have been taken very seriously by the authorities, since he is recorded in the Bandiet Rollen as “den sogenaamden Prins van Ternaaten” [CJ3188].
There is absolutely no reason to believe that this bandiet who was such a persona non grata that he was banished to Robben Island and incarcerated there for 25 years until his death would have been ferried back and forth between Robben Island and the Cape by the authorities as Mansell Upham suggests, for him to conceive children in the Cape during his incarceration, to buy and sell slaves in the Cape, to be recorded as a free person in the Opgaafrolle at the Cape concurrent with being recorded in the Bandietrolle on Robben Island, to spend time at home in bed when sick in 1727, etc. If he were Jonker van Makassar whose children were all FREE since at least 1719 or born FREE threafter as clearly evidenced in the Opgaafrolle, the Prince would not have needed to request authorities manumit his children in 1733.
There is thus ample proof and absolutely no doubt that Jonker van Makassar the South African JONKER stamvader is definitely not the same person as the exiled Prince Catchiri Daijman Mamoedi van Ternate!
