Cape of Good Hope - Madame Stakmann of Boom Street
In a previous discussion I mentioned that I will be writing a bit more on this unremarkable looking wrapper addressed to Madame Exter Stackmann at the Cabo de Bonne Esperance, Boom Street.
The handwriting points that it was not written by an official or a clerk and it was a private letter. So who was Exter? We know from the wrapper that she lived in Boom Street which I understand now is called the Commercial Street and is in the center the old town near the Cape Castle. Her name appears in The African court calendar (1813) as Exter, Widow Gabriel, 6, Boom Street. There is no other entries for Exter so I am pretty sure about the record which now is online thanks to the coronovirus [1]. Exter is an unusual surname possibly of German origin. Stakmann her diseased husband, does not appear in any records that I could find and was thinking given that the letter was sent in c1813 he could have been one of the soldiers of the Württemberg Cape Regiment. Wikipedia has a good article about the regiment which arrived in Cape Town in 1786.
The unit was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope toward the end of the 18th century, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and which played a considerable part in the cultural life of the Cape at that time.
In 1786 Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg concluded an agreement with the DEIC to furnish a regiment of 2000 men to the DEIC for the sum of 300 000 guilders. Any soldiers falling away would be replaced by new recruits on payment of an annual subsidy of 65 000 guilders.
As a result, eleven military units under the command of fifty officers were dispatched in 1787 to the Cape via Holland. When they reached their destination seven months later 143 of the recruits had died as a result of privations.
In 1791 most of these soldiers were sent on to India, where almost all of them died. A small group of thirteen non-commissioned officers and soldiers stayed on at the Cape and found a refuge there. Several married Cape Town women.
Looking for the name in safrika.org Stakmann is listed as the only Stakmann as Stakmann, Johann, Majoor (Tweede Majoor), Venloo. [2]
This is probably the earliest cover that I have with a street address.
[1] https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3879336&view=1up&seq=90
[2] http://www.safrika.org/Names/WR%20Fortuin.html
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Again, this is very interesting. Which of the two owned 6 Boom Street? And what was her relationship to Major Johan Stakmann if she owned the property? You suggest he was deceased but perhaps he was still living? According to your link to the African Court Calendar she was the widow of 'Gabrel', not Major Johan Stakmann, as per your other link to the Passenger List for FORTUIN. Was she a kept woman? Unlikely, as co-habitation was unacceptable to all but the lower classes back then. Was she a slave? Slaves were not usually accorded the dignity of a surname (or am I wrong?). She was probably not a slave in the household of Major Stakmann. Few female slaves were called 'Madame', a title that suggests some degree of status. Nor, I imagine, did slaves receive letters as a general rule. My guess is that she was, as the records show, the widow of an earlier husband, Gabrel, and was now either married to Stakmann or living in his house. He had probably once worked in the Castle for the VOC and Batavians and possibly still did for the British. As a consequence of his work, he lived close to the Castle. It is possible that Stakmann was her lodger. That whole area was allied to the Castle, Barrack Street being the most obvious example. Perhaps military records are the way to go. I am keen to know what the word is between 'Exter' and 'Stakmann' in the address. This may give a small clue to their relationship. Finally what is her first name? Is her surname 'Exter'? Is she the widow of Gabrel Exter or is she Exter Stakmann? At this point I am wondering what this pre-adhesive cover has to do with philately? :>). Keep it up!
Looking at other names for widows Exter must have been her surname. She was certainly married and a widow. I have the same doubts as to Stakmann as you have due to the 'Gabriel' in the records. Maybe she had bad luck twice in a year or there can be a transcription error on the FORTUIN lists? I couldn't make what the word looking like a 'nie' in the middle meant. As you say the best is to do more research into the military records, but these are unavailable online. The British took over a system of Governance from the VOC that was absolutely bureaucratic and recorded everything, hence we find these names in published 'Almanacs'. The earlier ones include almost everyone living within the Cape. It was the job of the Warden and the Fieldcornet to also ensure that everyone was included in the records.
You have a point as to what does this have to do with philately. In my view philately is now a big tent and that has room for more that the traditional 'plating' studies and rigid rules of societies for exhibiting:)
My own interest in re-looking at these wrappers was to try and integrate them in my collection of early covers by understanding how 'normal people' dealt with their posts in those early days. Even when these covers are addressed to officials whose names are more familiar they provide a continuum to the story of the Posts. For example the attached wrapper is addressed to J. G. Cuyler as Laddrost at Uitanhage, the American Laddrost, infamous for hanging four men twice, but celebrated by the 1820 settlers.
The story is fascinating and the fact that the cover does not bear a Crown CC handstamp tells about the difficulties in the establishment of these early Posts.
Steve, I tend to open new threads as I think is also better for the search engines so hopefully the club can attract more collectors and comments in the long term. If this is not your preference please let me know.
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First, please continue opening new threads as you have done, each around a 'story' with an attached cover.
Second, I am primarily an amateur historian. Postal history is my way of gaining access to a South African past that I can work with. For me there is a big difference between philately, collecting and displaying stamps, and postal history which includes aspects of philately when there are adhesive stamps, rates and routes to consider within a cover's broader historical context. I have been very pleased to receive your contributions and genuinely want to see more of your cover material. What I have noted about the covers you have contributed so far is that they are examples of relatively ordinary, everyday mail of the period, from 'normal people', each with a fascinating human story. A lot of people looking for fancy postmarks on prettier covers miss this bigger picture.
I attach a pretty cover of mine with fancy postmarks sent by and signed by Colonel (at that time) J G Cuyler, "the American" you refer to. It seems you know all about him but for those who do not, here is a brief potted history of the hanging magistrate of Slachter's Nek. Cuyler was an fourth generation Dutch American (from the time when New York was "New Amsterdam"). He was a loyalist who had fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War. He ended up on the losing side and lost everything. His land and property in Albany, NY, was confiscated by the rebels and he was forced to flee to Canada where he joined the British Army. He was sent to the Eastern Cape where it was hoped his ability to speak Dutch would improve relations with the Boers. However, as he was a martinet with a personal hatred for anyone rebelling against authority, the British had chosen the wrong man to represent them. In hanging four Boer rebels at Slachter's Nek in March 1816, he caused deep resentment which over time has been cited as one of the grievances that led the Boers to embark on their Great Trek in 1835. Cuyler was made Landdrost (magistrate) of Uitenhage in 1817. He named the district of Albany in the Eastern Cape after his lost US lands. He proposed and assisted the 1820 British Settlers and died a General in Uitenhage in 1854 .What is interesting about Yannisl's cover is that it has no postmarks and has a pencilled-in date of 1817. The first Crown-in-Circle (CiC) town handstamps were introduced in 1817. Is it possible that Yannisl's cover was a part of the Slachter's Nek story?
The cover I have attached is from my COGH display. It was presumably written and signed by Magistrate Colonel J G Cuyler. It has a poor CiC handstamp and a nice but weak oval Cape of Good Hope Post Office datestamp of 'JU 11 1823'. This shows that it was posted after the arrival of the 1820 Settlers. It has some things going for it but does it tell more of a story than Yannisl's cover above? I don't think so.
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Thanks for expanding the story and providing your own Cuyler cover. Both covers contribute to the history of the time as Cuyler inextricably will always has his name linked to the Slachter's Nek Rebellion, the Voortrekkers and the 1820s settlers. They are also interesting from a Postal History point of view, the first with no markings whatsoever in contrast to the cover you have shown, with the two handstamps bearing witness to a better organization of the Post Office by 1823.
Another point of interest on the cover I provided was the use of colons for abbreviations (:). I am not too sure if this was used by Dutch speakers at the time, but according to wikipedia is commonly used in Sweden. Was the writer of a Swedish origin? The sender also wrote Cuyler's name using diacritics and accents!
The Crown-in-circle (CiC) are interesting on their own and I will open another thread to post a number of covers I have, and maybe you can share some from your collection for the benefit of the rest of the readers. They are hard to find in good condition and collectors tend to look down on them for this reason.
It is amazing what I miss, what I have to have it pointed out to me. For that reason alone, this thread is instructive. The use of colons between initials is curious, also the 'Y' in Cuyler with the two umlaut type dots above it. Clearly you have studied this long and hard. I also like the way you so easily define the various early historical events / periods into not and then later using postmarks through better postal organisation, all obvious and self-evident but until stated probably missed by people like me. Regarding the writer's Swedish origin, your cover is from 1817, some time after the VOC has collapsed and been liquidated (1800). Prior to that it had been in financial trouble for a long time but as the world's first multi-national company (?) it became by far Europe's biggest private employer. A huge number of people from all over Europe were employed by it. As a result, Afrikaans at the Cape grew out of Dutch, German and French and was also influenced to a lesser extent by Swedes, Swiss, Portuguese and others. (My wife is Swiss, a language that uses 'lekker', that most Afrikaans of words!) In this context, your cover is a window on this European melting pot in Africa.
Regarding the Crown-in Circle (CiC) handstamp, I have several in acceptable condition on cover which I am happy to share, of course. Almost all of them have a background story.
Re: EXTER - the start of this thread.
I have been researching the Irishman Robert Crozier, the Cape's third British Postmaster after William Caldwell and Matthew Gall. Robert Crozier had a remarkable career in the Cape Post Office, serving from 1810 - 1851 (not entirely sure about the last date). In reading about him I found this reference to where he was living 1816 - 1820 on-line in the Beaumont Project / van Ryneveld family genealogy.
1816-20+ at 6 Boom St (22). Bought house & erf, Boom St from Widow Gabriel Exter (TO 1.9.15) (172). n
He was still at the address in 1820.
21.11.18 (opgaaf, ward 35) at 6 Boom St, with wife, 2 sons, 6 prize slaves, 1 slave, 1 horse (131).
I wonder what the difference was between a 'prize slave' and a 'slave'?
As an aside, at this time the Cape Post Office was based in the 'Old Slave Lodge' at the top of Adderley Street. Boom Street was within easy walking distance.