| Notes |
- from Riga. Arrived at the Cape 1745, as a soldier. Burgher 1746, surgeon at Drakenstein. Died 24 Apr 1782 on his farm «i»Simonsvlei«/i», near Klapmuts.
His marriage to his first wife Susanna Taillefer is recorded in the records of the Drakenstein church as "«i»Edward Christiaan Hauman van Riga Burger van Drakensteyn J.M. and Susanna Talefair van Cabo de Goede Hoop J.D"
«/i»He appears in the 1760 «i»Opgaafrol«/i» (Census), his wife is not listed so he was presumably recently widowed. He has 1 son and 1 daughter - probably Pieter Eduard and Maria Elisabeth. He owns 7 male slaves and 1 female slave, 2 boy slaves and 2 girl slaves. He has 30 horses, 30 cattle and 300 sheep.
An extensive descriiption of his ownership of the farm «i»Simonsvlei«/i» can be found in "Simonsvlei, the story of a farm and its people, 1691-1999" by Margaret Cairns, published by the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa. The section dealing with his ownership of the farm (from 1764 to 1782) is reproduced verbatim here:
"Haumann hailed from Riga in Livonia and arrived in the Cape in 1745 as a soldier, becoming a free-burgher a year later. He described himself as a "surgeon". Preserved documents suggest that he possessed a reasonable
knowledge of medical procedures since he was for seven years attached to the «i»Compagnie Invalides te Drakestein«/i».
Within two years of his arrival he was able to purchase the farm Paarl Diamant. In addition he held for short periods Lubek and Fredericksburg, Bethlehem, Conterman's Kloof and Belvidere, a Cape Town property. His number of wives almost matched that of his land holdings, with four marriages in eighteen years. Two of his children, a son
and a daughter, and his last wife, survived him. Haumann acquired Stellengift in January 1764, when married to his
third wife, but once more tragedy dogged him. His young son died in 1765 and the mother a year later, leaving Haumann again with two children.
In 1767 he married his fourth and last wife, Helena Catharina Krugel, aged 17 years. She and her step-children Pieter and Maria were thus in their teens, and that a close bond grew between them is shown by their use of her name repeatedly for their future children rather than that of
their own biological mothers. Helena remained mistress of Stellengift for fifty-five years, the latter part of which brought the farm and its inhabitants before the public eye as it had never appeared before, nor has it since.
That rather more than usual is known about the Haumann life style is due to the night spent on their farm by the Swedish traveller, Anders Sparrman. On the whole Haumann, "a brisk, lively old fellow", does not seem to have created a very favourable impression. He arrived home after dark, hot and dirty to find the cool, young Sparrman sitting and talking to Helena in the «i»voorhuis«/i», while he enjoyed the hospitality of the house
.
Immediately Haumann was on the defensive and tried to convince the visitor that he too, despite appearances, was a man of education. After he had displayed what Sparrman called "his few good books and a heap of trash" he buried himself with the history of Josephus "in order to convince
me of his attachment to study". Helena retired to bed. Sparrman viewed Haumann as a "choleric piece of goods". Apparently the young man had been disturbed at an early hour by "the horrid shrieks of January and February who were undergoing the discipline of their master's lash because the horse had not been found".
Helena emerges from the traveller's pages as the antithesis of her husband, a "generous, good kind of woman as one would wish to see". He gathered the impression that she was "phlegmatic", though the food he was served he damned as "hung beef or rather buffalo flesh". Census figures reveal that Haumann was both an able and successful
farmer. No «i»knegt «/i»is ever recorded but his annual slave tally was about 25. Wine production increased yearly and in 1775 he reached his peak of 100 leaguers (571,5 hectalitres). Presumably he was his own wine maker and in
the year of his death, 1782, 25 leaguers (142,875 hectalitres) of red and white wine, and 4,5 leaguers (25,717 hectalitres) of brandy was still in his wine cellar. Based on these figures, Haumann could be placed in the average-to-rich bracket of wine farmers. In addition to the above,
Haumann reaped a good crop of wheat each year and a flock of 500-600 sheep. Cattle and horses were also there in some numbers. Haumann died in 1782 and a most precise survey of his possessions was prepared. The absence in the estate papers of any medical account suggests that he had not suffered from an illness and that he died suddenly.
Ten years previously, Sparrman had described the house as
"substantial". However, the dwelling itself does not seem to have been altered much since van Laar's day, but the furnishings were lavish. They included two «i»muurcastjes«/i», with displayed porcelain, pictures, a grandfather clock, two eating tables, a collection of weapons (perhaps a hobby as they included an «i»assegaai«/i»), a bookcase of books, pipe racks and a telescope.
When the inventory was compiled almost two months after Haumann's death (an unusually long gap), the personal possessions of husband and wife had already been placed in two rooms each with a curtained bed.
Helena had a cupboard for her clothes, a table with her brushes and sewing box, and four gilt-framed pictures. In Haumann's room his "medicine chest and apothecary's scale" were also housed. The outbuildings within the long enclosing walls of the «i»werf «/i»were extensive. There is no specific mention of slave quarters; possibly the twenty men and ten women of 1782 slept in the barn, not an unusual
occurrence, or quarters might not be mentioned because there were no sale items there.
All agricultural activities were catered for. A «i»vleeschhok «/i»(meat room), «i»bakhuys «/i»(bakery), «i»kleyn en groot wynkelders «/i»(small and large wine cellars), «i»stookhuys «/i»(for distilling brandy) and a barn were all listed. That all
or some of these buildings had pitched roofs is evidenced by the three «i»solders «/i»mentioned. No «i»pershuys «/i»was noted, possibly the press was in the wine cellar. Several wagons were available for transport, also a chaise, which would have carried the Haumanns and Sparrman to church had rain
not intervened.
This represented the empire created largely by the industrious Haumann and it now devolved solely on his wife Helena."
The same journal records the details of the inventory taken at his death, also recorded here:
"Now there is a gap of some thirty years before the next inventory was taken in 1782. Once again the farm is named Stellengift, lying in Simon's Valley. Once again the assets of the estate were evaluated. The intervening years saw the consolidation of significant architectural developments in the Cape as the colony reached a hundred years of VOC
settlement and a certain maturity of its own style, language and culture. Still comprising «i»voorhuijs«/i», rooms to left and right, a side room reappears as well as the rear room from previous inventories. The back kitchen remains in place, but separate pantries are not listed. Significantly, there are some furniture and fittings in the house that indicate the new, post-1760s fashions.
In the «i»voorhuijs «/i»the standing clock is still the most valuable item of furniture, but a pair of wall-cupboards have been built into the walls in which to display porcelain tea sets and decorative garniture pots. A corner cupboard for glassware and a pair of «i»rustbanken «/i»also show that the Hauman family was keeping an eye on what their urban contemporaries were acquiring. There is a feeling of symmetry and order. The wall racks still remain, however, from the earlier style of furnishing, and some items are
described as "old" by the appraisers.
The right-hand room now has red hangings on the bed and in the windows and red and yellow velvet chair cushions. It does not seem quite as smart as the previous family kept it. The left-hand room has blue bed hangings, with a torn curtain in the window. This inventory suggests that the right-hand room probably had two windows (two «i»ophaal gordijnen «/i»are listed, i.e. cloth blinds raised and lowered by means of cords and pulleys) but the room to left had a single pull-up curtain. The absence of a curtain in the z«i»ijde camertje «/i»beyond, however, did not mean there was no window.
The room may have been given an external door instead.
Medicines, the family silverware, a porcelain chamber pot, books and guns were kept in the left-hand room, as before. It seems that the master of the household inevitably met his Maker in this room. The side room and small back room, however, had become stores for old furniture, tools, kitchen wares and chests, like the «i»solder «/i»above. The kitchen
remained the centre of the productive hard work of the household. Four chimney chains and seven iron pots indicate an extensive hearth.
The external room to the side of the house is listed again. It may still have provided accommodation for a «i»knegt«/i», alongside saddles and horse tack. The other outbuildings on the farm have also been developed since the 1750s. There is now a special meat room, a bake-house, the smithy
(now also with «i»solder«/i»), a corn crib, the large wine cellar and a smaller one, and finally the distilling shed and barn with wagons.
The valuable horses are described in considerable detail – those suitable for pulling wagons, a riding horse, assorted geldings and mares – and the pigs have reappeared in the list. There are more slaves than before: twenty-three men and seven women. This time some slaves of African
origin (from Mozambique) are listed, as well as those from Madagascar, Bengal, Mallabaar and people born at the Cape. All the women except one were Cape-born."
- van Riga. Aank, 1745, soldaat. Burger 1746, chirurgyn op Drakenstein. gesterf: 24 Apr 1782 op sy plaas "Simon Valley", Drakenstein, getroud: 3 Aug 1749 Susanna Taillefer; hertroud: 3 Dec 1752 Susanna Marais; opnuut hertroud: 7 Jun 1761 Maria Rossouw; xxxx 8 Feb 1767 Helena Catharina Krugel.
1760 Opgaafrol:
Sequence: «tab»0348
Surname Husband: «tab»Hauman
First Name Husband: «tab»Eduard Christiaan
Number Of Males: «tab»1
Number Of Boys: «tab»1
Number Of Girls: «tab»1
Number Of Males Slaves: «tab»7
Number Of Women Slaves: «tab»1
Number Of Boy Slaves: «tab»2
Number Of Girl Slaves: «tab»2
Number Of Horses: «tab»30
Number Of Cattle: «tab»30
Number Of Sheep: «tab»300
Wheat Sown: «tab»10
Wheat Harvested: «tab»100
Old Sequence: «tab»348
District: «tab»Cape District
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- 1782