THE SWISS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 1652-1970 - swissroots-za.ch

Cobie, Samuel born Berne [Kübli of Berner Oberland BE?], arrived 22.1.1754 on
Erfprins for Kamer Delft. 1754-1760 mason with pay fl 14, 1762 soldier, 1 1763-1770
freeman, 2 died 18.7.1773. 3 / 1 KAB, MR 1754-1760 and 1762; NL, ARA, MR 1754-
1756 and 1758-1760; 2 KAB, VC 54; 3 KAB, MOOC 6/1.
Roets, Coenraad born Appenzell 1725 [Rutz?], arrived 22.1.1754 on Visvliet for
Kamer Zeeland. 1754-1761 soldier. 2 Appears to have returned to Switzerland and
arrived back at Cape 12.1.1763 on Tulpenberg for Kamer Zeeland. 1763-1767 soldier. 2
/ KAB, VC 166; 2 KAB, MR 1754-1756, 1758, 1760-1761 and 1763-1767; NL, ARA,
MR 1754-1757,1759-1761, 1763 and 1765-1767.
Yselle / Esseling / Yssel / Iseli, Jan Christiaan born in 1732 1 on the farm Bärgli near
Hasle BE [Iseli of Hasle BE. The now also spelled Yssel after clergy who studied in
Holland associated the name with the Yssel lake], 2 arrived 22.1.1754 on Visvliet for
Kamer Zeeland. 1754-1759 soldier, initially sick. Had part of his pay sent home.
10.7.1760 burgher earning his living as tailor. 5 Married 26.9.1762 Johanna Dororthea
van Daalen baptised 18.11.1742, illegitimate daughter of Gustavus Dale and Johanna
Franken. They had nine children. Johanna died January 1781. 6
Only once, 12.10.1773 did Yselle loan a man from the Castle, namely the sailor
Willem Steer of Hamburg, as servant at his house, but the contract was cancelled
prematurely 31.7.1774. 7 It appears from later census returns that he preferred to work
with slaves. 8
Yselle prospered. He bought a house by T4913 dated 22.4.1777 from the estate of the
late Lodewyk Trichtner (sold 1801 by T349 to Martha Hurlingh) and another by T7291
dated 1.12.1797 from insolvent estate of Joachim Daniel Hiebner (sold 1818 by T647).
Then on 13.3.1793 he bought by T6696 a house on corner Berg and Church Street,
possibly on speculation, as he sold it within a year to Catharina Johanna de Wet, widow
of Pieter Ludovicus Le Sueur.
After the death of Johanna Dorothea, Yselle on 3.3.1782 married Anne Albertine
Bienvignon of Morges VD, 9 who may have arrived at the Cape at the beginning of 1780
as personal maid to Colonel Robert Gordon’s bride, Susanna Margaretha Nicolet of
Lignerolle NE. They had four children. 9
A HOUSEHOLD DESCRIBED
In 1800 Yselle and his wife, togther with their nine children including those from
Yselle’s first marriage, lived at 32 Longmarket Street in a house which besides using
one room as tailorshop, they shared with two boarders – an English officer with two
servants and a bottler with one slave. The Yselles also had six male slaves, six female
slaves and 6 slave children of their own on the premises. Somehow Mrs. Yselle
managed to cope with so large a number of people in the house and at the same time
keep open house for officers of the Regiment Meuron who passed through the Cape. 8
Anna was described by all and sundry as a kind hearted woman and maybe it was she
who persuaded her husband to manumit two of their slaves: Carolina of the Cape in
1791 10 and the slave boy Lourens born in Pondicherry in 1807. 11
Yselle died 18.5.1807, at the age of 75. 12 His children by Johanna Dorothea van
Daalen:
1. Johan Christiaan baptised 1.4.1764, farmer in the Field Cornetcy Lower Zeekoei
River, District Cradock.
2. August Ernst baptised 30.6.1765.
3. Godlieb Fredericus baptised 25.10 1767, died 11.2.1782 of enteric fever? See 7.
below.
4. Gabriel Ernst baptised 18.2.1770, left Cape Town 29.10.1789 with attestation for
Swellendam and became burgher of Graaff-Reinet, farming in the Field Cornetcy
Upper Zeekoei River, District Cradock
5. Johanna Maria baptised 19.4.1772, died 30.5.1772.
6. Johanna Magdalena baptised 25.4.1773, died 1773? George Wanner of Schaffhausen
and his wife were her godparents.
3 & 4
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