Information found in Estate Inventories

Varies from inventory to inventory - name of deceased, spouse(s), children/heirs, ages of minor children, birth & death dates, spouses of female children/heirs, inventory of assets, monies owing to/by deceased.  Inventory of assets - early inventories, lists everything owned by the deceased, down to the number of old handkerchiefs. (MOOC8/13.10, Estate Inventory of Jacob Haager – ‘5 oude neusdoeken’.)

As far as I know, this is the only database where one can search for names in a document of another person – to put it grandly: information encapsulated in a data source – and this provides interesting snippets of information.

Warning: It is not always clear from the information in the Estate Inventories who the person is that is being referred to or the location of property. More research is usually required.

MOOC8/13.10, 1766.07.25, Estate of Jacob Haager. Jan Cillie is the executor of the estate and sole heir. There are only two known Jan Cillie’s for this period, one died in 1755 and the other died a month before Jacob Haager. Possibly it’s the latter Jan Cillie, but this could not be confirmed.

MOOC8/17.31a, 1779.05.22, Estate of Dirk Pretorius. Amongst others, Dirk Pretorius owed money to Henricus Kronenburg and Johannes le Sueur.

MOOC8/20.45, Undated, Estate of Maria Lombard & Pieter Willem van Zyl. Money is owed to the estate by various people who bought animals from the deceased: Jacob de Villiers who bought 3 oxen and 3 cows; Willem van Zyl Frederikzn who bought 1 ox; Pieter Cilliers, Joh: Swart Jacobzn, Pieter Rossouw and Jan Gideon de Weeger who each bought a castrated sheep.

MOOC8/21.32, 1795.05.11, Estate of Josua Joubert. He owned the farm Welbedagt situated in the Wagenmakers Vallij and a homestead on two loan farms: Elands Jagt situated on the Molenaars Rivier in de Toits Cloof and de Varkens Kop situated in agter de Sneewberg, in Brakke Riviers Veld.

MOOC8/39.28, 1822.01.21, Estate of Elisabeth Catharina van der Westhuizen. Amongst other debt, money is owed to Guill: Joh:s Oberholzer M:l z:n for a wagon he made; to Rudolph Nagel for looking after 15 horses for 7 months and to Ger:t Pet:s Visser Jan z:n for cash borrowed from him.

MOOC8/40.67, 1823.06.03, Estate of Richard Stear. He was born in London and died on 16 April 1823 at 3pm on the farm of Hermanus Steyn Joh:s zoon, named Leuwe Rivier, situated in the district of Swellendam.

Moveable Property of Deceased in Estate Inventories

Sometimes the inventory is a long list of moveable property without any indication of its location, but some inventories do list the location of the moveable property.

The inventory of Jan Christiaan Roode (MOOC8/13.59, 1768.01.08) is an example.
In the room on the right (camer ter regterhand), in the kitchen (combuijs), in the attic/loft
(zolder), in the cellar (kelder), in the stable (stal), etc.

This inventory has many references to wigs (paruijke) which gives the impression that
the deceased was either a wigmaker or traded in materials required to make wigs.

The inventory of Elisabeth Catharina van der Westhuizen (MOOC8/39.28, 1822.01.21), on the other hand, is an example of the other kind.

There are four pages listing miscellaneous movable property: 1 crow-bar (koevoet), 4 spades (graaven), 2 pieces of wood (stukken hout), 1 old bed (oude katel), 1 small bottle of turpentine (botteltje terpentyn), 5 cups (kopjes) & 10 saucers (pierings), 1 woollen blanket (wolle combaars), 132 buttons (11 doezyn knoopen), 2 hats (hoeden), 1 silver watch (zilver horlogie), 3 knives (messen), 1 glass (glas), etc., etc., etc.

From many of the items listed in her inventory one gets the impression that she was a seamstress. 

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