Arrival at the Cape

Maarten van Staden and his wife Catharina Willemsz would seem to have arrived at the Cape perhaps in 1687, since in that year, he was apparently granted a farm, named Bloemendal, situated in what would become the Simondium district of Drakenstein (now Paarl), and in 1688 they appear in the muster and opgaaf rolls for the first time with four sons and 2 daughters, under the Cape District. By 1690 they are listed in the muster rolls as living in Drakenstein.

He was born in Haarlem around 1638 and she in Giesen Nieuwkerk, near Gorcum, around 1647. 

Thanks to information received from Frank Witschge we now know that between 1675 and 1685 Marten van Staden lived near Utrecht, first in Werkhoven, then at Doorn where he worked as gardener to the Huis te Doorn. It was at Werkhoven that he married Catharina Willemsz on 25 November 1677. 

In 1697 Maarten was appointed one of the Heemraden (local councillor in effect) for the Drakenstein district. People appointed to this position were usually of some standing in the community. 

Maarten had previously been married to Maria Ernst van Amerongen, who had presumably died towards the end of the 1670's and we only know of one son, Marthinus van Staden, who accompanied his father and step mother to the Cape. In 1705 he signed a document renouncing his maternal inheritance, which until then had remained in his father's possession, and Marten and Catharina declared in their will that he, Marthinus, had provided so many services and benefits to their family that he was to receive from their eventual estate an equal share with their other children.  

According to the membership records of the Drakenstein Congregation, Marten van Staden died on the 7th November 1716 and Catharina Willemsz not long afterwards on the 17th April 1717. Their estate was distributed to their heirs through a document dated 18th July 1718.

The children of Maarten van Staden
I am still researching their family but here is what I have found out so far:

His child by Maria Ernst van Amerongen
  
1. Marthinus van Staden, born circa 1675,
baptised 6 June 1675 at Werkhoven, Utrecht and
died somewhere between 6th September and the
end of  December 1707.  He lived at the Paarl Diamant.
He married Aletta Schalks (van der Merwe) probably 
in 1701, and presumably at Drakenstein. On 14th of 
August, 1708, she married Claas Jansz van Rensburg.
He left two children:
Maria van Staden, baptised Cape Town 22 January 1702, 
married Drakenstein 19 November 1719 to Francois Smit
Marthinus van Staden, born probably in 1706, 
married Catharina Botha circa 1729.

His children by Catharina Willemsz
 
2. Maria van Staden, born circa 1678, baptised 22 December 1678
at Werkhoven, Utrecht, and died circa 1723.
She married twice, first to Claas Ras around 1696 and after he 
died in 1713, she married Lambert Engels.
At the time of her death she farmed at Weltevreden in Stellenbosch.
 
3. Maurits Louis van Staden, born circa 1680,
baptised 11 July 1680 at Werkhoven, Utrecht
and died circa 1713. 
On the 13th April 1710 at Stellenbosch, he married 
Johanna van den Bosch, the widow of Johannes Bocklenberg.
He left two children, Katrijna and Maurits van Staden, 
but they do not seem to have survived into adulthood.

4. Jan van Staden, born around 1681,
baptised 10 November 1681 at Doorn, Utrecht,
he died in 1714, apparently unmarried and without children. 

5. Caspara van Staden, born circa 1683. 
probably baptised at Doorn, Utrecht 27 May 1683.
Evidence from the church baptismal registers and the
muster rolls suggest that she was married to Pieter Grijs
by 1700 and that she died in 1713, without leaving any
children.

6. Willem van Staden, born circa 1685 at Utrecht. 
baptised 15 March 1685 at Doorn near Utrecht.
He married Cornelia Venter on the 14th February 1717 at Drakenstein.
When she died in 1747 there were six surviving children, four daughters
and two sons.

7. Lijsbet van Staden, born circa 1690 and died circa February 1714.  
She married Matthijs Krugel and left two children, 
Margareta and Christina Krugel.

8. Pieternella van Staden, born circa 1692 and died circa 1739.
She married twice, first to Claas Prinsloo and secondly to Louis Jordaan. 
She left four Prinsloo children, and three Jordaan children.

Thanks to research by:
 Richard Ball
who would have been unable to do this research without the help of André Kellerman, Helena Liebenberg, Graham Lloyd and Frank Witschge.

This family will be found on his web site at:
http://www.ballfamilyrecords.co.uk/staden/I057.html
and there is a note on the Utrecht origins of the family here:
http://www.ballfamilyrecords.co.uk/notes/VanStadenOrigin.html

SOURCES: