Jan CELLIER, b2

Notes:

Burger Drakenstein. Dragoon of Klein Drakenstein Burger Commando 1740-1744. He was christened about 1702, the exact date could not be found as the Paarl Christening Registers for the period 1702 to 1714 are incomplete. On his father's estate inventory of December 1722, his age is given as 20. He lived with his unmarried brothers and sisters with his mother on the farm until he married the widow Anna Marais. She was illiterate but it is unknown whether Jan was also illiterate as no document could be found containing his signature. He began married life with three step children, two sons and a daughter between the ages of 2 and 4 years. His stepdaughter Anna Rossouw in 1747 married his younger brother Abraham (b7) while his stepson Gabriel Rossouw in 1747 married his sister (b5) Francina's daughter Elisabeth le Roux and after her death he remarried in 1748 with Jan's sister (b4) Elisabeth's daughter Maria Elisabeth Malherbe. Anna Marais' first husband, Gabriel Rossouw, owned the farm Druiwevallei [Grape Valley] in the Wellington environs where he kept about 30 cattle, 50 sheep and a few horses. He also sowed wheat. On her marriage to Jan, the farm of about 30 morgen became his property. He initially continued the farming started by Gabriel Rossouw and also started sowing rye and barley. During 1735 he planted 5,000 vine cuttings and in the following years produced up to 20 "lêers" (11,547 liter) wine. On 27 September 1743 an additional piece of land of 36 morgen 571 square rods was allocated to Druiwevallei. In 1744 Anna Marais inherited the farm Kykuit [Look out] in Daljosaphat, Paarl (55 morgen 415 square rods) from an unmarried cousin Charles Marais and this also became Jan's property. The number of vines increased with this inheritance from 5,000 to 20,000. Jan stayed owner of both farms until his death at age 53 in about 1755. Just before his death he, according to the "opgaafrolle" [return rolls] owned in addition to his vines, also 12 horses, 30 cattle, 300 sheep, 11 slaves and a female slave while his estate inventory listed 23 horses, 165 cattle and 300 sheep. He probably kept most of his loan farm Brakfontein [Cur (dog) fountain]. Apart from the fact that this farm was "over de berg" [over the mountain] in the Riviersonderend [River without end]area, the location is not known. Shortly after Jan's death, his widow sold the farm Druiwevallei to Petrus Louw, the future father in law of two of her grandsons, and farmed until her death in 1765 on Kykuit. She, however, stopped planting crops in 1757. After her death, her oldest Cilliers son Jan (b2c1) inherited the farm Kykuit at the amount of 6,000 gulden Indian currency and after his death about a year later, it became the property of her only remaining Cilliers son, Jozua Carel (b2c6).

Jan married Anna MARAIS, a1b2c9 on 5 Dec 1728 in Paarl, Cape, South Africa. Anna was born in 1707 in Swellendam, Cape, South Africa; was christened in 1707; died on 11 Jan 1765 in District Drakenstein, Cape, South Africa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]