Barend Matthys Booyens (ca.30 March 1785

The first time we find Barend beyond the baptisms of his first two children is as Barend Matthys Boyens on the 1812 Graaff-Reinet Opgaaf where he is listed unnumbered at the very back of the opgaaf under "Nagekomen Opgaven" (late returns), along with wife Elizabeth Venter, one son & one daughter, one Hottentot girl under 14 years, 16 head of cattle, 61 sheep, and a wagon with 8 draught oxen [#1].

The 1814 Opgaaf (the book is dated 1815) done between February and March 1815 shows he is in the Traka wyk [#2] with his wife, one daughter and one son. His uncle Petrus Johannes also lives in the district, as does his eldest sister, Elisabeth Catharina and her husband David Frederik Senekal.

Barend and Elizabeth eventually have three sons and five daughters, the last three of whom are baptized in the new Beaufort Parish. Only his youngest son will remain in the Cape Colony, eldest brother Matthys trekking north to the Boer Republics. Barent will live out his life on the plains of the South Karoo, between the Swartberg Mountains and the Nuweveld Mountains or, as they are called further to the east, the Sneeuberge. The view in the image below, taken from the lookout pint at the "Valley of Desolation" near Graaff-Reinet, covers that plain.

His eldest daughter, Johanna Jacomina, better known as "Jenny", marries a Scot named James Nehemia Wright, a British Army soldier who takes discharge at the Cape in 1816. The marriage in 1823 is the earliest in the Booyens family tree between any member of the family and a person of British descent. James will remain a staunch member of the Dutch Reformed Church throughout his life and the baptisms of their children may be followed in the baptism books of the Beaufort Dutch Reformed parish.

In 1824 the Opgaafrol of the Beaufort district [#3] places Barend in the Traka wyk with one son and three daughters. They have 6 slaves, 553 sheep and one wagon with 10 draught oxen. He also has some 41 goats. The 1826 Opgaaf [#4] shows them as having one son and three daughters, eight "Hottentots", one wagon with ten draught oxen, 500 sheep and 40 goats. The 1828 Beaufort Opgaaf still places them in the Traka [#5]. Similarly, the tattered 1829 Opgaafrol [#6] has him in the Beaufort District. He now has a wagon, 6 oxen, and 105 sheep. His son Matthys has a separate entry.

Barend makes a brief appearance in Chapter 9 of the book AmaBhulu.

For the references, see below^#