Peter Johannes Ernst is the first son from the second marriage of Pieter Johannes Booyens with Sophia Aletta Jacoba Fredrika Snyman and is born on Schilpadbeen farm, southwest of Willowmore. The first time we meet him after his baptism, is as 8 year old boy at the time the inventory of his recently departed father [#1] is done on 6 December 1832. The inventory states: Procreated in wedlock with Aletta Snyman: Piet Booysen 8 years of age The inventory proves that the family is desperately poor. Besides four plates, five spoons, three forks and one bed, they have a few utensils and tools, and an old ox-wagon with only 3 draught oxen.

The next time we run into Peter is at his marriage to Maria Susanna Jacoba Stander in the George parish of the Dutch Reformed Church on 21 May 1855. He is described as "Wagenmaker - Camnatie". So, he is a wagon builder in the Kammanassie region of the Little Karroo. This places him nearer the present day De Rust, rather than at Schilpadbeen. He signs his name as Petrus Johannes Booijyens.

Maria gives Peter three children. The first, a daughter named for Maria's mother Anna Sophia de Swardt, dies before the age of 17, because she is never confirmed in the church.

Pieter features in Chapters 13 and 14 of the book AmaBhulu.

When Peter dies of a stroke in 1897 at the Booyens "headquarters" of Rietvlei, the national death notice describes him as a carpenter while his Cape Civil Death notice describes him as a Graan Boür (crop farmer). His daughter's husband, Johannes Hendrik Booyens, is present at his passing, and signs the Civil Death Notice. On this document, the writing by a certain Coetzee is arcane in the extreme and his surname is written as Boüyans.

For the references, see below^#