Maria Van Ryneveld ¹ ^,2 ^,3

Born: 1788, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa ² ^,3
Christened: 4 May 1788, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa ¹
Marriage (1): Maj. Charles George Napier R. A. on 31 Jul 1809 ¹ ^,2
Died: 4 Nov 1829, Walmer, Kent, England aged 41 ³
Buried: 11 Nov 1829, Walmer, Kent, England

Family Links

Spouses/Children:

1. Maj. Charles George Napier R. A.

(+ Shows person has known children.)

bullet Birth Notes:

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=linsul&id=I741

bullet Christening Notes:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11558-53726-86?cc=1478678

And

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VFT9-FCN

And

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/igi/individual_record.asp?recid=500364263683&lds=1®ion=0®ionfriendly=&juris1=SAfr&juris2=&juris3=&juris4=®ionfriendly=&juris1friendly=South+Africa&juris2friendly=&juris3friendly=&juris4friendly=

And

http://ancestry24.com/wp-content/uploads/pages/Genealogies%20of%20old%20South%20African%20Families/page_02856.pdf

bullet Death Notes:

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=linsul&id=I741
Periodical
The Gentleman's Magazine
1829
p 475

And

Government Gazette, 1830
Died at Walmer, Mrs. Maria Napier, eldest daughter of the late Chief Justice W.S. van Ryneveld, 4th November 1829

bullet Burial Notes:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/recordDetails/show?uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.r/M88F-BFX/p1

And

https://www.familysearch.org/search/recordDetails/show?uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.r/M8D4-9QD/p1

bullet Sources of information or noted events in her life were:

• Inheritance. ² Inherited £930.44 from an estate administered by the Board of Orphan Masters.

Government Gazette, 1830, under Affairs of Orphan Chamber.
Amounts standing to the credit of:- Maria van Ryneveld married to Charles George Napier: 930 Rds, 44st, standing to her credit in the Orphan Chamber.

• Web Based Info. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=linsul&id=I741

And

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/igi/individual_record.asp?recid=500364263683&lds=1®ion=0®ionfriendly=&juris1=SAfr&juris2=&juris3=&juris4=®ionfriendly=&juris1friendly=South+Africa&juris2friendly=&juris3friendly=&juris4friendly=

And

http://databases.tanap.net/mooc/make_pdf.cfm?output=pdf&id=MOOC8/43.46

• General Comment. ¹ According to family lore and told by many of the older members of the family, Maria was very beautiful, so much so in fact, that she was known in Europe as the "African Princess".

She is reputed to have been, with many of the officer's wives, in Brussels during the battle of Waterloo. It was told how on the night after the battle she met on the battlefield her brother Capt. Willem Cornelis van Ryneveld, whom she had not seen for many years. There are two versions of the story: one that when they met she was walking behind the gun-carriage on which her wounded husband was lying (Napier was in the Royal Horse Artillery and had received several wounds to the head, body and hands, and whose thigh was broken in two places); the other that Willem knocked on the cottage door and it was opened by his sister Maria and her husband, with other wounded officers and men lying within. Maria is reputed to have divested herself of most of her undergarments to make bandages for the wounded.

Extract from a letter written by Willem Cornelis van Ryneveld Major SAP (1855 - 1936) eldest son of Daniel Johannes (1833 - 1917), grandson of Willem Cornelis, great-grandson of Willem Stephanus.

"Captain Napier, Grandfather's brother-in-law, was a Captain in the artillery and took part in the battle of Waterloo. Just before the battle of Waterloo a wing of the 93rd Highlanders which had been stationed in Ireland was ordered to join the main army under the Duke of Wellington at Brussels, but arrived there a day after the battle of Waterloo had been fought. My Grandfather then ascertained that his bother-in-law, Captain Napier, had been severely wounded (possibly had his leg amputated) and moved to a chalet in the vicinity of the battlefield. He went from cottage to cottage to find Capt. Napier and he ultimately discovered that he was in a certain cottage & upon knocking at the door, which was answered by his sister, Maria Napier, who had accompanied her husband to Brussels previous to the battle of Waterloo.

My Grandfather then had Capt. Napier together with another English officer removed to Brussels."

Maria married Maj. Charles George Napier R. A., son of John Napier and Mary Walsh, on 31 Jul 1809 ¹.^,2 (Maj. Charles George Napier R. A. was born on 1 Mar 1787 in Tintinhull, Somerset, England and died about 1846 in , Cape Province, South Africa.)

bullet Sources of information or n events in their marriage were:

• Web Based Info. Supplement to SA Commercial Advertiser August 1830 - OrphanChamber N-R
RYNEVELD, Maria van, married to Charles George NAPIER
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-CAPE/2007-11/1196296781

And

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA/2007-11/1196325759

And

http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/viewnewspaperarchivepage.aspx?highlight= van ryneveld&pdfurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearchapi.newspaperarchive.com%2fPDTTracking.aspx%3fAPIKEY%3d7cdfe695-082c-4340-a196-f64189e96331-adk5164e1%26IMAGEID%3d936224&title=Edinburgh+Advertiser%2c+Tuesday%2c+December+26%2c+1809%2c+Edinburgh%2c+Midlothian%2c+United+Kingdom

• General Comment. ² Extract from Government Gazette, 5th August 1809
"Marriages - Married by the Rev Dr. Halloran on Monday 31st July 1809, Charles Napier of Tintenhall in the County Somerset Esq., Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and one of the Aides de Camp to His Excellency the Governor and Commander in Chief, The Earl of Caledon to Miss Maria van Ryneveld, the daughter of the Chief Justice."

Note: Dr. Halloran who was the Military Chaplain was officiating under assumed or forged orders.

Van Ryneveld Table of Contents | Van Ryneveld Surnames | Van Ryneveld Name List

There will inevitably be errors and omissions and the whole purpose of creating this online record, is to invite feedback and corrections.
The data is specifically for non-commercial use and my clear intention is to build family records. The data may, therefore, not be used in any way for the purposes of financial gain.

Caveat:- Throughout the project UK GRO birth, marriage and death index data appears. The GRO data appears in Quarters. Q1 = January, February and March, Q2 = April, May, June , Q3 = July, August and September and Q4 = October, November and December. Similarly, Mar Q = January, February and March, Jun Q = April, May, June , Sep Q = July, August and September and Dec Q = October, November and December. Where these dates occur, they represent the date of Registration of the event rather than the date of the actual event. Logically, registration occurs AFTER the event. In some cases this may be days or months or even years after the event. The important thing is that the event was recorded and a copy of the document of registration could be obtained if necessary. This also applies to South African NAAIRS records.

Similarly, the UK system is confusing to the uninitiated because registration districts can span several counties. Accordingly GRO locations may not record the true location of the event. They do record where the record is actually kept or recorded.

Caveat #2:- I have used URL's throughout the website as sources. The URLs are often from paid subscription sites so you may not be able to access them without an account. Inevitably there are broken URL's. I have been to every URL recorded here and at the time they were operational. In this regard, the Ancestry24 records are a problem. There are numerous references in the South African data citing Ancestry24 records. Unfortunately Ancestry24 has closed down and these records are no longer available on line.

The early South African records on this site would not have been as good as they are without the work done by Delia Robertson. Where there are website addresses containing http://www.e-family.co.za... I record the citation should read Robertson, Delia. The First Fifty Years Project. This website can be found at First Fifty Years

Maria Van Ryneveld 1,2,3

Maria Van Ryneveld ¹ ^,2 ^,3