Erasmus Jacobs

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Full name: Erasmus Stephanus Christoffel Jacobs

Lifespan: 1853 Hopetown - 1920 Worcester

Occupation: Farmer

See: Eureka diamond

Erasmus Jacobs in c.1907. (De Beers)

Personal details

Jacobs was the son of Willem Schalk Jacobs (1825 Beaufort West - 1871 Hopetown) and Helena Jacoba van Niekerk (1826 Graaff-Reinet - 1892 Kwartelspan, Hopefield). In 1881 he married Rosa Hermiena Van Niekerk (1864 - 1944) in Hopetown. They had 11 children.

Marriage certificate.

Notes

In 1867, on a farm named 'De Kalk' near Hopetown on the Orange River, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a shiny pebble. Jacobs gave it to his neighbor, farmer Schalk van Niekerk, a collector of unusual stones, who suspected its value and entrusted it to John O'Reilly. In late 1867 the diamond, later named the Eureka Diamond, was sold to Sir Philip Wodehouse for £500.
  • Schalk Jacobus van Niekerk (1828 Graaff-Reinet - 1887 Winburg) married Alettha Elisabeth du Toit (1833 - ?) in 1851.
  • Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse (1811–1887) was Governor of the Cape Colony from 1862 to 1870.

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