Ds. G. Croeser

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Full name: Gerhardus Croeser (sometimes noted as G.C. Croeser)

Lifespan: c.1731 Netherlands¹ - 1770 Malmesbury [39] (some sources say he was born in 1720)

Occupation: NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed) minister

Timeline

Biography

Family

In 1754 he married Geertruijd (or Gertruyd) Sprakel (1724 Netherlands - 1761 Zwartland [37]) in the Netherlands - they had one child.

In 1762 he married twice widowed Johanna Christina (Delitschz / Delits) later Swedberg (1725 Cape - ? Cape) - they had three children.

Life

Born in the Netherlands, he was the son of a Dutch NHK minister. After he completed his theological studies at the University of Groningen, he was admitted as a candidate for the ministry in the Reformed Church in 1753. In the course of that year, Candidate Croeser made himself available for service in the East Indian Church, after which he was called to one of the Cape congregations by the Classis of Amsterdam on 8 January 1754 and ordained as a minister on 1 April. Croeser and his wife arrived at the Cape in September 1754. Croeser was appointed by the Political Council as the second minister of the mother congregation. On 7 October, he was introduced to the church council, after which he assumed his duties.

"In October 1752 the reverend Hendrik Kroonenburg arrived from Europe and was stationed at Capetown, In Joachim van Plettenberg. In January 1753 Mr. Van der Spuy was transferred to Drakenstein, at his own request, when Mr. Van Echten returned to Holland. The Cape church was then again under the care of a single clergyman until September 1754, when the reverend Gerhardus Croeser arrived from Europe, and was inducted as second pastor. In November 1755, under an arrangement between themselves of which the government approved, Mr. Croeser went to Zwartland and Mr. Voltelen came to Capetown."²

Rev. Croeser had been working in his first congregation for barely a year when he and Rev. Voltelen of the Swartland (Malmesbury) congregation agreed, with the approval of the Political Council and the two respective church councils, to exchange posts.

A dreaded smallpox epidemic was ravaging the country at the time. Around 1759, the church council decided that the grounds surrounding the church building could henceforth be used as a graveyard. Mrs Gertruyd Croeser, about whom we know little and who passed away in 1761, was buried in the new graveyard.

In the course of the1760s, Rev. Croeser's health began to decline, with the result that for a considerable time he could no longer properly fulfill his official duties in the extensive rural congregation. After a "lingering illness" (zukkelende ziekte) that lasted two years, he passed away on 25 March 1770. He was buried inside the church building beneath the precentor's seat, directly in front of the pulpit.

Croeser was the progenitor of the Croeser family tree in South Africa.

Sources

  1. Rex, H.M. (1975) Hervormde Predikantsvroue sedert 1652. Die Hervormer, Jan 1975.
  2. Theal, G.M. (1922) History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi. Vol III.

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