Arij Lekkerwijn
b. circa 1670, d. 1697
He married Marie de Lanoy, daughter of Nicolas de Lanoy and Marguerite de France, in 1692.
He died in 1697 de Caep de Goede Hoop, he was murdered by Hans Silverbagh.
Family Marie de Lanoy b. c 1678, d. b 1 Oct 1704
· ; Nicolaas Lekkerwijnb. b 18 Jun 1696
· Arij Lekkerwijn b. b 15 Dec 1697
18 June 1696, the name of Arij was written in the record as Harijs Leccrivent
The family name Lecrivent appears in all the major local genealogies.
Arie (also Arij or Ary) Lekkerwyn (also Lekkerwijn, Leckerwyn or Leckerwijn)'s name appeared for the first time in the Cape in 1686. In 1692 his name was Arij Dirksz Lekkerwijn with his Wife Maria Lanoy (or Marie de Lanoy v.Aulis in France) and one child. They were married about 1690, but their marriage document has not yet been found.
On 25 10 1690 the farm "Lekkerwijn" in Drakenstein (where he had lived and worked for a year) called him "Arie Lekkerwijn van Boskop". (Was this his own joke about himself? It did not happen that a farm was named after the owner. The reverse happened - as a nickname!)
On 30.10.1692 he hires as "vrijburger en Drakenstein" a soldier of the "E Comp." As a “boukneg”. The lease is signed with a cross as "the signature of Arie Dirksz Lekkerwyn". He was thus illiterate.
Arie with his servant farmer and 1692 owns 250 sheep and 10 cattle and has already planted 6 000 vines.
In 1693 he and his wife already had 2 children and in 1695 3 children. Where these children were baptized could not be traced.However, they baptize two more children: Nicolas (Nicolaas / Claas) on 18 06 1696 and Harijs (Arie) on 15 12.1697.
In January, 1696 he sued his neighbour, Hans Silverbach "for payment of 4 guilders and some nails".
The life of this family is cruelly disturbed because on 29.08.1697, Hans Silverbag, his neighbour "sentenced to death for the murder the late Arij Leckerwijn". As the murderer fled, the cause of the murder apparently was not figured out. It could not have been just the few guilders and nails!
The widow remarried on 19.01.698 with Hans Heinrich Hattingh and became the mother of the family.
The "French" form is known only in the Drakenstein baptismal register "Harijs Leccriuent" and "Harijs Lekeruain".
Thus, if one analyses the familiar contemporary data, it appears that the only evidence for the "French" form is that he was married to a French woman and Paul Roux's creative baptismal entries. Even lg. Evidence is shaky, as Botha also read it as "Lekevain" in addition to the canonized "Lecrivent." However, the famous French of Lecrivain (l'écrivain = the author) was not considered by anyone.
On the other hand, there are the following information in support of the "Dutch" form:
1. According to his letter of formal notice he comes from Boskop, possibly Boskoop in the Netherlands.
2. The form Arij Dirksz (Dirx) Lekkerwijn, which is often found, is the typical Dutch construction of First Name Patroniem Family Name, (a form strange to the French).
3. Arie's name of his father and sons is typically Dutch first name. Even Paul Roux wrote his first name as "Harijs"; Roux would probably have spelled out the obvious, well-known French name Henri.
4. The "Dutch" form of the van appears repeatedly in different sources and without exception for Arie's descendants, which are discussed below.
Thus, unless there is a new testimony in favour of the "French" form in contemporary documents, one has to accept Arie Lekkerwyn (with "Dutch" variants) as the correct one.
We can count on four of Arie Lekkerwyn and Marie de Lanoy's children, especially Dirk, Matthys, Nicolaas and Arie. If he was a fifth child, he was born before 1796.