Jongbloed
The former plantation Jongbloed lies in the former Eastern Division, south of Brievengat and Bonam and north-west of Sapaté. It is one of the oldest built-up plots on Curaçao: it was laid out right after the conquest of the island in 1634. The first mention of the plantation dates from 1681, and it then belonged to the well-known cornet (leader of the riders) Jan Pietersz van Oxfort, whose grave has lain for centuries at his former residence, landhuis Bever. Oxfort is the region where he was born.
Next to it also lies the grave of his relative, Thomas Pietersz, in that time chief overseer of the WIC plantation lands. High-ranking officials, then, who both had the usufruct of the Zuikertuin, where fruit and vegetables for their own use were grown in that time. Thomas Pietersz already before 1700 also owned what was called "de boventuin" (the upper garden), to distinguish it from their little garden at Zuikertuin. This more northerly "boventuin" is the present Jongbloed.
The Boventuin (Upper Garden)
The author Martin A. Visman has studied the history of Jongbloed and writes that Thomas Pietersz and his wife Catharina Stammers lived in the Boventuin and owned six enslaved people. Pietersz probably already had the privilege then to build goat and sheep corrals, as these are mentioned in the successive sale documents. Their daughter, also named Catharina, married one of the first ministers of the Company, Henricus Beys, and this couple also lived at the Boventuin. But only for a short time, because Buys died shortly after the marriage. In 1717 Thomas Pietersz died and his daughter inherited the plantation. She remained there until 1723, the year in which her mother died, and in that same year she sold the plantation to a certain Jan Jongbloed, an 18th-century skipper of a Curaçao barque, married to Maria Dam. In 1727 he bought a number of enslaved people to expand the six that were already on the plantation, evidently with the intention of farming more intensively. The small plantation, high-lying in the middle part of the island, was however never a large plantation.
Vergenoeging (Contentment)
As new plantation owners often do, Jongbloed too gave his newly acquired property a new name. It became Vergenoeging, also written Vergenoegen* in transfer documents, and in popular speech: Ferenú. Jongbloed was from 1723 to 1746 the owner of the plantation later named after him. The couple lived here for more than 20 years until his wife died in 1746. Jongbloed then sold the plantation to another skipper, Johannes Houtvat (the later owner of Jan Zoutvat, or Jan Sofat), for 5,000 pesos.
Houtvat sold it again in 1747, namely to Willem Kock, nephew of the well-known Jan Kock. Willem sold it in 1749 to Frederik Evertsz, who sold it in that same year to Jacobus Morel. Jongbloed had thus become an investment object, and besides Vergenoegen and Vergenoeging the name Jan Jongbloed (1851) or Jan Jongbloet also appears as an alias in sale documents. The estate, called "Janbloe" in popular speech, regularly changed owner during the rest of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.
Jongbloed on fire
In 1803, during an English invasion, the plantation house of Jongbloed was plundered and burned to ashes, like those of Dein and Asiento. The house, which lay on a hill at the end of the present Ajaxweg, was never rebuilt.
In 1804 the Jew Isaac Cardozo was the owner of Jongbloed and the estimated value of the plantation was then 8,800 pesos, and in 1807 Raquel Ricardo, widow of Jacob Henriquez, owned the estate. It was auctioned in 1820 at the request of the orphans' chamber (weeskamer) because the mortgage could not be paid on account of failed harvests. In 1822 Adriaan Vos was the owner and in 1826 it was his son Jan Vos. The financial situation of the plantation was still not stable: in 1828 the owner was exempted from payment of land tax because the mortgage debts were higher than the appraised value of the plantation. Then a new owner appears who sees in the plantation more than just a temporary investment.
Cornelis Sprock
From 1858 Jongbloed remained permanently in the possession of the Sprock(el) family. The businessman from The Hague, Cornelis Colonis Sprock, bought the plantation in that year for 2,300 guilders, and since then it passed from father to son. Sprock sr. had already bought Cas Cora and Brievengat in 1855, and with the purchase of Jongbloed in 1858 became the owner of a large contiguous area on Bándariba. He was also a district master and rather progressive: for instance, in 1862 he introduced American agricultural ploughs at Cas Cora. Sprock was further known for the use of herbs for the healing of animals.
Francinette
Cornelis sr. arrived on Curaçao in 1844 as a married man, but in 1847 began living together with one of his enslaved women, Josephina Victorina Sprothouars, also known as Francinette, whom he had bought in 1847.
After the emancipation their seven children received the surnames Sprothouars, Sprock or Sprockel. Their eldest son, Cornelis jr., was born 6 years before the emancipation and received the surname Sprockel. Their second child, Horacio, was born after the emancipation and received the surname of his father, Sprock. Horacio (1866–1949) left for Venezuela and at the end of the 19th century introduced the ka'i orgel (barrel organ) to Curaçao. His brother Cornelis Polonius was more interested in the plantation.
In 1873 Cornelis sr. sold Jongbloed to Francinette on the condition that he could continue to use the plantation. After the death of Francinette the estate came into the possession of her son Cornelis jr., who continued his father's agricultural business.
Around 1924 the oil refinery bought the plantations Cas Cora and Brievengat from the Sprock family in connection with the water supply for its installations. Jongbloed too was offered for sale between 1945 and 1953, and large parts of the fertile plantation then came into the possession of the oil giant.
Pachi Sprockel
A son of Cornelis Sprock jr., Wiles Oliver Sprockel, a blacksmith, later became owner of the plantation and father of the later well-known Pachi Sprockel.
Jose Maria Ruperto "Pachi" Sprockel (1931–2003) was the seventh of a family of eleven children. As a child Pachi had to milk cows together with his brothers and maintain the four hofjes. And, as life's irony would have it, Pachi later came to work for Shell.
At Jongbloed there were as many as four hofjes: Hòfi Pariba, Hòfi Dilanti, Hòfi di Johan (once the overseer, the vitó, of the plantation) and Dam. Dam was the largest hofje and was named after a large dam that was once completely full, almost looking like a lake.
When his father died, Pachi insisted that he should inherit the only remaining hofje that had survived industrialisation and subdivision: Liverpool, also called Hòfi Liverpool or Hardin Liverpool and later renamed by Pachi to Hòfi Pachi Sprockel. The hofje, situated in the east of Jongbloed, was a beautiful orchard with centuries-old medlar trees, part of which was destroyed by a hurricane in 1997. There were also many coconut trees and several windmills that were connected to three large water tanks which were also given a name: Kant'i kaminda, Shon Pe and Anita. At Jongbloed, besides maize and the usual crops, laraha was also grown, the peels of which were sold to the liqueur distillery and the pulp used as cattle feed. At Jongbloed very many cows once roamed about, and milk was carried off in large churns and later in cans for sale. Milk was thus delivered to the sisters at Habaai and to customers in the city. In Pachi's time the last remaining cows were also given names, namely Wilhelmina, Juliana and Bernhard, and the bull was called Hendrik. There were also many donkeys, goats, sheep, parakeets, parrots, peacocks, chickens and turtles at Jongbloed.
Cultural tourism
Pachi had inherited the entrepreneurial spirit of his ancestor Cornelis sr. Iteke Witteveen writes in an In Memoriam, "that Pachi was the driving force behind one of Curaçao's historic hofjes but also a dance teacher, mentor and ardent advocate of cultural tourism. He composed, made choreographies and encouraged young people to learn to dance the quadrille, waltz, mazurka, polka and tumba. Thus ka'i orgel music or music of a Típiko (cultural music group) often sounded at Jongbloed. Pachi also had his own dance group, Orkesta Kultural, which was particularly good at portraying the beauty of the quadrille in an excellent way."
Nature and culture
"Pachi also organised theatre, poetry and other cultural performances. For instance, the children's entertainer Tio Ali made his debut here in 1981 with rhythmic poetry. Pachi's aim was to let local young artists perform for tourists so that the young people could earn an extra bit of pocket money.
In connection with this and with his dance lessons, Pachi built a dance floor of 15 by 15 m, with a covered stage on both sides. This was rented out for parties and school and cultural activities in order to generate income for the maintenance of the hofje. In this way Pachi managed to combine his passions, culture and nature," according to Witteveen.
He also tried to bring the past back to life by building a kas di pal'i maishi (knoek house, a small estate house) with two slave huts, the walls of which were made in the original way, from woven branches held together by mud and cow dung.
Behind the knoek house stood a large tamarind tree, formerly a central location where enslaved people held their gatherings, dances and rituals. This was planted by Pachi on the exact spot because "it mattered very much". He also installed a whipping post, to which enslaved people were tied up for beatings, a stone oven, a well, musical instruments and a goat corral, all paid for from his own means, without any government support.
On the terrain there was then also an old mill, kas di mulina, right behind the plantation house, where maishi chikí, sorghum, was ground. The kas di mulina was inhabited by the vitó, the overseer, Dooi, who took care of the animals.
Around 2003 Pachi wanted to make another attempt to promote cultural tourism to the hòfi, but he died that year, completely unexpectedly during a nap in his beloved hòfi.
Mangasina becomes plantation house
Over time the terrain, formerly 100 hectares in size, has shrunk considerably due to the demand for housing and partial subdivision. The hofje is now only three hectares in size. Recently a part of the grounds was sold to the supermarket chain Mangusá, which has laid out a vegetable garden here.
What is now known as "landhuis" Jongbloed is a converted mangasina of the former plantation house. The oldest part was built in the 19th century and consists of the dwelling with attached kitchen. In 1920 Cornelis Wiles Oliver added another wing and the house was called Oost Jongbloed.
Since 1965 the house has been inhabited by a grandchild of Sprock who restored it in 2010, with the cooperation of Monumentenzorg (Monuments Care), and tries to keep it in its original state as far as possible. She tells that there was also a workshop on the terrain, a smithy of her father, the anvil of which was still behind the house in 2016. This house now stands in the middle of middle-class housing and is separated from the well-known hòfi.
It stands in the eastern part of the former plantation, close to the Cassandraweg. And now, after more than a century, Jongbloed is still in the possession of the Sprockel family.
Central location
Striking on the Werbata map of 1911 is the name "Vergenoegd", in popular speech Ferrenú, for a small knoek diagonally opposite Jongbloed, situated west of the Botica and part of Brievengat. (see Werbata map) Jongbloed was also formerly called Vergenoeging or Vergenoegd when it was in the possession of Jan Jongbloed.
Both Oost Jongbloed and Liverpool are actually separate small knoeks and both lie east of Jongbloed. San Fuego lies south-east of Jongbloed.
The "trankeer", i.e. tranké — fence/partition — between the plantations Jongbloed and Brievengat ran roughly parallel to the present Brievengatweg. It began at the roundabout before Botica Brievengat, ran just before Filomena Bakery (nowadays Panaderia Bon Biní) in a northerly direction to the plantation house Brievengat.
Jongbloed lies very centrally and according to the neighbourhood profile is regarded as one of the better neighbourhoods of Curaçao. It is experienced by residents as an ideal residential location, with many amenities in the immediate vicinity.
Sources
- I. Witteveen: Dagblad Amigoe, 17 July 2003, In memoriam Jose "Pachi" Sprockel (1931–2003)
- R. Janknegt: De Hofjes van Curaçao
- M.A. Visman: Herkomst van onze streek- en plantagenamen, part 6: plantage Jongbloed;
- J. van Ditzhuijzen: Landhuizen van Curaçao, juwelen uit het verleden;
- P. Brenneker: Sambumbu, various editions;
- Renkema W.J.: het Curaçaose plantagebedrijf in de negentiende eeuw.
- Ministerie SOAW, Sociale Ontwikkeling, Arbeid en Welzijn: Buurtprofiel Bonam.
All photos of the plantation house were taken in 2010 by Anita de Moulin, R.I.P. With thanks to: Iteke Witteveen, Juni Hart, Andre Rancuret, Jeroen Heuvel and Mongui Maduro Library.
