A commemorative plantation glass with an engraved text reading Het Welvaaren van de Plantagie Wayamoe with a silver foot. German glass, Dutch wheel-engraved, mid-18th century.
H. 18.3 cm
The plantation Wayamoe or Wajambo was owned by Willem Bedloo (1734- 1785), who also owned plantation Hagenbosch and was married to Anna Maria de Nijs (1749-1781). The couple was Reformed and belonged to the white upper layer of the Surinamese population. Both came from families that had held prominent positions in the colony as plantation owners for generations. Van Bedloo was a member of the Court of Police, and the unpaid position gave him a lot of influence. After Sara, Henriëtte Wilhelmina was born on June 20, 1778 in Paramaribo. The family must have lived alternately in Paramaribo and on the Wajambo plantation because twin girls were born there on September 15, 1781, Carolina Aleta and Elisabeth. But disaster struck, as the mother died on 18 September 1781 on the plantation.
(Wayamoe, kreek | Atlas of mutual heritage)
Soon two deaths would follow; father Willem Bedloo on October 24, 1784; and Grandmother Alida Maria Coetzee-Wossink, but a year older than her son-in-law, on 14 November 1785. Of the eight children of the couple, four probably died prematurely and four left for the Netherlands at the end of the 18th century: Sara, her sisters Henriëtte and Elisabeth, and brother Eberhardus. They were the heirs of their great-grandmother’s plantations and of their father’s plantations, Wayamoe and Hagenbosch. The Surinam affairs were handled by an administrator, who received a percentage of the proceeds. Although the economic climate in Suriname had deteriorated in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the plantations still yielded a lot. All married at a young age, and Bedloo girls apparently were sought-after as financially attractive marriage partners.
The 19-year-old Elisabeth Bedloo (1781-1838) married the 28-year-old merchant Willem Hendrik Eijma in Leiden in 1800. Eijma’s mother came from the extensive and very wealthy Surinamese Lemmer, to which the girls Bedloos were also related. Trading houses such as Eijma’s ensured the sale of Surinamese products on the Dutch and foreign markets. Soon after their marriage, the couple left for Suriname and settled in Paramaribo. When Eijma died in 1815, Elisabeth remarried to Jean-Jacques von Broun de Bronovo, a naval officer (1787-1861), six years younger. The couple left for the Netherlands, where they settled in Lisse. The name Bronovo still has a familiar sound today, as daughter Sara Katharina de Bronovo (1817-1887) was the founder and director of the hospital of the same name in The Hague – arguably paid for with wealth from her family (plantations).
Plantation Wayamoe was situated north of the Perica, Heelkavink and Wayamoe creeks. It was measured on February 8th, 1730, at the owner’s request after he had bought 43 Surinam acres from the neighbouring plantation Meulwijk. After that, the Wayamoe plantation measured 1146 Surinam acres (492,78 hectares = c. 1218 acres). The area of the Perica Creek in the Marowijne District in Surinam was cultivated in the early 18th century.
Sources:
– R. Grimbergen, ‘Bedloo’s erven in Lisse’ in: Oud Lisse Nieuwsblad 20, no. 1, 2021
– Nationaal Archief, Map of Plantation Wayamoe by Jan Freuytenier, access no. 4.VEL [1584/1865]
From: Uit verre streken. Guus Röell & Dickie Zebregs
zie ook: https://oudlisse.nl/historie/bedloos-erven-in-lisse/
Buku - Bibliotheca Surinamica 