Interracial Marriages and Reversed Surnames in the Dutch East Indies

Interracial marriage was a common phenomenon during the Dutch colonial era. The large population of European men who came and lived in a number of areas of the archipelago from the 17th to 18th centuries was not directly proportional to the number of European women in the respective region. As a result, many of those European men chose to live with local women, who then gave birth to mixed-blood children, known as Eurasian or Mestizo.

The policy of VOC Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen, which prohibited residents of the newly established Batavia from having mistresses or having extramarital relationships, led the city government to promote legal marriages between low-ranking VOC employees and local women.

According to historian Jean Gelman Taylor in The Social World of Batavia: Europeans and Eurasians in Dutch Asia, not only did the government allow interracial marriages, it even facilitated them by purchasing a number of women from Asian markets to be sent to Batavia, where they were advertised for sale as potential brides.

Regardless of Coen's morality views, the Batavian government's rationale for promoting interracial marriages between European immigrants and local women was that Asian women were seen as less desirous of wealth than European women. "The Company, so ran this argument, would save both from dropping the expensive, sponsored female migration," Taylor says. "And because wives with presumed simpler tastes would not encourage low-paid employees to increase their income through illegal trade."

Another reason was that children born from interracial marriage were seen more suitable to live in the tropics than children born to European parents, whose survival rates were lower. Over time, interracial marriages, which bore the colony's Eurasian population, played a major role in the formation of the colonial elite, especially as relationships between people during the VOC era developed based on family ties.

"Judicial officer JLT Rhemrev was perhaps one of the most famous voorkinderen to have a reversed surname.”

However, author Reggie Baay in Nyai dan Pergundikan di Hindia Belanda (Nyai and Concubinage in the Dutch East Indies) reveals that the number of marriages between VOC men and Creole or Eurasian women was generally small. Relationships between mistresses and European men were more common, as only those of high rank could marry at that time, and they made up a small proportion of the European population in the colony. Most of this population were low-ranking officials and soldiers who came not only from the Netherlands, but also from other European countries such as France, Germany, Denmark, Scotland and England.

"They had the most and closest contact with the Asian population, especially because of their relationships with Asian slave girls," wrote Reggie.

Another thing that caused concubinage to flourish was a policy that prohibited men from ordinary circles to marry without the approval of VOC superiors. This policy applied not only to low-ranking employees, but also to non-slave colonists. Meanwhile, if a European man wanted to marry an Asian slave girl, he had to first pay off the purchase of the slave to the VOC, which had the monopoly as slave trader in the colony, or pay in installments deducted from his salary. The women also had to be baptized and given Christian names as a symbol of rebirth.

According to Reggie, since 1828, European men in the colonies were allowed to recognize their children born from a concubinage relationship known as voorkinderen. However, this policy was not mandatory, so there were European men who didn’t recognize their children but still registered them in the birth registry. "The registration requires the European father to take care and educate those children," Reggie said.

This also led to the colonial phenomenon of mixed-blood children being registered with their father's surname, but in reverse letter order.

One of the examples was Scipio Isebrandus Helvetius van Riemsdijk (1785-1827), son of Willem Vincent Helvetius van Riemsdijk and grandson of VOC Governor-General Jeremies van Riemsdijk (1775-1777).

“From his union with the free, non-Christian Bamie he had one daughter, baptized Maria Susanna van Riemsdijk in 1808. His six other children were born to the free, non-Christian Manies van Bali. Scipio had them baptized, thus formally recognizing an obligation to rear them as Europeans in his own house, rather than have them raised by Indonesian relatives in a kampung (village),” Taylor wrote.

Despite baptizing all his children born to Manies van Bali, Scipio did not marry the woman. He gave the children the surname Kijdsmeir, his family name in reverse letter order. His children were still illegitimate, and therefore, in order to strengthen their social status, Scipio adopted them as toddlers.

Apart from Scipio, another European man who did the same thing was Willem Jacob Cranssen, a member of the Raad van Indie. In the early 19th century, Reggie says, Cranssen had a relationship with a native mistress, and children born from that relationship were given the surname Nessnarc, Cranssen in reverse order.

"Judicial officer JLT Rhemrev was perhaps one of the most famous voorkinderen to have a reversed surname. Rhemrev, who in 1903 conducted research on irregularities in Deli, was a descendant of a man named Vermehr," Reggie said.

The phenomenon of reversing surnames attracted much attention, such as from P.A. Daum, a novelist who was quite famous in the Dutch colonial era. Author Gerard Termorshuizen in "P.A. Daum on Colonial Life in Batavia” published in Jakarta Batavia: Socio-Cultural Essays mentions that most of Daum's novels, which were mostly published under the pseudonym Maurits, were set in European society in the East Indies in the late 19th century, also highlighting the practice of giving reversed surname.

"In Nummer Elf, for example, we meet a clerk named Esreteip, the son of a certain Pieterse, and Yps Nesnaj, the daughter of private Jansen," Termorshuizen wrote. In the novel, Yps Nesnaj is described as the mistress or nyai of a European gentleman named George Vermey.

On the other hand, VOC Governor-General Jacob Mossel (1750-1761) differed from Scipio Isebrandus Helvetius van Riemsdijk and Willem Jacob Cranssen when it came to giving surnames. Despite recognizing a daughter from his slave Jasmina van Soembawa, Mossel chose Schulp as a surname for his daughter named Arnolda. Although the surname wasn't derived from a reversed family name, Schulp indirectly demonstrates family connection to Mossel, because schulp means "clamshell", while mossel means "clam" in Dutch.

“Mossel left her a country property and house named Batenburg at his death in 1761. Eighteen years later, some 10,000 rix dollars were restored to her by the trustee of wills, confirming Amolda's status of acknowledged child. She was accorded the dignities of her half-sisters, including the title juffrouw,” wrote Taylor.