“The site were the Dutch had their villa residences is still known as Valandupalem, a corruption of Hollandpalem, and their burial ground is in a corner of the compound of a bungalow behind the Collector’s offices. It contains several tombstones in very good preservation. The stone is the hard “nipa rayi’ on which the Hindoos carve their inscriptions, bug the Dutch must have had a trained stonemason, for almost every stone bears a coat-of-arms, executed with considerable skill. Even the gravestone of an obscure Schipper or sea captain, probably not of a degree to bear coat armour, has an effigy of the deceased with a three-cornered hat and long coat, familiar in old illustrations, reminding one that this Dutch skipper was a contemporary of the bold adventurers Gulliver an Robinson Crusoe.”
This quote from Gordon MacKenzie’s “Kistna Manual” writes J.J. Cotton C. S, in his List of Tombs or Monuments in Madras of 1905. Its subheading adds: Possessing historical or archeological interest.
Tomb of Skipper Evert Everman
Cotton continues: “The graves are enclosed by a good masonry wall, but some inscriptions have disappeared before that destructive personage, the village herdsboy who, stone in hand, delights to chop off the raised letters that tell the virtue of long buried merchants and their vrouw. Other stones have been carried off by dhobies for beating clothes.”
Full list of names
Below I’ll list the dates of death, names, functions and age from Cotton’s list:
| 10th June 1646 | Johannes Nantius of Mddelburg | Ondercoopman, 28 years |
| 18th May 1662 | Evert Everman of Bremen | Schipper, passed away on fluit ship Pegu, 35 years |
| 20th Sept. 1677 | Abraham Bolwerk of Elbing | Kranken bezoeker, 68 years |
| 21 Mar. 1677 | Pieter Smith | Oppercoopman, 39 years |
| 3 Jan, 1679 | Catharina van den Briel of Amsterdam and Johan Kruyf of Tayouan | Onderkoopman, 21 years |
| 16th Feb. 1682 | Johanna Huisman-Bolwerk, wife of Johannes Huisman | Tweede Koopman, housewife 43 years |
| 28th Aug. 1682 | Hendrick van Almonde | Little son of ondercoopman and fiscal. 1 year |
| 17th Feb. 1685 | Elizabeth van den Briel, wife of Marten van de Briel, onderkoopman | Housewife 60 years |
| 15th Aug. 1687
24 Aug 1687
19th May 1687 24 Mar. 1688 14th Oct. 1687 21s. Sept. 1687
|
Jacob Corbenier and family * of Utrecht,
his wife Margarieta Booms, of Amsterdam Adrien Blockeel, of Ijsendijck,
Elizabeth Frontenious, daughter, of Pulicat Willi8am Frontenius, brother, of Pulicat James Corbesier, son of first couple, of Daatzcerom |
Opperkoopman, aged about 51 years
Housewife, aged about 46 years Onderkoopman, aged about 40 years Housewife, aged about 21 years Asisstant, aged more than 31 years About 7 years |
| 20th Apr. 1744 and
28th Nov. 1745 |
Agatha Keyser and Catharina Vosmaer, wife of Adriaen Vosmaer, of Delft | Housewife and daughter, 25 years,
baby Catharina, 4 months |
| 13th July 1725 | Paul Verrijn, of Amsterdam | Oppoercoopman, 48 years |
| 20th Aug. 1735 | Alida Keyser, wife of Adrianus Canter Visscher | Housewife, 21 years |
| 15th Oct. 1735 | Maria Wilhelmina Gambier, wife of Gosewyn Maire | Housewife, 32 years |
The inscription about the Corbenier family continues:
“So that here lie on father, one mother,
One sister, four brothers,
Two men and two wives,
But not more than six lives”.
The records of Fort St. George mention that in 1687 there was a great contagion at Masulipatnam, which may account for some of the deaths. The whole family must have been swept away by the pestilence, for the charitable friend who wrote the inscription did not know their exact ages.
Cotton lists two more Dutch gravestones in the compound of the District Moonsif’s Court in Masulipatnam. Christian Pit, 2- year old son of Laurens Pit in 1651, and Maria of Bengal and Frederick Braun, ondercoopman in 1679 and 1680. These stones are lost, according to Marion Peters and Ferry Andre in their In Steen Gescheven (Written in stone) book in 2002.
This courthouse was formerly Council chamber of the Dutch factory, and there is a tradition that the compound of the factory is used as burying-ground before the Dutch cemetery was opened.