Johann LORENZ came from Bremen. This Lorenz family from Bremen was relatively small but influential, particularly in the early 1700s. Johann Lorenz the father (sailor and blacksmith) arrived in the Cape c1696. He married on 1.5.1701 Woutrina MOSTERT, = 6.9.1682 dau of Jan Mostert from Utrecht and Alida van Hulst from Den Haag. The two children of Johan and Woutrina were Catharina and Pieter LORENZ = 27 May 1703 in Stellenbosch, +1748.

Ambitious Pieter was sent to Bremen for his education, and arrived back at the Cape in 1720 in the ship Blijenberg as Corporal. He was appointed assistant at the Judicial Secretariat in 1721, served as adjunct-Fiscal for a year, appointed bookkeeper in 1726, made secretary to Stellenbosch and Drakenstein in the same year, and was appointed Landdrost of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein in 1729 after acting in that position for a year. He was promoted to junior merchant in 1730 and commended by Gov-Gen van Imhoff for the rank of Merchant in 1743. (These ranks are seniority positions in the VOC, and not necessarily occupations. The main promotion sequence was: soldier, assistant, bookkeeper, junior merchant and merchant.)

Pieter had a daughter Jacoba Petronella LENS (c1) = 13 Aug 1724 from a liaison with Johanna Lens, who later x Johann Jurgens. Pieter then x on 25 Apr 1728 Catharina VAN DER BYL.

Their children were:
c2 Johan Gerhard = 30 Jan 1729 who moved to Java
c3 Hester Anna = 8 Apr 1731 who x Hendrik CLOETE, wealthy owner of loan farms along the Zoute Rivier: Riet Kuil and De Hoop. He also owned Mossel Rivier at Hermanus, Zandvleit, Nooitgetdacht, plus another dozen farms as well as Groot Constantia
c4 Pieter = 10 May 1733
c5 Geertruida Woutrina = 24 Jul 1735 + Stell 25 March 1800 x 28 Feb 1751 Dirk DE VOS, who like Gerrit van der Byl was an owner of Joostenberg Estate, and xx 25 Jun 1775 Christiaan Frederik HOP =2 Jun 1726 + 1790

After the death of his first wife, Johann Lorenz the father remarried Sophia VINK from Amsterdam on 21 Sep 1710 wid of Jacob Krebs of Berne. He was probably the Jan Lourensz who sold the farm Property No 234 known as Paarl Diamant to Claas Prinsloo for 1320 guilders on 9 Oct 1711, and moved to Denmark in the next year with his wife and daughter. In 1725 he was resident in Oldenburg

Pieter Lorenz led an eventful but short life, dying at the relatively young age of 45. As Landdrost of Stellenbosch at a time when its authority extended over a huge area, he was closely involved in many policies, administrative decisions, and activities which left their mark on the early history of the Cape. In 1739 he had to deal with the complaints of a namesake: Augustinus Lourens who had arrived in the Cape from Staaden in 1726 and asked for burgher papers. His cattle had been stolen by Bushmen in the Picketberg district. They were recovered, but August Lourens found the going too tough for him, and applied for a passage back home in 1747. This influential Lourens family from Bremen awaits a fascinating write up, the size and liveliness of which could be in inverse proportion to their numbers.

Sources
C G de Villiers, C Pama, Geneologies of Old South African Families
Heese and Lombard
J Hoge, Personalia of the Germans at the Cape
Claas Jansz: van Rensburg. www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/4364/CLAAS.htm
Edmund H Burrows, Overberg Odyssey
H C V Leibbrandt, Requesten (Memorials), Precis of the Archives, 1906 v II.
See entries under Rostock and Wedderstedt Lourenses

Thanks to research by:
Roy Lourens r.lourens@cowan.edu.au