Start of the Indonesian branch
Johannes de Quant was born 23 april 1841 in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, married to Christina Reijgers 21 april 1864. Died age 49 in Soekaboemi, Indonesia. He travelled to Java in july of 1862 on board of the ship Rotterdam, to become a school teacher. His first appointment was in 1862 temporarily posted in Weltevreden, a suburb of then Batavia, present day Jakarta.
Christina Reijgers was born on the 21st of april 1844 in Soerakarta and died 9 juli 1919. She married Johannes on the 23 of februari 1864.. It is unclear how theu met, but after their marriage Johannes was posted to Soerakarte in 1865. There he worked at the same school as Christina’s father. In august 1886 Johannes was mentioned as first assistant teacher 2nd class in the public first elementary school. The schools tought a Dutch curriculum. There was also a second primary school and her was a teacher with the name C.H. Reijgers as a deputy head teacher.
In the story about our connection to the Van Motman and Reijgers family’s, we can see that there were two persons called Christiaan Hendrik Reijgers at that time. One was C.H. Reijgers senior was about 49 years old at that time. C.H. Reijgers junior was only 21. So presumably it was Christiaan senior who was the teacher at that school.
In colonial times there as quite some racisme and a strict hierarchy in society. Whites were at the top, mixed or Indo-Europeans were in the middle and Indonesians were at the bottom. It is hard to be sure now, a 160 years later, but it was probably a good catch for an Indo European girl like Christina Reijgers to marry a Ducht man like Johannes de Quant. Lucky for us they did!
Johannes and Christiaan senior are also mentioned in relation to the protestant church in Soerakarta in 1867. Johannes is deacon and secritary, Christiaan is first reader and administrator of the poverty fund.
In juni 1869 Johannes was head teacher in Salatiga, a small town about 60 km’s north east of Surakarta.
From 1874 to 1876 he was given two years of sick leave to travel to the Netherlands. Christina and the family travelled with him. They lived in Gouda in those years at the Turfsingel 72a (later
121). This would have been the first time his parents Pieter de Quant (a rural constable) and Petronella de Quant-Haassis got to see their grandchildren. Christina gave birth to Carolina de Quant while in the Netherlands, on 5 februari 1875.
Johannes died in 1890. Christina lived on for another 29 years . They had 10 children together, 8 of whom reached adulthood. Christina died in 1919 in Bandoeng.