Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse van Rensburg
President of the Central Burgher Peace Committee in the Transvaal

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Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse van Rensburg born May 1863 at Winburg, Free State. He was the son of Petrus Jacobus Johannes Janse van Rensburg born 16 July 1812 and Amerentia Jacoba Bekker born 22 September 1824 and she died c1889.

He was married to Amerentia Wilhemina Maria Koen. She was the daughter of Jacobus Casparus Koen who died 13 August 1910, and Catharina Johanna Koen who died 12 October 1910. When Amerentia died at her residence at 12 Northern Mansions, Nigel on 1 March 1945, her age was then given as 77 years and 3 months at Nigel. This means that Amerentia was born December 1867.

Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse van Rensburg died 14th November 1906. He was then 43 years and six months old. Which means that he must have been born in May 1863. His occupation at time of his death is given as speculator.

At the time of his death they had two adult children and 9 minors:

1. Catharina Jacoba (Major) died c1945, X Charles Edward Moffitt died c1944
2. Emerentia Jacoba, X to Hendrik Johan Francois Franken he died c1926, XX Huibert Antonie van Ingen-Schenau he died c1944, XXX Willem Jacobus Grobler

3. Violet Irene died c1946, X Hugh McFarlane Macalman died c1955
4. Lilian Louisa died c1972, X Willem Johannes Gerhardus Human died c1966
5. Karinetta?? Fransisca
6. Petrus Jacobus Johannes
7. Alethea Dorothea died c1976, X Walter Rawlinson died c1940
8. Jacobus Casparus died c1974, X Kate Alice Smith
9. Hendrik Petrus Francois
10. Maria Magdalena
11. Edith Constance

According to Grundlingh, Die "hendsoppers" en "joiners" HPFJ van Rensburg was a member of the Second Volksraad representing Heidelberg 1895 to 1898. He then became a member of the First Volksraad 1899 to 1900.

On the 27th December 1900 a Central Peace Committee, also referred to as Burgher Committee, was established in Pretoria. The members of this committee was General Andries PJ Cronje from Potchefstoom; D Kriel Landdros of Carolina; WJ Steyn former member of the First Volksraad representing Standerton; and LC de Gier from Pretoria was the secretary; Karel Rood and HPFJ van Rensburg former member of the Volksraad representing Heidelberg. The goal of the Peace Committee was to rally a country wide united front to encourage the laying down of weapons by the Boers, they also strived to bring the war to an end. See AM Grundlingh, Die "hendsoppers" en "joiners".

Burgher Peace committees - were collaborators with the British. They voluntary took the oath of neutrality. They also strove to bring the war to an end. They in essence became peace emissaries approaching Boer commandos. They were often roughly treated by the Boers, since they were seen as traitors. Some were beaten and some even executed.

Kitchener gave the following guidelines for the Peace Committees:
1. They could not discuss policy.
2. They had to inform the burghers that Britain was determined to see the war out, and that there was no possibility of foreign intervention.
3. They had to inform the burghers on the new policy on surrender.

This was the biggest form of propaganda that the British had. The Peace committee were considered by the British as "loyal surrendered burghers".

The British took Johannesburg in May 1900 and Pretoria in 5 June 1900.

On the 2nd July 1900 a Mr Fourie who was on commando came to the English District Commissioner at Heidelberg and told him that Mr Van Rensburg the member of the late first Volksraad wanted a meeting. A meeting was arranged for the afternoon at 4pm on his farm about 2 miles south of Heidelberg.

In 1903 he claimed compensation since he was a protected burgher (see TAB CJC Vol 359 CJC43 CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION. PROTECTED BURGHERS. HEIDELBERG. HPF JANSE VAN RENSBURG). On the 17 March 1905 Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse van Rensburg estate was declared insolvent. The partition of "Kaffirskraal" No 31, Heidelberg occurred. This must have been his farm.

The timing of his death in 1906 makes one wonder, he was only 43 years old with many small children. Was his deaths related to the stress of the war, or maybe due to post war stress as someone that would have been shunned as a traitor, or was it due to financial difficulties? What was the cause of his death? One even wonder whether he had a hand in his own death.

A letter was written to Lord Roberts informing him of the meeting with Van Rensburg and the content of the discussion. The letter also provides us with the thinking of Van Rensburg. The writer of this article here provides a summary of what -

Van Rensburg wrote and wanted to know:

1. What the British governments intentions were for the country. He was told that Britain wanted to annex it.
2. Then he wanted to know how the government of the country would be carried on. He was told similar to Natal six years ago and that responsible government would be brought in soon after the country had settled down.
3. Van Rensburg saw himself as a "Progressive" and wanted to strive for peace and was willing to lay down his arms.
4. But laying down his arms would cause him to loose his influence with the burghers on commando.
5. Van Rensburg said his influence was great with the burghers and he promised he will work in the interest of peace.
6. He requested to have a personal interview with Lord Roberts, to explain things and to ask questions and get answers for those burghers who were hesitating.
7. The point that agitated the Boers were: a) Where will responsible government begin; b) How will the cost of the war be defrayed; c) Is the policy of burning farms to be generally adopted - if so they will fight to the death.
8. Van Rensburg said that he was getting up a public meeting with the view of starting peace negotiations. 1300 Boers would have attended but there feelings were upset with the burning of Boer farms and the meeting thus did not take place
9. Van Rensburg felt that if he could assure them on his own guarantee that no more farms would be burnt and satisfy them on the other points, nearly all the Boers owning farms in the district he would be able to bring in.

The meeting lasted one and half hours. The Englishman commented that Van Rensburg seemed an honest man, sincerely desiring peace, and afraid of losing his former political influence. He also recommended that the interview would be granted. They also arranged to meet again on Sunday, it which time he will give him the response from Lord Roberts, to his request. See the document.

Field Marshal Lord Frederick Sleigh Roberts

On the 21 December 1900 a meeting was held by surrendered Boers in Pretoria and Kitchener addressed them and offered to support them. The speech was printed in Dutch and English and they appointed emissaries to visit the commandos and explain the situation. The chairman of the Central Peace Committee, Meyer de Kock went and had a meeting with some of the Boer leaders to discuss peace. He was taken prisoner and incarcerated at Roos Senekal and tried for treason. He was found guilty of high treason and on 12th February 1901 he was executed. He was shot by a Boer firing squadron.

Meyer de Kock, he was from Belfast, Eastern Transvaal

Van Rensburg was appointed the president of the Central Peace committee in January 1901. This appointment must have been made by virtue of the capture of Meyer de Kock and the subsequent execution. General Ben Viljoen delegated two officers to carry out the execution. Van Rensburg must have been must have been convinced that the only solution was to strive for peace. It must have taken a lot of courage stepping into the shoes of Meyer de Kock realising the reaction by their fellow countrymen still fighting, and the tragic fate of Meyer de Kock.

Spies in Methods of Barbarism, p. 202 refer to the following people who served on the Central Committee in the Transvaal: Meyer de Kock, A Cronje, PF Zeederberg, Karel Rood and L.C. de Gier as the secretary. He makes mention that H.P.F. Janse van Rensburg was appointed later as the president of the Central Burgher Committee in die Transvaal.

Those Boers still fighting saw the Peace committees as Boers who were traitors and 'hensoppers".

Some of these Boers became "Joiners", by deciding to fight with Britain against their own kin, since they considered that the war was futile and there was already to much suffering. Some of them reasoned that this was a way to bring the war to and end. Amongst them were the following Boer leaders who at the beginning of the war had fought against the English A.P. Cronje, Piet de Wet, Frans Vilonel, and Celliers.

After the war those Boers who cooperated with the British were ostracized, insulted. Those whose houses who were not burnt down were seen as hansuppers.

When Peace was made it was very much what the Burgher Committees had said earlier

When peace was finally made at Vereenging on 31 May 1902, the arguments and discussion was exactly what the hensoppers had said earlier:

General Botha: It has been said that we must fight to the bitter end, but no one tells us where that bitter end is. Is it there, where everybody lies in his grave or is banished? If we act upon that view, we become the cause of the death of our people ... Then there are also some of our own people, who have taken up arms against us and, if matters go on as at present, there will shortly be more Afrikaners fighting against us than for us.
General de la Rey: It is argued that we must fight to the bitter end ... It must be borne in mind that everything -- cattle, goods, money, man, woman and child - has been sacrificed. There are men and women who wear nothing more than plain skins on the naked body. Is this not the bitter end? Therefore I think that the time for negotiating has now arrived.

Schalk Burger: If I am convinced that by the continuance of the war we dig a grave for our people for ever and aye, can I then vote for the continuance of it? I say it is my holy duty to stop this struggle now that it has become hopeless, and not to allow one more man to be shot, and not to allow the innocent, helpless women and children to remain any longer in their misery in the plague-stricken Concentration Camps ... it is better to bow to a foreign flag and to save our people, than to continue and to allow our people to be entirely exterminated.

General Smuts: We are not here as an army, but as a people; we have not only a military question, but also a national matter to deal with. No one here represents his own commando. Everyone here represents the Afrikaner people, and not only that portion which is still in the field, but also those who are already under the sod and those who will live after we have gone. We represent, not only ourselves, but also the thousands who are dead and have made the last sacrifice for their people, the prisoners of war scattered all over the world, and the women and children who are dying by thousands in the Concentration Camps of the enemy; we represent the blood and the tears of an entire nation.

They all call upon us, from the prisoner of war camps, from the Concentration Camps, from the grave, from the field, and from the womb of the future, to decide wisely, and to avoid all measures which may lead to the decadence and extermination of the Afrikaner people ... Comrades: we decided to stand to the bitter end. Let us now, like men, admit that that end has come ...

TAB SP VOL 144 Ref SPR6623/97 HOOFD VAN MIJNWEZEN. HPF JASSE VAN RENSBURG RE EENE PETITIE VERZOEKENDE DE ZELFDE RECHTEN ALS KRUGERSDORP MET BETREKKING TOT DELVERS LICENTIES IN HEIDELBERG.18970819

KAB; AG Collection; Photo AG9133;Portraits of members of the Volksraad, South African Republic. 1897

TAB CJC VOL 359 CJC43 CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION. PROTECTED BURGHERS. HEIDELBERG. HPF JANSE VAN RENSBURG. 1903

Kloof Cemetery, Heidelberg, Transvaal. Hendrik Petrus Francois Janse van Rensburg. Born 19-05-1863. Died 14-11-1906. Surviving spouse Emerentia Wilhelmina Maria KOEN.

Kloof Cemetery, Heidelberg, Transvaal. Amerentia Wilhelmina Maria Janse van Rensburg, nee Koen. Born 26-11-1867. Died 01-03-1945. Wife of Hendrik PF Janse van Rensburg.

TAB MHG REF 9458 JANSE VAN RENSBURG, HENDRIK PETRUS FRANCOIS. STARTING 1906 REMARKS SURVIVING SPOUSE EMERENTIA WILHELMINA MARIA JANSE VAN RENSBURG (BORN KOEN).

TAB MHG REFERENCE 2557/45 PART 1 DESCRIPTION JANSE VAN RENSBURG, AMERENTIA WILHELMINA MARIA. (EMMERENTIA) BORN KOEN. STARTING 1945 PREDECEASED SPOUSE HENDRIK PETRUS FRANCOIS JANSE VAN RENSBURG.

TAB SOURCE MMB VOLUME_NO 31 REFERENCE DRK611/05 INSOLVENT ESTATE OF HENDRIK PETRUS FRANCOIS JANSE VAN RENSBURG. STARTING 1905

TAB MGP VOLUME_NO 9 REFERENCE 993/00 FORWARDING CORRESPONDENCE RE HPJ VAN RENSBURG LATE VOLKSRAAD MEMBER FOR HEIDELBERG

TAB REFERENCE A1361 Dinah Badenhorst-Versameling - prent van die Eerste Volksraad 1898;

TAB CT VOLUME_NO 124 REFERENCE T24/13 INVESTMENT BOARD. VAN RENSBURG, HPFJ INSOLVENT ESTATE. PARTITION OF "KAFFIRS-KRAAL" NO 301 HEIDELBERG DISTRICT.

TAB R5392/00 PART 1 DESCRIPTION LANDDROST HEIDELBERG. BERICHT DER HEER HP VAN RENSBURG ALS TYDELIJKE WAARNEMEND LANDDROST VOOR DAT DISTRIKT TE HEBBEN IN GEZWOREN.

TAB KG CR1053/94 HP VAN RENSBURG, HEIDELBERG. BERICHT DAT ZYN SCHOONVADER JAC KOEN ONLANGS APPLICATIE GEMAAKT HEEFT VOOR DE OPNAME VAN ZYN ZOON ALS ARTILLERIST WELKE HY VERTROUWT IN GOEDGUNSTIGE OVERWEGING ZAL GENOMEN WORDEN.

TAB PSY VOLUME_NO 55 REF DC72/00 PART 1 DESCRIPTION THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER HEIDELBERG TO THE IMPERIAL SECRETARY. VAN RENSBURG REQUESTS INTERVIEW WITH LORD ROBERTS. RECOMMEND HIS REQUEST TO BE GRANTED. STARTING 19000703 ENDING 19000703

TAB MGP VOLUME_NO 73 SYSTEM 01 REF 2023/01 ARRIVAL OF CENTRAL BURGHERS PEACE COMMITTEE IN VOLKSRUST STARTING 19010218 ENDING 19010218

TAB REFERENCE A551 Staatsmuseum-Versameling notule vergadering van Burgher Peace Committee 1900;

TAB CS TYPE VOLUME_NO 111 REF 7735/02 PART 1 CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION AND REWARD. SUBMITTING ABOVE IN CONSIDERATION OF THEIR WORK AS MEMBERS OF THE BURGHER PEACE COMMITTEE.

TAB IOP VOL8 REFERENCE IOMG915/01 HP JANSE VAN RENSBURG, CHAIRMAN BURGHER PEACE COMMITTEE ENCLOSE COPY OF LETTER FORWARDED TO GENL. LOUIS BOTHA BY COMMITTEE. STARTING 19010204 ENDING 19010204

VAB MHG REF R555 DESCRIPTION JANSE VAN RENSBURG, PETRUS JOHANNES. STARTING 1895 ENDING 1895

V.E. Solomon, The Hands-Uppers http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol031vs.html

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