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Koopman

| Introduction | Origins of Koopman | Opa GW Koopman |
| Early years in Surabaya | Surabaya connection to Scotland? |
| Oom Chris Koopman | Dutch Club in Singapore | Family time in Singapore |

Surabaya connection to Scotland?

Robert Bruce, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, the current Lord Balfour of Burleigh, recently wrote me this historic account, which he also told me by the fireplace a long time ago when I visited Scotland and the Balfour manor: "You say that you are on the trail of Robert, the 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, who was indeed sentenced to death for treason, having joined Bonny Prince Charlie in 1715. However, he was also sentenced to death in 1709 for murdering a school master who had married the governess of his two sisters, who he had hoped to marry, was sent abroad and on return, shot the school master. He was sentenced to death by beheading by the Maiden, a guillotine which you can still see in a museum in Scotland. However, he escaped as a result of his sister Margaret coming to visit him the night before his execution and must have paid the gaoler to turn his back while they changed clothes and she passed the night in the condemned cell, no doubt with the rats scurrying around over her and water dripping through the ceiling. She told him to get a horse and drive right to St. Andrews and get a boat she had arranged to take him to Paris and I like to think she said "and never come back again" as he was clearly the Black Sheep of the family! We have a picture of her in the library, which you may recall. I almost certainly would have told you the story." I will post the picture in future when I locate it in my files, as I was fortunate enough to be able to take photocopies of them.

It appears that Robert actually escaped twice. The first time he hid in a laundry basket. He was caught when the two servants carrying the basket to the laundry left the basket in the sun on the side of the road when they made a short stop in a local pub. Passers by noticed the basket wriggling around and correctly surmised someone was hidden inside.

The account from my family member above continues: "The above sister (the older one), lived to the age of 84 and was obliged to give up Burleigh Castle as a result of the attainder when her brother returned with Bonny Prince Charlie as above. She said she was too busy to get married and her sister Mary married Alexander Bruce, who built this house and from whom we are descended. Alexander Hugh Bruce, who was a Bruce, was my Grandfather, who recovered the Balfour of Burleigh title in 1868 which explains why the eldest son starts life as Bruce and becomes Balfour".

Coincidentally, the name Balfoort of Burleigh was at that time used in the Netherlands. According to the Robert Bruce, Balfour of Burleigh, an obituary was published in 1999 in the Dutch press for the passing away of a member of this family. I was very fortunate to meet up with my relatives in Scotland in 1999, which also came about rather fortuitously as I will describe in other sections.

In the 1750's a ship with about 50 Scottish refugees arrives in Surabaya, Indonesia. In 2005 I met a researcher in a Jakarta pub while watching rugby, who was researching this story. Unfortunately, the researcher had at that time only very little evidence and our discussions did not progress much. I do not have any hard evidence to prove that Robert Balfour was on the ship. My hypothesis, which I am still researching, is that Robert traveled through France to Holland, to stay with our relatives who had arrived in the 1570's, and then made his way to a new life in the East Indies. The Scottish refugees arrived at the time when my mother's family had been in Indonesia for around 50 - 100 years. It is not inconceivable that my maternal ancestors knew my paternal ancestors around 200 years before my mother and father tied the knot in 1965 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

This has happened several times in the history of the Balfours as well, over periods of many centuries, where first names and surnames recur in almost the same combinations.

On 1999 I bought an old lithograph on a complete whim in a Prague antiquary. It has a picture of Surabaya harbor dating around 1750. I had only a vague notion of the connection at the time I bought the picture. Unfortunately, the picture was lost in transit in Latvia which I regret very much.

Click to "Oom Chris Koopman".