[1] After only three weeks of serving as the Governor he died and Daniël van den Henghel was appointed in an acting capacity.
[2] Van Kervel arrived at the Cape on 3 February 1708, where he became an assistant in the secretariat of the Council of Policy.
In 1725 he succeeded Cornelis van Beaumont as fiscal and was promoted to the rank of secunde (second in command or deputy governor).
His eldest brother, Gerard, was the Governor of the East Coast of Java.
Van Kervel married Aletta Corsenaar on 14 June 1716 at the Cape and they had five children.