Plumstead Was First Mentioned When In 1692 A Large Portion Of Land Beyond Wynberg And Constantia Valley Was Granted To Free Burgers Hendrik Jergens And Johan Barrens. They Called It “Rust En Werk” – They Endeavoured To Farm It.

Twenty Years Later The Land Was Granted To Hendrik Bouman Brigeraad.

After The Decline Of The Dutch East India Company, The British Occupied The Cape.

1797 Battle Of Muizenberg. An Englishman, Batt, Saw Possibilities Of Farming At The Cape Of Good Hope And Encouraged His Son Henry Batt To Come Out To The Country. This Henry Did And Arrived In 1807 On Board The Norfolk House. He Bought “Rust En Werk” And Named It Plumstead After A District Of London. Henry Batt Farmed There For Twenty-Six Years.

Extract Written In 1939:

One Hundred And Seventy Years Ago, Plumstead, Which An Enthusiastic Writer Of The Day Tells Us, Was So Named By H Batt, Its Public Spirited Patron, Was A Rising Village With An Air Not To Be Equaled. It Is Quite A Delightful Sight To Discover The Rising Cottages In All Directions; The Writer Declares With Passionate Zeal ,The Dwellings Of Free Burgers With Their Plantation And Gardens Overcoming The Hitherto Supposed Sterility Of The Soil.

It Must Have Been An Enchantingly Pretty Little Village, So Lovely That It Made The Writer Suggest That It Might Well Form A Theme Of A Poem Called “Rising Village”. Batt Died In 1833. His Tomb Is In Batts Road, A Continuation Of Chudleigh Road – Looks As If There Is A Moslem Influence In The Building Of The Tomb. A Coloured Training Center Bares His Name.

Plumstead Was Then Subdivided And Bought By Higgs, Loubscher And Southey. In 1896, Sir Richard Southey Bought It All. He Was Born In Calmstark, Devonshire. He Held Farming And Administrative Positions In Grahamstown. He Was Knighted In 1891. He Was Interested In Cattle Farming And Was To Be Seen Walking About His Farm, Plumstead, Always With Pine Tree Seeds In His Pocket – He Would Make A Hole With His Walking Stick And Drop A Seed In – Hence The Pine Trees In Plumstead Today. Many Of The Streets Have Devon Names, Taken From His Home Country. He Died At His Residence ‘Southfields’ – Today St Michaels Orphanage. He Wrote A Clause In His Will That There Were To Be No Flats Below The Railway-Line. One Son Built And Lived In The House ‘Culmwood’, Which in 1833 Timour Hall Became The Property Of Edward George At The Time Of Batt’S Death. In 1881 It Was Ceded To Aletta Smith Widow Of Charles James Smith. (Widows were often granted land or farms in lieu of a pension for services rendered to the Colony by their husbands). Sir Percy Fitzpatrick Lived There. It Has Now Been Purchased By The Education Department.

Anston – In Melville Road, Was Built In 1814 By Segar – It Was Named “Waterloo”. After Numerous Owners, It Was Bought By Dr Meyer, A Skin Specialist In 1884 – He Named It Meyerhof. It Is Very Old And Still Has The Wide Floorboards And Old Dutch Oven And Open Fireplaces In The Kitchen. The Original Gate Posts Are Still There.

Main Road Was A Dusty Cart Track With An Avenue Of Pine Trees On One Side And A Deep Donga On The Other Side.

Eaton Convalescent Home Was A Wayside Inn For Coaches Before The Railway. It Was Equal To The Best Inns In England.

Oakhall – Olive Schreiner Died There In 1920. Oakhall Originally Was Called Rustic Cottage – Once Used As A German Club.

Dr Wood, An Eye Specialist, Lived In A Big House Called Southfield And Mrs Wood Started Jersey Creamery – Cows Grazed Down As Far As Prince George’S Drive.

Hildebrand’S Poultry Farm – Victoria And De Waal Roads – Bought By Nicholson – Was Once A Gambling Den Where Parties Were Held – Plumstead Cemetry Is Now In The Area.

1910 – Part Of Wynberg Municipality. There Was A Sewerage Farm At The Left Of Victoria Road – Due To Heavy Rains, This Overflowed Into Princess Vlei – The Owner Of Which Then Sued The Municipality. The Fire Brigade Was Inadequate And The Municipality Went Bankrupt – Joined Cape Town Municipality.

Plumstead Sports Club Started By Seymour, Col Thorpe, Mr Solomon And Dr Rail. Ground Hired From The Council For 99 Years – Tennis Courts, Bowling Green, Rugby Field, Cricket And Hockey Fields.

Soil In Palatine And Firfield Roads More Fertile – It Use To Be A Vlei.

St Michaels – 1905: Started By Seventh Day Adventists As A Clinic – Bought By Lady Michaels And Donated Entirely To The Provincial Administration For An Orthopaedic Home.

Oldest Shops: Osmans Over 60 Years – Yudelmans 1905.

Railway: 1876 To Wynberg And In 1896 To Muizenberg. Electrified In 1929. Original Station Was Wood And Iron – It Was Reduced To Ashes One Morning – New Station Built In 1896 – With A Recent Coat Of Paint It Is Still Presentable.

Wesleyan Church 1906 – English Church 1908.

Plumstead Primary School Established 1904 –A Couple Of Cottages On The Main Road Were Used For This Purpose – Present Primary School Built Later On Site Of Former Malay Cemetery. John Graham 1956: Plumstead High 1958.

1848 – A Petition Was Drawn Up Against More Licenses For Canteens In The Wynberg Area.

Wynberg Was The Center Of The Vine-Growing Industry At The Cape And A Large Amount Of Cheap Wine Of Very Inferior Quality Was Produced.

From The Three Cups (Today Mowbray) To Plumstead, A Distance Of 4 Miles, There Were 14 Canteens On The Main Road.

Industries: Burlington Hosiery Mills : Bmd Knitting Mills: Inc House B W Crane Monuments.

Unknown Author.

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The extent of the immigration of Germans to the Cape during the period of the Dutch East-India Company has not yet been satisfactorily dealt with. Colenbrander’s calculations in his “De Afkomst der Boeren” are unreliable. They are based on C. C. de Villiers’ “Geslacht-Register”, a work which, notwithstanding its merit, is incomplete and in many ways inaccurate. The only works which have so far specifically dealt with the Germans at the Cape are those of Schmidt (“Der Kulturanteil der Deutschen am Aufbau des Burenvolkes”, by Werner Schmidt Pretoria ; Hannover, 1938) and of Moritz (“Die Deutschen am Kap unter der holländischen Herrschaft 1652-1806” by Eduard Moritz, Weimar, 1938). They, however, include the personalia of only a limited number of Germans.

In the present publication an attempt is made to give a complete list of those Germans who came to the Cape in the service of the Company during the period 1652 till 1806 and settled here, either remaining in the Company’s service or making a living in one or other capacity after being discharged. Most of the data under each name have been gathered from the various manuscript sources in the Government Archives in Cape Town and the Archives of the Dutch Reformed Church. Relative completeness has been obtained, the researches in connection with the subject covering a great number of years.

The Germans who came from Switzerland have been classified separately, as well as the women immigrants.

Riaan discovers his roots

In the 2009 series of  “Who do you think you are?” on SABC2, Ancestry24 helped to trace the family tree of Riaan Cruywagen, the longest standing TV-presenter in South Africa. Riaan did not know much about his paternal family, other than occasional stories from his grandfather.

Amongst others, we used the Transvaal and the Cape Deceased Estates Index as well as the Groot Familienaamboek and Robert Shell’s Changing Hands e-book on Cape Slavery.

His journey took him to Beaufort West, where his mother was born. He discovered details about his family’s involvement in the Anglo Boer War, why the Cruywagens came to the Cape with the Dutch East India Company and what role they played in the slave trade. He found out why the family had huge assets in the form of land, livestock and agriculture which in today’s market value may have made him one of the richest people in South Africa.

Ready to you find your ancestors?

Ancestry24 offers the most extensive South African genealogy archives online. Read some success stories of how others found their family members on this website.

• Search for your ancestors through millions of records, updated daily.
• Find images in the gallery, especially in the growing tombstone collection.
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• Post a question in the Forum, which is a valuable resource if you need help.

Trailer from the episode with Riaan

It is a difficult matter to realise what a voyage must have been two hundred years ago when we think of our large modern liners plying between Europe and South Africa.

Today the distance is covered within seventeen days, then it took anywhere from four to six months; today the food is kept in ice chambers, then the meat had to be salted and cured. The ships then were small, and living and sleeping space was limited; some of the vessels were no longer than one hundred and fifteen feet. Not only were the people faced by the danger of tempestuous seas, stranding or fire, but they also ran the risk of capture by pirates or a foreign enemy.

French Refugees

Death was of frequent occurrence during the voyage, and the means for combating it limited. The want of fresh food, vegetables and a limited allowance of water caused scurvy. This played havoc with a great number, and it often ended fatally. Water was a precious thing on board, and every precaution was taken to preserve it. To eke out the fresh water as long as possible, the meat and salt pork were cooked in the salt water and thus consumed by those on board. Water was given out on short allowance, but one or two glasses of wine were distributed to make up for it.

Poor people, what agonies they must have suffered sometimes, especially when passing through the tropics! Such, however, were the risks and discomforts which the French Refugees who ventured to leave their country had to run before they found an asylum in the southern hemisphere.

The ships of the Dutch East India Company that brought out the first batches of Refugees were the Voorschooten, Borssenburg, Oosterlandt, Berg China, Schelde, Zuid Beveland, and ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar. The Voorschooten was the first ship to leave Holland, and sailed on the 31st December, 1687. On the 13th April following she was obliged to drop her anchors in Saldanha Bay on account of a strong south-east wind, although her destination was Table Bay.’ Her officers considered it necessary to remain in the bay to effect some repairs. When the Commander at the Castle was informed of her arrival, he despatched the cutter Jupiter from Table Bay with fresh provisions. On her return she brought the Refugees safely to the Cape.

The Voorschooten was a flute of one hundred and thirty feet (Dutch) long. Twenty-two French emigrants were on board. Amongst them were Charles Marais of Plessis, his wife and four children, Philippe Fouché with wife and three children, also eight young bachelors, amongst whom were the brothers Jean and Gabriel le Roux of Blois, and Gideon Malherbe. Jacques Pinard and his wife Esther Fouché had been married previous to the sailing of the Voorschooten from Holland.

The Oosterlandt left Middelburg on the 29th January. 1688, and reached Table Bay on the 26th April, 1688, after a most successful voyage of two months and ten days. She was a much larger built ship than the Voorschooten, measuring one hundred and sixty feet. She brought out twenty-four Refugees. One of then was Jacques de Savoye of Aeth, a wealthy merchant. Jean Prier du Plessis of Poitiers, who had practised as a surgeon, and Isaac Taillefert of Chateau Thierry, a hat-maker, were also on board; they all brought out their wives and children.

Another of the boats to have a most successful voyage was the flute Borssenburg, which left Texel on the 6th January, 1688. She was the smallest of the ships, as she was only one hundred and fifteen feet in length. She cast anchor in the Bay on May 12th, having suffered no deaths amongst the passengers or crew during the voyage, and landed all those on board in a healthy condition at the Cape. Among her passengers was a party of “French Piedmontese fugitives.” The list of names is wanting. I have been unable to trace any particular individual who came out in her.

A most exciting voyage was experienced by the Schelde, a boat of one hundred and forty feet long. She brought out twenty-three French Refugees, men, women and children. Seven or eight days out at sea a terrible storm sprang up, and the skipper was compelled to put into St. Jago. On her arrival at Porto Pravo, he was told that on the previous day an English pirate ship had captured three ships belonging to the English, Portuguese and Dutch respectively. She sailed away almost immediately, and when five days from the Cape ran into another storm. On board were several members of the des Pres family.

On the 4th August, 1688, there arrived in Table Bay the Berg China, which had lett Rotterdam on the 20th March previously. The Berg China was of the same dimensions as the Oosterlandt. There were thirty-four French fugitives on board when she set sail, but the greater portion of the thirty who died on the voyage were Refugees.

When the Zuid Beveland, a vessel as big as the Voorschooten, sailed from Holland on the 22nd April, 1688, she had on board twenty-five Refugees, eleven men, four women and ten children. Amongst them was an important person whose arrival had been eagerly looked forward to by those who had come earlier to the Cape shores. This person was the Revd. Pierre Simond of Embrun in Dauphine, lately minister at Zirikzee. He was to play an active part in the early history of the French community at Drakenstein. Reverend Simond, whose name has been perpetuated today in the Drakenstein Valley by the place Simondium, was accompanied by his wife, Anne de Berault. Amongst the soldiers on board belonging to the Dutch East India Company was Sergeant Louis de Berault, brother of the minister’s wife. In October, 1688, Sergeant de Berault accompanied an expedition to Rio de la Goa to search for some wrecked seamen of the ship Stavinisse. He afterwards settled down as a burgher.

After a run of nearly four months the Zuid Beveland dropped anchor in Table Bay on the 19th August, but it was too late that day for anyone to come ashore. Between eight and nine o’clock next morning the first boat shoved off for land, but a squall of wind suddenly sprang up and upset the boat. Soon everyone was floundering in the sea. Several of the occupants were drowned, including Mr. Cornelis Moerkerke, who was on his way to Malacca to take up his appointment as Fiscal. Both the Schelde and Zuid Beveland lost a number of the French Refugees by death during the voyage. The lists of Refugees who came out in these two vessels are not to be found in the Archives at the Cape nor in Holland. From other documents, however, the names of some are found mentioned as having arrived with her. For instance, the Schelde brought out Charles Prévot, wife and three children, Hercules des Pres with wife and four children, and Abraham Bleuset, which makes a total of twelve out of the twenty-three who embarked.

In the Zuid Beveland came Rev. Simond and his wife, Jean le Long, wife and two children, Estienne Viret, Salomon de Gournay and David Senecal, eight souls out of the number of twenty-five known to have embarked. From the number of Refugees who had sailed by the 1st April, 1688, it is seen that more men than women came out. After the Zuid Beveland had left, sixty-seven men, thirty-three women and fifty-one children had embarked in the various boats, but, as we find upon comparing the lists of those we know set sail and those who landed here, several of them died on the voyage or shortly after their arrival.

About forty Refugees set sail from Texel on the 27th July, 1688, on board ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar, commanded by Captain Carel Goske, and arrived six months after, i.e., the 27th January, 1689. They lost thirty-seven persons by death and brought one hundred and four sick ones, the latter being placed immediately in the Company’s hospital at Cape Town. The French emigrants were sent into the country to their new homes on the 1st February, after they had been given all the necessaries to carry on their agricultural pursuits. The only name I have been able to trace of those who sailed in the Alkmaar is that of Antonie Martin.

About one thousand souls represented by two hundred families, Piedmontese and Vaudois refugees, had taken refuge in Nuremberg. Their number included agriculturists, experienced tradesmen, and four ministers; they all expressed a wish to go to any of the Colonies of the Dutch East or Dutch West India Companies, but on condition that they be allowed to settle close to each other and exercise their own religion. Commissioners, appointed by the Chamber of Seventeen, enquired into the matter, and meanwhile the French and Vaudois fugitives presented a petition asking that certain other conditions be allowed. The petitioners had deputed Jean Pastre Marchand as their spokesmen, who stated that he had been requested by the Refugees at Erlagh and the Vaudois near Nuremberg to plead their cause.

A kindly and compassionate view was taken of the matter by the Seventeen, who decided to settle these people at the Cape of Good Hope, and provide them with free passages and money, and to supply them with building materials on credit. They were to be given provisions and treated on the same footing as the Dutch emigrants. It was thought that after the aged, lame and sick persons had been deducted, there would be between six and seven hundred souls who would be prepared to emigrate.

Arrangements were made for sending out two or three hundred Waldenses or Vaudoisen in the Company’s ship the Schielandt, but afterwards in ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar. Everything was in readiness, but the emigrants declined to go, and the Seventeen wrote to the Cape that “these people, being averse to the sea and long voyage, had changed their minds and settled in Germany, and that forty French Refugees bred to agriculture were being sent out in ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar.”

The above ships brought out the greater portion of the French emigrés to the Cape between 1688 and 1700, and after the former date we find them arriving in small batches. The other ships which brought some of them out were the Zion, Vosmaar, Westhoven, Donkervliet and Driebergen. In the Zion, which left Holland on the 8th January, 1689, and arrived on the 6th May following, came three brothers, Pierre, Abraham and Jacob de Villiers. Writing to the Cape on the 16th December, 1688, the Chamber at Delft said of them: “With this ship (the Zion) we have again permitted the following French Refugees to sail to the Cape and earn their living as freemen, Pierre de Villiers, Abraham de Villiers and Jacob de Villiers, all three brothers born near la Rochelle. We are informed that these persons have a good knowledge of laying out vineyards and managing the same, and thus we hope that the Company will acquire their good service. You are recommended to give them a helping hand.”

Today the name of de Villiers is to be found throughout the sub-continent, and descendants of Pierre de Villiers have given us some of the cleverest men in the legal profession, one of whom was the late Baron de Villiers of Wynberg, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Union of South Africa.

A sad fate overtook the ten men and women Refugees who sailed from Holland in April, 1616, in the Vosmaar. The voyage had been most disastrous. When she arrived in October she had lost ninety-three persons by death, five of whom were of the French emigrants. Of the remainder of two hundred and thirty-six persons who were mostly sick and in a weak condition, only four were left in a good state of health. The Middelburg Chamber wrote to van der Stel that at the request of these French Refugees they had been given permission to proceed to the Cape, and that the Company in granting this did so with the object of populating the Colony. The Directors expressed the hope that they would not be a trouble to the Colony, but that each one would be able to maintain himself honestly by his trade or handicraft. To enable them to do so they were to be given as much help as the orders of the Seventeen required.

Of the five survivors who arrived in the Vosmaar the only name to be found is that of Jacques Bisseux of Picardy, who became a baker.

The Donkervliet and Westhoven both came out in 1699 and arrived on the 20th July and 16th June respectively.4 On the 25th May 1698, the Driebergen, in command of Captain Martin de Jeugd, destined for Batavia, left Holland. On board were five French refugees who, upon their arrival at the Cape on the 3rd September, 1698, settled at Drakenstein as agriculturists. When north of the Canary Islands the Driebergen encountered a pirate vessel, which she took to be Turkish although the boat flew an English flag, and after Captain de Jeugd had warned her to keep off he fired a broadside and shattered her sails. She left the pirate without Damage. A despatch, dated 7th May, 1698, from the Chamber at Delft mentioned the names of the five fugitives sent out with the Driebergen:

Louwys de Ryck alais Louis le Riche, Pieter Cronier alias Pierre Crosnier, Stephen Cronier alias Estienne Cronier, Jean van het tichelje alias Jean du Tuillet, Philip van Renan alias Philippe Drouin.

When the newcomers landed everything had been arranged to receive and convey them to their new homes along the Berg River in the Drakenstein Valley. In 1687 this beautiful and fertile valley had been named by Commander Simon van der Stel after one of the family seats in Holland of the High Commissioner, Hendrik Adriaan van Reede, Lord of Mydrecht, who had come out to the Cape in 1685 to inspect the Company’s affairs. In the same year twenty-three farms along the Berg River were marked out, each measuring 60 morgen in extent, and given to a like number of agriculturists.’ Six wagons were supplied by the Burgher Councillors of the Cape and six by the Heemraden of Stellenbosch, to transfer the new arrivals and their baggage to Drakenstein. The Company supplied provisions which would last them for a few months, and planks to build temporary shelters.

When the farms were allotted care was taken to scatter the French among the Dutch farmers already settled there and those arriving at the same time. Some were given ground in the Stellenbosch district, but the greater number were at Drakenstein and French Hoek. This intermingling of the Dutch and French caused dissatisfaction among the latter. The Landdrost and Heemraden of Stellenbosch were requested to receive the Reverend Simond with the respect and reverence which his office and position demanded, and to assist him, as much as lay in their power, in erecting a house for himself. Upon his arrival he was conveyed to his destination in comfort and ease.

The majority of the Refugees to the Cape possessed little or nothing when they landed. Many had escaped with only their lives. They erected shelters which could be put up rapidly, and did not waste time upon buildings of an elaborate nature. It is reasonable to suppose that the first structures which they built were of a primitive nature, and none would have been of the class so general during the eighteenth century.

What pioneer in a strange land has ever built his first house with all the comforts and architectural beauty in which he indulges when he has made headway and reaped the good results of his work?

We must look back upon the time, two centuries ago, and imagine these Refugees arriving in a beautiful, extensive and wooded valley, where wild animals such as lions and tigers made their lair, where Hottentots in their wild state roamed about ready to plunder the homestead. Under such conditions and with little money or material, only simple and small dwellings would have been erected. Later on, however, when the Colony expanded and the emigrants saw the good fruits of their labours, they built themselves better houses with many lofty and spacious rooms.

Not long after their coming a subscription list was sent round on their behalf among the older settlers of the Colony and Company’s servants. This was readily responded to by contributions of money, cattle and grain. The fund was given to Reverend Simond and the deacons of the Stellenbosch church for distribution. The records in referring to this collection say that it did the older colonists credit and was most acceptable to the Refugees.

Two years later pecuniary assistance from quite a different source was given to the Huguenots. On the 22nd April, 1689, Commander van der Stel wrote to the Batavian Government and complained of the extreme poverty of the French Refugees, who, he said, would not be able to enjoy the fruits of their work for three or four years to come; they were being supported by the Company and from such means as were available from the poor fund. The settlers had no easy task in preparing their land for cultivation. The ground, which had never been tilled since the world began, was overgrown with bush and roots, and it would take several years to produce some return. Their life at first was full of trials; tools and implements had to be obtained from the Company, to whom they became debtors. He asked that a collection might be made for these poor people; this would relieve the Company of supporting them. The petition was not in vain. Although a collection was not made, a bill of exchange for 6,000 rixdollars, or £1,250, was immediately sent over. This bill was drawn on the Cape Government in favour of the Reverend Pierre Simond, the pastor of the French congregation at Drakenstein.

The money had been in the Batavian Treasury for many years, and represented the poor fund of a church at Formosa, one of the Dutch possessions which had been seized by the Chinese pirate Coxinga, who had compelled the Dutch to evacuate it. This money was taken away and placed in the treasury at Batavia. On the 18th and 19th April, 1690, the Cape Government distributed the amount amongst the French community, who were greatly pleased with a present so welcome in their dire distress.’ Another surprise was in store for them the next day; they received from the Commander, through the Landdrost of Stellenbosch, a present of oxen. They returned to their homes highly pleased, alter having thanked the Commander for his kindly feeling and thought for them.

Article: Extracted from: “The French Refugees at the Cape” – C Graham Botha

The first slave, one Abraham, a stowaway from Batavia, reached Table Bay on the Malacca on 2 March 1653. He was made to work for the Company until sent back to Batavia three years later. In March 1655 there were three slaves, brought from Madagascar. Apart from these few, Cape slavery may be dated from the arrival on 25 March 1658 of the Amersfoort, with some 170 slaves taken off a Portuguese ship. Since Hottentots were unreliable, Van Riebeeck favoured the use of slave labour. He allowed free burghers to purchase slaves on credit at 50 to 100 guilders each, but most slaves remained in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. Burghers, finding that slaves deserted, returned those that were intractable to the Company, believing that they were not worth their keep.

The term Huguenots is used nowhere in contemporary Cape sources for the French immigrants who settled in South Africa toward the end of the 18th century; in all official documents they are referred to as the French Refugees. Before the Edict of Nantes was repealed by Louis XIV on 17 October 1685 many Protestants had already left France. It is estimated that between 75 000 and 100 000 entered the Netherlands either to settle there or in transit to other Protestant countries. Even at the beginning of the 17th century some had chosen to live among people of their own religion and to leave predominantly Roman Catholic France.

After the visits of Rijckloff van Goens and Hendrik Adriaan van Reede to the Cape, it was decided to encourage the development of agriculture. On 3 October 1685 the Directors of the Dutch East India Company resolved to send free burghers to the Cape. Before this time only Company officials had been sent out, who became free burghers if they decided to remain. It was also decided that among these colonists French refugees of the Reformed religion could be included. Preference would be given to persons with some knowledge of viticulture and the making of brandy, and it was emphasised that they should be honest people who would then be considered Netherlanders.

The first invitation to go to the Cape went practically unheeded, but in October 1687 the Directors of the Company again decided to give the French an opportunity to go, with the promise that they could return to Europe after five years, and not, as had previously been stipulated, after fifteen years. Dutch free burghers were not released, however, from their obligatory stay of fifteen years. The French were also promised that one of their own ministers of religion would accompany them.

The first group of French arrived at Saldanha Bay in the Voorschooten in April 1688. Among them were Charles Marais and Philip Fouche and their families. The Oosterland arrived in Table Bay in the same month and brought the family of Jacques de Savoye, the Nortiers and the Taillefer(t)s. In the Borssenburg, which arrived on 12 May, were a group of Piedmontese. The Schelde, which brought the family Des Pres (Du Pre, Du Preez), cast anchor in Table Bay in June. The largest group left Rotterdam in the Berg China on 20 March and arrived on 4th August, but of the 34 passengers more than half did not survive the voyage. The Zuid Beveland, which arrived on 19th August, brought the minister, Pierre Simond. He helped Commander Simon van der Stel to establish the French on their small farms and on 17th October at Stellenbosch he delivered the first French sermon. He was himself given a farm between Stellenbosch and Drakenstein and a horse on which to visit his flock.

New Testament in French and Dutch 1672

During 1689 further small groups of refugees arrived, amongst others in ‘t Wapen van Alkmaar (on 27 January); and on 6th May the brothers Pierre, Abraham and Jacob de Villiers from La Rochelle arrived in the Zion, having been sent because of their knowledge of viticulture. During the nineties ten more men and women arrived in the Vosmaer, while the Driebergen in 1698 and the Donkervliet and Westhoven in 1699 brought another handful of refugees.

Those arriving at the Cape before 1688 and after 1699 did not come in groups. In any case all officially supported immigration ceased after 1707 when W.A. van der Stel was dismissed. The number of French refugees cannot be precisely stated, since a number of ships’ lists are missing and it cannot always be established with certainty how many died during the long voyage. The lowest figure appearing in the sources is 155, Theal gives a list of 176, and others assert that about 200 French arrived at the Cape. Their proportion to the rest of the White population at the time is put at17 % by H. T. Colenbrander, and by D. B. Bosman at 15 %.

The reception of the French was very cordial. Simon van der Stel expressed his joy at their arrival. He observed that those who had come in the Schelde outdid the others in merit and eagerness to help. He praised the Flemish merchant Jacques de Savoye for his knowledge and industry, and since he had full command of both languages appointed him as heemraad. Since most of the French had no money or possessions, a considerable voluntary collection in money and stock was contributed by officials and burghers, and Van der Stel in a letter to Batavia dated 22 April 1689 asked that a collection toward the support of these poor people should be made at Batavia. The church relief board immediately obliged and sent 18 000 guilders, the contents of the poor-box on the island of Formosa, which the Company had lost in 1682. This money was distributed in April 16 by the Rev. Simond and the council of the French congregation according to need.
In spite of this assistance the first years were diffcult. The first winter and spring were cold and wet. Some complained about the quality of the farms which they had been given. Van der Stel did his best to satisfy them, but in the journal of 24 October 1688 he had it recorded that he had already had much trouble with the French free burghers, and that it would appear that these people were not at all as industrious as one had expected of them.
The holdings which Van der Stel had granted the French were interspersed among those of the Dutch free burghers, especially along the Berg River, but also at the foot of Simonsberg, Paarlberg and Diamantberg. The area formerly known as Olifantshoek now received the name of `De Fransche Hoek’ (the French Corner). Simond preached in Stellenbosch and Drakenstein on alternate Sundays, and in November 1688 Paul Roux was appointed as reader and schoolmaster in the French language at a salary of 15 guilders per month.

Sarel Arnoldus Cilliers - Direct descendant of French Huguenot: Josué Cellier

The French were however, not satisfied with their minister’s seat on the church council of Stellenbosch and the consistory of the Cape, but wanted their own church council. They delegated Simond with a deputation of four – Jacob (Jacques) de Savoye, Daniel de Ruelle, Abraham de Villiers and Louis Cordier – to put their request to the Council of Policy on 28 November 1689. Van der Stel was very indignant, and he and the Council refused the request. The Directors, however, discussed it at their meeting on 6 December 1690 and granted permission for the election of a French church council in Drakenstein. The explicit policy was, however, to scatter the French among the Dutch free burghers and to teach their children French as well as Dutch.

The first council of the French congregation was established on 30 December 1691. Claude Marais, Louis de Berault and Louis Cordier were chosen as elders, and Abraham de Villiers, Pierre Meyer, Pierre Beneset and Pierre Rousseau as deacons. In the beginning the French congregation of Drakenstein assembled in the house of one of the free burghers; later a shed was built, which collapsed in 1718. The congregation was then already engaged in drawing up plans for a new church, of which the first stone was laid on 6 September 1718. This building was consecrated in June 1720.
The complete disappearance of the French language can be ascribed to various causes. In the first place many of the French were already quite familiar with Dutch when they arrived at the Cape, and there were some families who had lived in the Netherlands for years. Among these were the Nels, who had lived at Utrecht since 1644, and the Du Toits who had lived at Leyden since 1605. The Malans (from 1625), the Jouberts (from 1645), and the Mesnards (from 1638, later called Minnaar), had also lived at Leyden, and the Malherbes (from 1618) had lived at Dordrecht. Secondly, there were among the French free burghers many young people and children, who quickly learnt the language of their new neighbours and fellow countrymen. Thirdly, the authorities did not encourage the use of French. Although until 1697 some proclamations still appeared in French as well, and although the French often wrote their letters to the authorities in French, the church council of Drakenstein was asked in 1709 to write no more letters to the Government in the French language. The departure of their own minister in 1702 also hastened the disappearance of French. Although the Company saw to it that Simond’s successor, the Rev. Henricus Beck, who arrived on the Reijgersdael in April 1702, could speak and understand French, in their letter dated 20 September 1701 to the Governor and Council of Policy they wrote that Beck was not to preach in that language `but only through visits, admonition and consolation to serve the aged colonists who do not know our language, so that French would in due course die out as if banned from use.’ At school no more instruction was to be given in French.
The new governor, W. A. van der Stel, did not interpret this letter from the Directors as prohibiting the use of French in the church, for the Rev. Beck was allowed to preach in French on alternate weeks. Paul Roux also read sermons in French and taught in French. When he died in 1723 there were still about 25 old persons who could understand no other language. Sermons in French became progressively rarer, and it can be said that the French language had died out by the time the second generation had grown up.
Much has been written about the influence of the French free burghers on their adopted country and the people. Since such influences cannot be measured with accuracy, such evaluations are necessarily subjective. According to Simon van der Stel, their influence on the development of viticulture and agriculture was small. After their arrival there was certainly an increase in quantity, but the quality did not improve appreciably. It is even more difficult to determine the French influence on the South African national character. Possibly a certain light-heartedness and quickness of wit may be attributed to the French infusion. The darker Latin type among Afrikaners may also be ascribed to French blood. The French and the already established Dutch and German colonists evinced the same love of freedom, the same independence and the same sense of justice. The influence of Calvinism left an unmistakable imprint on both population groups, so that as early as the beginning of the 18th century a sense of unity developed in the burghers’ struggle against Governor W. A. van der Stel.

Besides the new surnames which the French brought, many of the interesting names which they gave to their farms have been preserved, such as La Terre de Luc, La Dauphine, La Provence, Cabriere, Champagne and Non Pareille – names which still adorn the elegant gables and white gates of old Cape farms, where the architectural style and traditions which they developed along with their Dutch and German compatriots, and to which English influences later contributed, have been preserved.

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

Have you ever wondered why your Ancestors became Freemasons? Was it because of the idea of belonging to a secret society, or perhaps a night off from the nagging wife once a week? Men join and practice Freemasonry to make themselves better human beings, and the rituals, symbolism, and teachings of Freemasonry focus on morality and ethics.

What are Free Masons?

Freemasonry is a fraternal secret society limiting its membership to adult men who believe in a Supreme Being. While it absorbed a good deal of occult symbolism from its roots in Renaissance Hermeticism, and a great many male occultists have belonged to it in the last 300 years, it is not an occult order. Similarly, while it was closely associated with liberal political causes for the two centuries after 1717,and Masons such as Louis Thiabult, Piet Retief and President Brand and Cecil John Rhodes have played important roles in political affairs and South African history, it is not a political organization. Non-members are often surprised to learn that its actual focus is self-improvement.

What do they do?

No Freemason is ever asked to perform any task or take any oath which may conflict with his duties to his God, his family or as a citizen. Freemasonry is not a religion, but it demands that every member believe in a power greater than man. It does not focus solely on charity, but strongly promotes charitable activities and encourages members to contribute to those less fortunate than themselves. It is certainly not politically motivated, but it expects its members to play a meaningful role in society.

In simplest terms, Freemasonry’s aim is to improve the world we live in by uplifting the moral and spiritual standards of the men living in it.
Freemasonry is many centuries old, the most commonly accepted theory being that it originated back in medieval times when the great cathedrals of Europe were built. The stonemasons who created these magnificent Gothic structures formed craft guilds to protect the secrets of their trade, to help one another and to pass on their knowledge to worthy apprentices.
In 17th century England, these guilds began accepting honorary members. These new members were men of learning and position who were not working stonemasons or even associated with the building trades. As time passed, they developed into a separate body, referred to as the Free and Accepted Masons, and it is from this that structured Freemasonry was formed. The earliest recorded “making” of a Freemason was in 1646, being that of one Elias Ashmole.

History of the Masons in South Africa

Formally organised Freemasonry, as we know it today, began with the founding of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717. Looking to expand their horizons, they opened foreign Lodges such as The Hague in Holland in 1734. As the Order progressed, so a number of new Grand Lodges were established, one of the earliest being the Grand Lodge National of the Netherlands in 1758. Each of these Grand Lodges then sought to spread further by establishing new Lodges both at home and in their territories overseas.

While history shows that there were a number of Freemasons living in the Cape prior to this date, it was on the 2nd May 1772, that the Dutch formally introduced Freemasonry to South Africa and 10 founding Brethren established Lodge de Goede Hoop under the Mastership of Abraham Chiron. To say that these early Brethren laboured diligently is an understatement and it is recorded that some 400 degrees were conferred in the first 9 years and that in 1775 alone, the Brethren met 32 times and conferred 53 degrees.

It is worth noting that, in the early days, the Cape’s main purpose was to provide a safe shelter and halfway-station en route to the East Indies and the Dutch East India Company played a major role in all local activities. Indeed, the Lodge depended for its existence on visitors and generally failed to attract the local residents as members, mainly because of the rigid social and religious attitudes of the confined Cape society. This consisted mainly of two broad classes, the Company official and free burgher. Due to rigid Company policy their employees were not permitted to trade or own land until they were released from their contracts, and it was only after this that they could settle in the Cape and become free burghers. The Masonic philosophy of equality in the Lodge violated the structure in the Cape where difference in rank between Company officials and free burghers was practiced. Religious interference was also widespread.

In the early 1780s, war broke out between England and Holland and, as a result, ships stopped calling at the Cape. This had a major impact on Masonic labours and contributed to the Lodge, in 1781, going into recess for a period of some 9 years. The Lodge recommenced activities in the early 1790s, this time attracting more prominent persons of the Company, such as Johannes Andreas Truter, later to become Chief Justice of the Cape.

These more influential members offered some protection from the Company and the pulpit and, whereas previously almost all the members were of a transient nature, more and more of the new initiates were locally born and primarily resident in the Cape – a far more stable situation. The Lodge has now laboured, uninterrupted, for well over 200 years.

It is not the objective of this article to concentrate on a single Lodge, and little more will be said about Lodge de Goede Hoop itself, although it is impossible to ignore the very major role it has played in all aspects of the history of South African Freemasonry. Indeed, in one way or another, every single one of the Lodges operating in this country can trace its foundations back to the Mother of all our Lodges.

In the late 18th century, after the year of the British occupation in 1795, there were a large number of members of overseas Lodges living in Cape Town. De Goede Hoop allowed them to use their facilities, with certain restrictions, and they functioned as irregular Lodges. One of these was Goede Verwachting, which was duly warranted as a lawful Lodge in the early 1800s. In the process of ratification, the name was changed to de Goede Trouw, now our Number 2 Lodge.

Further impetus was given to Freemasonry in the Cape by the take over of the Batavia Republic in 1802, and, after that, with the arrival of Jacob de Mist, a Deputy Grand Master in Holland, who then became the 1st Deputy Grand Master, National Netherlandic Constitution in the region. He had been sent out to re-establish the Dutch presence in the Cape and one of the important avenues he used was Freemasonry.

The 2nd British occupation of the Cape Colony saw the return of the British Military Lodges. The Commander in Chief was a Freemason and, seeing him as an ally, the Deputy Grand Master National welcomed him into Lodge De Goede Hoop as a protector.

However, the influx of English speaking members into the Lodge brought its own tensions. Almost inevitably, the English speaking members broke away in 1811 and formed the British Lodge, this being the 1st permanent Masonic involvement in the territory by the United Grand Lodge of England.

Political circumstances triggered off the Great Trek when thousands of burghers moved North. Coupled to the general economic climate, this adversely affected Freemasonry at the time. Relative prosperity in the 1850s, however, resulted in an influx of English settlers and the development of the Eastern coast and the Natal Colony. The Craft was revitalised, with English Freemasonry spreading to the Eastern part and Dutch Freemasonry towards the newly formed Republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Once again, the use of English in the Dutch Lodges created tensions and in 1860 resulted in the formation of the very 1st Lodge under the Scottish Constitution, that being Lodge Southern Cross. The 1st of the local Irish Lodges, St Patricks, was formed in 1897. There were now four Constitutions at labour in Southern Africa.

As early as 1875, there were calls for a United Grand Lodge to be formed, where all Masons would be able to find a common home and there was a similar move in 1892, when the proposal was narrowly defeated. While no unification has yet been successfully pursued, it must be said that the 4 Constitutions have almost always worked together in great harmony, have shared many projects and have always promoted the common cause of Freemasonry.

There have been some extremely testing times, such as during the Anglo-Boer war, and there are many tales of Masons from opposite sides remembering their Masonic oath and saving their Brethren. It is also noted that Temples were often spared from destruction.

Perhaps as a result of political circumstances, the upsurge of Afrikanerdom and a growing campaign for a South African Republic, the striving for a South African Grand Lodge again gained momentum. The failure to make any progress in establishing a United Grand Lodge resulted in some of the Brethren of the Netherlandic Constitution forming an entirely South African “Grand Lodge” in 1952. As it was irregular, however, the 4 Constitutions operating in South Africa prohibited members from attending the meetings.
The 2nd World War heavily disrupted the world’s Masonic structures and, once the war had ended, the Grand Lodge of the Netherlands was forced to re-establish itself. In so doing, they had decided to accept Grand Orients which did not comply with ancient land marks, the 2 most important being the belief in a living God and the presence of a Volume of Sacred Law during the labours of the Lodge.

This resulted in grave disagreements with the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland who threatened to withdraw recognition from the Netherlands – a serious problem for the Netherlandic Lodges in South Africa who worked in close cooperation with the various Lodges under these Constitutions.

When a break in the relationship between the Netherlands and the 3 Grand Lodges became imminent, the English Grand Secretary advised Districts in South Africa of the situation. The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England wrote to Colonel Colin Graham Botha advising him that, in the circumstances, it would probably be prudent to break away from the Netherlands. As a result, in 1961, the Grand Lodge of Southern Africa was duly established.

Today, the Grand Lodge Centre is based in Orange Grove, Johannesburg. 5 Provincial Divisions have been established over the years, being Southern (1863), Northern (1906), Central (1962), Eastern (1977) and Eastern Cape (2002). The harmonious interaction between the various Divisions, as well as that enjoyed with the Sister Constitutions, plays a very positive role in the overall development of South African Freemasonry.

This article draws extensively on a paper which was presented by M Wor Bro George Groenewald and appreciation is extended to him for his efforts. It is also acknowledged that material has been drawn from various brochures produced by our Sister Constitutions.

Social life at the Lodge

The focal point of social life in the later 8th and early 19th century for masons, and many non-masons, was the Lodge De Goede Hoop’s Society Rooms, a building adjacent to the main lodge.

As early as 1794, these rooms offered recreation and relaxation – meals, a library, billiards, bowls, skittles and “Kolf” played on a small course in the grounds. But all games of chance were prohibited. Similar facilities were offered when the lodge moved to its new property in the Garden Domburg on Bouquet Street in 1803.

There were few other venues in Cape Town for men to meet for serious discussion or recreation. One of the earliest social clubs was the Society Concordia in Concordia Gardens on Bouquet Street. Founded in 1797, it offered meals and a small library but the members “principally drank, smoked and gamed”. In the first British occupation in 1795 the African Clubhouse in the Heerengracht, another exclusive social body, was formed, later to change its name to Society Harmony. It also offered a library, billiards, cards and meals.

After the second British occupation in 1806, Cape Town could boast of other clubs, the New Clubhouse, Union Club and De Vriendschap. All had limited membership. While several masons were members of these clubs, the majority supported the De Goede Hoop Society Rooms, which grew in importance with the passing years, particularly as members often met three to four times a week for lodge business and adjourned afterwards to the rooms for evening refreshment and relaxation or used the society facilities at weekends.

The golf “course” and bowling green at De Goede Hoop Lodge created much interest and, after the first quarter of the 19th century, periodical golf matches were held followed by beefsteak dinners. A floating trophy of a silver golf club was awarded but so enthusiastically had this game been taken up that, in 1848, its playing on Sunday was prohibited. The golf “course” was in effect a pitch and putt course, the only course of its kind in the environs of Cape Town.

De Goede Trouw and British Lodges, both of which owned land on Bouquet Street, followed De Goede Hoop’s example and opened flourishing society rooms. While De Goede Hoop Lodge Society Rooms were open to guests, the lodge ensured privacy for members by holding “Society Days” on Thursdays and Saturdays. All Effective Members had to be present on one or both of these days or they were fined.

The Society Rooms were rebuilt in 1814 at a cost of £4 000 and included a large hall 104 ft. (31,6 m) long and 20 ft. (6 m) wide which later became the meeting place of the Cape House of Assembly for many years.

“Discord, disunion and animosity” among members led to the dissolution of the Society Rooms in 1834. But this seems to have been a device to get rid of some undesirable members for, a month later; the Society Rooms were reformed, though under stricter regulations. At the end of 1842 non-masons were admitted to membership of the society and the lodge made admission to the society an easy way of obtaining initiation.

The billiard room was, however, kept solely for use of members who individually bought shares in the “Biljard Tafel”.

Use of the Society Rooms was offered to members of the Cape House of Assembly when the Assembly met in the hall from 30 June 1854. The Assembly made alterations to the premises during its lease of the building, which lasted to 1874.

In the meantime the lodge opened its extensive gardens to the public for promenade concerts and theatrical performances. The grounds were illuminated, a vegetable garden uprooted and gravelled and a stage erected while concerts were held until the end of 1875. Lodge members were issued with free vouchers while the public was charged a small entrance fee and proceeds went to charities.

Other lodges – British and De Goede Trouw, for instance – were not so much in the public eye, not having the grounds to offer these recreational amenities. But their presence in Cape Town society did not go unnoticed by the public for, in common with De Goede Hoop, their members paraded through the streets every St John the Baptist’s Day, 24 June, the occasion of the installation of their new master, or on public ceremonies.

For masons’ families, St John’s Day was also a time of entertainment after the new master had been installed. The first recorded festivity was on St John’s Day in 1 775 when De Goede Hoop members held a concert to which ladies were admitted and the entertainment lasted to 4 am.

These concerts, followed at times by supper, were to become annual features on that day but apparently, during the Dutch East India Company rule, no dances were held. This changed under the first British occupation as a result of the presence of military lodges.

Africa No. 1 Lodge, formed by the 98th Regiment and others in 1798, held a Masonic ball in 1801. Lady Anne Barnard on 4 January 180 wrote to the Earl of Macartney: “Tomorrow there is a great Ball in town at which I don’t appear nor any of the English ladies of fashion at the Cape whose husbands are not masons. There is much taste for masonry here.”

She complained that the married ladies had been invited, presumably as companions for the military, but not one non-mason husband.
When the British regiments departed, these functions ended and the social occasions for masons again became evenings at lodge society rooms or all-male banquets following Masonic ceremonies.

As military lodges returned with the second British occupation, Masonic balls again became a feature, principally held by English lodges, both in Cape Town and the Eastern Province.
A Masonic “dress ball” was held by British Lodge in June 1844 at the George Hotel, 36 Heerengracht, setting a yearly pattern.
Lodge anniversaries were also occasions for jollity. British Lodge celebrated its jubilee on 9 August 1861 with a Grand Ball, which was described as “one of the gayest affairs that had ever taken place”. Both Dutch and English masons attended and Sir Christoffel Brand, the Netherlandic Deputy Grand Master, gave a special address.
The masons’ families were not forgotten. Entertainments for them included concerts, musical soirees and the inevitable suppers. Often the men dined in one room and their families in another.

Some Famous South African Masons

Anreith, Anton

Anton Anreith

Anton Anreith became a Freemason in 1797 as a member of the Loge de Goede Hoop. He was born in Riegel near Freiburg in Breisgau, Baden, Germany on 11th June 1754 and died in Bloem Street, Cape Town on 4th March 1822, sculptor and art teacher.

Bale, William Ebrington

Born in Tedburn St Mary, Devon, England on 14th April 1820 and died in Pietermaritzburg on 13th November 1903, Natal immigrant, businessman and philanthropist. He belonged to the Masonic Lodge in Pietermaritzburg.
Bell, Charles Davidson -A prominent Freemason.

Botha, General Louis - He joined Aurora Lodge in Pretoria 1890, then a Dutch Lodge.

Brand, President

President Brand was born in Simonstown on 21st June 1797 and died in Madeira House, Stal Plein, Cape Town on 19th May 1875. He was an advocate, journalist, and first speaker of the Cape Parliament. He played an important role in South African Freemasonry. In 1819, while still a student, he became a member of the La Vertu lodge in Leyden, and on 6 July 1824 he joined the De Goede Hoop lodge in Cape Town. After holding various offices he was appointed in 1847 by Prince Frederick of the Netherlands as deputed grand master of the movement at the Cape, the highest office of Freemasonry in the Colony. Under his leadership the movement prospered in South Africa, and new lodges were founded whose disputes were sometimes settled by Brand. One example of his activities in this connection was the dispute (which he settled in 1866 and expounded in two publications in 1867: Masonic epistle and Masonic decision) over the viability of the Colesberg lodge. Brand travelled a good deal in the interests of Freemasonry, and carefully noted the routes and length of his journeys. His ‘Journey book 1860-66′, which is in the Orange Free State Archives, bears evidence of this. In Pretoria in 1869 he visited the Aurora lodge of which Pres. M. W. Pretorius was a member.
Burgers, T.F. President

Chisholm, John

Born in Carlisle, England circa 1777 and died in Cape Town on 26 th September 1856), civil engineer, was waterworks engineer for Londonderry, Ireland, from 1807 to 1812 and completed the installation of that city’s water supply – Master Mason.

Chubb, Ernest Charles

Born in London, England on 16th September 1884 and died in Durban, Natal on 9th October 1972, ornithologist, natural historian and museums pioneer.
De Klerk, Daniel Petrus
Born in Onverwacht, Molteno, Cape Colony on 25th October 1883 and died in Cape Town on 14th August 1964, lawyer, cultural leader and businessman. He was the first master of the first Afrikaans Masonic Lodge.
De Villiers, Bernardus Josephus van de Sandt.

De Vries, Maurits
A Dutch Jew, Lawyer, politician and author.

De Wet, Olof Godlieb
Born in Cape Town, baptised on 11th October 1739 and died in Cape Town on 6th December1811, V.O.C. official and judge. In May 1772 he was one of the founders of the Masonic Lodge, De Goede Hoop.

Duminy, Francois Renier

Francois Renier Duminy

Born in Lorient, France on 4th October 1747 and died in Cape Town on 26th May 1811. V.O.C. official, was the ancestor of the Duminy family in South Africa. Grand Master of the lodge De Goede Hoop from 1794 to 1797. In the history of the lodge De Goede Hoop, the time during which he was a member is known as the Duminy period.
Faure, David Pieter
Born in Stellenbosch on 11th November 1842 and died in Camps Bay, Cape Town on 17th August 1916, minister, founder of the Free Protestant (Unitarian) Church in Cape Town. In 1869 Faure became a member of the Masonic lodge De Goede Hoop and from 1870 held various positions in it. In 1892 he became Deputy Grand Master for Southern Africa and from 1895 to 1907 he was Provincial Grand Master of the Goede Hoop lodge of Freemasons.
Forssman, Magnus Johan Frederik
Born in Kalmar, Sweden in 1820 and died in Pretoria on 7th October 1874. He was the surveyor-general of the Transvaal Republic and the first master of the Potchefstroom Masonic Lodge.

Hofmeyr, Jan Hendrik (‘Onze Jan’)
He was a Statesman.

Huckins, Daniel Montgomery
Born in Sedgwick, Hancock Co., Maine, U.S.A. circa. 1814 and died in Cape Town on 18th February 1862. He was the American consul to the Cape Colony. He was a Freemason of the brethren of four Cape Town lodges, De Goede Trouw, the British Lodge No. 419, the Joppa Lodge and the Southern Cross Lodge.

Korsten, Frederik
Born in Zierikzee, Schouwen Island, Netherlands on 17th August 1772 and died in Cradock Place, Port Elizabeth on 16th June 1839. He was a pioneer and a businessman. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, De Goede Hoop.

Lewis, Charles Edwardes
Born in Milford Haven, Wales on 5th December 1855 and died in Newlands, Cape Town on 13th January 1945. He was a classical scholar and educationist.

Lezard, Ernest
Born in London on 15th January 1873 and died in Johannesburg on 9th May 1947. He was an auctioneer, art expert, and a composer.

Born in Monifieth, Angus, Scotland on 16th November 1845 and died in Cape Town on 1st March 1925. He was an educationist.

James Barrie Lowe

Low, James Barrie

Lys, John Robert
Born in Alderney, Channel Islands on 17th January 1829 and died in Pretoria on 14 th August 1880. He was a pioneer merchant in Pretoria and started the first Masonic Lodge in Pretoria in 1868.

Meintjies, Stephanus Jacobus, M.R.C.S., M.D.
He came of a well-known Graaff-Reinet

Born in Cape Town on 26th August 1770 and died in Cape Town on 4th June 1838. He was a jurist, advocate, deputy fiscal and member of the Council of Justice.

Johannes Henoch Neethinling

Neethling, Johannes Henoch

Ornstein, Abraham Frederick
He was a Minister of religion and educationist. He was prominent in the masonic lodge De Goede Hoop.

Philipps, Thomas
An 1820 Settler was a was a staunch Freemason, responsible for the founding of the Albany Lodge in 1828, and its first Master. Except for the Lodge de Goede Hoop, Cape Town, this is the oldest Masonic Lodge in South Africa.

Pretorius, M.W. President
He was made an honourary member at De Goede Hoop Lodge in 1862.

Phillips, Sir Henry Lushington
Born in Manchester, England in 1825 and died in Southport, England on 5th December 1896. He was a judge and founder of the Prince Alfred Masonic Lodge in Pietermaritzburg.

Prince Frederik of the Netherlands
Grand Master

Purland, Thomas Terence Constantine (Con)
Born in London, England on 4th February 1860 and died in Wynberg, Cape Province on 19th August 1923. He was a civil servant and soldier as well as Master Mason of Simonstown Lodge.

Reitz, F.W. President
Initiated in May 1874

ellekamp, Johan Arnold
Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 16th January 1812 and died in Bloemfontein on 25 th May 1866. He was a pioneer trader with the Voortrekkers, Bloemfontein landdrost and member of the Orange Free State volksraad. He was also worshipful master of the Unie Masonic lodge in Bloemfontein.

Johan Smellekamp

Sm

Thibault, Louis Michel
He became a Freemason and at the Cape was admitted to the Lodge De Goede Hoop.
Trichardt (Trigardt), Louis
Born in Cape Town on 11th October 1763 in Cape Town and died on 5th June 1845. He was the judicial official at the Cape and president of the council of justice. For many years he was the grand master of the grand lodge in South Africa and provincial grand master for South Africa of the English order of Freemasons. On 12th January 1829 he became provincial grand master of all the lodges in South Africa. When he died he was buried with full Masonic honours in the Somerset road cemetery.

Truter, Johannes Andreas (Sir John Andries)
Truter was Deputy Grand Master for South Africa of the Order of Freemasons (Netherlands constitution)

Van Praagh, Joseph
Born in County of Middlesex, England on 15th July 1864 and died in Kimberley on 13th February 1946. He was a diamond merchant and a Rhodesian pioneer. He first became associated with the Masonic movement in England, at the age of twenty-one, and before coming to South Africa served as Master of the Samson Lodge in London. In Salisbury he was first Senior Warden and then acting Master of the Rhodesian Lodge and in Sydney-on-Vaal he helped found and build up the Mendelssohn Lodge, of which he was an Honorary Past Master. Later he became a member of the Richard Giddy Lodge in Kimberley and played a prominent part in national Masonic affairs. At the time of his death he held the British Empire record for service as a District Grand Master and was the world Senior District Grand Master of the English Constitution. He was South Africa’s ‘Grand Old Man of Freemasonry’, and his diamond jubilee as a freemason, celebrated in November 1945, it was attended by freemasons from districts throughout the country as well as from Rhodesia.

Also:

Richard Southey
General Louis Botha
Field Marshall Lord Roberts
General Ben Viljoen
Lord Kitchener
CJ Langenhoven
Lord Metheun
Sir Redvers Buller
Arthur Conan Doyle

Origins and Connections of Freemasonry

Type: Fraternal
Founded: Some time before 1590 in lowland Scotland
Actual Origins: Evolved out of Scottish medieval craft guilds of stoneworkers.
Legendary origins: Almost infinitely varied
Alternate names:
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; the Craft; Free and Accepted Masons, Masons; the Royal Art
Adonhiramite Masonry
Adoptive Masonry
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids
Ancient Noble Order of Gormogons
Ancient Order of Druids
Ancient Order of Druids in America
Beneficent Chevaliers of the Holy City
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks
Builders of the Adytum
Clerks Templar
Co-Masonry
Crata Repoa
Druid Circle of the Universal Bond
Egyptian Rite
Emperors of the East and West
Fraternal benefit societies and orders
Fratres Lucis
Germanenorden; Hell-Fire Club
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Improved Order of Red Men
Kabbalistic Order of the Rose Cross
Knights of Columbus
Knights of Pythias
Ku Klux Klan
labour unions
Loyal Orange Order
Order of Mopses
Order of the Amaranth
Order of the Eastern Star
Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross
Ordo Templi Orientis
Palladian Order
Patrons of Husbandry
Philadelphes
Priory of Sion
Rite of Memphis
Rite of Memphis and Misraim
Rite of Misraim
Rite of Strict Observance
Rosicrucian Fellowship
Rosicrucian Order of the Crotona Fellowship
Rosicrucians
Royal Order of Scotland
Royal Oriental Order of the Sat B’hai
Royal Society; Societas Rosicruciana in America
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
Society of Eight
Society of the Inner Light
Sublime Perfect Masters
Swedenborgian Rite
Wicca
Woodcraft
York Rite
Ancient Noble Order of Gormogons
Antimasonic Party
Roman Catholic Church

Sources and Acknowledgements

Grand Lodge of South Africa
Provincial Grand Master RW. Br. Alf Rhoodie
Standard Encylopeadia of South Africa
The Element Encylopeadia of Secret Societies by John Michael Greer
The Freemasons of South Africa by Dr.A.A. Cooper

How do you become a Free Mason ?

Contact: Grand Lodge of South Africa
Grand Lodge Centre
75 – 13th Street
Orange Grove
Tel: 011- 6401324
Fax: 011-6403915

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The people who came to the Cape of Good Hope under Commander Van Riebeeck were very simple folk, common soldiers and sailors who cared more about comfort than fashion. Their clothes were necessarily as simple as their persons. For the first few months after their arrival they lived a camping life, and their European-made clothing probably became soiled and bedraggled, eventually to be replaced by crude home-made garments cut from rolls of imported cloth until the Burghers became settled and until tradesmen were allowed to ply their trades. Men would probably dress in crude leather buff-coats with a plain cotton or linen shirt beneath and tubular or knee breeches; and women in simple full-skirted gowns tucked up over short petticoats. But the patterns for even these home-made clothes would have been based on the modes fashionable at the time of the departure from Holland. These notes and illustrations do not attempt to reconstruct the makeshift clothing of the pioneering period of the first years at the Cape but to give some idea of the clothing worn by merchants, soldiers, sailors and simple people in Holland and in the service of the Dutch East India Company at that time, such as might have been at the Cape with Jan van Riebeeck.
The dominant influence of the 16th century was powerful Spain; during the first two decades of the 17th century Spanish fashions prevailed abroad; in the third they began to make way for other modes, yet certain articles of Spanish costume were retained, not for decades but for centuries. By Van Riebeeck's time Holland was at her zenith of political power and enjoying immense wealth, and this may account for the change of influence in fashion. Holland now took the reins and from then until the end of the century dictated what was to be worn. Holland demanded increasing simplicity in dress and exerted similar influence on colour, for black rapidly became the fashionable wear.

MEN

Since soldiers and explorers could not possibly wear, for any length of time, garments into which they were stuffed like sausages in their skins or throttle themselves in ruffs which gave them stiff necks, masculine costume was the first to break away from the conventions of Spanish modes. Man's dress now veered in the opposite direction from the Spanish costume with the general narrowness and tightness and acquired a wide, loose, vulgarly speaking sloppy character. The main difference lay in the breeches, formerly short, round and bombasted, reaching barely mid-way down the thigh, they now became loose and ample. There were three main types. First the long, full breeches to the knee, where they were fastened by long scarflike bands which were trimmed with lace at the ends. This type was fashionable during the third and fourth decade of the century and by Van Riebeeck's time the second type, the tubular breeches, which were unconfined at the knee and were garnished with ribbon loops at hems and waist-band and usually had rows of brocaded braid or ribbon sewn round the hems had become very popular.
Both these types were cut very full and baggy in the body and were gathered on to a band at the waist. There were large pockets in the seams at the sides which were frequently finished with embroidery or braid. The third type was an offshoot of the tubular breeches, which had been growing wider and wider. This was the petticoat or Rhinegrave breeches, resembling petticoats in cut. They originated in Holland and consisted of 20 to 30 metres of material made into a short divided skirt that reached to the knees, trimmed at waist and hem with loops and bunches of ribbons. Occasionally they were worn over knee-breeches during the later part of the period.

The corset-like Spanish doublet, busked and with a pointed waist and deep wings, held its own until 1632 when a loose sort of coat appeared, based on the military coat which had been worn by soldiers since the early part of the century, and is shown on the alleged portrait of Van Riebeeck in the Mayor's Parlour in the Cape Town City Hall. It was long and ample and was designed for comfort. It reached to the hips, and buttons formed most of the decoration. It had slits at the side and back and the sleeves, which were full had buttons from shoulder to cuff, most of which could be and often were, left unfastened to show the shirt beneath. The neck was high and was covered by a collar or cravat. Although men of action, like Van Riebeeck must have favoured it for many years, in the world of fashion this sensible jacket only made a very short stay, no sooner did it appear, but fashion, with its constant tendency towards extremes, took it in hand and turned a sensible garment into a perfect absurdity, and Cape critics must have seen this fashion on visiting officials and ridiculed this change. Not only did men no longer close their coats right down the front but they were shortened, and the open sleeves were reduced to about half their length so that the result looked exactly like a child's jacket. Elegance depended less upon trimming than a wonderful array of white linen.

The shirt had become one of the main objects of luxury; male attire permitted a vast expanse of this garment to show, for with an open coat that barely covered the ribs, the shirt was visible not only right down the front, but to the breadth of a couple of hands round the waist and almost the whole of the sleeve was displayed. This did not satisfy some young gentlemen who conceived the notion of cutting the top of the breeches down to the hip-line and men looked as though they were losing their breeches. By the time Van Riebeeck left the Cape this fashion was general, and there are many pictures extant showing officials of the Dutch East India Company wearing these abbreviated coats and displaying large areas of shirt. Loose coats of cassock-type, to mid- thigh, with wide sleeves turned up, appear for winter wear.

The shirt was made of the finest linen and, like other clothing, was large and loose. The sleeves were very full, set into the shoulders and cuffs with fine stroked gathers. In the early part of the decade cuffs were made to match the cravat and frequently had deep lace or embroidered borders. Sometimes there was a frill gathered with the sleeve into the wrist band which could be finished with a narrow black velvet ribbon with ends that tied in a bow. In other instances the cuff resembled the modern one and turned back over the coat sleeve. The most common form had the fullness gathered into a plain narrow wrist-band and a puff of the sleeve billowed out below the rather short coat-sleeve. The Batavian portrait of Van Riebeeck in the Rijksmuseum (reproduced as the frontispiece to Godée Molsbergen's life of Van Riebeeck, De stichter van Hollands Zuid-Afrika) shows the shirt cuff folded back over the coat sleeve and the portrait in the Cape Town City Hall has a very good example of the shortened coat sleeve unbuttoned from shoulder to cuff displaying the full shirt sleeve in the opening and billowing out in a huge puff below the coat cuff.

The change of the shape of the breeches was accompanied by a change in footwear and during Van Riebeeck's time boots – often spurred – were general for outdoor wear. The long close boot, commonly turned down or folded into a cup beneath the knee, recurred throughout but the tendency was for the tops to expand more and more. Shorter boots with bucket-tops were common. The spur-leathers had a butterfly shape at the instep, growing so large as to cover the foot. The toes tapered to a square tip.
In winter several pairs of stockings were worn. Between them and the boots were the boot-hose, often edged with lace or embroidery, who's spreading tops filled the tops of the boots; boot-hose could be worn with shoes.

Contemporary illustrations show the boot- hose brought up over the knee to keep them from creasing when the wearer was seated. Garters were tied in a great bow below the knee.

Shoes were very often open at the side. In 1652 huge ribbon roses decorated the front but from 1655 they were replaced by limp bows and later stiffened ones.

Now that the Spanish ruff had gone men wore comfortable neckwear. The soft, wide collar was in great favour in the early fifties. Later it became narrower round the neck but came well down in front. This was tile "cravat," said to have derived its name from a regiment of Croatians in the service of the French Court. The cravat was made of fine lawn, often plain but just as often bordered with lace or embroidery. It was tied underneath, at the neck, with cord so that the two sides fell parallel and the tasselled ends of the cord hung just below the edges.

The change in collars naturally resulted in a change of coiffure and hats. The stiff ruff, tilting up at the back, had practically compelled men to have short hair, but with its disappearance the necessity ceased. By Van Riebeeck's time men's heads had become framed in a mass of hair and as every man did not rejoice in a natural abundance of hair, a few years after the adoption of the cravat the periwig appeared although it was only adopted by young bloods and old men until the last part of the century, and was probably never seen at the Cape.

The new style of hair-dressing called for a new style of hats and the small, big-crowned hat now made way for the large pliable felt hat with broad brim and sweeping plumes. Respondant was a good name for it, for by the various ways in which the brim could be bent it could be adapted to express the moods of its wearer. Soon plumes were discarded in favour of ribbons. A plumed beret of black velvet was seen occasionally and for sport a cap with a brim capable of being turned up or down and often split in front was much worn. Some sort of head-gear was worn at all times.

Cloaks were worn all through the period, they reached the knees or lower and were slung and draped in various ways. From one or both shoulders, diagonally across the back, or close wrapped like the modem Spanish Cape the right hand corner being flung across the left shoulder – or again they could be carried wrapped loosely over the arm. The Rijksmuseum and Craey portraits both show Van Riebeeck wearing a cloak.

Very broad sashes tied in a great bow behind often confined the waist over the coat, for military wear. The shoulder-belt or baldrick often took the form of a wide soft sash with a large bow and long lace-edged ends at the side. Or it could be flat and heavily embroidered or brocaded in which case it fastened with a large ornamental buckle on the breast. (Perfect example on the Cape Town portrait of Van Riebeeck).

Deep gauntlet gloves, often fringed and embroidered were very fashionable both for men and for women. (Rijksmuseum and Craey portraits show men's gloves). It was considered ill-bred to appear in public without cloak or gown (similar to the academic gown of to-day) and on formal occasions the host and chief guests were generally covered indoors.

Military Costume

By 1650 it had been realised that heavy armour was less important than mobility and, except for cavalry, soldiers only wore a few essential pieces of armour. Van Riebeeck is unlikely to have had any cavalry, so no heavy armour would have been seen at the Cape.

The trooper and musketeer had no armour at all (they had to be able to move about quickly) but always wore the long military buff-coat over a doublet or with stuffed or slashed sleeves to give that impression. The buff-coat came over the hips and was fastened down the front and slit up the sides. They wore the full breeches of the day, caught at the knee or tubular and shoes and stockings or bucket-topped boots (often with boot-hose or boot-hose without the boots). The trooper generally wore a sash round his waist over his buff-coat and the musketeer wore a shoulder-belt holding all the paraphernalia connected with the fire-arms of those days. They both wore Respondants and their collars and shirt sleeves often had trimmings.
The arquebusier dressed in the same way as the musketeer except that he wore a Morion (sometimes plumed) – a metal helmet with a brim, usually small, with a small comb or ridge across the crown from front to back – and he carried a tripod or forked rest to support his weapon.

Pike-men wore morions and corselets (body armour consisting of breast-plate, back-plate – without pauldrons, which covered the shoulder-blades- and sometimes tasses-covering the front of the body from the waist to the thigh-which were hinged to the breast-plate) instead of buff-coats. On the march the head-piece was suspended by a ring (or it had the brim pierced for the purpose) to a hook on the back-plate over the right hip, and the pike-man assumed a Respondant like his fellows.

Officers dressed very fashionably and frequently had no armour at all. Sometimes a gorget was worn beneath the collar or a breast-plate beneath the coat. Bright colours and lavish lace were much favoured and the haidrick was made of the richest materials. Puffed or slashed sleeves were popular for military wear.

Common sailors and the poorer class of civilian, servants, etc., clung to a few of the old fashions or modified the fashions of the day to suit themselves. A simple form of the Spanish doublet with short basques and wings at the shoulders and plain tight sleeves was common. Rhinegraves were seldom seen amongst the poorer classes but tubular breeches were in general use. The Respondant was used by all classes, but sailors and labourers favoured an equally pliable conical cap, which could be worn at any angle and squashed in or dragged to one side as the wearer felt inclined. Shoes were often home-made and consisted of one piece of leather roughly triangular in shape; one point was drawn up over the toe to meet the other two which came round the ankle.

As previously mentioned black was the predominant colour of the period, particularly for men, but the general effect was rich rather than sombre because of the wonderful contrasts obtained. First there was the white of shirt and collar, then red was often found somewhere about the costume, the heels of shoes, or the lining of boots, or the stockings or all three. Gold galloon (braid) was widely used as trimming in Holland and is bound to have adorned the church clothing of Cape folk when they could get it and boots were often made of mellow yellow leather. The brightly-coloured baldrick always supplied a perfect foil for the black, brown or grey coat because it could be red, gold, yellow, blue or any other rich colour.

Women

Spanish fashions remained in favour longer among the women than among men. The deep-pointed wasp-waisted stomacher held its own until well into the 30's though generally in part hidden by the gown and although in 1630 a low-necked bodice with high waist and skirt tabs like a male doublet came into favour (generally opening over a long round-pointed stomacher to match) by 1650 the long closed bodice had re-appeared, pointed in front and laced behind.
The bodice was always decollete, shaped like a V or round or square or -more commonly – the decolletage ran horizontally round the bust and appeared to be falling off the shoulders, but was modified, in most cases, by the border of the chemise – often lace-edged – and by scarves of lace and gauze variously draped and pinned. The most common form was a square kerchief of linen or lace, folded in half and laid over a low-cut falling-collar, which largely masked the exposed shoulders and bosom and was fastened in front with a breast pin and rosette or knot of pearls or cords with tasselled ends or even left loose if desired.

Sometimes there were collars of linen or lace hanging straight all round sometimes high in the neck sometimes low-cut. Apart from this, the low neck of the bodice was nearly always edged with linen or lace. The bodice itself was often trimmed with vertical and diagonal rows of braid converging at the pointed waistline. This is shown in the Craey portrait of Maria. By 1650 the hand-ruff had been replaced by a spreading turn-back cuff. The short, loose-fitted bodice sleeve was often edged with braid beneath which peeped out the cuff and sleeve of the chemise – which was as important as a man's shirt and therefore was made very beautifully – or perhaps the cuff of the chemise would be turned back over the cuff of the bodice-sleeve in which case it would be rich with embroidery.

In the course of the 20's the last traces of the verdingale in the form of padding at the hips vanished except for the older women. By Van Riebeeck's time the skirt, gathered or pleated in at the waist hung freely. It was sometimes looped up and tucked under to uncover the petticoat of a contrasting material often richly decorated. The most popular forms were (a) the skirt opening in an inverted V-shape over a petticoat, sometimes the overskirt was drawn back and caught in a bustle effect and (b) a plain gown with trimming to simulate the V-shaped opening. Towards 1660 the skirt is often quite plain and closed all round. Long loose gowns falling straight from the neck were worn by old ladies and widows during the period. The tucked-up skirt would have been favoured by Cape women because the short petticoat allowed freedom of movement.
Even out of doors, ladies, for the most part, did not wear hats. Young girls were bare headed except for a brocaded caul or cap over the bun or pearl decorations round it. Young women and young matrons added to this by putting a covering in front of the caul, forming a survival of the old French Hood and Mary Queen of Scots cap. For formal occasions this could be made of velvet trimmed with ribbons or pearls or of some rich material with brocade, ribbon and jewels. For informal wear linen, lawn or gauze was used, with lace and rosettes of ribbon as trimmings. The velvet editions usually had a "widow's peak" over the brow (the Craey portrait of Maria van Riebeeck). Older women often wore draped or folded linen hoods, forming a shield for the face (obviously a parent of the South African kappie) and loose kerchiefs tied under the chin were favoured for everyday use by all.

During Van Riebeeck's time plain, high-crowned, broad-brimmed hats (over close lace or linen caps) enjoyed a transient phase of popularity in Europe and probably were seen at the Cape. For riding and hunting a masculine type of hat was adopted, high-crowned, broad-brimmed and plumed, and the plumed velvet beret was purloined from a man's wardrobe for outdoor wear.

The hair itself was generally strained off the face to a flat bun at the back. A high forehead being fashionable, many women obtained the desired effect by shaving the hair round the hair-line. Sometimes a few tendrils were left loose at the front, arranged as a fringe over the brow or set in a series of stiff little kiss curls, the whole effect was very severe (except for very young women and girls, who were allowed to loosen the hair a little) with sometimes a few bunches of formal cork-screw curls at the sides as a relief. Later these were wired away from the face and frequently reached the shoulders. Occasionally the side hair was frizzed out in a bush. The chignon, which projected quite a lot, when not enclosed in a tiny caul was decked with pearls. Bows of ribbon and strings of pearls formed hair ornaments. (Maria van Riebeeck has pearls on her French hood in Craey's portrait).
Jewelry was used sparingly compared to the Spanish period and was chiefly in the form of necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, kerchief-pins and miscellaneous pendants.

During the first part of the decade women's shoes were the same shape as men's. They were seldom seen because of the long ample skirts and were fastened with buckles and ribbons. Later they started to grow very high in the heel and the square toe went out of fashion in favour of a slight point. At the Cape during the first years they were probably home-made of leather.
The short sleeve gave rise to an exclusively feminine type of glove, long, close-fitting, generally of plain white kid or doe-skin, it reached to the elbow where it was secured by a glove-band of plaited horse-hair or by ribbon ties.

Muffs were in general use in the winter and fans were still used. Fixed circular ostrich-feather fans with long handles were much used in the Indies and are bound to have been common at the Cape. Large sunshades, carried by attendants were considered a necessity for the wives of Dutch East India Company officials in the East and after Van Riebeeck had imported slaves in 1657, in all probability they were seen at the Cape of Good Hope. When going to church ladies carried their Bibles on their arms, dangling by ribbons or cords, and often had a page to hold the trailing skirts of the gowns out of the dust.

As with the men of the period black was the predominant colour except for young girls and children, but, here again the combinations were so delightful that the result was not dull. White seems to have been next in favour and a white petticoat trimmed with gold galloon under a black dress appears to have been particularly favoured by Dutch ladies of the period. Other colours were brown, blue, yellow, pearl grey and red, nearly always combined with black. It is difficult to say what materials would be used but velvet and satins were universal for formal wear. For everyday woollen cloths and linens would probably have been used. Gone was the Spanish vogue for embroidered, gem-studded gowns, simplicity (by contrast) was the key-note of the period.

Women of the poorer classes

Wives of farmers and labourers favoured the white linen head-covering, often close-wrapped and tied beneath the chin, and occasionally topped by various shaped felt hats. The skirt was often looped up out of the way showing the short coloured petticoat which disclosed the thick stockings and plain shoes, often home-made. A kerchief of linen was tucked into the low neck of the gown (which was usually of some serviceable colour greyish-blue, brown, red, or rusty-red. Strangely enough, black does not seem to have been very popular among the poorer women. The crisp white square, worn outside the bodice, so beautifully folded over the shoulders and pinned over the bosom, typical of the Dutch lady-of-the-house did not allow freedom of movement and was not used by the working woman except for high days and holidays. A dark apron for everyday and a white one for Sundays completed the costume.

Children

Children were dressed like their parents from about the age of five. Boys wore plumed berets and sometimes had basqued doublets in place of jackets. Tiny girls often wore their hair hanging loose and had little close bonnets embroidered or trimmed with brocade and ribbons and sometimes had narrow cloaks fastened to the shoulders of the gown by ribbons or buttons or leading strings attached in the same manner. The portraits of Elisabeth and Joanna van Riebeeck in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam show them wearing the little close caps so popular for children. Elisabeth has a square kerchief folded over her shoulders and wears a dainty white apron over her looped up overskirt. Her petticoat and cloak (or leading-strings?) are red. We see that children's pinafores had fitted bib-fronts coming to a point at the waist where the skirt of the pinafore was put on with fine gathers. Joanna has a square lace-edged collar and her blue dress has trimming to simulate a V opening. They both have gold braid trimmings on their caps and their chemise sleeves are turned back over the sleeve proper. Note the plumed beret under Joanna's hand.
Babies of both sexes wore skirts to the ground and had quaint little caps reminiscent of the modem flying helmet, in shape.

Historical Costumes

A contemporary portrait of Jan van Riebeeck, painted some time before his departure to the Cape, shows a young man with hair reaching to the shoulders, a slightly drooping moustache, and a tuft below the lower lip. His small collar, trimmed with bobbin-lace, is fastened with a cord ending in tassels. A white shirt-sleeve is turned back over the doublet (a close-fitting garment reaching from the neck to just below the waist) in the form of a cuff, while a cloak is draped over the right shoulder and held by the left hand. The buttons on the doublet, which may have been covered in the same material, are visible. The doublet, only partially seen in the portrait, was sometimes worn untrimmed, and sometimes ornamented with braid, fringe, or loops of ribbon. The shirt-sleeves may show through slashes and at the wrists. Fairly wide breeches would reach the knees and be trimmed in the same fashion as the doublet. The hat would have a broad brim and a rather high crown, and the shoes would be decorated with ribbons or rosettes. In later fashions the breeches degenerated into petticoat-breeches, but whether Van Riebeeck wore them is questionable. He describes the Hottentots as wearing 'dressed ox-hides as handsomely on one arm, and with as much dignity of gait, as any swaggerer in the Fatherland ever carried his cloak over shoulder or arm'. (Van Riebeeck's own costume in the Heerengracht statue in Cape Town represents the dress of the late and not the middle 17th century. It is more likely that he wore a cloak, thrown over one shoulder, than a coat; and the shoulder-pieces are quite out of place, having gone out of fashion before he reached the Cape.)

Young men, officers and soldiers wore hats with feathers. Horsemen wore boots having bucket-top uppers, into which the tops of the boot-hose fell. A sash shoulder-belt was worn over the right shoulder, with the sword on the left side. The military also had sashes, but no real uniforms were worn, except that the costume was often a little more colourful than usual. Some soldiers wore jerkins of leather or heavily padded woollen material; others had armour for protection during combat.

In contrast with the statue of Van Riebeeck, that of his wife, Maria, is pleasing and satisfactory. In a portrait she is shown with a small cap, a collar edged with pillow-lace, and, vaguely, trimming on her bodice. The costume would consist of an open robe with a petticoat showing at the front, and the bodice (sometimes shaped to a point) would have buttons, or horizontal ornamentation, or braid slanting from the armholes. The collar was made from a circular piece of cloth, edged with lace and folded slightly above the centre line, and then worn round the neck so as to produce a double-lace effect, and with a slope from the neck to the shoulders, which would be hidden. Sometimes the collar was square, and folded above the centre. Down the front of the dress was braid or other trimming, which continued along the hem. The dress and overgown often differed in colour and material; for instance, a gown might be of black silk and the dress of blue, with a trimming of gold lace down the front and round the bottom. The hair would be drawn straight back, with a close-fitting black cap having a tongue coming down over the forehead and going back in a moon-shaped sweep over the ears, near which were ornaments; at the join with the upper part covering the chignon were pearls. Lace-trimmed white caps were worn indoors; sometimes only a neckerchief was placed on the head. Worn at home were very attractive little jackets made of velvet, silk or damask, in white, black, red or violet, and edged with white fur. Shoes must have been very uncomfortable, as in indoor paintings they are often seen lying on the floor. The dress of servants was similar in style to that of the mistress, only more homely and often with the addition of an apron.

Much attention was paid to children's clothes. Boys were dressed like grown men, though small boys wore long dresses like those of their sisters, but are often depicted with a cap, collar or toy to distinguish them from girls. Collars were often like those of grown-ups. At the back of the dress, bands were frequently to be seen; these derived from the reins used when teaching children to walk. Boys and girls alike wore aprons.

The 18th Century

The end of the 17th century was marked by a fundamental change, and an entirely new garment, the waistcoat, appeared. The coat itself was collarless, and for neckwear the cravat (a strip of linen loosely knotted under the chin) was used. The breeches were very tight and fastened under the knees with buckles, with which the shoes were also adorned. Wigs were worn by all, and often the three-cornered hat or tricorne. This was the dress of Simon van der Stel and his officials, and also of the free burghers and Huguenots when they arrived at the Cape.

The same fashion, with variations, was worn throughout the 18th century. Baron G. W. van Imhof, who came to the Cape in the 1740's, is seen in his portrait dressed in the height of fashion, with velvet coat, satin waistcoat, cravat, wig, shoes with buckles, and a baton in his right hand. During this period wigs were really part of costume; W. A. van der Stel had several wigs.

In inventories of the time one finds items such as men's shirts, smoking-caps, red breeches with silver buttons, black hats, coats with silver buttons, wigs and wig-stands, a grey hat with feather, cravats with lace, a scarf with gold and silver fringe, and so on. Boys were still dressed in the same style as their fathers.

Tailor-soldiers were employed to make uniforms -one embroidered a very handsome coat for Governor Jan de la Fontaine. An officer wore a blue uniform embroidered with gold; cadet officers had a uniform of red cloth with silver braid, the hat being trimmed with point d'Espagne (Spanish lace); a sergeant wore blue cloth with red lining, two rows of half-inch (1.3 cm) braid, and a hat with a single band of braid. A soldier's coat, waistcoat and breeches were made of blue kersey (a woollen material) with brass buttons; stockings were red and shoes black; and the hat had a gold lace band. Slaves employed as police assistants wore a short, grey coat with blue lapels, waistcoat and breeches; ordinary slaves had a jerkin and breeches of coarse material. When Ryk Tulbagh enforced the Company's law against luxurious living at the Cape, specific items mentioned were the trains worn by ladies and the large umbrellas.

The everyday clothes of a farmer consisted of a check shirt, a long-sleeved waistcoat, breeches, a hat that was not turned up, and veld-shoes made by himself. When he came to town he wore his smart blue suit. By the end of the century the coat was cut away in front, showing the short waistcoat. It was then that boys began to wear long trousers and a short jacket.

The 17th century produced great changes and variations in women's clothes. With the end of the century came bunching of the skirt at the back and sides, often ending in a train. The petticoat was frilled and ornamented. The neck finish was lace or a fichu, and on the elbow of the sleeves was a ruffle of lace. The fontange, made of gauze, lace, ribbon and pleated frills so that it stood up in front of the bonnet, became the fashionable head-dress.
In the 18th century the hoop reappeared in various shapes and sizes until it became the oblong hoop, wide at the sides and flat at the front and back. The 'sack', made with small box-pleats, fell from the back of the neck to the hem of the dress, sometimes ending in a train. Petticoats were made of quilted silk with an elaborate embroidery of stitching, usually contrasting with the rest of the dress. A good example of this fashion is found in the Groot Constantia portrait of Hester Anna Lourens. She wears a blue dress, the petticoat being trimmed with festoons and ornaments; the bodice is trimmed with lace, a sprig fastening the fichu; the sleeves have flounces and three lace ruffles; a small bonnet rests on the smooth of the hair; the toe of a pink shoe peeps from the hem of her skirt. The everyday dress of the ladies was printed East Indian cotton or chintz, worn with starched hoop petticoats, and a silk gown for weddings and other formal occasions. The Bengali and Surat slaves were excellent embroiderers and competent needlewomen, making beautiful lace, embroidery, neckerchiefs and head-dresses, if the designs were supplied. As in the case of the men, female slaves wore clothes of coarse material and walked barefoot.

At the close of the century the elaborate dress disappeared and a simple dress with a short bodice and sash became the fashion. Young girls were dressed in precisely the same way as their mothers; they were, in fact, the first to wear this simplified dress.

19th Century

Men's coats now assumed the cutaway shape. Both neckcloths and bow ties shrank, breeches were still worn, and the top-hat made its appearance. Frequently the coat, waistcoat and breeches were of different colours and material. Among the younger set, however, trousers were slowly coming into fashion. These were tight-fitting and secured by straps under the soles of the boots. By the time the 1820 Settlers came to South Africa trousers were almost always worn. Overcoats now had many overlapping capes, and cloaks were also worn. Side-whiskers and choker collars (which reached above the chin and cupped it) became popular and were worn with a neckcloth or necktie.

In 1838, when the Voortrekkers went northwards, they also wore trousers made of corduroy, moleskin or buckskin, in black, brown or green; alternatively, the trousers were made of blue nankeen. They wore duffle coats and check or woollen shirts, but on Sundays changed into velvet coats with waistcoats of the same material, cashmere trousers, and fine linen shirts. Their jackets were short for everyday wear, while frock-coats were worn on special occasions. Sometimes garments were made of dressed leather which was as soft as cloth but hardened when it became wet.

About 1860 short jackets came into fashion. They were in evidence both as part of a complete suit or with trousers of different material. Sometimes the jacket was buttoned at the neck, at other times cut in a V shape with narrow lapels. There was also the single-breasted morning coat with a rounded-off front, one button being fastened at the neck and the others left undone to show the lower part of the waistcoat. The double-breasted frock-coat was black and of the same material as the rest of the suit. For evening dress a swallow-tailed coat was adopted a this time, and the tie was fastened in a small bow or knot. During this period knickerbockers came in for sports wear, and in the eighties the Norfolk jacket, also for sporting wear, was an innovation. Now, besides the top-hat, there were also the straw hat and caps of various shapes and materials. Among other things, young boys often wore either a jacket buttoning high into the neck, or a sailor blouse, in both cases with knickerbockers or shortened trousers; and on their heads they wore a sailor hat with ribbon hanging down the back, or a tam-o'-shanter.

After all the extravagance and luxury of the previous period, the 19th century preferred simplicity although in the later part of the period elegance and elaboration again appeared. In the early 1800's dresses were made of lawns, muslins, silks; out of doors, pelisses, spencers and shawls were worn. The skirt fell from immediately below the armpits, with no fullness in front, and was gathered at the back. Young girls wore shorter dresses with pantaloons. By the time the 1820 Settlers arrived, the waist drew ever nearer to the natural waist-line, and a reticule or hand-bag was carried because the material of the dress was too diaphanous to contain a pocket. Large hats, and also large poke-bonnets, were worn. About 1829 sleeves became enormous – veritable balloons -but by 1836 these were out of fashion. Now the waist returned to its normal place, with a point in front, and many petticoats were worn.

It was in this period that the Voortrekkers went north and took with them material to make women's dresses: chintz and prints for everyday wear, and silks for special occasions. The kappie was in the style of the poke-bonnet: when the bonnet was large at the beginning of the century, kappies were large, but now became smaller to match the smaller pokebonnets. Kappies were made of linen in three thicknesses or layers and then beautifully quilted. They were practical and could be frequently washed, starched and ironed.

By 1850, when the weight of the petticoats became intolerable, women returned to the old practice of wearing hoops or frames to make their dresses stand out, but now they were called crinolines. Little girls had wide dresses and pantaloons, trimmed with frills of embroidery. By about 1863 ladies could make simple dresses at home from paper patterns, and Willcox & Gibbs advertised: 'No home is complete without a Noiseless family Sewing Machine'. Shawls were worn, and a bride's trousseau required a fair number of them, in wool, silk or gauze. Toward the end of the sixties the fullness of the dress was drawn backwards, and by 1870 flexible draperies were added to the skirt at the back. The bustled skirt was trimmed with pleats, quillings, ruches and many other refinements, and for formal occasions had a train.

Small hats were perched forward on the hair. In the eighties the bustle became even more pronounced. Also worn was the dolman, a kind of close-fitting cape in which shaped seams resembled sleeves, trimmed with lace or fur. As the last decade of the century advanced, the silhouette changed and the skirt became bell-shaped, with the fullness at the back. Balloon or leg-of mutton sleeves were the fashion. A mantle was worn out of doors. At the close of the century sleeves became tight-fitting, and the bell-shaped skirt often had a train which was gracefully carried when walking. During the preceding years little girls wore dresses resembling those of their mothers but shorter, while at the end of the century they were wearing dresses which fell loosely from a yoke.

A description of all the changes in costume which were to develop with the 20th century would carry us too far. Shortly after the turn of the century men's feet left the ground in flight, and skirts also began to leave the ground and show more ankle, calf or knee.

Acknowledgments Africana Notes and News December 1951 Volume IX, No 1 and Standard Encylopeadia of South Africa.

The life of the early burghers of the Cape was rough and crude in the first few decades of the settlement. In the beginning they had to concentrate on producing their own food and sufficient foodstuffs for supplying the Dutch East India Company’s ships. The early houses generally consisted of only one or two rooms, sparsely furnished with the barest necessities, and a kitchen.

Home Making

By the 1770′s larger houses with more pretensions to comfort and appearance were being built in the Western Cape. In Cape Town itself flat-roofed, double-storied houses were not uncommon. At the same time, a greater variety of furniture began to appear. Sonic furniture was still being imported, from Europe or the Orient; but to an increasing extent it was locally made, either from South African woods or from wood imported from the Far East, Mauritius or Madagascar. The work was carried out mainly by White craftsmen, by slaves, or by Malay craftsmen from the Orient. From the 1740′s onwards the burghers were more and more able to purchase porcelain, pottery, stoneware and brassware from the East and from Europe. Silver and glass, too, became more general in the later 18th century.

In the pioneer days, most of the early houses were single-storey, rectangular structures. In Cape Town, in the course of time, they were generally built on the flat-roofed U plan; elsewhere they had high-pitched thatch roofs on the T, H or other pattern. But flat-roofed houses were also found in many other parts of the country in the 19th century, including the Little and the Great Karoo and the Eastern Province. The walls would be painted or colour-washed with red or yellow clay, or whitewashed with shell-lime. From the 1830′s, wallpaper began to be used on the interior walls. Floors were covered with slate or tiles, or smeared weekly with diluted cow-dung (`misvloer’), sometimes with ox-blood thinly spread over the surface. Alternatively, peach-pips were embedded in a clay floor to form a hardwearing surface. Windows might have external half-shutters or full-length shutters, while internal wooden blinds came into general use in Victorian times. In Cape Town in the late 18th and early 19th century fanlights were elaborately carved and an oil lantern was inserted in its centre to throw light on the stoep and steps as well as into the entrance hall.

Necessities of Life

Until about the 1870s, before communications had improved, farmers had perforce to be largely self-supporting and provided most of their own food (especially meat) and clothing. They made their own soap, candles, bread, butter, jam, ham and biltong; they cured and tanned hides and skins for harness and `riems’ (thongs). Where the climate permitted, they produced dried fruits, dried peas and beans, raisins and nuts. Their shoes were homemade `velskoene’, and they often wore trousers and jackets made by their wives from soft-tanned animal skins. Farmers made a journey once or twice a year to the nearest town or village to lay in supplies of whatever they could not produce themselves (coffee, tea, sugar, salt, needles, cotton, and bales of material for making clothes).
Beverages: Tea and coffee were introduced in the late 17th century and, although at first scarce and expensive, soon came into general use. Because coffee was often difficult to obtain, all sorts of substitutes, made from various roots, from acorns or even dried figs, were resorted to in remote districts; and the Voortrekkers were perforce tea-drinkers. Spirituous beverages were of course always popular; but many wine-farmers, from the last quarter of the 19th century, refused to drink wine as they believed in abstinence. Other beverages were cordials based on syrups boiled from fruit, e.g. lemon syrup, and homemade ginger beer based on root ginger, maize meal, raisins or other substances.

Social Customs

Family occasions such as births, christenings, weddings, confirmations and funerals all called for gatherings of friends and relatives from far and near. At a birth or at the christening the father would designate a calf or sheep as a gift to the baby, to be the nucleus for a herd or flock. By the time the child was 18, this might have reached an appreciable size, so that a young man would be able to set up on his own as a farmer, or a girl have a dowry on her marriage. Weddings were celebrated with much festivity and with large and elaborate meals; while music of some kind, probably on guitars and similar instruments, was provided, usually by the servants.

Funerals

Another class of paid mourners (‘tropsluiters’) walked at the end of the funeral procession. The bearers were provided with black gloves and long crape bands, a yard or more in length, which hung from their hats. In the early days of the Cape settlement funerals were held at sundown or after dark by torchlight, while interments of the highest officials or leading burghers took place in a church.

Birthdays

Birthdays were celebrated on a generous scale, many relatives visiting the person whose birthday it was. Large meals would be provided at mid day, while all day cakes, cookies, tarts and tartlets, preserves and other delicacies, as well as tea and coffee, would be served to relatives and friends.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were generally given over to festivities of all kinds, while in country places picnics might be arranged in some shady spot, with games, dances and sing-songs, followed by lavish meals and much conviviality with friends and relatives who were otherwise seldom seen. The telling of tall yarns about hunting or adventures in the veld were a feature of such occasions.
Christmas was not celebrated before the 1850′s. Generally communion services (‘Nagmaal’) took place at that time, as Christmas was solely regarded as a sacred occasion.

Social Intercourse

The social intercourse of earlier generations largely consisted of exchanging regular visits with friends and relatives, varying from a few hours to several weeks. The usual social visit included offering refreshments to guests or smoking together, when pipes, tobacco and glowing coals would be offered, and possibly snuff, too. Chatting and exchanging greetings from and news about other relatives or acquaintances, as well as any general news, constituted an important element in an age when there were no newspapers or other means of communication. Hotels or wayside inns were generally unknown until about the 1830′s.

Hospitality to unexpected guests, as well as to total strangers, was a social obligation, part and parcel of colonial life. Meals, forage for horses and other animals, as well as sleeping accommodation, were provided as a matter of course: no payment of any kind was ever accepted or expected. Only after the discovery of diamonds and gold, when heterogeneous immigrants streamed across the veld and the kindly hospitality of people in the interior was on occasion abused, did the farmers begin to feel that they could no longer dispense universal hospitality.

Etiquette and manners

The mode of address for uncles and aunts (`oom’ and `tante’) was extended to all older persons. Older cousins would be addressed as `neef’ or `niggie’ (for a male or a female cousin respectively), and this was carried over in speaking to contemporaries. Courtesy and respect, too, were shown to all women and even girls. Rather formal manners and formal relations were the general rule. Elderly persons behaved with dignity, and their attitude toward the young engendered respect, which they expected to be returned. The moral code was strict and transgressions were severely frowned upon. Parents exercised a rigid discipline and protected their daughters assiduously, no girl ever being left alone with a man. In spite of that, the custom of courting at night (‘opsit’) was tolerated, a candle being provided by the parents of the girl; when it had burnt down, it was time for the man to go home.

The Traditional Kitchen

Until the introduction of iron stoves in the second half of the 19th century, the kitchen fireplace consisted of an open hearth. Over the fire-place there was a thick beam, while high up inside the chimney a thick iron bar was built in, from which chains hung for suspending pots, kettles and other cooking utensils over the fire. Pans were placed on trivets or on four-legged gridirons. The baking oven, if not a separate structure outside, was built on to the chimney on the outside and had a vaulted roof, being almost the size of a small room and up to a metre high or more. A large quantity of bread, 24 to 36 loaves, would be baked at one time, perhaps every other day or twice a week, since all farm labourers were fed from the farmer’s kitchen.

Utensils

In the kitchen there was generally a meal-bin of about 30 cu ft with separate compartments to hold different kinds of meal. Bread was kneaded in the dough-box. Both the meal-bin and the dough-box were usually of yellowwood, regularly scrub-bed after use until it was almost white. Unless the homestead had a separate dairy, a side table in the kitchen was used for skimming milk as well as for rolling out pastry or mixing cake-dough. A wooden churn, a sausage-making machine and a mincer (in the later 19th century) would be found in the kitchen, on shelves or in cupboards. Pride of the housewife’s heart would be copper tart-pans and cake-moulds, flat-irons, copper kettles and jugs, brass waffle-pans and the copper `komfoor’ with its brazier of glowing charcoal for keeping coffee hot through-out the day and from which the farmer and his sons could tap hot coffee whenever they came in from out-of-doors. A brass pestle and mortar would be used for pounding ginger and spices, while a partly hollowed-out wooden block would be used with a wooden pestle for pounding maize or wheat.

Jars, vats and tubs. In the burgher’s home a number of stoneware or earthenware jars or pots were generally to be found: for example, stoneware jars (or jugs) for vinegar or `moskonfyt’, jars for fat or lard, as well as earthenware jars for storing jams, often made from grapes, apricots, peaches or figs; preserves made from water-melons or green figs; or jellies made from apples or quinces. In the pantry or the kitchen a cask, with copper, brass or iron hoops and hinges, preserved meat in brine. There were also low tubs of various shapes (oblong, round or rectangular) and heights, used for salting or pickling meat and for washing the best tea-service, which would then be stacked in the tub and kept on a side table in the dining-room, covered by a white cloth. A fairly tall tub was for storing and preserving salted butter used for cooking. Wooden buckets with iron hoops were used for carrying water to keep the water-barrel filled. Water was not laid on into houses on farms or in small villages until near the end of the 19th century. A shallow tub of water was used in the dining room or kitchen by all members of the family who had been working out of doors during the day, for washing their feet before partaking of the evening meal. Coffee beans were roasted in a flat pan, then ground in a coffee mill; or in earlier days the beans were pounded in a mortar, specially used for this purpose.

Home Nursing

As there were very few medical practitioners or hospitals and practically no trained nurses before the second half of the 19th century (and then only in a few of the larger centres), the mother of the family living on a remote farm had perforce to undertake nursing at home.

She relied chiefly on home remedies, and most families purchased as an essential item a medicine chest containing homoeopathic remedies from Halle or other places in Germany. This home pharmacy (`huisapotheek’) contained a number of remedies for mostordinary ailments. The medicine-chest was supplemented by traditional home remedies (`boererate’) and medicinal herbs. Each village or neighbourhood had a midwife of sorts, completely untrained but not inexperienced.

Education

Such education as was provided was closely related to the church and was mainly concerned with learning to read, as a preparation for confirmation in church. Itinerant teachers were employed on farms for periods of six months to a year in order to teach the three R’s before moving on to another farm. Practically the only reading matter in the possession of farmers living during the 18th and 19th century in the interior was an, often illustrated, family Bible, a psalter and hymnal, possibly a volume of sermons and a Biblical commentary, or a few religious or devotional books.

Schools for young ladies in the early and mid-19th century taught little more than elegant accomplishments, rules of deportment and acceptable social behaviour. Boys’ schools of the same period aimed at turning out young Christian gentlemen who had acquired the elements of respectable behaviour, as well as some knowledge of the classics, a little arithmetic and a good handwriting. Both boys and girls were as a matter of course instructed in Biblical knowledge and religion.

Amusements and Recreation

Before the 19 th century there was little public recreation. The colonists had to depend on their own resources for amusements, which were mainly carried on in the home. But outside the home hunting wild animals, target shooting, horse riding or going for a drive in a carriage or other horse-drawn vehicle always remained popular.

During the 19th century horseracing gained in favour until even small villages had a rough, dusty racetrack of sorts. Dancing in the home was carried on from the earliest times to music provided by stringed instruments, often guitars, played by a couple of slaves or other farm or domestic workers. Public balls were generally confined to entertainments in Cape Town, provided by the Governor or by garrison regiments.

These later became also a feature of the main garrison towns such as Grahamstown, King William’s Town, Pietermaritzburg or Fort Beaufort, where regimental bands furnished the music. On farms an outbuilding was cleared and neighbours gathered from far and near. Some young women in later days came on horseback from long distances with their dresses packed in a leather or tin hatbox tied to the back of the saddle.

Outdoor games might include tip-cat (‘kennetjie’), competitions involving the throwing of horse-shoes, high cockalorum (‘bok-bok-staan-styf’) or playing with yoke-pins (‘jukskei’). Near the coast or rivers fishing was popular, or occasionally even rowing; while from the 1880′s cycling became a favourite pastime. The singing of English or Dutch folk songs was a feature of gatherings in the home, at picnics or wherever young people congregated, while even choral singing was on occasion indulged in.
From early times a favourite pastime in all parts of the country was attending auction sales of all kinds, whether in towns or villages or on farms. If on a farm, people would travel long distances to the sale, and ample meals had perforce to be provided by the farm-owner for those attending.

Mercenary troops in the Dutch East India Company’s service began from the 1780′s to produce dramatic performances or concerts. After the `African Theatre’ in Cape Town was opened in 1801, plays were staged more frequently, mainly by military or amateur groups, while concerts were, after the opening of the Commercial Exchange in 1822, frequently given there.

By the early 19th century there were various categories of drinking places, from taverns selling the cheapest types of drink for sailors and others, to more respectable inns or hotels which developed from this time. Soon after, clubs, which catered for the more dignified and affluent citizens, were established in Cape Town.

Mills

Mills to grind wheat or maize were found on many farms, particularly water-mills and horse-driven mills, which also served their neighbours. An 18th-century example of a windmill is the surviving Mostert’s Mill in Mowbray, Cape Town.

Lighting and Heating

Homemade tallow or water candles were among the earliest forms of lighting at the Cape. Each home owned a candle-mould for making 6 or 12 candles at a time from suet or lard. Candlesticks of brass or other metal were used to hold the candles. A scissors-like type of wick-trimmer was used, while snuffers for extinguishing candles were in general use. Both articles might be of pewter or brass, or later even of silver.

From the end of the 18th century whale oil was used for lighting and thenceforward oil lamps were introduced into more and more homes. In 1809 sonic oil lamps were erected for illuminating the Heerengracht and the Keizersgracht, Cape Town’s main streets. In the early 19th century the burghers in Cape Town were enjoined to put oil lamps on the corners of houses, which faced two streets. People going out visiting or to attend a gathering at night carried a lantern containing a candle. Gas became available in Cape Town from 1847 onwards, while by 1852 some 252 street lamps were installed, but for many years there were none in the suburbs. Paraffin lamps calve into use during the early Victorian age. Electricity made its appearance only toward the end of the 19th century.

Cookery

The ways of cooking and recipes have traditionally been handed down from mother to daughter until the early 1890′s. Thereafter cookery books began to be published. Strips of dried meat (‘biltong’) were equally enjoyed by the early colonists and by the Hottentots, and carried very well on long journeys in a warm climate. Sour milk (‘maas’) or calabash milk was much used among the Bantu. The Cape’s fat-tailed sheep played a large part in early cookery, supplying fat for spreading on bread and for baking cakes or cookies, as well as for candle-making.

East and West made their respective contributions to everyday life as far as cooking was concerned. This was much influenced by the Javanese or Malay cooks (whether slaves or exiles) in most Cape households. Various traditional dishes with distinctive flavours were evolved. Although the Bantu along the east coast had since the early 17th century lived on maize, which they crushed with a large wooden pestle in a hollowed-out tree-trunk, the White settlers favoured wheat. Although Kaffir-corn (grain sorghum) and maize are the staple food of the Bantu, and maize is also much used among the Whites, yet in the main all racial groups in South Africa have been mainly meat eaters. The tribal Bantu still regard vegetables as women’s food. The flesh of practically every kind of animal, bird or fish, large and small, has been used as a food.

Information about this picture: The most elegant hotel in South Africa in the 1880′s was the International at Cape Town, which led the way by introducing that very fashionable pastime, lawn-tennis. Players of today may marvel how it was possible for anybody to play in those frilled and bustled dresses, those flowered hats and gloves. The game was not very fast, but, judging by the generally relaxed air, our ancestors enjoyed it!

Source: SESA (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa)

David Isroff - 7th Mounted Rifles 1916 Aberdeen

The Jewish links to South Africa are said to have originated with the Portuguese voyages of exploration around the Cape in 1452. Jews were involved in these early voyages as mapmakers, navigators and sailors.

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In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck led the first permanent settlement of Dutch colonists under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. With his group were Samuel Jacobson and David Hijlbron, the earliest recorded Jews.

The Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 – 1795 and only permitted Protestant Christians to reside at the Cape despite the significant number of Jewish shareholders in the company. Due to this, Jacobson and Hijlbron were baptized Christians on December 25, 1669, with records of these baptisms found in the registers of the Dutch Reformed Church. This was in contrast to the Dutch West India Company, which sent two hundred Jews to colonize Brazil in 1642.

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Colorful characters such as the soldier Isaac Moses, known as “old Moses the Moneychanger” and Joseph Suasso de Lima of Amsterdam, who started the first Dutch newspaper in SA, arrived. Nathaniel Isaacs, an early explorer of Natal who befriended the famous Zulu chief, Chaka, was a Jew. Early British families include De Pass, who played a major part in the establishment of the shipping, sugar and fishing industries. Saul Solomon founded the English press in Cape Town.

Increased religious freedom, permitted under the short lived Batavian Republic in 1803, continued after the British took control in 1806. In 1820, the British government gave assisted passage and land grants to people willing to settle in the wilds of the Cape Colony. The first group of settlers was known as the 1820 settlers. Early British Jewish immigration occurred with about sixteen Jews arriving amongst the 1820 Settlers. This included the Norden and Norton families who played a significant role in the early development of the Cape Colony. In the 1860′s, other European Jews started to arrive from Germany and Holland.

By 1880, there were about 4,000 Jews in South Africa. It is estimated that more than half of these were brought out from Hesse-Cassel, Germany, by the Mosenthal family, who developed extensive trading operations in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal.

Jewish Refugees en route to South Africa, in Jews' Temporary Shelter

From 1880, Jewish immigration increased rapidly. The pogroms (1881-1884) and other catastrophes – droughts, floods, deportation and fires, particularly in Kovno Gubernia, the Russian province with Kovno ( Kaunas now) were major factors in the emigration. The choice of South Africa was determined by special circumstances and not, on the whole by the attractions it offered to the general run of settlers who were not refugees. There was strong potential for success – in particular with the discovery of the diamond fields in Kimberley in 1869 and the goldfields in the Transvaal in 1886.

Sammy Marks, from Neustadt, Suwalki Gubernia (province), is regarded as the pioneer of Lithuanian emigration – he became a friend of President Paul Kruger and was highly successful as an industrialist. Barney Barnato, London born, was a partner of Cecil John Rhodes in the formation of the De Beers Diamond Company (later control passing to the German Jewish family of Ernest Oppenheimer with the assistance of the Rothschilds).

Over 47,000 Jews were enumerated in the first nationwide census of 1911. Most of these were Lithuanian (Litvaks) from the then provinces of Kovno, Vilna (Lithuania), Courland (Latvia), Northern Suwalki (East Prussia and later Poland) and Minsk, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev (Belarus).

Louis Noick, Ostrich feather dealer

As an undeveloped country, South Africa offered opportunities to early immigrants that were far better than anything they could have had in Eastern Europe. The travelling hawker or “smous” became an institution in the remote rural areas. Many settled in small towns as shopkeepers and tradesmen. A number of very efficient entrepreneurial farmers were founders of the wool industry, ostrich feather industry and the citrus industry.

The Contemporary Community

The distinctive characteristics of this community as compared to other new world communities are:

The predominance of Litvaks (Jews from Lithuania, Latvia and portions of Belarus), hence the unusually homogenous composition of the community.

The very strong influence of Zionism in the South African community.

The amalgam of Anglo-Jewish form and Lithuanian spirit which characterizes the institutions, both lay and religious of the community. The Jewish day school movement is a powerful educational presence and its pupils consistently get excellent scholastic results.

The distinctive situation where Jews had formed part of a privileged minority dominating a multiracial society. This has also led to Jews becoming prominent in the anti-apartheid and liberation movements.

In the past 30 years, there has been a large emigration of Jews to the USA, Canada, Australia, Britain and Israel. Political and economic change has led to an influx of Zimbaweans, Israelis and Russian Jews.

Immigration

At various times attempts were made to limit the influx of Jews, e.g., in 1903, by excludion on the grounds that Yiddish was not a European language. This was successfully countered in the Cape Legislative Assembly.

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Jewish immigrants came by ship with the major port of entry being at Cape Town (a small number entered at Port Elizabeth and Durban). The major waves of migration occurred from 1895 onwards. Shipping agents, Knie and Co. and Spiro and Co., had subagents in shtetls (small towns) who accepted bookings for passage to South Africa.

Embarking initially at the port of Libau (Latvia), a good proportion of the Jews were transported on small cargo boats under rudimentary conditions to England. A much smaller number passed through Hamburg or Bremen.
Upon arriving in England, many came first to Grimsby or London and were taken to the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter (PJTS) in Leman Street in the East End of London.

The Shelter inmates received assistance in the form of board, lodging, medical treatment and travel advice was given by the Shelter. In one year alone, from November, 1902, 3,600 out of 4,500 Shelter inmates went on the Union Castle Line to the Cape. In 1902, the fare was £10.10.0 (ten guineas) – more than the fare to America (For a more detailed discussion of these and shipping records see the article by Prof A Newman SHEMOT Vol. 1:3 1993).

Emigration Records from Great Britain

Ships’ Passenger Lists at the Public Records Office, Kew, London, are stored under reference BT 26 Passenger Lists, Inwards, 1878-1888 and 1890-1960, these lists give the names of all passengers arriving in the United Kingdom where the ship’s voyage began at a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.

Names of passengers who boarded these ships at European ports and disembarked in the UK are included in the lists. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

BT 27 Passenger Lists, Outwards, 1890-1960, give the names of all passengers leaving the UK where the ship’s eventual destination was a port outside Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Passenger lists for ships whose voyages both began and ended within Europe (including the UK and the Mediterranean Sea ) are not included.

The Cape Town Archives also houses immigration records of Jewish people which are held in the CCP collections.

Jewish Sources

The Johannesburg Jewish Helping Hand and Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha). The majority of Jews have been buried in large cities. Johannesburg probably accounts for over 75% of all burials. The earliest record is that of Albert Rosetenstein in May 1887. Burials commenced in 1887 for Braamfontein cemetery, Brixton in 1914 and West Park in 1942).
Specific information about individuals or communities may often be obtained from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Synagogues and communal records include:

Marriages: Marriage authorization certificates and copy Ketubot marriage certificates) and ‘Gets’ (religious divorce)

Religious Institutions:

Orthodox : The Office of the Chief Rabbi can give copies of marriage and divorce certificates. (United Hebrew Congregation). The vast majority of Jews in South Africa are Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazim. These are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. There is also a strong Lubavich (Chabad branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi ) movement and smaller Sephardi (Sephardim are those Jews associated with the Iberian peninsula and whose traditional language is Ladino.The name comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location that may have been Sardes, but identified by later Jews as the Iberian Peninsula (and southern France). In the vernacular of modern-day Israel , Sephardi has also come to be used as an umbrella term for any Jewish person who is not Ashkenaz) and Masorti congregations. There are 48 Orthodox Religious groups listed in Johannesburg.

Reform communities keep separate records (United Progressive Jewish Congregation of Johannesburg). Many Jews remain with a strong identity but outside the religious net. Intermarriage is very common, but emigration is the main limiting factor to population growth. (Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. All human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam – repairing the world – is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people).

South African Online Jewish Genealogy

The Southern Africa SIG (special interest group) was founded in 1998.The SIG publishes a quarterly newsletter. General information about the SA Community and genealogical research is on

The SA-SIG has an electronic discussion group with a free subscription on JewishGen WebForm Centre for Jewish Migration & Genealogy Studies
Our intention is to create a comprehensive database of records and information relating to Jewish immigration to South Africa.
The thinking behind the inception of the Jewish Migration and Genealogy Project is twofold:
to map the entire history of Jewish migration to South Africa with the aim of providing authoritative and definitive data for the Discovery Centre at the South African Jewish Museum (SAJM).
To integrate the genealogical data in multi-disciplinary research initiatives under the auspices of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre at the University of Cape Town.
The primary aim of the project is to research the estimated 15,000 core families who migrated to Southern Africa between 1850-1950 from England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus.
In broad terms, the research will focus on the locations where the families originated, patterns of migration to South Africa, where families first settled, communities they established, growth of families, and subsequent movements and emigration. As such, aspects such as passenger arrival lists, naturalization lists, community records, records of marriages, births and deaths, family trees, etc., will be looked at.
The centre is under the umbrella of the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town and will also have a public access section located at the South African Jewish Museum.
South African Jewish Rootsweb
South African Jewish Museum South Africa Jewish History Virtual Tour
S. A. Special Interest Group for Jewish Genealogy
Jewishgen – Jewish genealogy main site
Witbank Jewish Genealogy site
Jewish South Africa – the South African Jewish community on the Web. Beyachad South Africa Board of Deputies
African Jewish Congress
Telfed – the website for the Southern African Jewish Community in Israel

Notable Personalities, Civic affairs, charities:

Morris Alexander
Bertha Solomon
Dr Henry Gluckman
Helen Suzman

Medicine
Sydney Brenner
Aaron Klug
Sir Raymond Hoffenberg Philip V. Tobias

Law
Issie Maizels
Arthur Chaskelson
Albie Sachs

Arts
Irma Stern
Sir Anthony Sher
Ronald Harwood

Commerce and Industry
Mosenthal family
Oppenheimers

Agriculture
Esreal Lazarus – potato king
Ostrich industry
Citrus- Schlensinger
Motion Pictures- Schlezinger

Insurance
Schlezinger
Doanald Gordon
Sir Mark Wienberg

Acknowledgements and Source: Saul Isroff