A CAPE OF GOOD HOPE LAND GRANT, DATED 7TH JULY 1724, WITH RED WAX SEAL CDG HOOP AND SIGNED BY THE CHIEF CLERK OF THE "RAAD VAN JUSTITIE" RIJK TULBAGH (1699-1771)

South-Africa, Capetown, 7 July 1724

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The document is an acknowledgement of debt of 1.600 guilders with a yearly interest of 6% by the farmer Willem van Zijl to Johannes Swellengrebel and a mortgage on his farm “Vreede en Lust”, situated under Drakensteijn. Willem van Zijl (Haarlem 1668- Vreede en Lust 1727) sailed for the Cape with his wife Christina van Loveren in 1698 on board the “Drie Croonen”. Willem was a gardener, he bought “Vreede en Lust” in 1702 and turned it into a prosperous farm in wine, wheat and cattle.

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Johannes Swellengrebel (1671 Moscow-1744 Cape of Good Hope) arrived in the Cape in 1694 and rose to be a member of the Council of Policy. He married Johanna Cruse and they had five children. One of them was Hendrik Swellengrebel (Cape Town 1700-Utrecht 1760) who became Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in 1739 till 1751 when he was succeeded by Rijk Tulbagh (Utrecht 1699- Cape Town 1771). In 1725 Rijk Tulbagh married Elisabeth Swellengrebel, one of Hendrik’s sisters. In the catalogue Uit Verre Streken, March 2013 is illustrated a silver salver to commemorate the death of Johanna Cruse’s brother, Maurits Cruse (1671 Cape of Good Hope-1734 Batavia). The elite VOC families at the Cape and in Batavia in the eighteenth century were often closely related.