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Andries Pieter Steyn (1847.07.22 - 1909.12.27) bought the farm Fair View (Somerset-West) from JH Scholz. The contract reads as follows:
Koopkontrakt
Ik ondergetekende JHofmeyr Scholtz beloof hiermede dat ik
op den eersten April verkocht heb aan den heer Andries
Steyn part van Vredenburg genaamd
"Fair View", groot min of meer drie honderd
morgen (300 mog) zooals aangetoond door Kaarten No 712 en
No. 3543 voor de som van een duizend negenhonderd en
vyftig ponden stg (sterling pound 1'950)
Andries Pieter Steyn renamed the English Fair View to its Dutch synonym Scoongezicht.
At the time of the settlement of the Dutch in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, The Hottentots Holland area where Somerset-West, Strand and Gordons Bay are situated today, was a grassland, well wooded and full of game. Khoikhoi (ie Hottentot) tribes sometime set up camp there to provide grass for their cattle. One clan, that of Sousoa frequently camped in the area, especially in the area today known as Bot River.
The first Europeans to cross this area were probably four Dutch runaways in September 1652, whose intention it was to get to the Mozambique and from there back to Holland. They were Jan Verdonck (from Vlaanderen), Willem Huygtens (from Maastricht), Gerrits Dirckse (from Elsten) and Jan Blank (from Mechelen). They were only gone for about 10 days: from 24 September to 3 October 1652.
Their escapade came to nothing because of the African dangers for which these Europeans were ill-equiped. Two rhinos gave them the chase about 10Km east of the Fort in the Cape. Their dog was hit by a porcupine quill and they also saw some ostrich. The first night they slept over at a stream.
Hunger overcame them as all they could find to eat were some nestlings and eggs. They tackled the mountain range (probably the Steenbras at the present Gordon's Bay), but it proved too much for them. They gave up and returned to the Fort. Van Riebeeck tried and sentenced them.
Over the next 25 years the area was frequently explored. The explorers mentioned fierce wild animals in the area.
On 15 May 1672 the Dutch bought an area of 2'000 - 2'500 morgen form the Khoikhoi, named Prince D'Houw and his counsellor Captain Oyth'key for a small sum of money and some goods. In Khoikhoi culture land-ownership was not known, and as they also could not read this contract was merely a Dutch bureaucratic measure.
The Dutch started a cattle post in the area. The first superintendent was Sergeant Pieter Cruijthoff, who departed from the Fort on 1672.10.17 with 12 soldiers and 3 wagons of goods, drawn by oxen. Because of the fear for the beasts of prey and also for the nomadic Khoikhoi who would at times set up camp too close to their liking, they eventually had a fortified building probably just west of the Lourens River (then known as the Tweede River, or Second River) between the present railway line and main road. One report complained that 6 lions had killed 4 oxen and 4 sheep in broad daylight, and on another occasion 120 sheep were killed.
For a number of years Hendrik Elbertsz (Master Agriculturalist), a German from Osnabruck and Jochem Marquart (Master Butcher) travelled to the outpost to inspect the crops and stock. During Governor Bax's time farms were offered on 3-4 year loan scheme, but no land was taken up. By 1678 Elbertz and Marquart decided to make use of this offer. Elbertz had already been granted some morgen in the Cape district in partnership with Cornelis Stevenz Botma. This land today includes Welgelegen and Mosterts Mill. Soon this Botma also took up land in Hottentots Holland. Nicolaas Gerrits and Henning Huising also took up land.
Cornelis Stevenz Botma's son Jan Stevenz Botma was granted Vredenburg in the Moddergat in 1692.
The name Hottentots Holland first appears in Van Riebeecks diary of June 1657. It is not certain why the area was given this name -- there are a number of different hypotheses.
Vredenburg in the Moddergat was granted to Jan Stevenz Botma (son of Cornelis Stevenz Botma) in 1692. I have not had the time to look up its other owners, but it must have been subdivided by Scholtz' time as in his deed of Sale to Andries Pieter Steyn he mentions Fair View, the 300 morgen part of Vredenburg.
Andries Pieter Steyn divided Fair View into different sections which were left to his sons.
©1999 Jacques Steyn