Transcribed from PROCEEDINGS OF THE HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF LONDON, Volume 5, No. 1-4, 1894-1896, Printed by Charles T. King, High Street, Lymington, 1898   

 

THE HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

 

BY CAPTAIN W. H. HINDE, R.E.

 

(A Paper read before the Society, January 9, 1895.), pp. 205-221

 

I wish this evening for a short time to direct your attention to the Huguenot Settlement formed at the Cape of Good Hope, to which a considerable number of French Huguenots found their way, chiefly in the years 1688 and 1689.

 

For some years past I have been hoping that someone would take up the subject of this Settlement, and not only trace the descent of a large number of the Cape Colonists and South Africans generally, from their Huguenot forefathers, but also collect all the information that can be obtained as to the old settlers themselves; from what places in France they fled to Holland; through what vicissitudes they passed on the way; their rank, family, or status in life before they were forced to quit their old homes; in fact all such particulars as possess any value or interest.

 

A good deal of such family history is given in Smiles’ ‘Huguenots in England and Ireland’ about the English settlers; why should not similar information be forthcoming, and collected about the Cape settlers?

 

A large amount of labour has been expended upon this tracing down out in South Africa, and probably little remains to be done beyond compiling and publishing the information collected; but so far as I am aware little or nothing has been done towards tracing the Cape Refugees up, through Holland, and possibly Switzerland, back to their former homes in France, and to the families to which they belonged. This I submit is well worth doing, and must be chiefly done in Europe, with the assistance of our kindred Societies on the Continent, but especially of those in Holland and Belgium. I feel sure that they will give all the help they possibly can.

 

Understanding that our energetic Secretary, Mr. Faber, had long been wanting some one to take up the Cape Huguenot subject and work it out thoroughly, and had hoped one or more of our Fellows out in South Africa would do so—but in vain, I undertook to furnish a paper upon it. Personally however I can lay before you only a limited amount of information, gleaned from such scanty sources as I have had access to in England, and during a sojourn of some eighteen months at the Cape.

 

The late Mr. Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers commenced the compilation of the Cape family registers in 1882. At first he limited himself to working out the pedigrees &c. of his own family, and those connected with it, but as he went on he found the latter become so very numerous, that he determined to make his work more general, and to include in it all the well known old Cape families. By bringing them down to within fifty or sixty years of the present time he intended to be able to trace the descent of every member of these families, who was merely able to nominate his parents, or grandparents.

 

Unfortunately he did not live to complete and publish the results of his labours himself, having after a sudden and very short illness, died on the 4th Sept. 1887, leaving his papers quite unprepared for the press.

 

For some time there was a difficulty with regard to funds to compile and publish them, until, in 1892, the Colonial Government undertook to advance sufficient for publishing one volume. This volume, which deals with families beginning with the first ten letters of the alphabet, A to J, was consequently brought out in 1893, entitled ‘Geslacht Register der oude Kaapsche Familie,’ and edited by Mr. G. Mc. C. Theal, the distinguished author of a number of works upon the history of South Africa, &c. On his death-bed Mr. de Villiers had expressed a wish that Mr. Theal would take up his unfinished work and complete it.

 

If this first volume pays its way so that the funds advanced by the Cape Government can be repaid, the remaining volumes will appear in due course; if not, the difficulty as to funds will again arise.

 

The information collected he obtained from the Cape Archives to some extent, but chiefly from the Deeds Registry and the Cape Church books, the whole of which—the marriage registers at any rate—he waded through to as late a date as 1815; by personal enquiry from members of the different families; and by going through and comparing such pedigrees as they possessed. When it is noticed that in this first volume the pedigrees of 214 families are given, beginning with the letters A to J, the amount of labour expended upon the whole alphabet can be guessed at, and some idea can be formed of the difficulty of arranging the lists from his unsorted papers, which in places were difficult to decipher, and not infrequently conflicting.

 

Had Mr. de Villiers been spared to us too there can be little doubt but that he would have pushed his investigations farther, and made an effort to follow up the Refugees to their original homes in France. In this direction he left behind him some Notes on Huguenot Families at the Cape, containing such information as he had been able to collate about the places from which they came, &c. These Notes are given at the end of the present Paper from a copy presented to the Society by Mr. W. J. C. Moens.

 

The following names, which have a French appearance, and are met with as those of settlers at the Cape before 1710, are not dealt with in these Notes: Appel, Bernard, De Bacre, Extreux, Faber, Fleuris, Lens, Le Lievre, Lourens, Mahieu, Marcevene, Dumont, Olivier, Pleunis, Romond, Senaymant, Tas, Verron, and De Vos. If these families were French they were probably Huguenot also.

 

From despatches of the Chambers of Delft, Middelburg, and Rotterdam to the Cape Government we have the names, ages, number of children, and other details of at least eighty-four Huguenot passengers in their ships. If the Dutch East India Company took this trouble it seems far from unlikely that their arrival in Holland, and whence they came, may be found recorded in the Walloon Church Registers, and elsewhere.

 

It may perhaps be argued that it would be useless, and mere waste of time, attempting to follow up the clues we already have, and those we shall obtain, because these Refugees were merely artisans, agriculturists, and labourers, with common French names. But the rather scanty references made to this Settlement which I have been able to hunt up scarcely bear out this view, although it may be true with regard to many—perhaps the majority, of the settlers. The same can, I take it, be said about the majority of those who settled elsewhere, whether in England, Holland, Switzerland, America, or in what is now the German Empire.

 

In Voltaire’s ‘Siecle de Louis XIV,’ Vol. II, p. 330, there is what Macaulay, who quotes it in his History of England (1871) Vol. I, p. 326, calls ‘a terse and spirited summary’ of the Huguenot settlements generally:

 

‘Il y en eut qui s’etablirent jusque vers le Cap de Bonne Esperance. Le neveu du celebre du Quene, lieutenant general de la marine fonda une petite colonie a cette extremite de la terre; elle n’a pas prospere; ceux qui s’y embarquirent perirent pour la plupart. Mais enfin il y en a des restes de cette colonie voisine des Hottentots. Les Francais ont ete disperses plus loin que les Juifs.’

 

This notice of the Cape Huguenot Settlement—the first one I met with myself—did not sound encouraging, but I fancy Voltaire would be considerably surprised if he saw a South African Directory of the present day.

 

In Notes and Queries 24th April, 1869, Henry Hall wrote as follows:

 

“Mr. Smiles’ interesting volumes on the history of French Huguenot Refugees, and their descendants in the United Kingdom, deserve to be supplemented with a notice of their brethren who sought asylum in South Africa after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many of whom belonged to the most noble and ancient families of France, among whom I may mention the names of Du Plessis de Mornay, Roubaix de la Fontaine, Chavannes, Marillier, Faure, Joubert, De Villiers, De Celliers, Malan, Serrurier, Le Sueur, Aling, Basson, Du Pre, Le Roux, Retif, Marais, Theron, Rousseau, Du Toit, Ratre, Naude, Jourdan, &c. Among the present possessors of these names may be found lineal descendants of many old French families, now supposed to be extinct. I may particularly mention that of the ducal and once famous house of Du Plessis. Amongst the roll of Governors of the Colony under the Dutch we find the names, of no doubt French Calvinistic families; D’Abling 1707, Mauritz de Chavannes 1714, De la Fontaine 1724, Naude 1727, and even at the present day many of the most respectable Cape families are proud to trace their descent from the sufferers of Louis XIV tyranny.”

 

Accordingly, in later editions of Smiles’ Huguenots, he refers to—

 

‘a Settlement of considerable importance having been formed at the Cape of Good Hope, led by a nephew of Admiral Duquesne, and including members of some of the most distinguished families of France,’

 

and quotes many of these names as examples.

 

In Poole’s ‘Huguenots of the Dispersion’ there is not much to quote, but on p. 43, he says:

 

‘The Council of Seventeen offered free passage to any Huguenots who were willing to apply themselves to husbandry and handicrafts in Cape Colony.—About 80 families (M. G. Gognel says 150. Bulletin 15. 159, 1866) under the guidance of a nephew of the great Duquesne (Aignan-Etat des Protestants 21 f.) availed themselves of the proposal.’

 

On p. 170 he also says:

 

‘The emigrants of La Rochelle are allowed by the intendant Tessereau to have been of the principal inhabitants as touching birth, substance, and reputation. (Delmas).’

 

M. Charles Weiss in his History of French Protestant Refugees’ also speaks of eighty families having accepted the offers’ made by the Dutch East India Company, and having ‘embarked under the guidance of a nephew of Admiral Duquesne.’

 

Elsewhere he has plenty to say about the families of Duplessis and Duquesne.

 

In view of the statement made by Voltaire, H. Hall, Smiles, Weiss, and Aignan that the Settlement was formed under the leadership of a nephew of Admiral Duquesne it is a curious fact that there should be no evidence among the State Archives at the Hague of such having been the case. It is however quite possible that he may have been an originator of the scheme, and though taking a deep interest in it have purposely kept himself in the background.

 

The best known, if not the only, nephew of Admiral Duquesne adopted the profession of his uncle and father, is first mentioned in the Cape Archives as a lieutenant of the celebrated Vaudricourt, and himself rose to the rank of vice-admiral. From his frequent voyages to and from the East he knew the Cape well, and had always been on most intimate terms with Commander van der Stel who was once reprimanded by the Directors for the kindness he had shewn to him and the officers of his squadron. Thus he might very well have suggested the Cape as a suitable home for his co-religionists and fellow countrymen, just as his cousins had projected forming Huguenot colonies in Bourbon and elsewhere at about the same time. But he was still an officer in the French service, and France was at war with Holland, so that although he may have given advice and information as regards forming a Huguenot Settlement at the Cape under Dutch auspices he cannot possibly have personally led the expedition. It would be interesting to ascertain whether he—or some other nephew of the old Admiral had in reality anything to do with the Settlement or not.

 

No doubt many more extracts could be collected from other authorities to the same effect, shewing that the Cape Refugees belonged to various social grades, some having been of high rank in France whilst others were artisans, agriculturists, &c., or as M. le Dr. du Rieu once puts it—the settlers were ‘des fils de nobles et de roturiers.’

 

They were sent out to a great extent with a view to supplying practical men for growing wheat, cultivating vines and olives, rearing cattle, and so forth, but it does not necessarily follow that they had always been employed in menial capacities in those industries. Thousands of Huguenots when driven out of France had lost everything in their hasty flight except their lives and were forced to earn their daily bread as best they could. For example, the three brothers De Villiers—Abraham, Pierre,  and Jacob, described as vine dressers, may very possible have been owners of vineyards before they fled from La Rochelle. We know that Jean Prieur du Plessis was a surgeon, and belonged to a noble family of Poitiers, before he became a wine farmer at the Cape; and most probably the proverb of beggars not being choosers is applicable in many other cases.

 

It is said that when Napoleon I, in the early part of his reign, wished to rally round his throne all the old French families he could induce to acknowledge his pretensions, he offered to the Du Plessis at the Cape—a simple minded farmer of Stellenbosch, who then represented the ancient ducal house—the restoration of his family title and estates; but the offer was declined. The Cape boer, in whose mind all recollections of his family traditions had died away preferred his quiet vineyard to the brilliant saloons of the Tuileries. (Smiles’ Huguenots in England and Ireland.)

 

It is now quite time to turn our attention to the Cape of Good Hope itself.

 

It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1486, but no settlement was made there until the Dutch East India Company in 1652 formed a refreshment station in Table Bay. In those days a passage to Batavia, their head quarters in the East, was considered a very quick one if made in six months, and the loss of life on these long voyages, through scurvy was so great that a port of call rather more than half-way was very desirable.

 

In 1679 Simon van der Stel was appointed Commander, and outlying posts were formed at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein some thirty miles away.

 

About this time the Council of Seventeen, which controlled the various Dutch East India Companies having offices at Delft, Middelburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen, were doing all they could to induce suitable families to emigrate to the Cape—with ill success; few could be prevailed upon to volunteer, and they were scarcely of the class required.

 

Before long however the Huguenot persecutions in France, culminating in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, drove thousands of all classes to take refuge in Holland and thus flooded the labour market. These immigrants had been arriving to some extent for years, and as most of them spoke only French, wherever their numbers became large, clergymen were appointed to conduct services for them in French; but the congregations so formed only became new branches of those already in existence. It is partly for this reason that I feel sure that much valuable information about many of the Cape Huguenot families will be obtainable from the registers and records of these Churches. Members of some of these families were living in Holland for years, Le Febres at Middelburg; De Lanoys, Du Toits, Jouberts, Malans, and Mesnards at Leiden; Nels at Utrecht; Cordiers at Haarlem; and Malherbes at Dordrecht.

 

The Directors offered these ‘exiles for conscience sake’ a home in South Africa, with liberty to return to Europe at the end of five years should they wish to do so. In addition to free passages they further promised the engagement of a French clergyman to accompany them, gratuities to the head of each family and to every unmarried man and woman, farms without payment, and all necessary farming stock at cost price on credit.

 

Fully two hundred accepted this offer. The Directors hoped that these would supply the technical knowledge needed in various branches of agriculture which it appeared desirable to start or to improve.

 

‘Among them’ (says one of the despatches to the Cape Government) ‘are persons who understand the culture of the vine, who will in time be able to benefit the Company and themselves. We consider that as these people know how to manage with very little they will without difficulty be able to accommodate themselves to their work at the Cape, especially as they will feel themselves safe under a mild government, and freed from the persecution which they suffered. It will be your duty, as they are destitute of everything, to furnish them on their arrival with what they may require for their subsistence, until they are settled and can earn their own livelihood. Further you will have to deal with them as we have on former occasions directed you in regard to the freemen of our own nation.’

 

Thus they were to take the same oaths of allegiance and to enjoy the same privileges as natives of the United Provinces.

 

The Company’s orders were not exactly to the liking of Commander van der Stel, for he was an immense believer in anybody and anything Dutch, and would have greatly preferred that the settlement should be peopled entirely by his own countrymen. He appears however to have acted according to his instructions.

 

Several vessels were dispatched with numerous Huguenots on board, one of which sailed from Delftshaven, one from Rotterdam, and two from Middelburg; and they arrived in Table Bay, after passages varying from three to six months, between April 1688 and May 1689. Some few Huguenots did however arrive both before and after these dates. In despatches sent out to the Cape Government the names and some other details of many of the Huguenot passengers are given; there are seventy-three names &c. given in the Passenger Lists quoted in Theal’s History of South Africa. It is rather a pity he has not given us the names of those known to have died on the voyage.

 

Shortly after their arrival a sum of money, Rds. 6000-equal to about £1250 was sent at the request of Commander van der Stel by the board of deacons of Batavia for the relief of those in want, and from the lists showing in detail how this money was distributed in April, 1690, a copy of which is preserved among the archives at the Hague, an almost complete list of the Huguenots at that time is obtained. This is also given in Theal’s History, those who received a share numbering 158, and those who were not in need of assistance only eighteen.

 

Among the many legacies for which the old Cape families are indebted to the late Mc. C. C. de Villiers is a series of four sheets published by Messrs. Van der Sandt de Villiers & Co., of Cape Town (at ten shillings the set) giving in fac-simile the signatures of a large number of their founders, both Dutch and French. I have brought with me a set—the first sent to England, feeling sure that many here will be interested in seeing them. Collected from the Church books, Deeds offices, and other sources, there are no less than 568 autographs given, with the dates of signature written against them. At the foot of each sheet is a list of all the names in order as they appear upon it. Those of fifty-two Huguenot Refugees are given on the first sheet, which is therefore to us the most interesting of the four, but other Huguenot signatures of later generations may be seen scattered throughout them.  Most of the signatures are fairly legible, though the old-fashioned cramped hand-writing of some is fearfully and wonderfully designed, and the spelling is curious. Many a good man in that age was content with making his mark, while others did not venture upon more than their initials. Number six is a specimen of the former, an anchor being drawn as Pieter Visagie, his mark, and there are several instances of the initials only being printed in capital letters. Those of Jan du Buisson (No. 389) look full of suggestion to the latter-day colonist as the letters ‘I. D. B.’ are now used as an abbreviation of ‘Illicit Diamond Buyer,’ the term employed to designate the gentry who deal in diamonds stolen from the mines at Kimberley.

 

The supply of a single copy to each colonist whose name is to be found in this collection would be no light task, as their numerous descendants are now widely scattered over the whole of South Africa, from Cape Town to Delagoa Bay or Mashona Land. While Sir Henry de Villiers is without doubt the most distinguished descendant of these Refugees in Cape Colony, the chief military command in the South African Republic is vested in one who bears, a la hollandaise, the same two names as his French Huguenot forefather, Pierre Joubert.

 

From the valuable paper of M. H. de Jager on the Walloon Church of Brielle in the Bulletin de la Commission des Eglises Wallonnes, vol. 1 p. 243, we learn that this Pierre Joubert was married there. The marriage entry quoted from the Church Register runs as follows:

 

‘Le l de fevrier 1688 fut faite la benediction du mariage de Pierre Joubert, natif du lieu de la Motte d’Aigues en Provence, et de Susanne Reyne de la Roque, native d’Antheron en Provence; tous deux embarquirent dans le vaisseau le Mont de Sinai, faisant voile pour le Cap de Bonne-Esperance sous la conduite du Capitaine Samuel van Groll, et cela après trous annonces publiees dans un meme jour du consentment de Messrs. du Ven. Magistrat de cette ville.’

 

According to Mr. Theal’s Passenger List however he arrived at the Cape with Isabeau Richard ‘his wife’ (in the China, which sailed from Rotterdam on the 20th March, 1688), and ‘Susanne Rene, 20 years old, a young unmarried woman.’

 

Most probably Susanne Reyne de la Roque and Susanne Rene are one and the same person, and le Mont de Sinai and the China the same vessel, as very kindly suggested by Doctor W. N. du Rieu. If Pierre Joubert landed at the Cape with Isabeau Richard already his wife, Susanne, his first wife, must have died in Holland, or on the voyage out. Her hasty marriage readily accounts for her appearing as a spinster in the Passenger List. The same thing occurred in the case of Jacques Pinard and Esther Fouche, though in their case a marginal note was added to say they were man and wife. The name of one of the farms afterwards owned by Pierre Joubert was La Rocke or La Roche, probably a memento of his first wife.

 

It would be interesting to obtain further particulars as to these marriages, and also about a tradition of the same family, according to which a Guillaume Adolphe Joubert was the first victim of the persecutions to which the French Protestants were subjected.

 

Some of the Refugees were settled at Stellenbosch, but the greater number were placed by Commander van der Stel upon lands along the Berg river valley, at Drakenstein, now known as the Paarl, and La Petite Rochelle afterwards called Fransche Hoek, which means French Corner, and is still so named. There, in addition to growing wheat, and planting vines, olives, and fruit trees, they planted a large number of French and Scriptural names throughout the district, such as Le Parais, Lamotte, Cabrier, Normandie, Rhone, Champagne, Languedoc, Lorraine, Orleans, Orange, La Provence, La Providence, la Vallee de Josaphat, &c. The titles of many of these estates still remain as memorials of the localities where they fixed their abode, and will be found marked on large scale maps. The Bible names are interesting as shewing their devout belief that under Divine protection they would one day be gathered from the lands into which they had been scattered, and would be avenged upon those who had persecuted them, (Vide Joel chapter iii. 2.)

 

The Refugees were not long in settling down in their new homes. As they did not possess the ordinary necessaries of life on landing, ships’ biscuit, peas, and salt meat were issued to them for the first few months; timber was also supplied for building purposes, as well as other stores on credit. A fund was raised for their benefit in the Colony, and this rendered them considerable assistance. They set about building and planting with alacrity, and those more or less accustomed to work with their hands had soon put up rough dwellings and laid out vegetable gardens. Others there were quite unused to manual labour, and these suffered severely until, with the help of others, who had been less fortunate in former years but now had all the best of it, they too were able to make a start in farming. Ere long the plantations of several were among the most flourishing in the Colony, those for example of Abraham de Villiers and Louis le Grand.

 

The vine was not, as at one time supposed, first introduced by the Huguenots into the Cape, but there is little doubt that they did much to improve its cultivation, and the manufacture of wine and brandy. Owing to this, viticulture has always been the most important branch of agriculture in the west of the Colony. The first vine stocks were brought out from the Rhine in 1653, and within a few years of that date almost all the garden plants of India and Europe and many kinds of fruit trees had been introduced. Commander van der Stel was an enthusiastic tree-planter, and the oak and fir trees now growing in such profusion at Stellenbosch, in the Cape Peninsular, and elsewhere, are mainly due to him.

 

In accordance with their promise the Rev. Pierre Simond, sometime pastor of Embrun in Dauphine, and afterwards Minister of the Refugee congregation at Zierickzee, was engaged by the Directors to go out to the Cape. Sailing from Middelburg he arrived at Cape Town in August, 1688. He appears to have been a typical pastor of those days, an earnest fearless man, of great strength of character, and most determined will. He was appointed to reside at Stellenbosch until transferred to Drakenstein in 1691. Having composed a new metrical version of the Psalms he returned to Europe at his own request in 1702 to look after its fortunes, and settled at Amsterdam. He officiated there pretty frequently until June, 1705. Being awarded a pension by the Synode at Haarlem in 1703 he went there with his wife Anne Bereau (also written De Beureau and De Beront) and two children, Catherine and Pierre, for a time, but returned to live at Amsterdam towards the end of 1708. Services were held in French on alternate Sundays at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein by the pastor, a ‘sick comforter’ officiating in Dutch in his absence. The Refugees were not allowed to form a separate congregation of their own, and when at the end of November, 1689, a Drakenstein deputation headed by their pastor approached the Commander on the subject their request was sternly refused.

 

The time selected for asking concessions on behalf of the French settlers was unfortunate. War had been declared by France against the United Netherlands just a year before, and the news of this, and of all the Dutch vessels in French harbours having been seized reached the Cape in March, 1689. Far removed as the Commander was from assistance, and receiving intelligence from Europe only when months old, he must have spent an exceedingly anxious time until the Treaty of Ryswick—which put an end to the war—was signed in 1697. Small wonder then that he treated the Deputation as if they were demanding political concessions, however innocent their petition for a separate Church of their own may have been.

 

On Pierre Simond’s departure the Directors withdrew their permission for public worship to be conducted in French, the Huguenots were merged in the Dutch Reformed Church, and the least semblance of any other ecclesiastical establishment or worship was not permitted.

 

This prohibition, as also that of separate congregations, was of course due to the policy of the Company that both the French language and the separate nationality should be suppressed as early as possible, and there is no doubt that from their point of view, the Directors were quite right. With this end in view the Refugees were scattered among the other colonists, both on first arrival and afterwards, as much as possible, and they vainly did their utmost to thwart the plan.

 

The reason for this action being taken is given in a Despatch dated 12th June, 1690, sent by the Council of Policy at the Cape to Amsterdam:

 

‘Our object is to amalgamate them (the Huguenot refugees) with our own countrymen, that the one may impart to the other his own particular knowledge and experience, and in that manner agriculture be promoted. For that purpose we have deemed it expedient to order that their religious services be held alternately every Sunday at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, in the Church, and on the same footing as the Dutch services.’

 

They may have had another object in view later on when they opposed the gravitation of the refugees towards Drakenstein, viz. to minimize the chances of their being able to render assistance to the French should an attempt be made to seize the Cape. It does not seem probable, however, that Huguenots would have been anxious to put their heads into a Catholic noose in that way, even if they were dissatisfied with Dutch rules and regulations.

 

In 1709 the use of French in addressing the Government upon official matters was publicly prohibited, and in 1724 the lessons were read in French at Church for the last time, so that before the second generation had died out the language was practically extinct.

 

The French astronomer, the Abbe de la Caille, who visited the Cape in 1752, refers in his ‘Journal’ to the condition of his fellow countrymen, and notes the gradual extinction of the language among their children.

 

‘With respect to the Refugees,’ he says,’ they have preserved the French language, and have taught it to their children; but the latter, partly because they trade with the Dutch, and Germans who speak the Dutch language, and have married or become connected with them, have not taught French to their children. There are no longer any of the old Refugees of 1680 to 1690 at the Cape, only their children remain who speak French, and they are very old. I did not meet any person under forty years of age who spoke French unless he had just arrived from France. I cannot however be sure that this is altogether general; but I have heard those who speak French say that in twenty years there would not be anyone in Drakenstein who would know how to speak it.’

 

Le Vaillant, the French naturalist, who visited the Colony in 1780, states that he only came across one old man who understood French.

 

Personally I came across the use of French once at the Cape, in 1888, when I was stopped in the street by a stranger and with many apologies for the liberty taken, asked whether I was French myself. No very adequate reason having been given for my being asked the question I strongly suspect that it was hoped I might assist in composing the interesting announcement which appeared in the Cape Times shortly afterwards to the effect that my interviewer had been recently presented with a son. This so took my fancy as an amusing instance of pride in Huguenot descent that I cut it out and happen still to have it by me. It was worded thus: ‘H---- nee a Simon’s Town. Madame F----- H-----, de un fils.’

 

Lady Duff Gordon in her Letters from the Cape gives a somewhat amusing account of her meeting with a descendant of the Cape Huguenots named De Villiers, but corrupted into Filljee, as is frequently the case. She says:

 

‘He is a pure and thorough Frenchman, although unable to speak a word of French. When I went in to dinner he rose and gave me a chair with a bow which, together with his appearance, made me ask “Monsieur vient d’arriver”? This at once put him out and pleased him.’

 

Put him out because he could not understand or speak French, and pleased him as he liked being taken for a Frenchman.

 

Even now-a-days one does occasionally meet with Cape Colonists who look French, with dark hair and eyes, small active figures and sharply cut features, but these are exceptions, for the frequent inter-marriages with other races have practically obliterated such distinctions.

 

Mr. C. C. de Villiers told me that he knew one old gentleman, still alive in 1887, in whom the Huguenot blood had been preserved unmixed, though he was of the fifth generation; but it was the only instance he had met with. My grandmother, a Rousseau, through whom alone I can claim Huguenot descent, was, I am glad to say, a full-blooded French-woman, although born one hundred years after the arrival of the refugees at the Cape and belonging to the third generation. Even this was rather exceptional. The total numbers of the Huguenots never exceeded one sixth of the Colonists, and though they tried hard to preserve their language and distinctive race in the teeth of the Directors and Governor by resolving to marry none save their own countrywomen, the latter were too scarce to admit of the resolution being adhered to. It is only natural therefore that their race should have been practically absorbed by the middle of the eighteenth century.

 

As to the language commonly spoken by their descendants of the present day, Mr. Theal says:

 

‘The South African colonists never lost a knowledge of the pure language of the Dutch Bible and in their devotions almost invariably employ it. Any Dutch book whatever printed in the 17th century is also read with the greatest ease by the colonists to whom the phraseology is familiar; though the same persons find the language of a modern work, issued in Holland, stiff and heavy. Most of what in South Africa are erroneously supposed to be peculiarities of Cape Dutch are merely survivals of idioms in use in the Netherlands in the 17th century, and which may still be occasionally detected in secluded localities there.’

 

Those who can boast of French descent are still proud to do so. As an example of this I can scarcely do better than quote the preamble of a family pedigree which, with some difficulty, I persuaded the owner to lend me. He used to keep it carefully locked up, and handled it as something most precious, if not sacred. It did one good to hear him roll it out in Dutch, translating for my benefit as he went along, and lingering over the passages treating of the persecutions to which his forefathers had been subjected.

 

‘In the years 1685-7 the French Protestant Refugees fled from France on account of their religion when the Edict of Nantes was revoked in the reign of Louis XIV. At this time some 50,000 families quitted France and sought refuge in other lands, despite the frontiers being all guarded and dragoons being quartered upon them inland to convert them with their sabers. They fled from Nismes the capital of Languedoc to Holland and thence with many more fugitives to the Cape of Good Hope, where they arrived, with many privileges granted to them, to colonise the Cape which had then been founded about thirty-four years. They were very evil entreated by many of the inhabitants who, when the Colony was being founded had been recruited from orphanages, almshouses, ay and perhaps the streets, to come out in search of a livelihood. Yes, some were not even ashamed to oppress them in a manner not to be expected from intelligent beings. ‘They were more ready to give a crust of bread to a Hottentot, or a dog, than to a Frenchman, perhaps because of the many great privileges granted to them when they first came out.

 

‘But, though hated by their fellow creatures, God hath not forsaken them; they have good blood, land, and kindred, and by reason of their faith and clear conscience God hath protected them in the land of their exile unto the 3rd and 4th generation. Yes, and God will likewise protect their descendants.

 

‘They were the founders of Fransche Hoek, Great Drakenstein, Little Drakenstein, the Paarl, and a portion of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. They stood by another, and formed as it were a compact to intermarry with none save French Refugees. This is clearly shown by the pedigree.’

 

This account of ill treatment the refugees were subjected to at the Cape would however appear to be greatly exaggerated. When the Drakenstein deputation already spoken of sought permission to establish a separate church and were refused, high words were openly indulged in on both sides, which would have been better left unsaid, and for a time there no doubt did exist a bitter feeling between the two races. But on the whole the refugees appear to have been treated with great kindness, both by Commander van der Stel, and their fellow colonists.

 

In a Despatch to the Directors dated 26th April, 1688 the Council wrote:

 

‘We shall lend a helping hand to the French fugitives, and give them proofs of Christian love by helping them on their legs’;

 

And in another of the same date to the Chamber of Delft:

 

‘The Sion will not call at the Cape…The French fugitives on board have been brought hither in the coaster Jupiter. They were received by us with proofs of Christian love and compassion, and will be assisted in everything. We shall give them at the earliest opportunity two French Bibles and ten Psalm books.’

 

On the 6th June, 1690 they wrote to the Chamber of Amsterdam:

 

‘The fugitives….have been located—some in the Cape district, many in the Stellenbosch, but the greater portion in the Drakenstein district, where they can well subsist on agriculture and different trades…We have helped them as far as our weak powers allowed, and it is evident that the majority of them will find a living. The gift sent them from India will do them good.’

 

120 acres of land were granted to each who wished to take it up, and as to its quality the Council wrote on 22nd April, 1688:

 

‘Altogether the soil is splendid, one part perhaps a little better than another, but whoever has received a plot not quite so good as his neighbour’s has only to blame chance for it. The Commander has worked hard to put all these people properly on their legs, and gave them cattle and sheep.’

 

As the farms prove at the present day, those who settled down and worked industriously soon succeeded.

 

The donation sent from Batavia for their relief was expressly asked for by Commander van der Stel, and a voluntary subscription was raised at the Cape to assist them.

 

They were not, it is true, allowed to have a separate Church of their own, but neither were their fellow countrymen in Holland. A great number of the restrictions and regulations imposed by the Company upon trade, &c., with a view to its own profits were no doubt vexatious, but in this respect they were on the same footing as the rest of the Colonists.

 

Looking at the question therefore from a 17th century point of view it is not easy to see that our refugees were so very badly treated.

 

The founder of the particular family I have alluded to, Daniel Hugod, (now spelt without the final D) born in France in 1665, is described as having been

 

‘very small of stature, scarcely so long as a yoke, i.e. four feet four inches high. He was forty-five years old when he married Anna Rousseau, a young lady of fifteen. At the christening of this lady he was a ‘witness’ and taking her in his arms he said to those assembled “This child shall be my wife.”

 

He apparently thought that his superiority in years would compensate for his inferiority in inches, and in due time he realized his matrimonial project.

 

Cape pedigrees generally are apt to be perplexing studies, there having been marriages, not only between first cousins, but also between ascending and descending generations, and within degrees of relationship disallowed by English law. Second, and even third marriages were also far from uncommon.

 

These pedigrees are however being worked out and arranged at the Cape, and it is to be hoped that in the course of time the whole will appear in book form.  Meanwhile—to come back to the point from which we started—it will be a pity if no one will take in hand the work necessary to trace the members of this Huguenot Settlement back to their original homes in France. I trust that this paper, put together though it is by a tyro, from odds and ends of notes in no way collected for the purpose of writing a paper, may have some effect in that direction, by calling attention to the subject, and thereby perhaps doing something towards inducing others with more ability and experience in such matters, and more time and opportunities at their disposal, to take the necessary researches in hand.

 

Transcribed by Ellen Stanton

Email: harprulz@bellsouth.net