History

The history of Swellendam

A few steps from the Drostdy, on Swellengrebel Street, stands the old gaol. A drawing from 1776 already shows it. Only the Drostdy itself is older.

Whitewashed walls, a yard, shade under trees. The traffic on the N2 is no more than a hum from here. Stand between the Drostdy and the Old Gaol and you are where the Dutch East India Company (VOC) set up its administration in the east of the Cape Colony in the 18th century: a landdrost, a court, and people who did the work without ever being asked.

Before the Company: herders on the Breede River

The Khoikhoi came first. According to SANParks, the Hessequa arrived in the Overberg around 2,000 years ago, kept fat-tailed sheep and long-horned cattle and lived along the banks of the Breede River.

SANParks dates their first contact with Europeans to 1660. Seven years later the VOC agent Lourens Visser set up a trading post in the area. Decline followed. Smallpox, competition for land, alcohol and tobacco wore down the Hessequa clans. SANParks also names a Hessequa captain, Lang Elsie, who lived near today's Bontebok National Park in the 18th century.

1743, 1747 and a name made of two names

There is no single founding year. Sources give 1743, 1745, 1746 and 1747, and they mean different things by them: the district, the town, the Drostdy, the name. In 1743 Swellendam became a magisterial district, the third-oldest in the Cape Colony after Cape Town and Stellenbosch. The Drostdy, home and office of the landdrost, was built by the VOC in 1747 according to the museum, while SANParks gives 1745 as the year it was completed.

The German Wikipedia says the town got its name in October 1747. Two people stand behind it: the Cape governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife Helena ten Damme.

The reputation as South Africa's third-oldest town comes from the 1743 district. That is how the English Wikipedia and places.co.za put it. The German Wikipedia repeats the title but adds that, by other accounts, Swellendam is the fifth-oldest town. Third-oldest district is solid. Third-oldest town depends on who is counting.

Landdrost, heemraden and the enslaved

The first landdrost was Johannes Theophilus Rhenius. He did not govern alone. The museum lists a council of heemraden, burghers who ran the district and sat in judgement with him, plus a secretary, a gaoler and many enslaved people, without whom the Drostdy could not have functioned.

Shortly after the Drostdy came the gaol, the secretary's house, a mill and outbuildings. The gaol, now the Old Gaol on Swellengrebel Street, is considered the oldest and most important building in town after the Drostdy. A drawing by Schumacher dated 1776 already shows it.

Three months of republic: 1795

In April 1795 an uprising broke out in the district. The rebels forced landdrost Anthonie Faure and his officials to resign. The burghers resented the taxes owed to the VOC, and they opposed a ban on registering Khoikhoi children on their farms. The model lay further east. In Graaff-Reinet, Marthinus Prinsloo had declared a republic on 4 February 1795.

On 17 June 1795 the burghers of Swellendam declared their own republic. Hermanus Steyn became president, Petrus Delport National Commander. The street on which the Mayville House Museum stands carries Steyn's name today.

It did not last. The republic ended when Britain occupied the Cape, and here the sources disagree. The English Wikipedia gives 4 November 1795, the German one speaks of three months, from June to September 1795.

Under British rule

The British stayed. According to the museum, the colonial government abolished the board of landdrost and heemraden, and from 1827 a Civil Commissioner lived in the Drostdy. When the building was enlarged is unclear: the German Wikipedia says 1844, the travel blogger Roxanne Reid says 1813.

In 1846 the government sold the Drostdy and the property was divided. The Steyn family bought the house in 1855 and kept it until 1939. Mayville belongs to the same years, built around 1853 for its owner Daniël de Bruyn, according to the heritage register.

As early as 1812 the London Missionary Society had founded a mission station: Suurbraak, for the Attaqua, a different Khoikhoi group from the Hessequa. The village is also known as Xairu. It lies at the foot of the Tradouw Pass, about 25 kilometres beyond Swellendam according to places.co.za. More on that under places around Swellendam.

White church with a clock tower, curved gables and pointed-arch windows, gateposts dated 1802 and 1911 and hydrangeas in front
The NG Moederkerk in Swellendam. The gateposts carry the years 1802 and 1911.

1865: fire, drought and a bankruptcy

In 1865 Swellendam burned. According to the travel guide Frommer's, the fire destroyed much of the town. It came during a crisis: recession at the Cape, drought and the bankruptcy of the trading house Barry & Nephews. Frommer's also writes that the town was rebuilt with more Victorian elements. Almost a century after the fire, the same guide says, traffic planners had the oaks on Voortrek Street felled to widen the road.

The fire of 1865 is not the great bushfire of 1869. That Great Fire swept across the land from Swellendam all the way to Uitenhage. It hit the whole region, not just the town.

The railway, the church, the museum

The railway arrived in 1899. It was built by the New Cape Central Railway via Ashton, and near Swellendam the line leaves the Breede valley. Two dates are given: opened on 18 March 1899 according to one source, by 12 April 1899 according to another. Riversdale had to wait until 19 February 1903 because of the Anglo-Boer War. No passenger train calls at Swellendam station today.

The NG Moederkerk on Voortrek Street is younger than it looks. The foundation stone was laid on 25 November 1910 and the church was consecrated on 10 June 1911. Only the entrance arch and the gate survive from its predecessor. Sources disagree on when that first church was built: 1798 or 1802.

And the Drostdy? In 1939 the government of the Union of South Africa bought the house to turn it into a museum. Today the Old Gaol, the Ambagswerf craft yard and Mayville belong to it, the latter open as a house museum since 1978. What you can see there is covered under things to see.

Swellendam in dates

Our tipWalk the history: the Drostdy at 2 Drostdy Street, the Old Gaol on Swellengrebel Street, Mayville at 4 Hermanus Steyn Street. The three houses are only a few hundred metres apart.

Questions about Swellendam's history

Is Swellendam the third-oldest town in South Africa?

Swellendam is regarded as the third-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town and Stellenbosch. The claim rests on the magisterial district: in 1743 Swellendam became the third-oldest district of the Cape Colony. Other sources list Swellendam as the fifth-oldest town instead.

What was the Republic of Swellendam?

The Republic of Swellendam was declared by burghers of the district on 17 June 1795, after they had forced the VOC landdrost to resign. Its president was Hermanus Steyn. It ended with the British occupation of the Cape, in September or on 4 November 1795 depending on the source.

Where does the name Swellendam come from?

Swellendam is named after the Cape governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife Helena ten Damme. According to the German Wikipedia, the town received its name in October 1747.

When did Swellendam burn?

A fire struck Swellendam in 1865 and, according to the travel guide Frommer's, destroyed much of the town. The great bushfire of 1869, which stretched from Swellendam to Uitenhage, was a separate event.