[Postcript added December 5, 2015:
This line has been corroborated by an autosomal DNA match to two nephews at 23andMe. They are all descended from Johanna Glaudina van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, the baron's great-great-granddaughter born in Cape Town in 1846, who was married firstly to John Henry Inglesby and secondly to Myndert Lacock. My nephews are descended from a child of her second marriage while their match is descended from a child of her first marriage.]
De Hoog Edele Welgebore
Gestrenge Heer
De Heer Pieter Baron van Reede van Oudtshoorn tot Nederhorst
Heer van Oudtshoorn Gnephoek Ridder Búúrt en Drakenburg
Gouverneur en Directeur van Cabo de Goede Hoop
Obiit op de reize herwaarts
Aan boord van het Schip Asia
Den XXIII Januarij MDCCLXXIII
En is den XVII April
Daer aen volgende
Alhier begraven
Gravestone inscription, Groote Kerk[8][9]
Baron Pieter van Reede (or van Rheede)[1] van Oudtshoorn (8 July 1714 – 23 January 1773) was a senior official and Governor designate of the Dutch Cape Colony. He was appointed Governor of the Cape Colony in 1772 to succeed the deceased Governor Ryk Tulbagh but died at sea on his way to the Cape Colony to take up his post.[2][3] The Western Cape town of Oudtshoorn is named after him.[4][5][6] He is the progenitor of the van R(h)eede van Oudtshoorn family in South Africa.[6][7]
Career and death
Born the son of a nobleman in Utrecht,[7] van Reede van Oudtshoorn first arrived in the Cape Colony aboard de Duijff as an employee of the Dutch East India Company in 1741.[10]:21[11]
In 1743 then Cape Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel granted him land in the Table Mountain valley named Garden Oudtshoorn, bounded by Hof Street and Kloof Street in the present-day suburb of Gardens. After van Reede van Oudtshoorn's death the developed estate was subdivided into three separate properties named La Belle Alliance, Trafalgar and Mount Nelson where the Mount Nelson Hotel stands today.[12][13][14][15]
He was fiscal independent from September 1741 to September 1762,[10]:438 and Secunde (deputy Governor) of the Cape Colony from December 1760 to April 1766 after Ryk Tulbagh had succeeded Swellengrebel as Governor.[10]:43,451,485 He returned to the Netherlands in 1766,[10]:59 and bought the Drakensteyn castle.[2][6] He was later re-appointed to the vacant Secunde position in the Cape Colony and in 1772,[3] following the arrival of news of Tulbagh's death before he had departed for the Cape Colony, appointed as Tulbagh's successor. However, he became ill and died at sea aboard Asia on his voyage to take up his post as Governor. His body was transported to Cape Town in a coffin he had carried aboard on the same voyage.[10]:95–96[16] On 17 April 1773 he was given a state funeral in Cape Town and buried at the Groote Kerk.[17][18][19] After the church building was enlarged in 1841, the stone that had covered his grave was attached to the church's eastern wall.[8][10]:95–96[12] A print depicting his funeral procession is preserved in the Atlas van Stolk museum in Rotterdam.[20]
Baron Joachim van Plettenberg, who had been acting Governor since Tulbagh's death on 11 August 1771, was appointed Governor on 18 May 1774.[10]:95–96,451
Family
Pieter was Lord of Oudshoorn, Ridderbuurt and Gnephoek,[6] the only son of Barend Cornelis van Reede van Oudtshoorn (1690–1750) and his wife Catharina Cornelia van Eys.[2][21][22] He was baptised in St Catherine's Cathedral, Utrecht on 10 July 1714.[23] His father was the first to bear the surname van Reede van Oudtshoorn. Barend Cornelis was the only child of Pieter van Reede tot Nederhorst (1645–1692), Lord of Oudshoorn, Ridderbuurt and Gnephoek, and his wife Maria de Vlamingh van Outshoorn (1646–1732). Maria was the only child of Cornelis de Vlamingh van Outshoorn (1613–1688), Lord of Outshoorn and Gnephoek, and his wife Claesgen Hooft.[21][24][25] The King of the Netherlands recognised the family's title of baron in 1822.[24][26][27] Pieter was also the heir of William Ferdinand Carey, the 8th Baron Hunsdon,[2][6] son of William Carey and Maria de Vlamingh van Outshoorn's sister Geertruida.[28][29]
 |
| The original Saasveld House by Arthur Elliott via Wikimedia Commons |
Saasveld House, originally built in Kloof Street on the Garden Oudtshoorn estate by Pieter's son William Ferdinand, was demolished and rebuilt in Franschhoek where it houses the Huguenot Memorial Museum.[6][12]
In 1782, Pieter's then 61-year-old widow was the subject of a scandal in the Cape Colony when she attempted unsuccessfully to withdraw her inheritance and elope with a 20-year-old soldier.[8][30] She died in Cape Town in 1791.[22]
Oudtshoorn
Ernestina Johanna Geesje, William Ferdinand's daughter and Pieter's granddaughter, married Egbertus Bergh,[31] a magistrate of the Western Cape town of George.[32] Bergh was one of the founding fathers of the Western Cape town of Oudtshoorn, which was named in honour of his wife's distinguished grandfather.[4][5][6][33] The coat of arms of the local municipality is based on the Dutch family's coat of arms.[34][35] Oudtshoorn is a twin town of Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands which incorporates the historic Dutch villages of Oudshoorn, Ridderbuurt and Gnephoek.[6][33]
References
1 "1063153-3-1, Lassy Dependency Structure, LASSY: Large Scale Syntactic Annotation of written Dutch". University of Groningen. Retrieved 28 July 2014. "Dutch: Van Reede of Van Rheede is een Nederlands adellijk geslacht waarvan de leden de titel van baron voeren en voorheen die van graaf. English: Van Reede or Van Rheede is a Dutch noble family whose members carry the title of baron and formerly of earl."
2 Verwey, E.J., ed. (1995). New Dictionary of South African Biography, Volume 1. Pretoria: HSRC Publishers. p. 795. ISBN 9780796916488. Retrieved 25 July 2014. See online extract in Afrikaans.
3 Pilkington Kilpin, Ralph (1930). The Romance of a Colonial Parliament: being a narrative of the Parliament and Councils of the Cape of Good Hope from the founding of the colony by Van Riebeeck in 1652 to the Union of South Africa in 1910. Longmans, Green and Co. p. 116. Retrieved 31 July 2014. "Pieter Baron van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, appointed Governor 1772, but died at sea on voyage out in January 1773."
4 Raper, P.E. (1987). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Johannesburg: Lowry. ISBN 9780947042066. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
5 "SAGNS – Local Authorities for All Provinces". South African Geographical Names Council. Archived from the original on 2004. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
6 "Oudtshoorn South Africa". Historische Vereniging Alphen aan den Rijn. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
7 De Villiers, Christoffel Coetzee (1894). Geslacht-Register der Oude Kaapsche Familien Deel 2 (in Dutch). Cape Town: Van de Sandt de Villiers & Co. pp. 518–519. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
8 "Die Van Reede van Oudtshoorn-grafkelder" [The Van Reede van Oudtshoorn burial vault]. Die Burger (in Afrikaans). 7 June 1986. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014. Includes a transcription of Pieter van Reede van Oudtshoorn's memorial stone on the wall of the Groote Kerk in Cape Town.
9 Elliott, A. E.. "Gravestone fragments from Van Reede van Oudsthoorn, in Cape of Good Hope". Atlas of Mutual Heritage. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
10 McCall Theal, George (2010). History and ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi, from the settlement of the Portuguese at Sofala in September 1505 to the conquest of the Cape Colony by the British in September 1795. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108023344. Retrieved 25 July 2014. First published 1910.
11 "Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa" (in Dutch). TANAP. Retrieved 25 July 2014. Reference code: C. 119, pp. 51–53.
12 Fairbridge, Dorothea (1922). Historic Houses of South Africa. London: Humphrey Milford. pp. 34,60–61. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
13 Green, Lawrence G. (1964). "Taverns in the Town". I Heard the Old Men Say. Howard Timmins. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
14 Bolsmann, Eric H. (1977). The Mount Nelson. Pretoria: Haum. pp. 4,6,63. ISBN 9780798604192. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
15 Harris, Stewart (2007). "Table Valley Market Gardens". VASSA. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
16 Thunberg, Carl Peter (1986). Forbes, Vernon Siegfried, ed. Travels at the Cape of Good Hope, 1772–1775. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society. p. 124. ISBN 9780620109819. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
17 Worden, Nigel; van Heyningen, Elizabeth; Bickford-Smith, Vivian (1998). Cape Town: The Making of a City. Hilversum, Netherlands: Verloren. p. 72. ISBN 9789065501615. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
18 Fisher, Roger C.; Clarke, Nicholas J. (2010). "Death, cremation and columbaria in the culture of Dutch Christian Calvinist South Africa". The South African Journal of Art History 25 (2): 71–72. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
19 Griffiths, Alta (14 May 2007). "Western Cape, Cape Town, CITY BOWL, Adderley street, NG Kerk, De Groote Kerk, memorials". GSSA. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
20 Ross, Robert (1999). Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: A Tragedy of Manners. Cambridge University Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 9781139425612. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
21 "Reede van Oudtshoorn, Barend Cornelis baron van". dbnl (in Dutch). Retrieved 26 July 2014. DBNL source: P.C. Molhuysen en P.J. Blok (ed.), Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 3. A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden 1914.
22 Kroes, Jochem (2007). Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market: Chinese Porcelain with Coats of Arms of Dutch Families. Zwolle: Waanders. pp. 207,313. ISBN 9789040083310. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
23 Laing, R.A. (March 1974). "Governor Who Never Was". Africana Notes and News 21 (1): 30. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
24 "Heerlijkheid Oudshoorn". gahetNA (in Dutch). Nationaal Archief. Retrieved 25 July 2014. Archiefinventaris 3.19.41, J.A. Eekhof jr., Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, 1929, CC0.
25 "286 Familie Van Reede van Outshoorn 1630–1923". Het Utrechts Archief (in Dutch). Retrieved 26 July 2014.
26 "Van Reede" (in Dutch). Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
27 Barnard, Lady Anne Lindsay (1999). Lenta, Margaret; Le Cordeur, Basil Alexander, eds. The Cape Diaries of Lady Anne Barnard: 1799–1800: 1799. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society. p. 91. ISBN 9780958411257. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
28 Laing, R.A. (June 1974). "The Hunsdon Salver". Africana Notes and News 21 (2): 66. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
29 Reilly, Emilia Georgiana Susanna (1839). Historical Anecdotes of the Families of the Boleynes, Careys, Mordaunts, Hamiltons, and Jocelyns, arranged as an elucidation of the Genealogical Chart at Tollymore Park, etc. pp. 27–28. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
30 Hall, Martin (2000). Archaeology and the Modern World: Colonial Transcripts in South Africa and the Chesapeake. London: Routledge. pp. 32–33. ISBN 9780415229661. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
31 "Reference no.: MOOC8/37.51" (in Dutch). TANAP. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
32 McCall Theal, George (2010). History of South Africa Since September 1795. Cambridge University Press. pp. 44,447. ISBN 9781108023641. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
33 Bontenbal, Marike (2009). Cities as Partners: The Challenge to Strengthen Urban Governance Through North-South City Partnerships. Delft: Eburon. pp. 130–132. ISBN 9789059723139. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
34 "Oudtshoorn". Heraldry of the World. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
35 Oettle, Mike. "Oudtshoorn". Armoria civica. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
