Simon van der Stel

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Simon Van Der Stel, portrait by Pieter van Anraedt

Simon (Symon) van der Stel (born October 14, 1639 in Mauritius , † June 24, 1712 in Constantia ; today Cape Town ) was the first governor of the Cape Colony . He was the son of Adriaan van der Stel , an official of the Dutch East India Company and its commander in Mauritius, and Maria Lievens, who was of Malay descent. He married Johanna Jacoba Six (1645–1700).

In 1679 he became commander at the Cape of Good Hope . He then founded the town of Stellenbosch ("Busch des van der Stel"), which is also named after him, together with a few others , and in the same year the "Delaire" winery, which is now known around the world as the "Delaire Graff Estate". The formation of the Drakenstein district in 1684 also goes back to him . A year later, Simon van der Stel initiated the exploration of the copper deposits in Namaqualand . He gave particularly extensive support to the Huguenots who fled to the Cape Colony in 1688 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes , with whose efforts the colony of Natal was settled in Europe and plantations, viticulture and schools were established elsewhere . This earned him the reputation of being the founder of South African winemaking . He also initiated the construction of the Groot Constantia residence .

In 1691 he was elected governor of the Cape of Good Hope. He was succeeded in 1699 by his son Willem Adriaan van der Stel and retired to his estate "Delaire", where he died in 1712.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e François Angelier: Dictionnaire des Voyageurs et Explorateurs occidentaux du XIIIe au XXe siècle . Pygmalion (Éditions Flammarion), Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-7564-0156-0 , p. 644 .
  2. ↑ See the facsimile of his illustrated manuscript about this expedition, created in 1692: ML Wilson and WJJ van Rijssen (eds.) Codex Witsenii. Annotated watercolors of landscapes, flora and fauna observed on the expedition to the Copper Mountains, Namaqua, 1685-6 by Simon van der Stel, Cape Town: Iziko Museums, 2002.
  3. ↑ Eric Rosenthal: Southern African Dictionary of National Biography . Frederick & Warne, London, New York 1966, p. 391
  4. ^ Roddy Bray: Simon van der Stel . on www.capetown.at (English)
personal data
SURNAME Stel, Simon van der
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stel, Symon van der
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch colony administrator
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1639
PLACE OF BIRTH Mauritius
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1712
Place of death Cape Town