Jacob Cloete

Stamvader of the Cloete family and many other South African families, Jacob was the first of the Free Burgers at the Cape to meet the three key criteria of (1) obtaining a Letter of Freedom, (2) settling with his wife and (3) producing children who remained at the Cape to build the nation. He could be regarded as South Africa's first true settler of European descent.

Based on research, this is what we know about the first Cloete's in South Africa...

Jacob Cloete

(Portrait above of Jacob Cloete in Amsterdam 1676)

Jacob Cloete (Kloeten, Klauten, Cloeten) has been traced to origins in Oedt, which in the 1600's was a border town caught between the powerful Bishopric of Cologne, the little state of Jülich and the powerful Dutch Geldern, the larger forerunner of the present Dutch Gelderland Province. Back in those days, there were no country borders as we know them today and Europe was a mind-boggling patchwork of baronies, duchies, kingdoms, and bishoprics. According to the church register of the St.Vitus Catholic church in Oedt, Jacob was born to Conradt Klauten and Catharina nee Jennicken on 11 November 1630 as the second of six children, and first son.Archives in Bruehl record his marriage at 19 years old to Feigen Radergoertgens on 31 May 1650 in the Catholic Church in Oedt, Rheinland, Preussen. They had two children while living in Oedt - Godefridus (Gerrit) born on 2 April 1651; and Adelheidis (Adelheid is often reduced to "Eltgen" in the Niederrhein and "Elsje" in Dutch) born on 28 February 1655.Jacob is most likely to have been on the VOC ship 'Maria' which left Vlie in on 10 April 1657 under captain Claes France Bordingh and arrived in the Cape on 13 July 1657 where he apparently, and successfully, begged Jan Van Riebeeck to be taken into the Company's service.Jacob, with the stated rank of Adelborst (Cadet), received his “Letter of Freedom” on 10 August 1657 - the twentieth man to ever become a Burgher and the first to obtain idividual land title at the Cape (which previously were communal). He was granted his actual land on 10 October 1657 - 10 morgen (just over 21 acres) alongside the Liesbeek River from College Road southwards and from the Liesbeek to the Camp Ground. It become known as the estate of Ekelenburg, now spelled Ecklenberg, of which but a small surviving portion at the corner of Belmont and Erin Roads still bears the name. Under the terms of the contract, recipients had to work the lands diligently for a minimum of 12 years, and so the couple set out.The life of Jacob Cloete at the Cape has been well documented. As a Free Burgher, Jacob had to do a Commando parade after church every Sunday, this after Van Riebeeck created the world's first ever Commando in response to the "Hottentots" uprising against the Dutch that marked the start of the First Khoikhoi-Dutch War. Jacob also repeatedly got into trouble for his illegal trading of cattle with the Khoekhoe (having been directed to only trade with the VOC) as well as for bartering, theft and smuggling. In 1660, Van Riebeeck recorded that, in consequence of Jacob's good knowledge of agriculture, he was accepted as an agriculturist from 1 April 1661 "at f10 per month, provided that he remains here in service ten years."Jacob, and all the Free Burghers in fact, became more and more frustrated by the limitations placed on them by the VOC, and most cut their contracts short to return to Europe. By the end of the 1660's Jacob was one of only 5 from the original 20 that remained, with his 12 year Free Burgher contract expiring in August 1669, although he still had to work off his original employment contract into early 1671. By that time his eldest son Gerrit was 20 and had joined the household of Gerrit Pieterse van der Bijl en Fijtje van der Tempell as their knecht (hand) and Elsje and Willem had their own family and Dutch knecht. With no mother to care for the two younger children, Jacob placed young Trijn, 11, with Frans Gerritsz and his wife and young Coenraad, 8, with Wouter Cornelisz Mostert of Mostert's Mill. This enabled him the opportunity to return to the Netherlands in early 1671 to see his family after more than 14 years.Back in Oedt, Jacob married Anne "Entgen" Cuipers on 29 December 1671 in his home town and baptism church and the couple had a set of twins on 23 March 1673, Maria and Anne Clauten.Jacob next appears in the records after 1680 back in the Cape having been posted to the cattle post at Klapmuts for having yet again got into trouble with the Company. There is no real clarity on when he arrived back at the Cape, or further record of his second wife and twins in the Cape or back in Oedt (where death records from the period no longer exist).On 23 May 1693 there is an entry in the journal of the Cape Governor, Simon Van der Stel that reads: "This evening, between the hours of 8 and 9, was murdered, not far from the Castle near the butchery, Jacob Cloeten, corporal in the service of the Hon. Company, the oldest of the Comp's servants, having helped to lay the foundation of this colony, having been the first Freeman, though having later returned to the service of the Company....he was found, badly mistreated with three blows to the head and two stab wounds to the chest, all five mortal, over and above 25 lesser wounds, he was found lying in his blood with his sword at his side still in its scabbard, so that the attack must have been treacherous, as he was still very agile and as fit as a 25-year old young man.”At the time of his death he was 63 and the oldest person on the VOC's Cape muster roll.

Feigen Radergoertgens

The spelling of Jacob's wife's name has been a source of much confusion through the historical records. Over various years she has been recorded in the muster rolls as Fyckje Raderottjes; Fyckie Raderottjes; Fyckje Radergenties; Fijtje Raderatjes and Fijtge Raderootjes. The one thing that is quite clear, however, is that Fijtje, Fijtge, Fyckje and Fyckie are all “pet” names derived from Sophia.Little is know about the family of the Cloete stammoeder but she was born circa 1628 to Jan and Cathaerine, and the Oedt History Society could confirm that they lived near the town gate, a placement that was in his opinion reserved for reliable and leading citizens.Fijtje left Vlie on the ship "Arnhem" on 22 October 1658 with her brother Pieter and two children, and arrived in the Cape on 16 March 1659. Shortly afterwards, on 21 May 1959, she had to flee to a shelter with her two children (at that stage) Gerrit and Elsje when the “Hottentots” under Doman threatened them. In April 1660 a Reverend arrived in the Cape, enabling proper baptisms which were performed the very next day, including the first of Jacob and Sophia's two children that would be conceived at the Cape- Catryn (Catharina, named after Jacob's mother). Two years later, the couple's fourth and final child, Coenradus (named after Jacob's father) was born. Just three years later, on 28 May 1665, the new Commander of the Cape, Zacharias Wagenaar, recorded that “In the afternoon we heard from our chief surgeon that shortly before, the wife of the agriculturist Jacob Cloeten had died in the Lord. In her the poor man and his four little children have lost much.“This left 35-year-old Jacob to care for four children in a place where there were hardly any women (12 in 1658, of which 5 were of European extraction and all married) and more than 200 men, mostly of younger age. On 9 September 1668, Jacob consented to the marriage of Elsje to Willem Schalksz Van der Merwe. Elsje was only little over 13 years and 6 months old although Willem was a very sensible and hardworking man who did rather well in life. They would have thirteen children and Elsje would become the Stammoeder of the large Van der Merwe family in South Africa. Her own daughters would represent the start of a number of family names in South Africa, including Burger, Van Heerden, Janse van Rensburg, Meijburg (Myburgh) and likely Van As, meaning these families in South Africa are also descended from Jacob Cloete.

A glimpse into the Cloete's life at the Cape in 1665...

Below is an interesting story written by Wouter Schouten about his visit to the Cape of Good Hope from 11 March-21 April 1665 and his encounter with the Cloete family.

"Here we saw also the life of the Dutch farmers, who around here (and even for a good distance inland) have established themselves and settled down, well knowing how to look after their cattle, by taking them in the morning out into a grassy pasture, or where it may be, and in the evening bringing them into the stables again, which is necessary because of the multitude of wild beasts, although otherwise these folk live in considerable poverty, at least most of those who dwell far inland.I still remember how once the 3 of us wanderers had gone inland on a certain occasion, and were suddenly overtaken by dusk when we found ourselves near the most distant of the farm-houses, right behind the Table Mountain.Because of the wild beasts we did not dare to go back in the dark of night so long a way as we had come in our wanderings; so we resolved to beg the poor farmer for shelter (but for good payment) and set our course for the solitary farmhouse.On coming there we were amicably greeted by the half-naked pregnant wife (from Cologne [State] by birth), since her man was out, and invited into the little glassless house, and brought into the best room, which in this cold night was airy and chilly enough since there was no glass nor any shutters there.And there, when the man [Jacob Cloete] came home we ate a truly frugal evening meal, the best the folk could provide.Then (at our request) they made our bed or sleeping-place in the cowshed, where our diligent hostess threw some straw on the floor, and to make all as fine as might be spread over it a little piece of sailcloth.This stable was full of oxen and cows, so that the cold, which was by now pretty overpowering, was made the more tolerable by these 4-footed companions.Nevertheless we could sleep little for the first part of the night, because of a wanton calf that came into the stable (which was pretty long) and, because of the strange visitors, began to run about and make gay capers in the darkness, and over and over again was to be hard making for us at full gallop.Thus we had enough to do to turn the calf away in his mad career, by our loud laughter and by all of us stretching out our legs, so as not to be overrun by his helter-skelter leaps.But the diligent stableman was merrily on the go in this night-attack, and called to us reassuringly "Be of good cheer, Messieurs, I will manage to turn the crafty yearling away".Meanwhile he defended himself with great bravery as a bold soldier in this calf-war, assuring us that a calf can see by night and would know how to avoid us in his scampering calf-leaps, which we also found to be true; yet all the efforts of the stableman were in vain.So we let the calf scamper until it was tired, and in the morning found our bed-place sown with cow-dirt along the foot-end, with which it seemed to have honoured us in the night by way of welcome.Rising, we paid our poor host, and set off again, and so came aboard, where we often reminded each other of our adventure with the scampering calf in the cowshed…

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