THE SWISS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 1652-1970 - swissroots-za.ch

Baarth, Johan Adam born “Herbroek” [Barth? Heerbrugg SG??). 1788-1789 soldier.
/ KAB, MR CA 1787-1788.
Emdorff, Jacob born Berne [Imdorf of Guttannen BE?] 1788 gunner, sick. / KAB, MR
1788.
Mongin, Charles Anthoine born Pourytry [Porrentruy JU?] 1788 sailor, sick. / KAB,
MR 1788.
Chevallier, Anthony of “Zwitserland” [GE, NE or VD?], 1788 soldier, sick. / KAB,
MR 1788.
Hanneman, Jacob born SG [Hannimann of Mörschwil SG?], arrived 4.1.1788 on
Dorwijk. 1789 soldier, sick.1791 junior sailor sick. About mid March loaned to Willem
Kirsten until 28.8.1793. 1 September 1795 listed as not receiving pay and did not report
at Company’s offices. / 1 KAB, C 1004, p. 98; 2 KAB, MR 1789, 1791; 3 KAB, C 1064,
p. 1907.
Tredoux, Jacques-Gideon born Aigle VD. Baptised 9.4.1767 in the Waalse Kerk, at
The Hague, eldest son of Claude Francois Tredoux of Aigle VD and Helena Catharina
Le Beou (or Le Beon) of Middelburgh, Zeeland. The name Tredoux has died out in
Switzerland.
Arrived 6.4.1788 on Bletterwijk as Sub-Lieutenant. 1 Here he was appointed full
Lieutenant and for the next years served on various locally based ships. His duties are
illustrated by an incident which happened in 1795 when he was responsible for bringing
from Saldanha Bay a quantity of sugar, rice and coffee beans which had been
discharged there by the fleet returning from the East. The Company debited him with
the sum of fl 1 190 (equivalent to his year’s pay) for discharging a lesser quantity in
Cape Town. Tredoux successfully requested not to be held liable for the loss, blaming it
on bad bags. 2
With the British occupation Tredoux lost his appointment and established himself as a
law- and general agent in Keerom Street, possibly also doing transport work: the 1807
census shows him as having eleven male and seven female slaves, two four-wheeled
and two two-wheeled wagons or carts and nine horses. 3
At about this time several French speaking immigrants arrived, amongst them Jeremie
Auguste Rouviere of Neuchatel and Louis Balthasar Meurant of Basel. They rekindled
local theatrical activities, which had been introduced by the French regiments
garrisoned here earlier. Tredoux and his children took a very active part in productions.
Initially the plays presented were in French. Tredoux pioneered the use of Dutch.
During the years 1806-1825 Tredoux was director of the theatre company Tot Nut en
Vermaak and his son Jacques Gideon 1825-1826 of the children’s company Tot
Oefening en Smaak. In 1825, at the age of 58 Tredoux still danced in the corps de ballet
in a Dutch translation of Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Obviously he was still full
of energy and had a slim figure: the play is not a comic opera in which you can have a
rotund elderly gentleman bouncing about the stage! 4
FAVOURS IN HIGH PLACES
The successive French and English speaking garrisons had staged many plays in their
native tongues but Tredoux, very proud of his new homeland, catered for the Dutch
speaking inhabitants of the Cape. He may also have felt some hostility towards the
British who had twice invaded the Cape. On a certain occasion, at a Dutch play, General
Grey, Commanding Officer of the British forces at the Cape entered the theatre and the
band of an English regiment which had been permitted to attend the evening for the
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