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

shoemakers’assistants, farm hands, shepherds, etc. Thirty-one Swiss soldiers were thus
loaned. A legal contract for one year was drawn up and signed by all parties. After
expiry the contract could be extended for a further period. Thus in 1756, after serving in
Beutler’s expedition, Hendrik Freene of Berne signed to serve Pieter Jurgens as farm
hand and stayed with him for eight years, then took service with Willem van Wyk until
1772 when he applied for and received burgher status.
In 1718, Jan Vorster of Berne, progenitor of the Vorster family in South Africa, was
loaned to the church community at Drakenstein to do the masonry work for their new
church, and then loaned to former member of the Heemraad (Local Judicial Council)
Schalk Willemsz van der Merwe. Eventually he applied for burgher papers with the
intention of earning his living as a free mason at the Cape.
PENSION AND RETIREMENT
After a Company servant had completed his contract period of five years he was
entitled to a free passage back to Europe. However, he was welcome to extend his
service contract at increased pay. Most men were content to stay on: the secure life in
pleasant surroundings to which they had become accustomed was preferable to an
arduous sea voyage and an uncertain future in Switzerland.
At a time when life expectancy was short, few are recorded for longer than 20 years in
Company service: Hans Soeblee (VD) served the Company 1757-1786, Jacob Haller
(BE) 1760-1795 and George Wanner (SH) 1760-1791, who was battalion cook when he
applied for and received a pension. Thomas Schoemaker served as officer from 1774
until he lost his appointment after the First British occupation of the Cape in 1795.
4.7 Freemen
Only a few years after the station had been established at the Cape, the Company came
to the conclusion that free farmers could best assure a steady supply of agricultural
produce. Suitable land was leased to selected men and thus a settlement was started
which eventually spread to the Limpopo River in the north and the Orange River in the
west. Henceforth Company servants who had served their contract period could apply
for free burgher status and permission to settle at the Cape. These were granted on
condition that the applicant remained at the Cape for at least twenty years, after which
he would be entitled to a free passage back to Europe. Isaac Manget of Geneva was the
first Swiss to settle here in 1658, only six years after Van Riebeeck’s arrival, but he
deserted from the Cape after only a few months. Thus the distinction of having been,
albeit not of his own chosing, the first Swiss to have remained here permanently goes to
Moses Chubli of Berne, who died and was buried at the Cape in 1667.
The Swiss who became freemen are classified in Table 6 (p. 18) according to the date
for their arrival, and grouped into owners of small properties or farms, and those that
never owned land. Of the 252 Swiss estimated to have remained at the Cape, 70 were
recorded as freemen and burghers. A larger number remained in service where they had
security of employment and good pay, while many must have died before they became
freemen.
TABLE 8
Swiss freemen at the Cape counted every tenth year, including members of the Swiss
Regiment Meuron.
Year
1666
1675
1685
1695
1705
1715
1725
Farmers 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 3 12 17
House
owners
0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 1 2 2 0 11 16
No property 1 1 4 4 2 2 3 0 2 8 4 6 5 5 47 67
Totals 1 2 6 6 5 2 4 0 5 10 5 9 7 8 70 100
1735
1745
1755
1765
1775
1785
1795
Totals
%
22