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

the Huguenot brothers Guillaume and Francois du Toit embarked on the Vrijheid for
the Cape, where they hoped to find a better life. 2 Each Huguenot settler was promised a
farm of 60 morgen (51,4 hectares) plus a team of six oxen and a cart, a plough, seed and
all that was further necessary for agriculture as a loan to be repaid within three or four
years. 3
Marga was allocated land near Stellenbosch (next to what is now the wine farm
Blaauwklippen) which he named Valley Lustre. 4 Margra and the Du Toits found
everything here to their satisfaction, sent a positive report back to Middleburgh and on
26.5.1688 obtained permission to bring out their wives. 5 It is possible that their report
had a decisive influence in persuading other Huguenot families to emigrate to the Cape.
When in 1690 the Consistory of Batavia sent a sum of money to be distributed
amongst the Huguenot settlers according to their needs, Margra was also given a share
and on this basis is recorded as a Huguenot. 6 By 1692, after farming for four years, he
had 12 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 3 000 vines and sowed/harvested 4/28 bags wheat, 2/8
bags rye and ½ bags barley. 7 He also had considerable debts from which he sought
relief by making a partnership agreement with Barent Lubbe to farm jointly, for which
Lubbe took over all his debts. 8 Barent Lubbe, the forefather of the Lubbes in South
Africa, had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1702, who later married Jan Vorster of Berne,
the forefather of the Vorsters in South Africa. 9
Margra’s age was never recorded at the Cape. Was it old age or sickness that caused
him to sell his farm in 1697 after he had more than doubled his vineyard to 7 000
bearing vines? Jan Jansz Swart, the sick comforter at Stellenbosch bought Margra’s
farm for 1 600 gulden but failed to pay the purchase price. Margra had to resort to court
action resulting in the farm being acquired by his friend Guillaume du Toit. 10 With the
marriage of Guillaume’s daughter to Jan Oberholster of Zurich, Valley Lustre later
again passed into the hands of a Swiss.
Having sold his farm, Margra bought a smallholding in Stellenbosch called Het
Eiland. This is possibly the island on which Governor Simon van der Stel spent a night
and where he decided to found Stellenbosch in 1680. Some adjoining land is thought to
have included what is now the Braak at the centre of Stellenbosch. 11 Only two years
later Margra died leaving no descendants.
/ Boucher: French Speakers; 2 Coetzee: Line of Descent; 3 Valenttyn: Beschryvinge
van de Kaap, p. 187; 4 KAB, DO, SFI 93, 8.6.1694; 5 KAB, C 1381, p. 81; 6 KAB, C
728, 8.11.1698; 7 KAB, J 183: Citizens Roll 1692; 8 KAB, 1/STB/18/40, 18.11.1692; 9
De Villiers: Genealogies; 10 KAB, DO, T412, 6.3.1697 and CJ 3:11, and CJ 3:44, and
DO, T511, 11.4.1698; 11 KAB, DO, T452, 3.12.1698 for portion of Callebasse Kraal,
8565 sq.m. and T451, 2.12.1698 of adjoining land Eylandje. By T463 the latter was
transferred from the estate of the late Margra to Jan Frederik Fols.
Krebs, Jakob born Berne may have arrived at the Cape in 1685, and after serving his
five year contract, settled here as a free shoemaker. 1
A SHOEMAKER’S TRADE DESCRIBED
A shoemaker not only repaired broken shoes but also made new shoes, fashioning
them from a single piece of leather which he had tanned himself from raw skins. First
the newly flayed skins were prepared for tanning by cleaning them roughly and salting
them for preservation. They were then left in running water for about 30 hours to
dehydrate, then dried and suspended in a lime solution and again dried, after which the
skin would again be carefully scraped clean. Finally the tanning process itself took place
by passing the properly prepared skins for varying periods through solutions of
increasing tanning strength. It would take 12 to 18 months to produce leather of good
quality.
The bark of selected bushes and trees was used as a tanning agent. The shoemakers
collected these in the surrounding areas to such an extent that in 1709 the Governor
found it necessary to issue a Plakaat (Proclamation) stating that the shoemakers, being
in the habit of denuding the underwood and other useful kinds of timber of their bark
for tanning purposes, were henceforth prohibited to do so without written authority. 2
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