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

was compensated for the loss of a horse which perished during an urgent errand to
Swellendam. 4
In civilian life de La Harpe seems to have prospered in business (in one instance
exporting 600 bags of wheat to Mauritius). 5 & 6 By 1795 he could afford to buy a house
in Berg Street from the wife of De Sandol Roy of Neuchatel; 7 this he sold after his
wife’s death in 1799 – possibly after being assured of the government appoinments as
Field Cornet of Steenberg and Overseer of Government Domains, Buildings and
Outposts. 8 In its stead he bought the farms Vreedenhoff and Pietersklip with adjoining
land at Wynberg, altogether 77 hectares 9 situated between the present Victoria Hospital
and the Main Road where a street still bears the name Vreedehoff. His household now
consisted of himself, four sons and a daughter. The properties contained 10 hectares
planted with 5 000 vines, he had 9 male and 2 female slaves to do the manual work, 9
horses for working the land and riding and pulling the carriage, and a pig to fatten on
kitchen refuse. 10 In September 1800 he married his second wife, Anna Catharina
Elizabeth ten Bergen of Bergen-op-Zoom NL.
The soldiers of the nearby military camp were however a troublesome and de La
Harpe complained to the Governor that this was causing him losses. He unsuccessfully
suggested that they take his farm and give him instead the farm Kirstenbosch. 11 Instead
he acquired the farm Arieskraal 12 to which he soon added the adjoining farm
Somerfontein 13 – both situated in the present Kogelberg Forest Reserve. However, he
soon found Arieskraal too isolated. He left his eldest son to farm there and in 1814
obtained the farm Drie Valeyen (present day Langkraal) near Mossel Bay where he
built a farmhouse which was later declared a National Monument but burned down
before it could be renovated. To this farm he also added more land, the farm Adjoining
Drievalleyen (present day Geelbeksvlei) totalling about 2 000 hectares. 14 Here he
farmed and filled the position of Field Cornet for Outiniqualand until old age came
upon him, when he sold out and bought a plot on the Piesangs River where now stands
Plettenberg Bay. 15 Two years later, now 70 years old, he sold this plot to Michiel
Hendrik Kapp 16 and went to live at his son Karl Wilhelm’s place in Port Elizabeth, 17 a
small port which was booming since the arrival of the 1820 settlers.
Jean-Charles de La Harpe passed away at the age of 88 in the house of his eldest son
Jean in George. 2 His children who reached adulthood:
1. Esther Jacoba Eliese born 1787, married 1804, Petrus Johannes Taute. They moved to
the Free State.
2. Jean Charles Johannes born 1788, lieutenant in the artillery, married 1811 Anna
Katharina, daughter of Christian Kemper born Gotha, Germany, by whom he had
two daughters. Initially farmed on Arieskraal, 18 later moved to George where he
farmed on a small scale and 1821-1828 was Field Cornet and 1829-1831 Deputy
Sheriff. 19
3. Carolus Hendrik Wilhelmus (Von Bonstetten was his godfather) born 1790, married
1810 Anna Cornelia Hilligers by whom he had two sons. Resident in Port
Elizabeth 1822-1825. 20
4. Bernardus / Barend born 1793, married 1820 Maria Martha Meeding, daughter of
the Assistant Magistrate at Swellendam and Supervisor of Outiniqua Forest. 1818
Overseer of Forests at Plettenberg Bay, 20 later postmaster at George and
Plettenberg Bay, 21 and lastly butcher in George. 22
/ 1 KAB, A1368; 2 KAB, MOOC 6/9/17, Estate 3680/1839; 3 De Puyfontaine: Louis
Michel Thibault, pp. 11-12; 4 KAB, ZA 5/1/14; 5 KAB, C 93, pp. 569, 629; 6 KAB, BO
86; 7 KAB, DO, T6909, 1.1.1795; 8 Cape Almanac 1800; 9 KAB, DO, T7718/1799; 10
KAB, J 37; 11 KAB, CO 4312: 638, 2.12.1806; 12 KAB, QQR 302, p. 601, 6.8.1807; 13
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