Hans Heinrich Hattingh

Hans Heinrich Hattingh (c.1662-1729),[1] otherwise known as Hans Hendrik Hattingh, was a German settler in the Dutch Cape Colony. He was a free burgher of the Dutch East India Company.

Hans Heinrich Hattingh
Borncirca 1662
Died1729
Other namesHans Hendrik Hattingh
Occupation(s)Free burgher
Landowner
Farmer
Spouses
  • Marie de Lanoy
  • Susannah Visser
Children13

Life

edit

Hans Heinrich Hattingh was born in about 1662 in Speyer, Germany.[2]

Upon immigrating to Southern Africa in 1692,[3] he started farming at a place that would become known as La Motte. At this point, Hattingh married his first wife Marie de Lanoy. In addition to La Motte, he also owned the farms Goede Hoop and Lekkerwijn during this period.[4] A number of years later, Hattingh was widowed. He then sold La Motte to Pierre Joubert, a Huguenot settler, who went on to name it after his ancestral home in France.[5][6]

Hattingh later married Susannah Visser, a daughter of his fellow free burgher Jan Coenraad Visser and the Indian slave woman Maria van Negapatnam.[7][8] During this marriage, he owned the Spier estate in Stellenbosch, which he also named after his own homeland in Europe. He had acquired it as a result of his being pressured into supporting Governor Simon van der Stel in his conflict with his fellow colonists.

After writing a letter of support for Van der Stel, the governor granted him the estate - one of the Cape's best. This was a fact that led to considerable resentment on the part of the rebel free burghers, as they regarded Hattingh as a traitor to their cause as a result of it. By the point of his death, Spier would be so valuable that the cost of its slaves alone would be sufficient to purchase a separate farm. Although he didn't leave an inventory of the structures on the estate, it is surmised that they were substantial for the period.[9][10]

Hattingh had three children with his first wife, and ten with his second. He died in 1729.[11]

Descendants

edit

Hattingh is the progenitor of the prominent Hattingh family of South Africa.[12] Counted amongst his descendants are the national politicians Chris Hattingh and Juanita Terblanche.[13]

References

edit
  1. ^ "person page". Ancestry.com. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Delia Robertson. "First Fifty Years Project". e-family.co.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  3. ^ Murray Coetzee; Retief Muller; L. D. Hansen, eds. (May 2015). Cultivating Seeds of Hope. African Sun Media. p. 225. ISBN 9781920689704. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  4. ^ Gavin Lucas (31 October 2006). An Archeology of Colonial Identity. Springer Science and Business Media. pp. 87–88. ISBN 978-0-306-48539-8. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  5. ^ "A brief history of wine in South Africa" (PDF). depts.ttu.edu. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  6. ^ "A Gem In The Visitors' Book". heinonwine.com. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  7. ^ Joanne Gibson (23 July 2019). "SA wine history: a "rough" start to Blauuwklippen". winemag.co.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  8. ^ Joanne Gibson (14 August 2018). "SA wine history: On some of the 'invisible' people of early Cape wine". winemag.co.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  9. ^ Joanne Gibson (23 July 2019). "SA wine history: a "rough" start to Blauuwklippen". winemag.co.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  10. ^ "Spier farm: Historical and structural investigation of the main building 1822" (PDF). Sahris.sahra.org.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  11. ^ Delia Robertson. "First Fifty Years Project". e-family.co.za. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  12. ^ "Die Hattingh's". genza.org.za. Retrieved December 2, 2023. (In Afrikaans)
  13. ^ "African Royal Families". Facebook. Retrieved November 25, 2023.