Welgelegen - Kuils River

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Built: 1813

Front facade. Photo c.1910. Cape Archives E2438.

Back of house. Photo c.1880.

Notes

The farm was originally granted in 1709 to a free Black settler named Evert van Guinea, but it passed through various owners before Isaak Bosman acquired it. The house was built by Jacobus Bosman, son of Isaak Bosman. The stepped gables were removed and the thatched roof replaced with corrugated iron.
  • Evert van Guinea (c.1639 Guinea - 1688 Cape). His de facto wife was Hoena (Anna) van Guinea. They had a daughter Zwarte Maria Evert (1663 - 1713) who became a wealthy landowner. Evert was one of the earliest free Black settlers (vrijswart or manumitted slave) at the Cape of Good Hope - freed in 1659. He was a farmer and market gardener.
  • Isaak (Izak) Bosman (1732 - 1812) married Susanna de Villiers (1736 - 1818) in 1756. She was from the prominent de Villiers Huguenot line (daughter of Abraham de Villiers and Susanna Gardiol. Isaak was the progenitor (stamvader) of the Bosman family branch that settled and farmed in the Bottelary Hills region, and was the first Bosman owner of Welgelegen and nearby farms like Koopmanskloof in the Stellenbosch district.

Sources
  • Die Geskiedenis van Kuilsrivier. 1993. Vermaak, A.L. (Thesis)
  • Camissa Museum

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