The father and son who established and agriculture in SA winemaking

Simon van der Stel, and his son, Willem Adriaan, both left their mark on agriculture and administration in the fledgling Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope,

-  Graham Jooste.

Simon van der Stel was born at sea off Mauritius in 1639 and lived on the island with his parents, Adriaan and Maria, for the first few years of his life. Adriaan was an official of the Dutch East India Company (VOC, for Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie), and subsequently commander of the island. In 1645, Adriaan’s tenure in Mauritius ended and he and his family sailed to Saloor (Sri Lanka). The following year, he was killed during a rebellion against Dutch and Portuguese coastal territories, and the family moved once more, this time to Batavia (Jakarta).

In 1659, Maria remarried and Van der Stel, then 20, travelled to Europe, where he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the VOC. He settled in the United Dutch Provinces (the Netherlands), where he married Johanna Six. The couple went on to have six children.

TO THE CAPE 

Promotion followed, and in 1679, at the age of 39, Van der Stel was appointed commander of the VOC refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope.

Van der Stel’s style of leadership was not the usual confrontational method employed by Jan van Riebeeck, the first Dutch commander of the Cape, and his successors. Van der Stel felt that the settlers should focus on planting a variety of crops and raising sheep for wool, rather than competing with the indigenous people over keeping cattle.