Jean Frederic Reitz (1761 - 1824)

Born 27 Jan 1761 in Utrecht, Utrecht, Nederland

Ancestors

Husband of Barbara Jacoba (Van Reenan) Reitz — married 23 Mar 1795 in Cape Town, de Caep de Goede Hoop

Descendants

Died 5 Apr 1824 at age 63 in Goudini Hot Spring near Wocester, Cape Colony

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Jan Fredrick Reitz is a Cape of Good Hope - Kaap de Goede Hoop (1652-1806) Stamouer-Progenitor Join: Cape of Good Hope - Kaap de Goede Hoop (1652-1806) Project Discuss: DUTCH_CAPE_COLONY_PROGENITORS

Biography

Gysbertus Reitz J Loogen Francis Reitz I Denijs

Info found on Page 118 Edmund H Burrows book - Overberg Origins

Stamvader Jan Fredrick Reitz was born in Utrecht, Holland on 27 January 1761 and died at the Goudini hot springs near Worcester on 5 April 1824. He belonged to a Dutch family which was well represented in the professions, his grandfather was rector magnificus (vice chancellor) of the university of Utrecht. Young Reitz joined the navy as a youth and served for 16 years as an officer, before being invalided in 1794 to the Cape by permission of the Stadholder Prince William of Orange. Here he was trapped by the arrival of the British in the following year, which prevented him from returning to Holland and upon his marriage he decided to settle at the Cape, taking the Oath of Allegiance to the British King in 1796. He married on 23 March 1795 Barbara Jacoba van Reenen (1777-1818) the eldest daughter of Dirk Gysbert van Reenen, prominent landowner. Reitz and his wife settled at San Souci, Newlands and he bought the farm Poespasvallei at Swellendam, which he managed. Before the permanent occupation at the Cape by the British in 1806, he sold San Souci and moved to live in a house in the Heerengracht in Cape Town - and soon after he obtained a government post as Deputy Vendue Meester. This good fortune he owed to fellow Dutch navel officer, Francois Willem Fagel, whose father had settled in England and secured for Fagel the appointment of Vendue Meester in Cape Town; and Reitz became his deputy. In 1812 Reitz sold Poespasvallei and acquired 4700 hectares at Zoetendals Vallei, near Cape Agulhas, where he began farming with wool sheep. Five years later ill-health obliged him to take into partnership his brother-in-law, Michael van Breda of Oranje Zigt, and their pioneering efforts to breed merino sheep for their fleece are now recognised as the origin of the South Wool industry. Jan Fredrick and Barbara Jacoba had six children. The eldest two, both boys were destined for the legal profession and their father took them when young to Holland where both studied before returning to the Cape. Two other of their children lived out their lives at Swellendam, where one lies buried. Their fifth surviving child died of fever in East Africa while serving as a lieutenant in the British Navy.

Sources

• Baptism on January 29, 1761 in Utrecht (Netherlands)