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Melt van der Spuy (a1), the eighth child of the van der Spuy family of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, was the only Van der Spuy to immigrate to South Africa . He was christened at Rotterdam on 04 April 1688, and was named after his uncle Melt Janse van Leewen.

In 1707 the young Melt accepted employment as a soldier with the Oost Indische Compagne. Prior to his departure from Holland he named his mother as the only beneficiary to his estate – his father being deceased. The Will and Last Testament was lodged and registered by Notaris Waarts on 12 December 1707.

On 29 December 1707 he sailed from Rotterdam on board De Schellenberg and arrived at Kaap De Goede Hoop on 26 May 1708. After 5 years he returned to Holland on board the Donauw. Upon his arrival on 19 September 1713 he received 354 Gulden and 17 Stuivers for services rendered to the Compagne during the five years spent in their employ at The Cape.

Barely four months later, on 16 January 1714, he sailed from Rotterdam on board the De Kiefhoeck, this time as an Adelborst, or Petty Officer. He left the ship upon their arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and assumed local citizenship on 09 April 1715.

On 14 June 1716 he married a local girl, Maria van der Poel in Cape Town. She was born on 07 February 1694, and later died on 23 August 1770. From this marriage eight children were born, two daughters and six sons.

Like most of the young Netherlands immigrants to the Cape, the Oost Indische Compagne employed Melt. Although he became a Vryburgher after six years, he remained a member of the Burgher-Cavallery and at the time of his death he held the rank of Lieutenant.

Within a few years of his arrival at the Cape Melt acquired his first property, and thereafter, until his death he purchased and sold three more properties. His main source of income was from his involvement with the liquor trade. It appears that by 1722 and until his death in 1734, he held one of four liquor licenses issued by the Compagne.

Although no inventory of his assets at time of death could be traced, it would be safe to assume that he was a man of means. This assumption is based upon the fact that he was in a position to send his 9-year-old son Petrus to Holland for his education.

Maria was the eldest daughter of Vryburgher Pieter van der Poel from Leiden and Johanna Viant from Amsterdam. Unlike Melt, Maria was born at the Cape in 1694. Her father was a respected and wealthy man with a farm on the Liesbeeck River and the owner of six houses in Cape Town. After his death the considerable Estate of Pieter van der Poel was inherited by his four children, with the name of Melt recorded with that of his wife Maria.

Stamvader (Ancestor) Melt (a1) died on 28 October 1734, and according to custom at that time, was laid to rest in the kelder (vault) in the Groote Kerk in Cape Town. Maria, who died in 1770 at age 76, survived Melt by 36 years.

In 1740, six years after the death of Melt, Maria again married. The second time to Sy Edele Carel George Wieser, a member of the Burgher Raad. Wieser owned extensive land at the Cape, amongst which the valuable 224 morgen Groot Constantia farm which he acquired from Olof Bergh for 2888 Riksdaalders on 09 August 1734. Thus Maria van der Spuy-Wieser became the housewife of Simon van der Stel’s beautiful farm.

After the death of Wieser in 1758, Jacobus van der Spuy, the eldest son of Melt and Maria, inherited Groot Constantia. Jacobus remained the owner until his death on 15 January 1778, when the farm was sold to Jan Serrurier.

Marthinus (b6), the sixth child of Melt and Maria, was born in 1727, and was christened on 18 May 1727. Marthinus was 13 years old when his mother remarried Wieser in 1740. He died on 10 January 1790.

On 11 June 1750 Marthinus (b6) purchased De Klipheuvel aan de Mosselbank Rivier, a 60 morgen farm which after 34 years, he sold to his son Melt (c2).

Three years after he acquired his farm, Marthinus married Petronella Steen on 10 March 1753. She died on 21 January 1770 and was survived by her husband for twenty years. Marthinus left two Wills, one dated 20 October 1759, and another dated 19 March 1779. In the first Will he is referred to as den Landbouwer.

A further indication of Marthinus’s farming activities, and his lifestyle, is recorded in Alys F. Trotter’s book “ Old Cape Colony”, in which she refers to a 1772 journey by the Swedish naturalist Spaarman, én Route to Paarl. Spaarman records: “October 1772. At three o’clock in the afternoon I arrived at the house of a farmer named van der Spuy. He was a widower and born in Africa, and a brother of Jacobus van der Spuy, the owner of Groot Constantia. Without appearing to see me, he remained motionless in the passage that leads into the house. When I was near to him he did not take even one step towards me, but took my hand and greeted me with the words

‘Good day, you are welcome, how are you? Would you like some wine, or a pipe of tobacco, or would you like anything to eat?’ His daughter, young, well made, and with a pleasing manner, put on the table a magnificent breast of lamb stew, garnished with carrots. After the meal she offered me tea in such an attractive manner that I hardly knew which was preferable, the dinner or my young hostess. Consideration and goodness of heart was plain to see on the father and in the bearing of both father and daughter”

Marthinus van der Spuy’s second child, a son Melt (c2), was born in Cape Town on 03 July 1756. He died on 06 November 1825. He was the first van der Spuy to own the farm Klein Olifantskop, which was acquired from Jacob Eksteen on 11 January 1787. Olifantskop was (is) situated about 50 Km north of Cape Town in an area known as Koeberg.

On 10 June 1781 Melt (c2) was married to Aletta Barendina van der Westhuijse. She was christened in 1762 and died on 31 December 1834, nine years after her husband. They had seven children, two daughters and five sons, amongst whom Sybrand Johannes, their fourth child.

Sybrand Johannes (d4) was born on 12 June 1790 and christened on 01 August 1790 at Philadelphia, a small village about 10 Km from the family farm. During 1816 he married Angelique Maria Kolver who was born on 20 July 1797 and later died on 01 March 1872.

On 03 March 1824 the farm Oliphantskop was transferred to Sybrand Johannes (d4) from his father Melt (c2). Seven years before the death of Sybrand Johannes on 07 February 1864, Oliphantskop, by then extended after acquisitions of adjoining lands, was subdivided and transferred to the two sons. One portion being renamed Kalkfontein, became the property of Hendrik Jacobus (e8). The remaining portion – Oliphantskop – being transferred to Andreas Lutherus the other brother.

Hendrik Jacobus van der Spuy (e8), my Great Grandfather, and the new owner of Kalkfontein, was born on 27 August 1826 and died at age 52 on 11 January 1879 at Kalkfontein. The date of his marriage to Engela Frederika Dreyer is not known. She was born in 1829 and died in her 87th year at Kalkfontein on 21 August 1916. On 09 August 1892 the farm Kalkfontein was transferred to Hendrik Jacobus (f5), my Grandpa, who was then 33 years old. He was the third owner of Kalkfontein.

Hendrik Jacobus van der Spuy (f5) was born at Kalkfontein on Saturday 29 October 1859, and died at Durbanville at age 76 on Sunday 17 February 1935. At the time of his death, my Grandparents were living in Durbanville in a house on the corner of Gladstone and Church Streets, close to the Synagogue. He was interned in the Kalkfontein family vault in the Philadelphia cemetery, as was his wife when she passed away in 1957. Thereafter the vault was sealed and no further burials were done therein.

Around 1883 he married Harriette Eedes Cloete, daughter of Sebastian Valentine Cloete and Harriette Eedes. S.V. Cloete was a Magistrate at Somerset West and later at Paarl. This marriage produced fourteen children. The third child, a boy, was stillborn. The fourth child, Sebastian Valentine (Bas) died in 1906 as a result of an accident involving a firearm, whilst out hunting on the family farm, Kalkfontein.

(The historic farms Groot Constantia and Kirstenbosch were at one-time owned by the Cloete family.)

The farm Kalkfontein, in the Philadelphia district, changed hands on 16 May 1932, when the Vink Brothers acquired ownership. Subsequent owners were Michael Dinken, Solomon Daeson, and on 11 June 1945, W. Davies. On 07 May 1948 Kalkfontein was sold to the Imperial Cold Storage Company (I. C. S.) One of the I. C. S. Directors at that time, Ivan Wentzel, was a cousin of Llewellyn Wentzel who had married one of the van der Spuy daughters, Baby.

On 02 July 1948 the family farm once more reverted to van der Spuy ownership when Andries Christoffel van der Spuy, a nephew of H. J. van der Spuy (f5), became the new owner. He in turn transferred the farm to his son Albertus Johannes van der Spuy on 11 March 1969. His son Andries Christoffel, born on 06 October 1969 will no doubt continue the family tradition.