Nicolaas Jacob Reinier Swart, SV/PROG

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What is known about Nicolaas Jacob Reinier Swart

Nicolaas J R Swart (born 1832) was the eldest of Jacob Swart's three sons who survived infancy and went on to get married and have children of their own. His arrival in South Africa was unpremeditated. A man of Jacob Sr's calibre expected a great deal from his sons, especially Nicolaas who was 'earmarked' to succeed him in his highly specialized business of which he was the head. In his son Jacob's (born 1858, Graaf Reinet, Cape) words:

“ N.J.R. was privately educated as his father intended that he should follow him in his profession. He was especially educated in mathematics and European languages – Dutch, English , German, French and Italian (with the tutors being native speakers of these languages). He also learnt Latin and Greek – giving him command of seven languages in all or eight if you include Afrikaans which he learnt in later life. From what my grandmother and my eldest aunt told me the old man overdid it and it was a case of 'all work an no play' so that when he was 19 it was considered that his education was complete. I may here just say that my grandfather made him compile the Nautical Almanac for 1851 – published by van Keulen – during the last year of his studies in 1850.

My grandfather then wanted him to enter the firm, but Nicolaas refused and said he wanted to become a sailor. This caused ructions and neither would give in. In the end, through grandmother's intervention, it was arranged that he should take a trip to Australia and back in a sailing ship but Nicolaas must work his way and if, on his return, he still wished to become a sailor he would be allowed to follow that profession.

Now my grandfather was determined that this would be his son's first and last voyage. He asked the captain to make it so hot for the him that it would cure him of the desire to become a seafaring man . . . . The ship set sail some time in 1850 and Nicolaas was put to all the most unpleasant and disagreeable jobs on the ship the result being that he had enough of the sea before his first port of call, Cape Town, was reached. And, having found out that his assignment of menial tasks was on instructions from his father he abandoned ship in Cape Town and, apart from vacations, he remained in South Africa until the day he died.

His very first job was as a book-keeper with Mosenthal's in Graaf Reinet. Not very long after this Nicolaas moved on to become a school master at Schalk Burgher's farm Kolonies Plaas. His teaching was highly successful and he ended up combining his teaching with religious services on Sundays as a lay preacher – appointed by Rev Andrew Murray. Eventually on the 22nd of September 1856 he married Elizabeth Maryna Naude, the eldest daughter of Jacob Naude – a Justice of the Peace and Field Cornet.

After their marriage they settled in Hanover where Nicolaas opened a school and became a Reader in the Dutch Reformed Church. Prior to his marriage he refused to write to his father and communicated only with his mother. But after his marriage he wrote to his father about the step he had taken and from that day on the “hatchet was buried”.

All in all Nicolaas had a very rich and varied life. With financial help from his father he bought a beautiful farm called Kalkheuvel – which used to belong to President Pretorious. Unfortunately the farming venture turned out to be a bit of a disaster since his livestock (which came all the way from the Cape to the Transvaal) ate poisonous vegetation with which they were unfamiliar and most of them died. He was forced to seek other work and, for a while, he ran a school on Paul Kruger's farm. He became Secretary of State under Martinus Wessels Pretorius and was unanimously elected Secretary of State under President Thomas Francois Burghers in 1872. He also held the post of Government Land surveyor.

He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. And he was created a Chevalier of the Portuguese Order of Christ for the part he played in the laying of the Delagoa Bay Railway.

At one time (May 1866) he was persuaded to become a Predikant in the Gereformeerde branch of the Dutch Reformed Church (Doppers), And subsequent to that he was approached by an English Couple to marry them using the Church of England prayer book. He duly did this and the Marriage service included the singing of hymns (strictly disallowed by the Doppers who sang only psalms). The church then tried to have him dismissed for using the Church of England Marriage Service and joining in the singing of hymns. NJR was so disgusted with their pettiness that he resigned from the church and subsequently joined the Church of England in Pretoria where he became a Church Warden – which office he held until leaving Pretoria to settle in Mossel Bay where he died.

N.J. R. tried valiantly to prevent the anglo-boer war (wars?) but to no avail.

See different version of events on Wikipedia