Pieter Eduard du Toit

Provided by Kevin Oram:

Pieter (Pierre) Edouard Du Toit, born 13 October 1741 on “Roodewal”, near what is now Worcester, Swellendam District. Died 15 January 1815 at Hex Rivier, Cape Colony.

Pieter Edouard Du Toit was the first child and son of Francois and Petronella Du Toit. He was born on his father’s farm “Roodewal”.

He married Maria Catharina Botha at Tulbagh, Waveren District in 21 April 1765. Maria was the daughter of Christoffel and Catharina Blom, who farmed near Tulbagh in the Waveren District to the North of Swellendam District. She was baptised on 19 October 1749 at Tulbagh and died 31 October 1810.

The Waveren District (“Land van Waveren”) had been opened up to Huguenot and Dutch settlers by VOC Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel in 1699, and named in honour of the Oetgens van Waveren family from which his mother was descended. Tulbagh, originally called “Waveren”, was the main settlement in Waveren and named for Rijk Tulbagh, VOC Secunde (Deputy Governor) from 1739 and later Governor at the Cape from 1751 to 1771.

Settlers had begun to move into the Waveren District from the Drakenstein and Stellenbosch District, and from the Swellendam District, from the early part of the 18th Century AD. Tulbagh’s Oude Kerk was completed in 1743 and the town remains famous for its 18th Century AD architecture to this day.

Like his grandfather Pierre and his father Francois, Pieter Edouard Du Toit farmed “Roodewal”. He died at Hex River in the Hex River Valley on 15 January 1815.