Baron Willem Ferdinand van Reede van Oudtshoorn

Baptism 1755 : https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRL9-YDC

Marriage 27 March 1774 :

Marriage 11 May 1777 :

Pieter Baron van Reede van Oudtshoorn; born Utrecht The Netherlands 1714,  Lord of Oudshoorn, Gnephoek and Ridderbuurt . In addition to his functions in the Netherlands , since the tender age of 27, various senior positions in the VOC,  in the Cape  Chief Buyer ( Opperkoopman). He was also a member of the Justice and Policy council of the Cape. In 1760 he was appointed vice Governor (secundus). Six years later he returned to the Netherlands to retire and settle his affairs after he had become sole heir of his wealthy great-uncle, the English Peer, William Ferdinand Carey, Lord Hunsdon (who used to live in Alphen ).

At that time he purchased  the castle of Drakenburg of which he became Lord. In 1772 he decided to return once again to the Cape, to take up his old position which was still vacant. When word came that the Governor had died ,he was appointed as such. As faith would have it, he himself died in January 1773 during the voyage and was subsequently buried in Capetown with great ceremony. A remembrance plate was added in the "Groote Kerk".   

Hatchment in Oudshoorn church in the Netherlands.

His son William Ferdinand , born 1755 in the Cape, worked for the VOC, like his father before him. He  was Treasurer and Member of the council of Policy in the Cape when in 1795  British troops landed in order of making the Cape a British Protectorate. He was  the only member of the council not to sign the articles of capitulation and was called "a bold Baron of Seven Tails". He died in the Cape in 1822 and was buried in a tomb in the grounds of his home "Saesveld". His home  has been rebuild in 1967 and houses a museum.    William Ferdinand is also remembered on a hatchment in the Church of Oudshoorn in the Netherlands His branch of the family is still extant in South Africa. 

The youngest daughter of William Ferdinand named  Geesje ,born 1799, married  Bertus Bergh in 1820 in Cape town. In the middle of the nineteen's century Bertus became one of the  founders of a town , in a village originally pioneered  by a/o Pieter Nel (1749-1814),  which he named  Oudtshoorn in honor of his famous family in law.  

Age of husband here 24 in 1840 so not likely him born 1755

"South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1970 ," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-12336-21665-38?cc=1478678 : accessed 28 May 2016), South Africa > Cape of Good Hope > Cape Town > Marriages 1840-1867 > image 43 of 215; State Archives, Cape Province.

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Registration of death 1822 : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSSQ-MQDJ-F?i=37&c...