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Origin of the Retif/Retief family in South Africa
Attempt to unravel and clarify the Retif family origins in South Africa with reliable sources
In France
Jacques Retif
x Debora Retif
A son and a daughter from this marriage
x Marie Mouy, SM ( Mooij )
9 Children -
b1
b2
b3
b4
b5
b6
b7
b8
b9
Anne Retif, SM/PROG
x Pierre Rousseau, SV/PROG
11 children -
b1
b2
b3
b4
b5
b6
b7
b8
b9
b10
b11
Huguenot Memorial Museum
Rétif (Retief)
Francois Retif, SV/PROG , the progenitor of the Retief family in South Africa, was born on 2 February 1663 in the small town of Mer near Blois in the province of Orléanais. In 1688, François and his sister,Anne Retif, SM/PROG, arrived at the Cape on board Borsenburg. Other members of the closely knit Protestant congregations of Mer and Blois who came to the Cape were Philippe Foucher and his wife, Anne Souchay, their three children, Philippe’s sister Esther, the Leroux bothers, Jean and Gabriel, Philippe’s cousin Estienne Bruère, Michel Martineau, and Pierre Rousseau
In April 1690, François received 130 rix-dollars from the Batavia relief fund and in 1691 the Cape tax records (opgaafrolle) refer to him as a free burgher farming in Drakenstein in partnership with (compagnons) Pierre Rousseau, Michel Martineau and Jean Cloudon. Eight years later, François received his own farm La Paris in Wemmershoek This bordered on L’Arc d’Orléans, his brother-in-law Pierre Rousseau’s farm.
Eleven years after the arrival of the Rétifs, Pierre Muoy a widower from Sint-Amands in Flanders and his two young daughters Marie (14) and Jeanne (13) arrived on the Donkervliet and joined the Huguenots in Drakenstein. The 37-year-old François married Marie Muoy in April 1700, who was still only 14 at the time, and they settled on La Paris. The tax records of that year reveal that he owned two horses, 34 cattle and 3,000 vines. He was making his own wine and growing wheat, barley and rye.
The couple moved to the Wagenmakersvallei (literally “wainwright’s valley”) where they acquired Patatskloof in 1703. When Rétif’s neighbours, including Gidéon Malherbe (De Groene Fontein) , Jean de Tuillet (Hexenberg), Daniel Jacob (Leeuwentuin) and Jacques Potier (Doolhof) reported him to the landdrost (magistrate) for illegally diverting irrigation water from the Krom River, he was ordered to restore the watercourse.
In due course, he also bought Hartebeeskraal from Estienne Terreblanche. Marie Mouy continued farming after Rétif’s death in 1721. She bought the farm Wildepaardejacht from Paul Roux in 1748, planted more vineyards and had 12 slaves working for her.
Three of François and Marie’s daughters married Huguenots.
Maria Rousseau, b1 married Pieter Rousseau,
Anna Hugo, b2 married Pierre Hugo and
Hester Marais, b8 married Jacobus Marais.
Magdalena Roos, (b9) married Tieleman Roos
The two of François and Marie’s five sons who married also chose Huguenot partners.
Paul Retief, b6 married Dorothea Retief, one of Hester Roux’s daughters, and
Francois Retief married Anna Retief in 1741. François and Anna’s son, Jacobus, married Debora Joubert, the daughter of Pieter Joubert and Martha du Toit.
This family pattern of marrying Huguenots was broken only nearly 100 years later when Jacobus and Deborah’s son, Piet , one of ten children, married a widow, Magdalena Johanna Greyling (née de Wet) in 1814.
In the yearhttps://www.geni.com/people/Pieter-Retief/6000000002334840856 married, the Cape officially became a British colony. As a farmer on the Eastern Frontier and a commando leader, Retief was frustrated by the rigid rules laid down by the British and their lack of sympathy for the plight of farmers: even if their cattle had been raided, no-one was to cross the border into the lands of the Xhosa. There was no hope of government help.
Rising levels of poverty amongst the Boers on the frontier as a result of land scarcity intensified the tensions. On 22 January 1837, Retief drew up a manifesto on behalf of the Boers setting out their long-held grievances against the British government. It was published in the Grahamstown Journal on 2 February and in De Zuid-Afrikaan on 17 February, heralding an organised migration of six parties of Boers from the Colony to the north to escape the authority of the British Crown. These people became known as the Voortrekkers and their migration as the Groot Trek (“Great Trek”).
Retief led one party from the Adelaide and Fort Beaufort districts across the Drakensberg Mountains into Zululand. His elder brother, Francois (Frans), was a member of another. This area was ruled by Dingane. Retief informed him that he wished to live in peace with the Zulu people, but at the same time boasted about the military strength of the Voortrekkers and their victory over the Ndebele people. The arrival of thousands of Voortrekkers in the Upper-Thukela valley was thus seen as a threat.
On 6 February 1838, Retief, accompanied by his son Pieter and his stepson Abraham, as well as his men with their Khoi servants, about a hundred men in total, were invited to Dingane’s kraal. There Dingane’s warriors mercilessly killed them. This episode set in train a tragic cycle of revenge.
https://huguenotsociety.org.za/huguenot-memorial-museum-eng/
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Some Retief History
A brief look into the history of the farm Welvanpas
The very first owner of Welvanpas was a widower, the Huguenot Pierre Mouy, SV/Prog. He had fled form St Armant in Calais with his wife and baby at the time of persecutions in France. They may have had several more children, but all we know is that when he came out to the Cape on the Donkervliet, he was a widower with two young daughters.
Donkervliet entered Table Bay in full sail on a cold 20 July in 1699. His daughter Marie Mouy, SM was destined to become our “volksmoeder” [founding mother]
The locals called Pierre “Pieter”. He had to put up a fight for a certain portion of rich level land when his neighbor, Jan Louwrens tried to oust him in order to enlarge his portion. To cut a long story short, De Krakeelhoek, the name Pierre gave his farm, was formally granted to him in 1705. De Krakeelhoek means struggle or twist in Dutch, a name he gave probably because of his heated altercation with Jan Louwrens. The farms name changed later to Welvanpas, which means “well suited”.
Francois Retif, SV/PROG was farming on his own on La Paris, when he met the Mouij family. It is likely to have been at a church gathering. Not long after they met, did Francois asked for the hand of Marie, the eldest daughter of Pierre Mouij. They married on 2 May 1700, two weeks before her 15th birthday. He was 37 years old. Francois and Marie became the founders of the Retief family in South Africa. They lived on La Paris in Drakenstein near Wemmershoek.
It was the third generation Retief, Jacobus who bought back Welvanpas, his great grandfather’s farm in 1780. He and Deborah, his wife gave birth to Piet Retief, the great Voortrekker leader. He stayed on Welvanpas until the age of 26.
The farm is steeped in history as shown by the grandfather clock in the main house, which belonged to Jacobus Retief.
The farm was handed down the family line from consecutive father to son, giving the business a unique consistency. It’s been in the family for for more than 305 years!
http://www.welvanpas.co.za/index.php/component/content/category/9-h...