General Notes

‘THE FAMILIES AND FARMS OF THE SOUTH PENINSULA AND CAPE POINT’ by Michael Walker

THE VAN BLERKS FARM
This land, below the Welcome farm which hugged the Elze River up to the estuary, was granted to Nicolaas van Blerk in 1822 and was only known as van Blerk’s Farm. The old farm buildings which stand along the south bank have been restored and today are occupied by a number of welfare organisations for camping and various outdoor activities e.g. Rotary’s Simon’s  Town Country Club. The Death Notices indicate that Nicolaas and his wife Louisa Johanna Cats died there and were buried in the van Blerk burial ground in Elze Bay.

It looks as if Nicolaas moved to Elze River from Stellenbosch. The South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers (Cape Town Archives), 1660-1970 indicate that all of Nicolaas’s children born before 1822 were christened there. Because of prevailing winds and storms the ships in summer would anchor in Table Bay and in winter Simon’s Town.
This could have prompted a farmer such as Nicolaas’s move to this area from Stellenbosch, as most of the farmers in the Cape sold their produce to the ships.