Johannes Matthys Engelbrecht

• General Notes
  • Jan Engelbrecht, from Zaandam (Netherlands) arrived 1717 in the ship ‘Linschoten’, became a burger in 1729. Cooper. Married Johanna Guillaumet (French) Four children
    
    Some time in 1717 there arrived in Table Bay, South Africa from Amsterdam, the ship ‘Linschiten’, named after an early Dutch navigator to the East. On board was Jan Engelbrecht, or as it was spelt then, Engelbregt. His home was Zaandam, where the Czar, Peter the Great of Russia, had come only a short while previously to learn the craft of shipbuilding.
    
    Though Jan Engelbrecht enlisted as a soldier he was really a cooper and, discovering that the Cape of Good Hope was a wine-growing country, he set about finding employment at his trade when, twelve years after he landed , having married a girl of Huguenot decent, Johanna Guillaumet, he sufficiently established to ask for his Burger papers.
    
    Later in the same century another bearer of the name arrived from East Friesland, Gerrit Engelbrecht, who on October 17, 1745, married Katrina Elizabeth de Jongh. Finally Johan Bernard Engelbrecht, of unknown origin, made his appearance, espoused Maria Katinka Bonk and produced a daughter Wilhelmina Elizabeth Diederica, who was baptized on August 13, 1809.
    
    Most South African Engelbrecht’s have come from the first two stamvaders. Descendants of Jan Engelbrecht are particularly numerous around Stellenbosch, while those of Gerrit Engelbrecht congregate near Swellendam and Graaf-Reinet.
    
    Hermanus Engelbrecht makes his appearance in 1788 when, as a burger, he informed the authorities of his intention to set free his slave, Klaas, his female slave Griet, and the latter’s two children, named Trijn and Koetje.
    
    One of the groups of Voortrekkers attacked by the Zulus after the massacre of Piet Retief, was Engelbrecht’s Party, between the Groot and Klein Moordspruit.
    
    The name of Johannes Engelbregt figuring among those recommending the grant of a farm to Chief Commandant Andries Pretorius, proves that his was a voice that carried weight. Again we find reference to Gert Engelbrecht as receiving two head of cattle captured in February 1840, while other Voortrekkers were Anton Engelbrecht, Cornelius Engelbregt, H.Engelbregt, and J.Engelbrecht.
    
    The name of Welverdien is traditional for an Engelbrecht farm. Wellem Petrus Engelbrecht trekked from Zuurberg to Adelaide, the Cape Province, where his farm was so called. Another pioneer of the latter district was Johannes C. Engelbrecht of Tamboekiesfontein. Andriaan Jacobus Johannes Engelbrecht was a pioneer of the Waterberg in the Republican days.
    
    One place on the map that commemorates the family – Engelbrecht’s Drift on the Vaal River where the first emigrants crossed. It saw heavy fighting during the South African war.
    
    Today, among our leading men of learning is Professor S.P. Engelbrecht of Pretoria University, perhaps the greatest authority on early Transvaal history, and the creator of a famous library.  In a very different field sportsmen will recall the name of Wellem Gerhardus Engelbrecht of Zwartruggens, who was for ten years one of our professional boxers.
    
    In 1888 the Voters’ Roll for the South African Republic (containing 11, 294 entries) there were 120 Engelbrecht’s.
    
    Engelbrecht (engelbregt) ‘Shining Angel’ in Old Dutch.

Details of Johannes Matthys' family with Susanna Aletta Johanna Killian