The missionaries’ diaries of 1793 to 1796 name a farmer whose land lay about three quarters of an hour from the Sergeants River, beside the grazing of the Khoekhoe who lived at Baviaanskloof, now Genadendal [MS]. They spell his name in many ways: Gildenheuser, Gildenheis, Gildenhuysen, and Gildenhuijs. In 1793 they give his first name as Wouter [MS]. The farmer of 1796 is named only as Gildenhuijs, and he may be Wouter or another member of the same family [TBV]. This page covers all of them, because the records do not say enough to tell them apart. His disputes with the Khoekhoe show how colonial farms and Khoekhoe grazing met at the edge of the mission’s land, and how the Khoekhoe used the colony’s own officials to defend it.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian records, here the missionaries’ diaries. They record the Khoekhoe’s complaints against this farmer as the missionaries heard them. The farmer’s own side survives only where the diaries report it.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
The diary passages
This page rests on new English translations in the Genadendal Diaries repository. They are machine translations that no person has checked yet. Each passage is cited by its Utrecht file number and line numbers. See The Genadendal Diaries.
At a glance
| Born | Not known |
| Died | Not known |
| Known for | Disputes with the Khoekhoe of Baviaanskloof over land and grazing near the Sergeants River, 1793 to 1796 [MS] |
| Link to the valley | A colonial farmer whose land bordered the grazing of the mission’s Khoekhoe residents [MS] |
The ploughing at the Sergeants River (1793)
On 4 July 1793 a Khoekhoe man who was ploughing for the missionaries across the river told them that Wouter Gildenheuser, who lived an hour away, had forbidden him to plough and sow there and threatened to thrash him if he did not stop [MS]. The farmer said the land was his. The Khoekhoe said it “belongs to the Sergeants River” [MS]. The man went to Baas Teunis at the company post of Soetemelksvlei, who gave him a letter to the Landdrost [MS]. The German diary names the Landdrost of Stellenbosch, and the Dutch copy the Landdrost of Swellendam [MS]. The matter was settled in the Khoekhoe’s favour: within half an hour’s distance of the Sergeants River, the Khoekhoe could plough and sow, and the farmer could not forbid it [MS].
Later that month a Khoekhoe man returning to the mission said that Gildenheuser had given him so much wine that he got drunk and lay down on the road [MS]. The missionaries wrote that farmers in the country made Khoekhoe people drunk in order to do shameful things with them [MS]. They did not say what, if anything, had happened to this man beyond the drinking.
Diaries: A363595, lines 4357 to 4394 and 4597 to 4670; A363595, lines 4797 to 4858; A363349, lines 1588 to 1609 and 2050 to 2070
The complaints of 1794
By October 1794 the missionaries wrote that the farmer, whom they now called Gildenheis, “would like, if it were possible, to drive the Hottentots with their cattle away from the Sergeants River altogether; yet he has no right to do so” [MS]. The Khoekhoe had already complained about him to the Landdrost [MS]. When a Khoekhoe man delivered a letter from the Landdrost to the farm, the farmer’s wife was furious that a Khoekhoe person had brought it. She said that if it happened again, they would break the messenger’s arms and legs, because she was “a burgher’s wife and no Hottentot woman” [MS]. The missionaries asked the Landdrost not to give them such letters to deliver [MS].
On 9 October 1794 Jacob, a Khoekhoe man of the mission, went with two others to the Landdrost at Stellenbosch to complain again. The farmer had beaten a boy who was herding the Khoekhoe’s goats, although the boy was still a quarter of an hour from the farmer’s land [MS].
At Christmas 1794 the farmer came to the mission’s festival meeting, and soon rode away again [MS].
Diaries: A363595, lines 11103 to 11154; A363595, lines 12948 to 12999
A neighbour in 1795
In the dangerous months of 1795, the missionaries went to Gildenheuser’s farm for news. In June, riding home from the Cape, Marsveld and Kühnel stopped there, and the household called them back to hear a messenger just arrived from Cape Town [MS]. In July Kühnel rode there again to learn what the rebel burghers of Swellendam were doing [MS]. The diaries record these visits without comment.
Diaries: A363349, lines 10192 to 10227; A363596, lines 1789 to 1830
The Landdrost’s hearing (1796)
Under British rule, the Landdrost of Stellenbosch was ordered by the General to settle the disputes over the mission’s grazing [MS]. On 21 September 1796 he sent for all the Khoekhoe of the mission. They set out their complaints in the presence of the farmer Gildenhuijs, and the Landdrost wrote them down [MS]. They said he had beaten their children, and had threatened that if he found them there again “the bullets would fly” and all their cattle would be shot [MS]. They also said he had spoken of the French coming, for which the Landdrost rebuked him sharply [MS]. The farmer at first denied everything, but then admitted that he had acted in a temper [MS]. The Landdrost forbade him any further violence and fixed how far the Khoekhoe could graze, with a promise of more veld after the harvest [MS].
The missionaries wrote that the Khoekhoe were helped, “but not yet fully: for it is the truth, after all, that the whole of the farmer’s place belongs entirely to the Hottentots, and that it has been taken from them against all right” [MS]. Two days later the Landdrost read the new boundaries to the missionaries. He agreed that the best grazing had been kept back, but said land could not be taken from those who had bought it and paid taxes on it [MS].
Diaries: A363349, lines 16585 to 16653
How to read his story
Everything on this page comes from the diaries of the missionaries, who were on the Khoekhoe’s side in these disputes. The farmer’s view is recorded only in a few words: that the land was his, and, at the hearing, that he had acted in a temper. The diaries do show the Khoekhoe taking their case to the colony’s officials again and again, from 1793 to 1796, and winning part of it.
Links to other figures
- Hendrik Marsveld and The Missionaries of 1792. They recorded the disputes, and visited his farm for news in 1795 [MS].
- Abraham Josias Sluysken. The company’s head of government in 1793 to 1795, whose order of December 1794 told the Khoekhoe who had moved to the mission to send their cattle away [MS].
His legacy in the valley
The boundary stones set in September 1796 fixed, for the first time on record, how far the Khoekhoe of the mission could graze [MS]. The question of who owns the land around the mission is still open today [IC]. See TRANCRAA and Farm 39 and The Valley Through TIME.
What is still open
- His full name, dates, and family, and whether the Gildenhuijs of 1796 is the Wouter Gildenheuser of 1793.
- Where exactly his farm lay, what it was called, and when it was granted, and whether it lies within Farm 39 today.
- What the Landdrost’s records of the hearing of September 1796 say.
- How the Khoekhoe who lived by the Sergeants River remembered him.
- Whether descendants of the family live in the valley today. Any page about living descendants would first need their consent.
Related
- Valley History
- Hendrik Marsveld
- The Missionaries of 1792
- Abraham Josias Sluysken
- Land as Property
- The Genadendal Diaries
- The Valley Through TIME
References
- Genadendal Diaries repository. Genadendal Diaries. English translations of the Utrecht copies of the diaries, cited here by file and line number. Unreviewed machine translations.