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Herbert Vigne

Properties3
descriptionEnglish settler (about 1821 to 1895) who bought the farm Weltevreden in 1846 and laid out the village of Greyton on it in the 1850s. Greyton histories call him the father of Greyton.
tagstheme/heritage, lang/en
aliasesThe father of Greyton

5 min read

Herbert Vigne was an English settler who bought the farm Weltevreden in 1846 and laid out a village on it, which he named Greyton [IC]. Greyton’s histories call him the father of Greyton [MS]. He came to the valley a century after Georg Schmidt, and his village grew up beside the mission settlements. Its story is part of the history of the whole valley.

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 one community’s own sources. For Vigne, much of what is told comes from Greyton’s local histories, which appear to share one origin.
  • [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

At a glance

BornAbout 1821, in England. A genealogy site gives 17 September 1821, at Tottenham [TBV].
Died1895, at Greyton [IC]. The same genealogy site gives 16 February 1895 [TBV].
Known forFounding the village of Greyton on the farm Weltevreden [IC]
Link to the valleyHe built Greyton on land that had once been held by Khoekhoe herders, and later by the farm’s first colonial owners

His life

Vigne was the son of a London merchant whose family descended from Huguenots, French Protestants who had fled to England [TBV]. He came to the Cape in 1842 with his older brother, Henry Vigne (1805 to 1881), who farmed Tygerhoek near present-day Riviersonderend [TBV]. The family held Tygerhoek for about 120 years [TBV]. Greyton histories say the brothers fell out, and that Herbert had to leave Tygerhoek [TBV].

In 1846 he bought Weltevreden [IC]. Some sources give 1845 [IC]. A Greyton history says he first settled on a farm at Boschmanskloof [TBV]. Weltevreden had been granted to Marthinus Theunissen in 1793, on land that Greyton’s histories say had been held by the Khoekhoe leader Stoffel Koekson [IC]. It later passed to Hendrik Cloete of Groot Constantia in 1795, and in 1839 to John Malcolm Stewart, its first British owner [IC].

In the 1860s he married Elizabeth Belshaw, who was 27 years younger than him [TBV]. They had three sons and a daughter [TBV]. He died in 1895 [IC]. After his death his heirs divided his farm in the village, De Bos, and Greyton went through hard years [TBV]. The gravestones of Herbert and Elizabeth Vigne were later moved to the grounds of St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Greyton [MS].

Founding Greyton

Vigne laid out a village on Weltevreden. Sources date its founding to 1852, with the first plots sold in 1854 [IC]. He named it after Sir George Grey, the Governor of the Cape [IC]. The surveyor J.G. Rietz drew the town plan [IC].

South African History Online says the plots came with title deeds, water rights, and grazing rights, and were sold to buyers of any race, nationality, or religion [TBV]. It calls Greyton the only town in the Cape where such land was for sale to anyone [TBV]. This claim matters for the valley’s later history, because a century later the Group Areas Act forced coloured families out of Greyton to Heuwelkroon [IC]. It has not been checked against the deeds.

Greyton’s histories say Vigne kept two small portions for himself and left the rest of the farm to the owners of the plots as a commonage, shared land for grazing [TBV]. The same wording appears in many sources, which suggests they share one origin [MS]. His will or deed of gift has not been found [TBV]. Part of the commonage is now the Greyton Nature Reserve, proclaimed on 13 May 1977 [IC].

  • Stoffel Koekson’s people are said to have held the land before it became Weltevreden, and to have settled at Boschmanskloof, where Vigne first lived [TBV].
  • Georg Schmidt started the mission at Genadendal 116 years before Greyton’s first plots were sold.

What is still open

  • Whether his will or a deed of gift created the commonage, and on what terms. A search of the Deeds Office and the Cape Archives would be needed.
  • Whether the first plots were open to buyers of every race, as Greyton sources say. The first title deeds would show this.
  • His exact dates of birth and death.
  • His links with Genadendal, which Greyton histories mention without detail.

References

  • Xplorio Greyton. Herbert Vigne: The Father of Greyton. His family, his brother at Tygerhoek, Boschmanskloof, the founding, the commonage, his marriage, and De Bos.
  • South African History Online. Greyton, Western Province. The purchase of 1846, the founding dates, the surveyor, and the sale of plots to buyers of any race.
  • Wikipedia. Greyton. The purchase, the founding, the name, his death in 1895, and the Group Areas removals.
  • Greyton Tourism. Greyton’s History. His marriage, his death, and the commonage.
  • GoGreyton. Greyton Village Walk. The Vigne gravestones at St Andrew’s.
  • Ancestors Research South Africa. Herbert Vigne. Genealogy record giving his birth at Tottenham on 17 September 1821 and his death at Greyton on 16 February 1895.

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