Martin Melck, SV/PROG

Martin Melck's history is certainly one of the greatest success stories which the early Cape produced. Like many of his predecessors at De Driesprong, he was a German who had come to the Cape as a soldier in the service of the company. He was born on 20 October 1723 in East Prussia, in the Baltic seaport of Memel. Memel today is called Klaipeda and falls into the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania.

Martin Melck’s father was a boatswain and probably often away from home. The eighteen-year-old Melck decided rather to work on land and had himself trained as a builder in Riga.

He set off on the long journey to the Netherlands and in the European spring of 1746, a year and a half after completing his studies, in the port of Texel, he went on board the ‘t Slot van Capelle. The company’s ships sailed from here because the harbours at Amsterdam and Rotterdam were too shallow. Three months later, in the depths of the Cape winter, Martin and his fellow travellers caught sight of the peninsular, and on the 26 June 1746 they dropped anchor in the winter harbour of Simon’s Bay. He was twenty-three years old and dressed in a uniform of heavy dark-coloured woollen cloth for which he had to pay himself. Brass buttons, red socks, and a hat with an inch-wide band of gold gave a cheerful air to the outfit.

The Company made soldiers available to farmers as labourers. Shortly after his arrival Martin was hired out for several months as foreman on Johan Giebeler’s Farm called Elsenburg. On 1 September (1746) he was transferred to the “salted” silver mine on the south-eastern slopes of Simonsberg to perform mining-work. After a brief stay on Elsenburg he was appointed as foreman to Jacob Cloete on Nooitgedacht. Apart from accommodation and meals, he earned 12 guilders a month, 3 guilders more than the Company’s pay.

In 1750, four years after his arrival, he was discharged from the service of the company and became a free burgher in the colony of Stellenbosch. Martin bought, in the same year, the farms "Aan't Pad" (now Cloetesdal) and "Watergang". Half of the purchase price was paid in cash. He kept on, however, with his cartage contracting and also started a profitable lime-kiln at Saldanha Bay after he had discovered good rocks, actually fossilized shells, for the purpose.

After the death of his first employer, Martin from time to time rode over to Elsenburg to visit the widow Anna Margaretha Hop. They were married on 20 August 1752, two months before the bridegrooms 29th birthday. Marraiges at this time were, without exeption, in community of property and Melck was thus, after his marriage, owner of Elsenburg and Hoopenburg (now Muldersvlei). Whereas before his marriage he owned a horse, 48 cattle and 4000 vines overnight he had now became the owner of 15 slaves, 40 horses, 60 cattle, 500 sheep, 20 pigs and 30 000 vines.

De Driesprong (Muratie) was transferred to Martin Melck on 7 February 1763. In 1766 Martin was appointed to the honourable office of the Heemraad. Among other things he helped to establish the boundaries between the districts of Stellenbosch and Swellendam as well as diverted the course of the Eersterivier in order to prevent flooding. During the 1770’s he built the first wagon road from the castle to ‘t Rondebosje. In 1770 the enthusiastic farmer extended his land ownership by the purchase of De Laaste Gift, now part of Lourensford Estate), also Kersefontein and St Helena on Berg River.

It grieved Martin Melck that the many Germans and Scandanavians at the Cape, all Lutherans, were forbidden by the Company to form a congregation. One petition after the other was in vain. Martin now took the law into his own hands and built a hall, which was supposed to be a packing shed in the smart Seestraat (now Strand Street). This building was comparable to the “schuilkerke” (hidden churches used by Roman Catholics in the Netherlands).

Apart from the building which cost 45 000 guilders, the generous Melck also donated two adjoining plots for a parsonage and a dwelling house. Governor Tulbagh was a great opponent of the Lutherans, but as a good friend of Melck’s he turned a blind eye.

The Council of Seventeen eventually gave in and in 1780, the year before Melck’s death the first pastor began his ministry. The adjoining parsonage was built after Melck’s death by the architect Louis Michel Thibault and Anreith. Since 1932 the building has been called the Martin Melck house.

Anna Hop, his first wife, died on the 22nd of May 1776. Melck was at this stage 53 years old and most certainly the most marriageable man in the Cape. At this stage he owned 10 farms, 2 loan farms, owned a dwelling house and 2 packing sheds in Cape Town, 203 slaves, 170 horses, 1321 head of cattle, 4167 sheep, 106 pigs and about 200 000 vines. The Estate was valued at an unbelievable 240 000 guilder (this was equal to 2222 years of pay).

On 1 November 1778 he remarried Maria Rosina Loubser.

Martin Melck died on Friday, 23 February 1781, at Elsenburg. The 58 year old Melck was presumably buried in the Lutheran Church in Strand Street. A memorial plaque by Anton Anreith was unveiled at the church 4 years after the benefactor’s death. http://www.muratie.co.za/index.php?id=47

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He was also known for having completely rebuilt the farmstead house at Elsenburg in 1761, based on a U-plan and with impressive gables and front door. Unfortunately the house was gutted by fire in 1916 and rebuilt in a different style. It now houses the Cape Institute for Agricultural Training. There is more about the home and Melck's life on these pages:

• http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes.php?bldgid=3359
• https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QJdACwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129&lpg=PT12...
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamcatcher-photos/5923227744/in/pho...

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Another property purchased by Martin Melck and apparently still in the Melck family is Kersefontein, near Hopefield in the western Cape: http://www.kersefontein.co.za/

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Cape Colony marriage in perspective by Jeanne Cilliers. Thesis presented to the University of Stellenbosch in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master's of Commerce in Economics. Supervisor: Johan Fourie. University of Stellenbosch Department of Economics. March 2013.

Page 53 - 54 (pdf page 58 - 59)

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In the early period (from settlement until at least 1750) as a result of the large age differential between men and women upon first marriage, widowhood was almost a certainty for women in the Cape. This presented a unique opportunity for men to accumulate wealth through

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strategic marriage to wealthy widows. Guelke and Shell (1983) note that a similar situation unfolded in the colonial settlement of Virginia in North America:

In Virginia, the death rate produced such a rapid turnover of husbands and wives that widowhood became a principal means for the concentration of wealth...The man who needed capital could get it most easily by marrying a widow. And she was likely to get it back again, with whatever he had added to it, when he died (Morgan quoted in Guelke & Shell, 1983:279).

Unions of this nature are reported frequently enough at the Cape to look like conscious strategy rather than repeated coincidence. Notorious widow-marrier and one of the richest men at the Cape during the eighteenth century, Martin Melck, allegedly made his fortune by strategically marrying wealthy Cape widows. Melck came from humble beginnings as a farm labourer for one John Philip Giebler, but upon Giebler's death, Melck married his widow by the name of Anna Margeretha Hop and in doing so became owner of two of the most prestigious farms in the Stellenbosch district namely Elsenburg and Muldersvlei. Upon his first wife's death, he quickly remarried the widow of Hercules Malan, one Maria Rosina Loubser, once again increasing his estate. Guelke and Shell (1983:280) report a number of the Cape's wealthiest men to have been so-called widow-marriers, including Adam Tas, Jan Cloete, Jan Blignaut and Henning Viljoen.

At the heart of the matter, though, is the fact that the role fulfilled by widows in the Cape made them conduits for the accumulation and transmission of property and slaves from one generation to the next. While land may have changed hands regularly at the Cape, the resulting owners were regularly related by marriage. Families were not necessarily tied to specific estates but were frequently confined to specific localities. Women were therefore central to ensuring the preservation of wealth (Hall, 1994), and marriage within relatively limited geographical boundaries helped limit the destructive effects of partible inheritance system (Dooling, 2005:159).

URL: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstreams/de2b82d8-2218-496f-8bf2-05373c...

(Bygevoeg deur Y. DROST op 9 OKT 2024)

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Heraldry of South African Families / Coats of arms, crests, ancestry by C.PAMA/ A. A. Balkema, 1972.

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MELCK. Argent, on a fess gules between fifteen billets cauché 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 a demi-lion or, armed and langued azure. Crest: a demi-lion or armed and langued azure between a pair of wings, dexter argent billetty couché vert and sinister gules. Supporters: two lions proper (fig 275).[248]

According to Bell the arms were borne by 'Coetzee, wd. Visser', but it is not evident why she used them. This is not the only problem. In the Government Archives, Cape Town, is also a deed of endowment sealed with the same arms in which it is specifically stated this was Martin Melck's seal and it is therefore certain that Melck considered this to be his coat of arms.[258] Martin Melck arr. 26.7.1746 and was later the owner of several farms. The Lutheran Church in Strand Street was built by him and presented to the congregation as a gift. When he died his estate was valued at 240 000 guilders. He had a liking for heraldry and his house was decorated in various places with the arms of Prussia.[286] How he acquired his own coat of arms is unknown, but they are unmistakenly those of Oem, a Dutch noble family now extinct. There is no genealogical connection between Oem and Melck and none of the various branches of the Oem family such as Oem van Wyngaerden, Oem van Barendrecht, a.o. had any connection with South Africa.(287)

[284] on page 328 : No colours mentioned but the arms are evidently those of the Oem family; their motto was : 'De leeuw is bevrydt met groene zooden'.

[285] on page 328 : Govt. Arch., Cape Town, CJ 2673, no. 18.

[286] on page 328 : Biogr. in Hoge, 'Personalia', p. 265 who also mentions more literature.

(287) on page 328 : There is in Holland an extensive literature about Oem.

fig. 275 is on Plate 18 of the Bell-Krynauw Collection, nos 271 - 300 [following from page 30, starting with Plate 9].

(Bygevoeg deur Y. DROST op 10 OKT 2024)

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