Groot Constantia Trail #3: Jonkershuis | History (Part 1)
This is the 3rd cache of an 11-cache trail which will take you around this beautiful historic vineyard passing by most of its key features along the way.
The cache, a small, camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden near a wonderful ancient hollow oak a short distance from these historic buildings.
To Reach the Cache Location: park above/adjacent to the Jonkershuis complex @ or near S 34 1.814 E 18 25.174 and after securing your cachemobile proceed through the gates and out to the cache location.
Built during the ‘Cloete era’ between 1778 and 1792, the row of outbuildings in front of the farmstead on the western side is known as the Jonkershuis complex. This is where the “Jonkheer” or oldest son of the farm owner would have lived. However, these buildings probably served as slave quarters and stables, and were most probably called “Jongenhuijs” meaning House of the young men. They also had wolf-nose gables: the present bell gable changes were made in the early 19th century.
The gallery of the Jonkershuis complex was widened and the original flat roofs replaced with a pitched thatch roof. New stone floors were also put in the house, but it is not clear what they looked like.
GC Historical Time Line (Part 1: 1685-1792)
Since 1685, Simon van der Stel arrived in Table Bay and land was granted to him. Take a journey back in time with us as we explore these important dates.
1685: Land is granted to Van der Stel, which he names Constantia.
1699: Van der Stel retires as Governor of the Cape.
1712: On 24 June 1712 Simon van der Stel dies at the age of 73 and made his last will in favour of his 5 children. Constantia should be sold 2 years after his death and some of the slaves were to be set free. Ironically, by 1712 his sons Willem Adriaan and Frans were no longer living in the Cape.
1714: Constantia is subdivided and sold by auction. Pieter de Meijer bought two parts, Bergvliet and Klein Constantia (currently known as De Hoop op Constantia). Captain Oloff Bergh bought the part where the Van der Stel buildings were situated which was later known as Groot Constantia (GC).
1716: On 13 November 1716 Oloff Bergh officially takes possession of GC. He was born in Goteborg, Sweden in 1643. He joined the VOC in 1665 spending a few years as a soldier in Ceylon and arrived as a sergeant at the Cape in 1676. He met Anna de Koningh at the Cape; they fell in love and got married, producing 11 children!
1724: Oloff Bergh dies and his wife Anna de Koningh becomes the 1st female owner of Groot Constantia. 
She was born in Batavia and was one of three children from the slave Angela of Bengal.
1734: Carl Georg Wieser becomes the new owner on 9 August 1734 and he proceeds to further develop it increasing viticulture to 60,000 vines by 1751 producing 16,890 L of wine.
1759: Wieser’s stepson Jacobus van der Spuij purchases GC. On 8 June he had to borrow money toward the purchase of the farm and additional expenses of slaves and wooden caskets. Like his predecessors, he had to supply wine to the VOC which resulted in financial problems.
1778: On 15 January the farm is sold to Jan Serrurier and 3 months later Jacobus van der Spuij dies. Hail damage to the vineyards and the resulting poor crop contributed to the poor state of the farm and made Serrurier’s ownership short-lived. Only 11 months after he bought it, the farm had a new owner and its fortunes changed . . .
1778: The Cloete Era – In December 1778 Hendrik Cloete, from the farm Nooitgedacht near Stellenbosch, becomes the new owner. The Cloete family lived up to the estate’s founder Simon van der Stel’s value of constancy, making the estate their home for five generations.
