Contrary to popular belief, Knysna’s colonial history did not begin with George Rex in 1804, but over 30 years earlier with the arrival of a young man from a well-connected family, Stephanus Esias Terblanche. He was granted the grazing rights and permission by the VOC [Dutch East India Company] to live at ‘Melkhoute Kraal gel. in ‘t Niqualand aan de grootse en laatste Valley’ on 14 September 1770. So who was this young man and where did he come from?
By the middle of the 18th century land had become scarce around Cape Town and environs, so colonists gradually moved east in search of new grazing and new opportunities. Among them were Stephanus Esias Terblanche’s father, Pieter Terblanche, son of the French Huguenot, Etienne, and his wife, Petronella, step-daughter of the wealthy Esias Meyer, who had grown up in the comfortable and well established home of Hartenbos, near Mossel Bay. The Terblanches and their family moved from Paarl first to the Gouritz River area in 1750 and finally in 1762 to Rheeboksfontein, between the Great and Little Brak Rivers. The family established a thriving farm which was described in glowing terms by travellers. In 1776 Hendrik Swellengrebel (the Governor’s son) said that Rheeboksfontein was a home with good furniture, food and wine, sizeable lands planted with vines and other crops growing well. When Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon, the military commander at the Cape, as well as a geographer, explorer and artist, was travelling back to Cape Town after his 2nd...
