In the article below, originally published in 1975, Gwen and Gawie Fagan look at the history and restoration of Schroder House in Stellenbosch. The article appeared in Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holder) for giving us permission to reproduce here.
History
Sebastian Schroder was a German from Scfledehausen in Lower Saxony who joined the VOC as a soldier and arrived at the Cape before 1707, the exact date not being known.
On the 3rd August, 1707 the Stellenbosch College of Landdrost and Heemraden employed him for a year on a loan basis from the Company to act as secretary for their public mill.
It is not known where Schroder lived during this period nor how long he worked as the secretary for the mill before being appointed court bailiff. It is, however, known that he had become a free-burgher by October, 1709, when he was granted two house-erven by Governor Van Assenburg, on the corner of Van Ryneveld and Church Streets. No mention of buildings is made on the grant but we have reason to think that at that time Sebastian Schroder had already built a very small dwelling, probably with only one room, parallel to Church Street and that he might have been living there whilst working as secretary for the mill. In January 1710, the traveller Evan Staden sketched the little town, and on this same house-erf we now...
