Occ: Teacher, in Switzerland.
Petronella Aletta VAN DER MERWE
Willem Schalk VAN DER MERWE m. 9 Sep 1668, Elsje CLOETE, b. Europe. Willem died 12 Jul 1716.
The name van der Merwe comes from the Merwede or Merwe river in Holland which flows near Dordrecht. There was a castle on the banks of the river with the same name, which is in ruins today.
According to the registers of the Cape Church, William Schalksz(oon) van der Merwe, the progenitor of the van der Merwe family in South Africa, came from "Oud-Beyerland" (between Rotterdam and Dordrecht in Holland), and according to the resolutions of the political council, he was from Broek.He was a son of Schalk van de(r) Merwe, a farmer in Oud Beyerland and a grandson of Willem van de(r) Merwe, from whom the existing Van Der Merwe family in Holland is descended.
He arrived in South Africa as an arquebusier on the ship "Dordrecht," becoming a citizen on the 5th May 1661, only nine years after the arrival of Jan van Riebeck. He rejoined the Duch East India Company in 1663 as a midshipman, charged with agriculture; afterwards a "vrykneg" who obtained leave from the Dutch East India Company on 23 March 1677 together with Pieter van der Westhuizen, to go and farm some land in Houtbaai. (The farm "Kronendal").
This agreement was cancelled in 1681 and the farm became a free property of Willem.
The farm de Hoop in Klein Drakenstein which was given to his son Schalk Willem in 1692 was thus the second farm in the van der Merwe family.
Willem Schalk van der Merwe married Elsje Cloete, the daughter of Jacob Cloete on 9 September 1668 and they had 13 children.