Johannes Joachim Lodewyk Smuts (9 July 1785 – 1 August 1869) was a public official in Cape Colony, businessman and the second

Mayor of Cape Town The Mayor of Cape Town is the head of the local government of Cape Town, South Africa; currently that government takes the form of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. In the past, the position of Mayor has varied between that of an ...

Biography

Smuts was born in Cape Town, the son of Johannes Smuts and Magdalena Elisabeth Wernich. He worked as Secretary to the Orphan-Chamber in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. The function of the Orphan-Chamber was, among other things, to administer the estates of persons dying intestate in the

Colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

and among whose heirs there were minors or persons residing abroad; the registration of wills of deceased persons; the administration of minors' property and keeping a death register or record of persons who died at the Cape. After his time with the Orphan-Chamber he worked for some time in the Colonial Office and also held the office of Receiver General of Land Revenue. During the 1830s Smuts worked as a moneylender and by the middle of the 1830s, with the emancipation of slaves, he acted as the moneylender for his countrymen on the security of slaves. Smuts was also a member of the slave compensation board and acted with Hamilton Ross, as an agent for the payment of compensation money to former slaveowners. He managed to build up a substantial property portfolio and in 1842, owned 22 properties in Cape Town. In 1844, Smuts succeeded

Michiel van Breda Michiel van Breda (1775–1847) was a South African farmer, founder of Bredasdorp, Mayor of Cape Town and a Freemason. Roots Van Breda was born on 12 August 1775 in Cape Town. His parents were Pieter van Breda and Catharina Sophia Myburg. He ma ...

as chairman of the Municipal Board of Cape Town, which was effectively the role of Mayor and during his term, in 1847, Cape Town was constituted a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in terms of letters patent granted by

Privy Seal A privy seal refers to the personal seal of a reigning monarch, used for the purpose of authenticating official documents of a much more personal nature. This is in contrast with that of a great seal, which is used for documents of greater impor ...

. Smuts retired as chairman in 1848. He lived in Cape Town all his life and died on 1 August 1869 at his house, Zorgwyk, in

Gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

, Cape Town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smuts, Johannes Joachim Lodewyk 1785 births 1869 deaths Mayors of Cape Town Cape Colony people