Johannes Henoch Neethling (1770-1838) was a South African Cape Supreme Court Judge and Grand Master of the Freemasons in South Africa.

Roots and education

Neethling was born 1 August 1770 in South Africa. He was the son of Christiaan Ludolph Neethling and Maria Magdalena Neethling Storm. He married Anna Catharina Smuts, daughter of Johannes Coenraad Smuts and Magdalena Elizabeth Wernich. His brothers grandson was named after him. This grandson was a pastor in the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

and founder of

Paul Roos Gymnasium Paul Roos Gymnasium is a public, dual medium (Afrikaans & English) high school for boys in the town of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, and opened on the 1st of March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. It is the 12th oldest school in the c ...

. His school education was in the Netherlands as his father sent him there for a Christian education. He obtained a PhD in law in 1791 at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

Career in law

He practised as an advocate. Neethling was a Judge, firstly of the Court of Justice in 1825. Richard Plasket, the Cape Colonial Secretary in 1825, was not satisfied with the existing Court. A commission of inquiry were set up, which was led by J. T. Bigge and W. M. G. Colebrooke. They suggested a new court system. A Supreme Court was established out of the commission’s recommendations in January 1828. As they were looking for academically well qualified judges, Neethling, who had a PhD in law, was appointed as one of the Supreme Court judges.

Other activities

Apart from practising law, he was joined by D. G. Reitz and C. J. Brand in founding a newspaper,

De Zuid-Afrikaan ''De Zuid-Afrikaan'' was a nineteenth-century Dutch language newspaper based in Cape Town that circulated throughout the Cape Colony, published between 1830 and 1930. The paper was founded by the advocate Christoffel Johan Brand on 9 April 1830 ...

. He was a merchant and a member of the Council of Justice for the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...

from 1803 to 1806.

Freemason

He started a Lodge called de Hoop named after his father's farm. He was interested in British Freemasonry. He was Grand Master of Lodge de Goede Hoop from 1813 to 1831. He succeeded J. A. U. de Mist as Grand Master, and Michael van Breda succeeded him in 1831.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neethling, Johannes Henoch 1838 deaths 1770 births South African judges Leiden University alumni South African Freemasons