Michiel van Breda (1775–1847) was a South African farmer, founder of

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agu ...

, 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 married three times. Out of his marriages with Gesina van Reenen, Beatrix Elizabeth Lategan and Maria Adriana Smalberger he became the father of nine children. He died in Cape Town on 12 August 1847.

Merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...
sheep farming

In 1817 van Breda was farming on Zoetendals Vallei farm in the region which is today called

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the ...

. He imported the Rambouillet Merino from France. Together with the Merino's from Saxony in Germany, which he also imported, he created the South African Merino. He was the first person to start breeding with Merinos in South Africa. His partner was F. W. Reitz. A Merino is a sheep primarily breed for its wool. It is originally from Spain. The first Merinos date back to the 12th century. The sheep is particularly well adapted to low rainfall environments climates.

Bredasdorp

Van Breda and P.V. van der Byl wanted to build a church for the farming community in the Overberg, part of the Cape Province. They could not agree on a location, so both build a church, 15 kilometres apart. Two towns were founded this way. Today one is called

and the other Napier. Van Breda's church was built on the farm Langefontein in 1838. When a town started to develop around the church it was called Bredasdorp, a name derived from Michiel van Breda's last name.

Mayor of Cape Town

In 1840 Cape Town, which was founded as a refreshment station by

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. He ...

in 1652, was declared a municipality. Van Breda was the first mayor and was in office from 1840–1844. He stayed on Oranjezicht farm.

Freemason

He was a member of the Dutch section of the

South African Freemasons South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

. He was Grand Master of the Lodge de Goede hoop from 1831-1837.

References