Maria van Riebeeck was a French Huguenot who was the first wife of Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch colonial administrator and first commander of the settlement at the Cape.
Occupation
politician
Citizenship
Dutch Republic
Born
October 28, 1629
Died
November 2, 1664
Overview
Maria van Riebeeck (née de la Queillerie; 28 October 1629 – 2 November 1664) was a French Huguenot who was the first wife of Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch colonial administrator and first commander of the settlement at the Cape.
Life
She was the daughter of Abraham de la Queillerie (1589–1630) from Tournai, Belgium and Maria du Bois (born 1594 died unknown) from France. Her grandfather Chrétien de la Queillerie (1543-), a nobleman from the Boulogne-sur-Mer region, had also been a pastor in Armentières, then a military chaplain in the army of Guillaume d'Orange, then a pastor in the Pays- Bas, notably in Ghent, Leiden, Utrecht and Bergen-op-Zoom. They spoke French and Dutch in her family. She spent her childhood in Leiden.
She married Van Riebeeck on 28 March 1649 in Schiedam. The couple had eight children, of whom most died young. The couple arrived to the later Cape Town in South Africa in 1652.
The first period, they lived in a tent. Maria acted as the hostess to guests, is said to have entertained with a clavicord, and was described as diplomatically gifted in the company of foreigners. She was from 1658 active as a money lender to the colonists, and used a slave girl as an interpreter to communicate with the native population.
