Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A local petty court established by the Dutch in South Africa in 1682 for the settlement of minor disputes between the burghers. It consisted of the landrost and four unpaid assessors who held office for two years.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun In Holland, and, until the 19th century, also in Cape Colony, a council to assist a local magistrate in the government of rural districts; hence, also, a member of such a council.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Petronella got all three with Jan Cloete, her first cousin, the son of an influential family who was eventually named a heemraad himself, and a property owner who amassed significant wealth by the time he died. 30 Helena's first husband, Jacob van As, was already a widower when they married.

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

  • Members of the heemraad, or citizens 'advisory council, assisted the landdrost, a Company official.

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

  • Note 24: Leibbrandt, Précis: 391c, Munnik elected to Drakenstein church council 1773; 556h, Munnik appointed heemraad for Stellenbosch in 1775; 1465i, Munnik appointed heemraad for Drakenstein, 1777. back

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

  • When he was proposed as a heemraad for Stellenbosch in 1739, he lived near Jan Dissels Vlei, suggesting his principal residence was Groote Zeekoe Valleij en Klein Valleij (a farm first claimed by Jan Dissel in 1729) .22 Like many farmers avoiding the violent frontier war, Cloete asked to be excused from paying rent in 1739, because he "had to leave his place on account of the Hottentots."

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

  • Elsie and Petrus van der Merwe traversed another set of mountains to the Koue Bokkeveld. 21 Jacoba and Barend Jacobus Burger moved even farther east, to the Roggeveld. 22 After claiming loan farms in the Cedarberg, Aletta Sophia and Alewijn Jacobus Burger eventually opted for Graaff-Reinet and the Eastern frontier, an unusual move since both partners had large extended family networks in the Cedarberg. 23 Elisabeth, the only Lubbe sibling to marry outside an obvious family or frontier connection, retraced her father's trajectory and returned to Stellenbosch, where her husband served as heemraad of both Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, as well as on the Drakenstein Church council. 24

    Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa 2008

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