Catharina Ras

17th Century

Portrait of Catharina Ras. Image: Steenberg Farm

“Catharina was a fiercely independent woman,” Baron van R(h)eede van Oudtshoorn, Governor of the Cape Colony from 1772.

The red-haired German widow, Catharina Uftings, was only 22 years old when she landed at the Cape. She travelled alone, disguised as a man, in the cool month of July, 1662. Less than two months later, Catharina married soldier and free burgher Hans Ras. Ras rented and farmed land along the Liesbeeck River. He was responsible for maintaining a wagon bridge called “die brugh van Hans Ras” (Hans Ras’s bridge). Catharina moved into the house at the centre of the farm and had four children with her husband.

By 1672, Catharina, or Tryn as she was called, had lost her second husband to a lion attack. The story goes that Tryn leapt onto her horse, chased down the lion who killed her husband and shot him on the spot. Many stories circulated

about her riding skills and her tenacity, some sounding half legendary or mythical. However, these stories reveal insight into her bravery as a woman in the earliest days of the Cape Colony.

The life of a widow with four young children was not easy. Catharina would find her third husband, Francois Champelaer van Ghent. Together they purchased her previous husband’s farm and a house in Table Valley near the Fort of Good Hope. A year later Francois left on a fishing trip and never returned. He was killed by Khoekhoen from chief Gonnema’s tribe.

Three months later Tryn married again: a servant named Lourens Cornelissen. They had two daughters together. Cornelissen was tragically killed by an elephant.

Tryn Ras then moved to farm a tract of land below the Steenberg Mountain. She fell in love with the area. After leasing the land, she requested a full title deed from Simon van der Stel, along with ownership of the land. It was granted to her and Catharina named her farm “Swaaneweide”, which means feeding place of the swans. She later married her fifth husband, Matthys Michelse, who supported her and helped her farm the land.

Catharina Ras became the first female landowner at the Cape, with the first registered farm. She also kept her first husband’s surname despite her later marriages. This was a bold move in a world where women were known by the men they married.