Johann Gie | |
---|---|
Grand Master of Lodge de Goede Hoop (South African Freemasons) | |
In office 1776–1776 | |
Preceded by | Chiron,A. |
Succeeded by | Chiron,A. |
Personal details | |
Born | Johann Coenraad Gie 22 March 1727 Zürich,Switzerland |
Died | 1 July 1797 70) Cape Town,South Africa | (aged
Nationality | South African |
Spouse | Engela Johanna Leij |
Children | 6 |
Known for | Freemasonry,community leader,businessman |
Johann Coenraad Gie was a businessman,community leader,and Grand Master of the Freemasons in Cape Colony.
Gie was born in Zürich,Switzerland,on 22 March 1727. He was one of the children of Andreas Caspar Gie and Anne Marie Liguren. He died 1 July 1797 in Cape Town. [1]
He arrived on 23 January 1751 on the ship Rosenburg from Texel,Netherlands,as a young man working in the military. [2] He was married on 18 December 1757 to Engela Johanna Leij. They had six children.
His working life started in the military. In 1761 he became a general merchant and later a supplier of goods. He supplied ships with goods at the refreshment station in Cape Town harbour on their way to India or Europe. He had a special licence for that. [1]
While busy with his merchant supply activities he became the Orphan-Master of the Cape Colony in 1768. [3] The function of the Orphan-Chamber was to look after the interest of orphans. [4] Later in the same year he was appointed the Civil Commissioner in Matrimonial Affairs at the Matrimonial Court. The function of the Court was to establish whether couples who wanted to marry were eligible. The Court consisted of a president and six members. This court was abolished by Sir David Baird in 1806,long after Gie's death.
In 1779 he added the task of Commissioner of Fleet Affairs. These fleet affairs dealt with the management of the fleet of ships,especially regarding logistics and docking. The Dutch East India Company had a political council that governed the Cape Colony. This political council supervised the regulations of the Lords Seventeen (Dutch:Heren XVII). The Political Council appointed three citizens to attend meetings where normal citizens were involved. Those three people were called the Citizen Council. In 1784 Gie was appointed to the Council. In 1786,his request that the number of the Citizen Council be expanded to six was granted. [5] He was appointed to the rank of captain in the civil society. [6] [7] In 1793,the Cape Colony was divided into wards. Gie became master of one of the wards. [8]
Together with A. Chiron (first Grand Master),J. A. le Febre,P. Soermans,Christoffel Brand,J. A. van Schoor,Olof de Wet,and P. J. de Wit,Gie started the first Freemason Lodge in South Africa. It was called Lodge de Goede Hoop. In 1776,he was appointed Grand Master but,due to his inability to speak English,he had to step down. Being Swiss,however,he was fluent in German and French. [9] [10] [11]
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The invasion of the Cape Colony,also known as the Battle of Muizenberg,was a British military expedition launched in 1795 against the Dutch Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch colony at the Cape,established and controlled by the United East India Company in the seventeenth century,was at the time the only viable South African port for ships making the journey from Europe to the European colonies in the East Indies. It therefore held vital strategic importance,although it was otherwise economically insignificant. In the winter of 1794,during the French Revolutionary Wars,French troops entered the Dutch Republic,which was reformed into the Batavian Republic.
Glory was an East Indiaman launched in 1802. She made two complete voyages as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC) before she disappeared in November 1808 while homeward bound from her third voyage. On her second voyage she participated in the British expedition to capture the Cape of Good Hope.
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Abraham Chiron was a German-born book-keeper and banker who played a key role in the establishment of Freemasonry in South Africa and served as the country's first Masonic Grand Master. He also played a significant role in the early European settlement of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
Johannes Henoch Neethling (1770-1838) was a South African Cape Supreme Court Judge and Grand Master of the Freemasons in South Africa.
Christoffel Brand (1738–1815) was a trader,a well-known host at Simon’s Town near Cape Town,welcoming ships using it as a refreshment station and a participant in establishing Freemasonry in Cape Colony.
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