Heinrich Ludwig Bletterman, a native of Sonderhausen in Germany, arrived in the Cape in 1741 as an employee of the VOC (Dutch East India Company). In 1742 he married Elsabe Bergstedt and served as the magistrate of Stellenbosch for ten years (1785 - 1795). Bletterman was the last magistrate appointed at Stellenbosch under the first Dutch colonization. He resigned in protest over the first British occupation (1795 - 1803) of the Cape, and consequently had to vacate the official magistrate’s residence, the Drostdy (today the Seminary). He had however already purchased a nearby erf in 1787, and here built a residence that was completed in 1790. Bletterman and his family subsequently moved into this house, which is today known as Bletterman House.

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