As far as can be established, this simple pioneer’s cottage is the oldest restored town dwelling in South Africa. A German mercenary in the employ of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), a Sebastian Schröder, was sent to the Cape in August 1707 as secretary of the public mills. During the course of 1709 he left the employ of the VOC, and on 10 December 1709 the erf on which Schreuder House now stands was allocated to Sebastian Schreuder as “free” burgher. It is thus apparent that even at this early date Schröder’s name was spelt according to the Dutch way of spelling.

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