Jan van Riebeeck

Jan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck ( 21 April 1619 - 18 January 1677), Dutch colonial administrator, was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands as the son of a surgeon. He grew up in Schiedam, where he married Maria de la Quellerie on 28 March 1649. She died in Malacca.

Joining the Dutch East India Company (VOC), he served as an assistant surgeon in the East Indies, then undertook (1651) the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa. He landed at the future Cape Town on 6 April 1652 and fortified the site as a way-station for the VOC Asian trade route.

He died at Batavia on Java in 1677.