Christoph Witt adapts his name and surname to a Dutch version which is the dominant nationality and language in the Cape of Good Hope. Christoffel de Wit as he is now known was a soldier by occupation. He changes his career and becomes a construction worker. Within 4 years be becomes a citizen of the Cape Colony. Loan farms are allocated between 1714 and 1717 and on 27 October 1717 Christoffel purchases the farm Kleigadt near Stellenbosch. Many years later on 22 August 1736 he also purchases the neighbouring farm De Driesprong (between Stellenbosch and Klapmuts) from it's second owner Conrad Samuel Rudeman. Rudeman who bought it from the original owner, Lourens Campher only owned the farm for a year.

Even thought there is a major shortage of single young women in the Cape, Christoffel manages to find a wife when he marries Judith STEVENS on 25 September 1717 in Paarl. Judith was from Druten in the Netherlands and the daughter of Joost STEVENS from Druten and Pieterje GERRITZ. Records show that only one child was born from this marriage, a son Frederik. Judith sadly passed away on 8 November 1718 at the age of 20.

Christoffel owned 6 slaves, 5 horses, 40 cows, 100 sheep and 1,000 vines. He sells both farms as a unit on 7 December 1937 to Anthonie Duijf. Today this property is better known as the Muratie Wine Estate.

There had previously been a focus on agricultural acre farming but the government now starts to issue grazing permits. Farmers are starting to farm with live stock and the burghers are starting to settle over an extended area.

Labour was a major problem on the agricultural farms. The Khoi were livestock farmers and therefore not interested in manual labour on agriculture farms. The colonists had big families so that their children could help with labour on the farms. Christoffel who only had one son gets assistance from Johann Jurgen Witt also from Lenzen on the River Elbe. Johann was allocated to Christoffel as a farm hand during 1734 to 1737. Johann escapes runs away in 1739 and is never heard of again.

Frederik, son of Christoffel gets married on 26 June 1746 at the age of 28 to Cornelia (Neeltje) BRAND. She is the daughter of Johannes BRAND and grand daughter of Robbert BRAND of Oslo, Norway. Her mother is Christina DE VEY daughter of Maria JACOBS and Abraham DE VEY (VEYTH) a trader from Batavia. Frederik and Cornelia had 11 children. The mother of the eldest daughter, Judith is given as Dina VAN DEVENTER. It is not clear if Frederik was previously married or if Judith is a daughter of his before his marriage to Neeltje (Cornelia) BRAND.

On the 28 February 1754 Frederik gets approval from Ryk Tulbach, the thenGoverner of the Dutch Cape Colony under the Dutch East India Company (VOC), to let his livestock graze in the Palmiet Valley between The Breede River and Kleinberg.

Courtesy of Chris de Wit : Christoffel de Wit en Jan de Wit se nageslagte in Suid Afrika