Early travellers and explorers who visited the Cape in the 16th century traded with the Khoikhoi people who lived on these shores and in the interior.

When the Dutch East India Company established a replenishment station at the Cape in 1652, trade continued inland as far as Swellendam.

In time, a village was established beyond the Drostdy, where artisans including numerous wainwrights and traders settled.

By 1795, maladministration and inadequacies of the Dutch East India Company caused the burghers of Swellendam to revolt, and on 17 June 1795, they declared themselves a Republic.

The first known sketch of Swellendam was of the Drostdy, by Johannes Schumacher in 1776, when he accompanied the son of Governor Swellengrebel to the town.

Both Johannes Brand and Francis Reitz spent some of their childhood in the same Cape Dutch house in Swellendam.

June and July bring the Cape winter, with mild weather, rain and possible snow on the mountain tops.

[clarification needed] Drostdy arms – In 1804, when the Cape Colony was ruled by the Batavian Republic, the government assigned armorial seals to each of the drostdyen, i.e. administrative districts.

Swellendam was given the arms of its founder, Hendrik Swellengrebel, namely a golden shield displaying a blue fleur de lis with a red band.

[14] Municipality (2) – In 1929, the town council learned that the Swellengrebel arms actually depicted a fleur de lis and not a sheaf of wheat.

[16] The arms – Per pale Azure and Or, a fleur-de-lis and in chief two mullets of six points counterchanged, i.e. a shield divided vertically into blue and gold, and a fleur de lis below two six-pointed stars – were designed by Cornelis Pama.