BOSHOF, JACOBUS NICOLAS
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Jacobus Nicolas Boshof (January 31, 1808-April 21, 1881) was an advocate of the Natal Voortrekkers (ie. Afrikaner pioneer settlers) and played a strong organizational role in South Africa as president of the Orange Free State from 1855-59.
SOURCE : EA Library
He was born near Swellendam of Dutch and Huguenot ancestors, receiving his education in Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet. He married Adriana Petronella Gertruida van Aswegen and they had 11 children. He was a civil servant when he visited the Natal Voortrekkers in 1838. The Voortrekkers were in dire straits and made immediate use of his administrative abilities. Though sympathetically disposed towards them, he returned to the Cape, but was discharged for extending his leave without authorization.
Boshof then moved to Natal and from 1841 played a prominent role in public affairs there. He was elected to the Volksraad (parliament) and due to his administrative ability was made magistrate for Pietermaritzburg, capital of Natal, at the same time. Boshof was the Voortrekkers’ most able advocate but his involvement in the British annexation of Natal in 1843 adversely affected his standing. He remained magistrate after the annexation, and tried to reconcile the Voortrekkers with it. After a short absence from public life he became resident magistrate for Kliprivier and Pietermaritzburg.
Boshof had enough support among those who moved to the area between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers to be nominated for the presidency of the Orange Free State in 1854. He lost the election but, after the first president, J.P. Hoffman, had been obliged to resign, became president in 1855. He faced a difficult task in attempting to save an economic and politically unstable infant state threatened by internal strife and by conflict with the Basuto.
His domestic policy was a success. Assisted by an able government secretary, J.W. Spruijt, he placed the civil service on a sound footing. This laid the foundation for the model republic created by his successors and prevented the immediate collapse of the state.
Although he succeeded in maintaining Free State independence, Boshofs foreign policy was less successful. Closer political association with either the Cape or the Transvaal was an important issue. The English-speaking section of the population wanted to link up with the Cape while a strong Dutch element, including those who favored closer union with the Transvaal, joined in discrediting him, leading to his resignation. The pleas on his behalf by Afrikaners from Bloem-fontein, however, who feared a Basuto invasion, persuaded him to stay on.
Attempts to reach a settlement with the Basuto through mediation by Sir George Grey, British governor of Cape Colony, failed and war broke out. Boshof was forced to sign an ‘armistice with Moshoeshoe in 1858. Further attempts to federate with either the Transvaal or the Cape were made, but continuing petty grievances led to his final resignation in 1859.
He returned to Pietermaritzburg and joined the legislative council in 1862, still favoring the federation of the republics with the British colonies in South Africa. In 1873 he retired from public life to farm. Boshof was a controversial figure. He was an abler administrator than a politician, and perhaps deserves more recognition for his work in this sphere.
F. J. NOTHLING
