DE VILLIERS, JOHAN HENDRIK
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Johan Hendrik (Henry) de Villiers (June 15, 1842-September 2, 1914), first Baron de Villiers of Wynberg, South Africa, was the first colonial-born chief justice of the Cape and was important in the annals of South African legal history.
PHOTO CAPTION: Johan Hendrik de Villiers. SOURCE: EA Library
De Villiers traced his descent from a leading Huguenot family. He was an able scholar and in 1861 enrolled at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to study for the ministry before proceeding to Berlin and Britain to read law. He was admitted to the English bar in 1865 and to that of the Cape in 1866. His political career began in 1867 when he was elected to represent Worcester, in Cape Colony, in the legislative assembly. After his marriage to Aletta Johanna Jordaan in 1871, from which union four children were born, De Villiers lived in Wynberg, a suburb of Cape Town. He loved outdoor life and farming, and at the time of his death owned more than 14,000 hectares of land in the Paarl district of Cape Province.
De Villiers was appointed attorney-general in the cabinet of John Molteno, prime minister of Cape Colony, in 1872, and became the first colonial-born chief justice of the Cape in 1873. His taste for politics remained and he contested elections in the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and the Cape, but failed to gain election. He was not an outstanding parliamentarian, and although in principle he was opposed to the chief justice being president of the legislative assembly, in practice he enjoyed playing this role. He served on many commissions and rendered valuable service, particularly on the Transvaal Royal Commission, for which he was awarded a knighthood. Due to his probity and impartiality, he was made president of the National Convention, convened in 1908 to find a political solution to the economic and racial disputes between Boer and Briton in southern Africa. This gave him the opportunity to pursue his aims of closer unity and centralisation.
His influence in helping delegates to find a compromise to the thorny questions dealt with was significant. His direct contribution was mainly judicial though he failed to knit the provincial courts closely, a defect from which, even in the last decade of the 20th century, the supreme courts still suffered. On his appointment as chief justice of the Union a peerage was conferred upon him. Though De Villiers had wide intellectual interests and had mastered five European languages, his legal training was inadequate. This did not prevent him from rendering 40 years of distinguished service to the administration of justice in South Africa. Opinions on him as a jurist have differed. Some have regarded him as the saviour of Roman Dutch law and the greatest South African judge of the 19th century.
Later critics, however have pointed to many deficiencies in his judgements, and to his tendency to favour English law. His international reputation was recognised with his appointment to the judicial court of the British Privy Council in 1897, while his generally recognised impartiality and earnest effort to penetrate to the root of cases are his main contributions to legal history.
De Villiers twice acted as governor-general and died while holding office in this capacity in 1914.
F. J. NOTHLING
