Dirk Van der Hoff
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Van der Hoff, Dirk
Born Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2nd September 1814 - Died Potchefstroom South Africa, 9th October 1881, Minister of the N.H. Kerk, was the second son of Pieter van der Hoff, a shopkeeper, and his wife Jacoba Botbijl.
He went to the Latin school in Dordrecht and became a theological student at Leiden on 12 October 1833. His training was largely influenced by the newer, super-naturalistic theological trend. In 1840 he passed the B.D. examination and on 5 May 1840 the church administration of South Holland admitted him to the ministry. He was never offered a post in the Netherlands, mainly because there was no shortage of clergymen. It is no longer possible to ascertain whether his theological views were a decisive factor. According to later comment he was an impressive preacher.
On 25 May 1845 he married Anna Maria van Otterloo (Born in Dordrecht on 8 May 1817, died - Potchefstroom on 28 May 1882), daughter of Arnoldes van Otterloo. One daughter (†1878) and two sons survived Van der Hoff. While Van der Hoff was waiting for a call he undertook a number of journeys abroad, To support himself he worked in offices such as that of F. Mailer's bookshop in Amsterdam. At this stage he considered going either to the Cape Colony or Natal as a minister and through Prof. W. Moll, professor of Theology at Amsterdam, he met Prof. U. G. Lauts, * who was looking for clergymen and teachers for the Voortrekkers. On 1 July 1852 Lauts accepted Van der Hoff as a clergyman for a period of five years 'in the name of and for the Volksraad of the expatriate and independent Afrikaans Hollanders, north of the Vaal River in South Africa'. On 18 August 1852 Van der Hoff was ordained, with laying on of hands, by the Commission for the Affairs of the Protestant Churches in the Dutch East and West Indies `for the ministry among the Cape Boers'. After Lauts had helped Van der Hoff to find the passage money to Cape Town, he and his wife reached their destination on 5 November 1852. He was welcomed by J. J. H. Smuts, * editor of De Zuid-Afrikaan, who was his host during the greater part of his stay at the Cape.
On 9 November 1852 Van der Hoff was admitted by the actuarius synodi of the N.G. Kerk. Dr. A. Faure,* and signed the customary formulary for candidates for the ministry. Although he was asked to take an oath of allegiance to the British authorities in South Africa, he followed the advice of Dr S. P. Heyns* and refused. He remained in Cape Town until April 1853, waiting for a letter of appointment and the fare for the rest of his journey. Following the failure of negotiations between the Transvaal Volksraad and the Cape Church authorities over his fare, Van der H. himself borrowed the necessary money from friends. During his stay he held divine service in the Groote Kerk, Cape Town, in Wynberg, and in the Lutheran church. Although it would have been possible for him to find a parish in the Cape Colony, he was eagerly looking forward to his duties in the Transvaal.
On 14 April 1853 Van der Hoff, his wife and daughter (who was born in Cape Town on 24 February 1853 and christened there by her father on 13 March 1853) were able to leave for the Transvaal via Natal. In Natal Van der Hoff preached at Pietermaritzburg and Ladysmith and also received an invitation to become the minister of New Germany. However, he continued his journey and, on 27 May 1853, arrived at Potchefstroom, where he was overwhelmed by the warmth of the community's welcome. On 6 June 1853 the Church Council of Potchefstroom met under the chairmanship of an elder, F. G. Wolmarans* and, after a thorough examination of Van der H.'s papers, he was accepted as the legitimate minister of the congregation. He was thus the first minister of religion in the Transvaal.
As the only minister in a pioneer community Van der Hoff was faced with the enormous task of creating ecclesiastical order and stability out of virtually nothing. This was a task which he had to plan and carry through almost single-handed and one which was to make exacting demands on his faith, courage, perseverance and dedication. The fact that the Transvaal community was completely unorganized and split into groups without any recognized and regular public authority, while communications were primitive and there was no orderly economic system, complicated his work enormously. Yet, identifying himself with the ideals of the pioneers, he approached his task with great assurance and a deep awareness of the importance of his calling. He was frequently confronted with major obstacles and challenges and it was not always possible for him to achieve the same degree of success. His arrival in the Transvaal again opened up the whole question of the relationship between the Transvaal congregations and the N.G. Kerk Synod in the Cape Colony, a matter settled provisionally in May 1852. Although Van der Hoff initially advocated this affiliation of the in-dependent Transvaal congregations with the Cape N.G. Kerk, he nevertheless did identify himself, at a later stage, with the struggle for an independent church in the independent Transvaal Republic. The question of relationship with the Cape N.G. Kerk was one of the reasons for regional political divisions separating the western Transvaal and Lydenburg. The western Transvaal had always been doubtful about affiliation, while Lydenburg supported it. The western Transvaal saw in the arrival of Van der H. an opportunity for preventing incorporation, and, as a result of the absence of the Lydenburg contingent from the meeting between the representatives of the Church and the Volksraad of the T.R. at Rustenburg in August 1853, a resolution to this effect was, in fact, passed. The General Synod, which was constituted as such on 8 August, recognized Van der H. as a legitimately ordained minister with the whole of the Transvaal as his field. After this meeting Van der H. was installed in office by F. G. Wolmarans, and not by the Rev. A. Murray* of Bloemfontein as had previously been arranged. Van der H. had there-fore almost involuntarily become associated with the policy of the western Transvaal and this was to have grave repercussions in the community as a whole.
The people of Lydenburg were dissatisfied with the arrangements made at Rustenburg and in September 1853 the Volksraad decided that Van der H. had still to be inducted at Lydenburg. To clear up the matter, a joint meeting of the Volksraad and the General Synod was held at Potchefstroom in November 1853. Van der H. and Wolmarans appealed for the preservation of the independence of the Transvaal congregations, while C. Potgieter,* of Lydenburg, advocated incorporation with the Cape Synod. Eventually the joint meeting rejected in-corporation. The Transvaal Church then regarded itself `as an independent Church under its own management', although spiritual ties with the mother-church of the Cape were stressed.
In February 1854 the difference of opinion flared up again during a church council meeting in Lydenburg, at which Van der Hoff and J. A. Smellekamp* disagreed violently as to whether, during June 1854, a general synod had to be held once again to consider Smellekamp's offer to recruit ministers and teachers for the Transvaal in the Netherlands. Contrary to the wishes of Van der Hoff and the Church Council of Lydenburg, the Lydenburg Council (Kommissieraad) decided that a joint meeting of the General Synod and the Volksraad should be held in June 1854. As representatives of the two opposed groups in the Transvaal Van der Hoff and Smellekamp soon collided. Personal antipathies also played a part when Smellekamp stated that, with despotic tyranny, Van der Hoff wanted to be head of a church of his own making so as to control the State.
At the General Synod of 5 June 1854, Van der Hoff, highly irritated, called Smellekamp to account and summarily denied him the use of the sacraments for a year. This matter was raised at the Volksraad meeting, at which both men had to appear. Here Van der Hoff lost his temper and, when he was summoned to appear before a court of landdrosts and heemraden, he refused to do so. The General Synod asked for the help of the western Transvaal's council of war, which brought so much pressure to bear on the Volksraad that this body censured Smellekamp. As a result, the tension between the western Transvaal and Lydenburg developed into a schism first on the religious, and then on the political level. Van der Hoff's bad temper was a contributory factor, although it had long been obvious that a clash was inevitable. For the rest of his life Van der Hoff was unpopular in the eastern Transvaal, so much so that in 1865 and in 1866 he was twice called upon to answer charges of hetero doxy originating in the vicinity of Wakkerstroom.
As this schism also affected religious relations in Southern Africa, N.G. Kerk circles had no great love for Van der Hoff. Time and again he and the N.H. Kerk met with antagonism from this source. Van der Hoff's activities were rendered still more difficult by a second church schism when a number of members broke away in 1859 and established the Gereformeerde Kerk, with the Rev. D. Postma* as the presiding minister. It should be mentioned that although the singing of hymns in church was one of the bones of contention underlying the schism, Van der Hoff always attempted to compromise with those who were opposed to this practice. Indeed, relations between Van der Hoff and Postma remained undisturbed, and the two groups were not hostile to each other. The difference of opinion behind the secession had already been outlined by Van der Hoff in 1855 in the pastoral letter of the General Synod, Eene stem uit Mooirivier.
Apart from these two religious storms which he had to face alone, Van der Hoff persevered in his duties with great determination. His extensive work made exacting demands on him. He visited Potchefstroom and Marico regularly, and in addition established congregations at Suikerbosrand, Onder-Vaalrivier (roughly the present Wolmaransstad, Bloemhof, Makwassie and Christiana), Pretoria, Draakberg (in the vicinity of the present Volksrust and Wakkerstroom), Klerksdorp, Losberg and Rustenburg. This meant that he was almost continually on the move, mostly by ox-waggon, in wild, dangerous, and often inhospitable parts of the world. On his journeys he twice fractured an arm and once fractured a leg, and for a time had to hold services while seated.
Van der Hoff's advice was sought on nearly every aspect of the as yet unregulated society. In 1853 the Volksraad had adopted the 'Van der Hoff rules of procedure' for education, in terms of which the church was to continue to supervise education. After the adoption of the Transvaal constitution (1857) in which education was entrusted to the state, Van der Hoff was chair-man of the Board of Education until 1867.
On the political level he also contributed towards stability. For instance, he tendered his resignation in protest in 1855, when the Volksraad rejected a draft constitution, but withdrew it when the constitutional bill was adopted in principle. With the adoption of the constitution in January 1857, the Vierkleur, designed by Van der Hoff and his brother, was also adopted as the flag of the Transvaal Republic. At Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Pretoria Van der Hoff organized the religious part of the ceremonies marking the hoisting of the flag. For the occasion he also wrote a 'Vlaggelied' which can be considered an early national anthem.
The adoption of the constitution of 1857 meant that the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk became the state church although it would be more ac-curate to describe it as the privileged church. When President Pretorius asked the Church Council of Potchefstroom to submit a report on the congregation's finances to the Volksraad in 1857, his request was refused. In a letter to the President, Van der H. emphasized the fact that the Church was in no way subject to the State.
Van der Hoff also brought about order in the Church, although a first church law, drafted by him in 1857, was not accepted by the Volksraad. (It was not until October 1863 that the church law of 1862 was accepted under the 'Reglementen' ('Bye-laws') of the N.H. Kerk.) At this stage Van der H. published Eene stem uit de Kaapstad door den advokaat Brand weerklonken in Mooirivier ...met eenige aanmerkingen en toevoegselen uitgegeven door D. van der Hoff (1857). When, in 1861, A. J. Begemann* became the minister at Pretoria, G. W. Smits* went to Rustenburg, and, in 1864, N. J. van Warmelo* arrived at Soutpansberg, the scope of Van der H.'s work was reduced. However, with the Church disputes caused by the Rev. F. Lion Cachet* in 1865 and later, Van der H. found himself once again in the arena. He was also involved in a public dispute with the Rev. J. L. Jooste,* the N.G. Kerk minister at Potchefstroom, from December 1868, as is evident from his Open brief aan ds. J. P. Jooste in antwoord op de zijne (1871). This strained relationship between the N.H. Kerk and the N.G. Kerk in the Transvaal also extended to the Cape Colony.
On 28 May 1878 the twenty-fifth anniversary of Van der Hoff's ministry was splendidly celebrated in Potchefstroom. The public interest and the address presented by the commission of the General Synod emphasized the affection and regard he enjoyed from those who knew him and worked with him. Under his guidance the N.H. Kerk had, by 1878, grown into a prosperous Church community of 19500, served by seven ministers. Van der Hoff's dedicated capacity for work over many years had been fruitful. His unremitting spiritual and cultural guidance in a pioneer community had proved invaluable.
He lived to see the liberation of his adopted country in 1881 and also to write the words for a number of festive songs. The Rev. N. J. van Warmelo conducted his funeral service at Potchefstroom. In October 1920 the church council of the local N.H. Kerk congregation restored his grave and erected a suitable monument upon it.
A bronze bust of Van der H. by Coert Steynberg is in the Van der Hoff building, Pretoria, and another is in the possession of the N.H. Kerk, Potchefstroom. There are portraits in Engelbrecht (1942, infra) and in the N.H. Kerk Archives, Pretoria.
