Petrus Johannes Truter

Petrus Johannes Truter (17 December 1747, in Cape Town – 31 January 1825, in Swellendam, Overberg) was an explorer and official in the (Dutch?) East India Company,[clarification needed] a Member of the Court of Justice, and a Commissioner of Police.

P.J. Truter was one of 14 children born to Jan Andries Truter and Maria Kuypermann. He married Johanna Ernestina Blankenberg on 18 April 1773, who bore him 7 children including Anna Maria Truter, who later became the wife of Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet.[1]

In 1801 P.J. Truter helped lead the Truter-Somerville Expedition along with William Somerville.[2] The expedition included John Barrow (who would later marry one of his daughters), Samuel Daniell, and missionaries Jan Matthys Kok and William Edwards.[3]

  1. ^ "Petrus Johannes Truter, b10". geni_family_tree. 1747-12-01. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  2. ^ "First contact with the Bechuanas was made by an expedition under Truter and Somerville which left the Cape in October 1801. This was sent out by the Cape Government to gather information about tribes north of the Orange River, and if possible to barter cattle from them. The expedition got as far as Leetakoo, later Kuruman, and were received in a friendly manner by the local chief. However he dissuaded them from going further by his tales of the savage and unfriendly nature of the tribes to the north, tales which they later discovered to be quite untrue." (M.T. Peters (1947), The British government and the Bechuanaland Protectorate 1885 – 1895, p.1)
  3. ^ "E.C. Godée Molsbergen, Reizen in Zuid-Afrika in de Hollandse tijd. Deel IV. Tochten in het Kafferland 1776-1805 · DBNL".