Joachim van Plettenberg

Baron Joachim Ammena van Plettenberg (8 March 1739, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands – 18 August 1793, in Zwolle, Netherlands) was the governor of the Cape of Good Hope from 11 August 1771 to 14 February 1785. Plettenberg was presiding governor after Ryk Tulbagh's death. On 18 May 1774 he was permanently appointed as governor. Early years Plettenberg descended from an aristocratic family from Westphalia in the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Plettenberg. His parents were Henrik Casimir van Plettenberg, colonel in the orange garrison in Leeuwarden and Agatha Petronella van Ammena. After his studies of law at the Utrecht University he left the country in 1764 and became in the service of the Dutch East India Company for 2 years a member of the Council of Law in Batavia. In 1767 he married Cornelia Charlotte Feith, the widow of Louis Taillefer. Cape Town At this time Cape Town was the property of a commercial company, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and not a colony of the Netherlands. At 28 years of age, in 1767, Plettenberg became "Independent-Fiscaal", the highest official of justice at Cape Town. After the death of Governor Ryk Tulbagh, Plettenberg took control of the administration; on 11 August 1771, he became governor.