Swellendam is the third oldest town in the Cape Colony (Western Cape Province), founded in 1745 and named after the then Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife Engela ten Damme. Swellengrebel, descendent from Russian parents working for the Dutch East India Company, was born in South Africa.
Swellendam was originally administered by the Magisterial Board of Stellenbosch. In the year 1744 Jan Rhenius was appointed assistant magistrate to the Breede River area. In 1745 this area gained self management and Rhenius was promoted to chief magistrate of the area. For the magisterial district the council selected an area at the Cornlands River, which has its origin in the Clock Peaks of the Langeberg Mountains. (It is said that one can tell the time of the day by these peaks.) The Drostdy (magistracy) was completed in 1747, and the same year the new district was named Swellendam.
Swellendam boasted being the first ever Boer Republic. Mismanagement by the Dutch East India Company enraged the locals, who gathered at the drostdy, dismissed the magistrate and declared a republic with Hermanus Steyn as the ruling president. This in fact may be the most short-lived republic in history at 140 days, from the 17th of June 1795 till the 4th of November 1795.
The first church was build in 1802. For years Swellendam was just the little town on the Cape wagon road and even the drostdy was regarded by travellers, merchants and hunters as an inn. For many years Swellendam was ruled commercially by Barry and Nephews, who up to the 1870's issued their own currency for trading.
The first known sketch of Swellendam was of the drostdy by Johannes Shumacher in 1776, when he accompanied the son of Governor Swellengrebel to the town.