MAASDORP, Andries Ferdinand Stockenstrom, Sir (1847 – 1931)

Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony was born in 1847 at Malmesbury, in the Cape Colony, being the second of five sons of Dr. G. H. Maasdorp, of whom Mr. G. H. Maasdorp, member for Graaf Reinet in the House of Assembly, was the eldest, and the Hon. Justice Maasdorp of the Supreme Court, Cape Town, the third. He received his early education at the Grammar School, Graaf Reinet, to which town his family had migrated in 1851, and subsequently at the Government School of the same place and the Graaff-Reinet College. Whilst at this latter institution competitive examinations were established for the schools of the whole Colony by the Board of Examiners, the predecessor of the Cape University, which were commonly spoken of as the " Competition of Schools." Mr. Maasdorp was fortunate enough in 1865 to take the first place in both Classics and Mathematics in those examinations, for which he was awarded the gold medal of the year. In 186 5 he proceeded to London, where he became a student at University College, at the same time entering his name on the books of the Inner Temple, took the degree of B.A. at the London University in 1869, and was called to the Bar in November 1871.

Returning to the Cape in January 1872, he began practice at the Bar of the Supreme Court, Cape Town, in March of that year. In 1874 he became a Member of Parliament, sitting as Member for the division of Graaf Reinet in the Home of Assembly until 1878, in which year he was appointed Solicitor General by the first Sprigg Ministry and proceeded to Grahamstown to take up his appointment there. He continued in this office until 1897, during which period he had a large practice in the Eastern Districts Court, and married Miss Agnes Catherine Thomson Hayton, daughter of Mr. John Hayton, of Grahamstown, in September 1880.

In May 1897 he resigned the post of Solicitor-General, and proceeded to practise in the High Court of the late South African Republic at Pretoria, where he had previously been admitted as an Advocate during a short leave of absence from Grahams town, and was there during the controversy between Chief Justice Kotze and President Kruger as to the validity of a "Volksraad's Besluit," which led to the dismissal of the form er from office, and he was one of the supporters of the Chief Justice during that struggle.

Owing to illness in the family, and the impossibility of moving them to Pretoria for climatic reasons, he found himself bound to give up his practice at Pretoria and to return to Grahamstown, where he resumed practice in the Eastern Districts and on the Eastern Circuit.

In October 1900, Mr. Maasdorp was appointed a member of the Special (Treason) Court established for the trial of Colonial rebels in connection with the late war with the Republics, the other members of the Court being Mr. Justice Solomon, President, and Mr. Justice Lange, of Kimberley, and he continued so until June 1902, when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony, and proceeded to Bloemfontein, where he has since resided .

In 1904 he received the honour of Knighthood. In the intervals of his official duties and his professional practice, Sir Andries has found time to write upon various legal subjects.

In 1878 appeared his first edition of "Grotius Introduction, and Dutch Jurisprudence," a second edition of which appeared in 1888, enhanced in volume by the addition of selections from the notes of Mr. William Schorer, President of the Court of Flanders.

In 1897 he published a small work on "The Law relating to Succession, Executorship, and Guardianship in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope," and later on contributed a number of articles to the "Cape Law Journal, " which have since been included in his "Institutes of Cape L aw," two volumes of which on the "L aw of Persons" and the "Law of Things " appeared in 1903, and of which further volumes dealing with the" Law of Obligations" are still to follow.

Maasdorp died on 18 March 1931 at “Long Boyd” Silwood Road, Rondebosch and was buried at the Plumstead Cemetery in Wynberg, Cape. He was survived by his wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Source: Men of the Times, published by The Transvaal Publishing Company, Johannesburg, Cape Town & London, printed by Eyre and Spottiswood, His Majesty’s Printers, 1906, p.522