Maria van Riebeeck (née de la Queillerie; 28 October 1629 – 2 November 1664) was the first wife of Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch colonial administrator and first commander of the settlement at the Cape.
She was the daughter of Abraham de la Queillerie (1589–1630) from Tournaiand Maria du Bois (born 1593) from France. She married Van Riebeeck on 28 March 1649 in Schiedam, Netherlands. The couple had eight children, of whom most died young. The couple arrived to the later Cape Town in South Africa in 1652.[citation needed]
The first period, they lived in a tent. Maria acted as the hostess to guests, is said to have entertained with a clavicord, and was described as diplomatically gifted in the company of foreigners. She was from 1658 active as a money lender to the colonists, and used a slave girl as an interpreter to communicate with the native population.[citation needed]-->
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