Landdrost was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction in the Netherlands and a number of former territories in the Dutch Empire. The term is a Dutch compound, with land meaning "region" and drost, from Middle Dutch drossāte (droes-state, bloke-castle, state-holder) which originally referred to a lord’s chief retainer (who later became the medieval seneschal or steward), equivalent to: an English reeve or steward; a Low German Drost(e) of Northern Germany (cognate with German Truchsess); or German Meier (from Latin majordomus). Feudal era Originally, a drost in the Low Countries – where various titles were in use for similar offices – was essentially a steward or seneschal under the local lord, exercising various functions depending on the endlessly varied local customary law, e.g. tax collection, policing, prosecution, and carrying out sentences. In many Lower Rhenish and Westphalian and Lower Saxon estates of the Holy Roman Empire the term Landdrost or Drost(e) described the chief executive official of a military, jurisdictional and/or police ambit, representing his lord-paramount of the territory, therefore often appearing with the affix 'land-'. Among the many territories using the term were the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim, the County of Mark, and the Duchy of Mecklenburg. South Africa The office was also introduced in the Dutch colony established at the Cape of Good Hope. The first was appointed in Stellenbosch, and further landdrosts were appointed as new districts were proclaimed: Drakenstein (Paarl), Swartland (Malmesbury), Tulbagh, Swellendam, Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage. Under the British, new districts were created at George and Grahamstown (Albany district), while Lord Charles Somerset moved the seat of the Tulbagh district to the new town of Worcester. It came to more gubernatorial significance in some of the Boer polities that seceded after the British took over the colony, notably: Graaff-Reinet had only one "national" landdrost (appointed by the revolutionary régime that regarded itself as being part of the [French revolutionary] Dutch republic), 6 February 1795 – 22 August 1796: Friedrich Carl David Gerotz (1739–1828) The Republic of Natalia appointed three landdrosts: one in Pietermaritzburg (Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof), one in Durban (an English trader) and one in Winburg. The Utrecht Republic had three consecutive landdrosts: 1852 – 1855: Andreas Theodorus Spies (1800–1889), who was already in office before the settlement declared itself a republic 1855 – February 1856: J.C. Steyn February 1856 – 8 May 1858: Andreas Theodorus Spies (2nd time) A similar