 On 24 May 1870, at the Smuts family farm, Bovenplaats, in the district of Malmesbury, Cape Colony, a child was born to Jacobus Smuts and his wife Catharina.This child, their second son in what was to become a family of four sons and two daughters, was christened Jan Christiaan after his maternal grandfather, Jan Christiaan de Vries

The Smuts family were prosperous yeoman farmers, long-established in the area.For four generations, since 1786, they had farmed in the Malmesbury district, settling on the farm Ongegund, of which Bovenplaats was a part, in 1818.