Before 1652, land in this valley was held by groups, and nobody owned it [IC]. Over two hundred years, the Dutch East India Company and then British governors turned it into property: land that could be surveyed, registered, rented, sold, and used as security for a loan [IC]. This page follows that change, and shows how the valley ended up with two ways of holding land side by side. See Money and Land.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from the institution’s own records, histories, or statements, or from one community’s own sources. It has not been checked against sources that do not depend on them.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
At a glance
| Year | What changed |
|---|---|
| Before 1652 | Land held by groups; rights based on the use of water sources [IC] |
| 1657 | The company grants the first freehold farms near Cape Town [IC] |
| 1714 | Loan farms: large grazing farms let for a yearly fee, never surveyed [IC] |
| 1813 | Cradock’s quitrent: loan farms become surveyed, inheritable property [IC] |
| 1843 | Crown land sold as freehold at public auction [IC] |
| 1854 | Greyton’s plots sold as freehold [IC] |
| 1858 | Genadendal’s land granted to the Moravian Church in trust for residents [MS] |
| 1909 | Mission residents denied ownership [IC] |
The first peoples’ land
The Khoekhoe had well-developed customary law about land [IC]. Land was held by the community, and seen as a gift from God or from the ancestors [IC]. A group’s territory was defined by its water sources. The group was the first user of its springs and rivers, and others needed its permission to graze there [IC]. The San held that no individual owned the land and that everyone had the right to use it [IC].
The company did not recognise these rights as property [IC]. It gave out land as if it were empty, without treaties [IC].
Freehold, loan farms, and quitrent
From 1657 the company granted colonists surveyed freehold farms in the south-western Cape [IC]. As colonists moved inland with their cattle, the company let them hold large “loan farms” from 1714 [IC]. A loan farm was never surveyed. The holder paid the company a yearly “recognition” fee in money, and had the right to graze, but the land remained the company’s [IC].
In 1813 the British governor, Sir John Cradock, turned loan farms into “perpetual quitrent” farms [IC]. They had to be surveyed, were limited to 3,000 morgen, and could be inherited and sold, in return for a higher yearly rent [IC]. Land became a registered, bounded thing with a price. Many poorer people, including Khoekhoe who had still lived on unsurveyed land, were pushed off [TBV]. From 1843, Crown land was sold as freehold at public auction [IC].
Weltevreden and Greyton
The farm Weltevreden, where Greyton stands, went through each of these stages. Greyton’s histories say it had been the land of the Khoekhoe leader Stoffel Koekson [TBV]. Marthinus Theunissen held it as a loan farm from 1791, and it was granted to him in 1793 [IC]. It passed to Hendrik Cloete in 1795, to John Malcolm Stewart in 1839, and to Herbert Vigne in 1846 [IC].
In 1854 Vigne sold the first of Greyton’s plots as freehold, each with a title deed, a water right for the leiwater, and grazing rights on the commonage [IC]. Greyton’s histories say they were open to buyers of any race [TBV]. Land had become a market. A century later, that market was used against coloured owners, who were forced to sell their plots under the Group Areas Act [IC].
Genadendal: land held in trust
The mission land at Genadendal took a different path. Mission stations were given land by government “tickets of occupation”, usually far smaller than the grazing lands their people had once used [IC]. In 1858 Genadendal’s land was granted to the Moravian Church “for the use of and in trust for such persons as may from time to time be lawfully resident at the institution of Genadendal” [MS]. In 1909 the Mission Stations and Communal Reserves Act confirmed that residents could live on the land but not own it [IC].
Residents therefore had homes, gardens, and grazing, but no title deeds [IC]. They could not sell their land on the open market or use it as security for a loan [TBV]. The land has been in the TRANCRAA process since 1998, and has still not been transferred [IC]. See TRANCRAA and Farm 39.
What is still open
- What Weltevreden and Greyton’s first plots sold for.
- When Genadendal first received a ticket of occupation, and for how much land.
- How residents of the mission villages, and families moved from Greyton, experienced these ways of holding land.
Related
- Valley History
- Money and Land
- Loan Farms and Quitrent
- Money and Banks
- History of Greyton
- TRANCRAA and Farm 39
References
- McLachlan, J.N. (2019). “History of the dispossession of the rights in land of pastoral indigenous communities in the Cape Colony from 1652 to 1910”. Fundamina 25(1). Khoekhoe land law, freehold grants, loan farms, Cradock’s quitrent, auctions from 1843, and tickets of occupation.
- Muatze (Mansell Upham). Sir John Cradock: Cape Governor and Land Reformer (2020). The quitrent reform of 1813 and its effects.
- South African History Online. San hunter-gatherer society in the Later Stone Age. San ideas of land.
- History of Greyton, and the sources listed there. The owners of Weltevreden and the sale of plots.
- TRANCRAA and Farm 39, and the sources listed there. The 1858 grant and the 1909 Act.