Port Elizabeth of Yore: Land Ownership in the 1820s

Forms of land tenure and availability of vacant land

Any map of the area surrounding Port Elizabeth extending outwards to the Gamtoos in the west and Sundays River in the northeast in the 1820s depicts less than two dozen farms, all with Dutch names. This reflects the fact that from the 1770s onwards the Trekboere had settled here on their quitrent farms.

This fact did not affect the 1820 Settlers per se as they were scheduled to be settled on the frontier, but it did mean that in reality none of the land around Port Elizabeth was “in British hands” and as such unavailable to the British settlers. One such person was Charles Lovemore whom we shall be introduced to shortly and who had decided to settle at Port Elizabeth. Unlike the settlers at the frontier, Lovemore would have to acquire his own land.

Main picture: Map of Klaas Kraal, renamed Bushy Park by Henry Lovemore

Land tenure
In his contemporary book entitled The Cape of Good Hope and the Eastern Province of Algoa Bay published in MDCCCXLIII or 1843, John Centlivres Chase who arrived in Algoa Bay as Port Elizabeth was known up until mid- 1820 as a mere youth, dealt with the issue of land tenure as follows:

Under the subject of colonial law naturally fall those of the tenures by which landed property is held and the mode of their conveyance from seller to buyer. The tenures at present in use are 1st Freehold, 2nd Loan and 3rd Perpetual Quit-rent.

Freehold farms are rare in the Eastern Province but there are a few near in the Cape, a small number of quit-rent estates in various parts of the Colony, have, from time to time, been converted into this description by the redemption of the annual rents, which all plots of building ground (called erven) in the townships, throughout the colony, continued to be alienated under this tenure.

Loan farms are such as were originally granted on an annual rent of twenty four rix-dollars (or £1 16s of present money) but a large number of these have since become quit-rent estates, by agreement with Government, the rent in no case exceeds £18 15s.

Quit-rent. By far the large majority of farms are held under quit-rent tenures, and the amount these pay to the state is dependent upon the quality of the lands, and the circumstances of their proximity, or distance, from markets, and other essential points, which are reported to a Land Board by the civil commissioner in whose district the property lies, and fixed by that board, at whose head is the surveyor-general, subject to the consideration and approval of the Governor, at the time the property is first granted. The rent then determined can never be increased, although instances are not rare wherein the original assessment, having subsequently been found to be too highly rated, a reduction of the tax has been made. The extent of these estates vary from 2000 to 10,000 acres, but the general area is about 6000. It is, perhaps, impossible to average the amount of the quit-rent of the colony, but it may be very roughly stated, as at about 1s 4d per 100 acres.

On the subject of transfer or conveyance of landed property, 

it may be observed that it is easy, expeditious and cheap, if we make one exception and that is the payment or duty to Government of four per cent on the amount of the purchase money. The transfer is also perfectly secure, and free from all possible dispute of doubt, as all original titles are lodged in the surveyor-general’s department, and every transfer of the same, as well as every mortgage thereon are obliged to be registered in the land registry office.

Lovemore’s Reception Committee
Three men would be awaiting the vessel, Sir George Osborne, when it arrived at Algoa Bay bearing the Lovemore Party.  Henry Lovemore would not be accompanying the herd of settlers to the frontier areas to be given their plot of land. Instead, he had arranged that three acquaintances – Henry Belmore, William Collen and Thomas Mead – who had travelled with the Baille Party aboard the transport, the Chapman, – would search around Algoa Bay for a suitable property with land on which Henry Lovemore could farm.   

Scarcity of available vacant unallocated land
To fulfil their assignment would not have been easy for Henry Belmore and his two companions. Most of the best land was already in private hands or held on long leases by Dutch farmers whose forebears had trekked eastwards from Cape Town and who had settled in the area mainly in the 1770s. For example, Theunis Botha, the father of the current occupant of the farm Buffelsfontein in 1820, Jacobus Theodorus Botha, had been granted his land in 1776; the family of Cornelius Johannes Kok, in 1820, the field cornet of the area, had been on Kragga Kama from about the same year, as had the Ferreiras of Papenkuilsfontein. They were not likely to be interested in selling the source of their livelihood any more than would the missionaries of Bethelsdorp who had been given a generous land grant in June 1803 to help with the care of the local Hottentots.

Details of available land
The only properties which were in what might be termed “British lands”, were the government farm at Chelsea, the farm known as Baakens Rivier which had been granted to the entrepreneur John James Berry in 1818, and Klaas Kraal some 10 miles southwest of the Bay which Lieutenant Cornelius Bolton Alcock, a half-pay officer of the 60th Regiment of Foot who had received a land grant on 13 February 1818. Klaas Kraal had been granted to the Lieutenant in accordance with the Cape Government’s policy of encouraging British settlers to move into the area. John Berry had plans to establish himself as a ship owner and merchant in the new settlement round Algoa Bay. He had married a sister of Jacobus Botha of Buffelsfontein, had a large family and for the same reasons as the Dutch farmers, he was unlikely to want to sell his property.

Much of the land along the coast to the north was sandy and unattractive for agricultural purposes, though Charles Gurney and his party of 1820 settlers from Deal in Kent, who had arrived in the transport Weymouth on 15 May, applied for land near the coast to open up a fishery business. Fortunately for them, the presence of the Acting Governor in late May and early June enabled them to be given a land grant on the spot, the location being known to this day as ‘Deal Party’. The farm Cradock’s Town, formerly Papen-kuilsfontein, had been bought in 1812 by the merchant and government supplies contractor, Frederick Korsten. For some reason, maybe it was the arrival of possible buyers among the settlers from Britain, he advertised the farm for sale or long lease in the Cape Town Gazette of June 17 1820.

All that said, Lovemore’s agents probably felt despondent as they awaited the arrival of the Sir George Osborne. For good measure so as not to disappoint Henry Lovemore, and with time on their hands they probably inspected all the available plots of land which were deemed to be unsuitable for farming whether for cultivation or grazing. On the top of their list could have been the land to the west of Klaas Kraal, which included the present-day Seaview. It was occupied but not officially allocated to anyone before 1820. It was sandy and its potential for improvement was regarded as limited. Sheep may have been able to survive but generally it was unsuitable for cattle grazing and much of the water there was brackish. Nevertheless, Lieutenant William Gardner, a former officer of the Fort Frederick Royal Garrison Company, which had been disbanded in 1815, had applied for it as a land grant in July 1820.  

Name change
By all accounts, the Settlers were unaware of what to expect when they arrived at their destination, a town named Algoa Bay which comprised a few shacks and three dozen inhabitants bearing the same name as the expanse of water to its north and east. It was while the vessel, the Sir George Osborne was at anchor in Simon’s Bay en route to Algoa Bay that a Government Order of 23 June 1820 decreed that “the rising Town at the bottom of Algoa Bay should be named Port Elizabeth. The masters and the crews of the Settler ships – Albury, Brilliant and the Aurora – anchored at Simon’s Town on their way back to England and the Sir George Osborne might have been in communication with one another at which this decree might have been discussed.

Upon arrival at the landing beach at the newly proclaimed town of Port Elizabeth, the Lovemore family had to endure a choppy ride on a surfboat to the shore close to the current memorial to the Settlers known as the Campanile. As Henry’s three retainers were unaware of the details of the Lovemore’s ship and hence its date of arrival, they might not have been patiently waiting for their arrival. As the tented reception area was in the vicinity of the Hyman’s Kloof – the current Russell Road – the whole family apart from the toddlers and infants would have been inspanned to carry all their worldly possessions the mile or so to the awaiting tents. In the telling no mention is ever made of the fact that they might have employed the local khoikhoi, or Hottentots in local parlance, to assist them.    

Sale of Chelsea Farm
After long having despaired of locating a desirable farm within a short distance from Port Elizabeth as it was now known, on the 1st July 1820 the Cape Town Gazette announced the sale of an attractive property, that of the government farm at Chelsea. Sadly, it was merely an announcement of an intention to sell with no date given for actual sale. This farm had been acquired by the Cape Government as a retreat for the officers under Capt Francis Evatt based at Fort Frederick.

During his visit to Algoa Bay in May and June, Sir Rufane Donkin had concluded from what he had heard, and no doubt seen, that it was patently apparent that Captain Evatt was devoting too much of his time to farming and too little to his duties as garrison commander. The moment that he returned to Cape Town, the Acting Governor ordered the Colonial Secretary to initiate action to have the farm sold. It would seem to have been a harsh judgement, giving scant recognition of Captain Evatt’s efforts on behalf of the incoming settlers, and ignoring the use other officers made of it for rest and recreation. Perhaps that too was considered to be excessive.

Choices, confounded choices
As Henry Lovemore had in all likelihood expected that vast swathes of prime land was vacant and available for immediate occupation, he probably would have been perplexed by the paucity of properties available. Belmore would have explained to Henry that there appeared to be three choices of properties.

Neither Frederick Korsten’s Cradock’s Town nor the Royal Garrison Company’s Chelsea Farm was likely to offer assurances of vacant possession, an essential condition from Henry Lovemore’s point of view. The Gazette notice for the former ended by notifying: “N.B. £6,000 Sterling may remain on Interest for 5 Years certain, under Mortgage of the Estate, at 6 Per Cent Per Annum”, an indication of a price probably beyond Henry Lovemore’s available capital and, without a loan, of no great use to him. Despite having a splendid house, a large mill and a fully developed infrastructure, Cradock Place, named after the Cape Governor, Sir John Cradock by Frederick Korsten, was probably larger than Henry Lovemore wanted for the first years in a new country and new life.

What about Klaas Kraal?
Chelsea, it seemed, would not be put on the market for a month or two and so again there was the problem of vacant possession. It was a pity as Chelsea, with its 1,543 morgen, though considerably smaller than Klaas Kraal, offered better grazing and altogether better prospects. Once the choice came down to Klaas Kraal, Henry Lovemore moved fast to acquire it. On 18 July, within 12 days of landing, he had lodged a deposit of Rxd 456 [Rix Dollars] with the Landdrost at Uitenhage, Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Glen Cuyler. The deposit represented four per cent of Rxd 11,400, equivalent to £1,000 sterling in 1820, the agreed purchase price. He paid the balance in full on 21 September, divesting himself of much of the money he had wanted to bank in Cape Town. He promptly renamed his new property ‘Bushy Park’.

For Lieutenant Alcock it must have been a most satisfactory sale, possibly a providential one. He had had possession for only two and a half years and seems to have done little to improve the property. With the deposit paid and the sale assured, he began looking for somewhere to live. On 2 August he submitted a memorial to the Acting Governor seeking the grant of an erf in Port Elizabeth. Not surprisingly, having already received a land grant, he was unsuccessful. He then acquired a house in Baird Street, Uitenhage, and bought the farm Spring Hill in the Coega Valley. He sold this farm on 16 September 1822 and lived in Uitenhage for the rest of his life.

Bushy Park
The name ‘Bushy Park’ must have been taken from the royal land in the southwest corner of Middlesex, near Hampton Court. ‘Bushy’ was not out of keeping with a description of the farm when Henry Lovemore bought it. The diagram accompanying the land grant to Lieutenant Alcock showed the extent to be 2,256 morgen (the morgen being about the equivalent of the modern hectare) of which 1,874 morgen, about two thirds, was described as “Sandhills covered with Thicket”, in other words, bush. Of the remainder, 655 morgen was shown as grazing ground and only 27 was marked as being under cultivation. It could not be said that Henry Lovemore had secured a bargain or that the land had the most promising of futures. Henry Lovemore probably paid more than he wished but compared with the sale price of the smaller Chelsea a year later – RxD 18,000, the price would seem to have been realistic. As already suggested, Henry Lovemore urgently needed to find somewhere for his family and employees to live. For this reason alone, plus Lieutenant Alcock’s cooperation in allowing his family to move on to the property without delay, he could justify his decision to pay the asking price. Although a building is marked on the diagram attached to the early transfer deed, there were probably other buildings into which the Lovemore family could move temporarily. One family story says that Cornelius Alcock vacated the main homestead to allow Henry Lovemore and family to move in. Certainly, the family was out of the tented area by 25 July; on that date Captain Evatt reported to the Colonial Secretary: “It is with infinite satisfaction I have to state … that the whole of the Settlers landed here, those of the Sir George Osborne included, have this day moved off to their respective places of location.”

Form of Lovemore’s Land Tenure
Nowhere can I ascertain what form of tenure Henry Lovemore acquired when acquiring Klaas Kraal. Despite Freehold Tenure rarely being given, and seemed to be extremely infrequent in the case of Eastern Province, it is safe to assume that the property was acquired on a Freehold Basis. This assumption is predicated on the fact that Lovemore disbursed a large sum of cash to acquire the land. Being a shrewd businessman, one can assume that he would not have parted with such a large sum without first understandng the modus operandi of the land tenure system in the Cape Colony.

In 1800, the majority of the residents of Port Elizabeth were Dutch or proto-Afrikaners whereas half a century later, the majority of the farms had been acquired by English speaking inhabitants what, in a manner of speaking, can be termed a “bloodless revolution”” Notwithstanding that, the Dutch legacy still persisted but only in the name of certain farms which strenuously resisted the trend for name changing. Welbedacht became Walmer, Strandfontein became Summerstrand, Papenbiesjesfontein became South End and Papenkuilsfontein became Cradock Place. Others clung tenaciously to their historic roots: Buffelsfontein, Draaifontein where my grandmother was born and Kragga Kamma. Among the tenacious holdouts in the latter list, only Kragga Kamma is expected to survive the name-changer’s pen when all of the geographic areas are christened with a khoikhoi name. That begs the question of why this migration occured. Was it fed by the self same antipathy to English rule as it was to Dutch control or was it a deeper more virulent strain of disillusionment with outsiders and the concomitant evolution of Afrikaner nationalism.

Land in the town
The land in the town was Crown Land. As such it was owned by the British government. To encourage development and the erection of buildings, Lots of land were granted to individuals with the proviso that a building be constructed within a prescribed period, usually less than four years. Land grants were also made to institutions such as schools and hospitals. As the local government lacked the resources to finance the facilities of these institutions, instead they gave them property grants  to cover these costs by selling them.

Addendum

Method of calculating the initial quit-rent

Sundry issues

Observations by Capt Alexander in 1835
In his book, The Narratives of a Voyage of Observation by James Edward Alexander, he makes some observations regarding land ownership after visiting the farm Buffelsfontein in 1835 then owned by the Botha family. This is an extract from it which provides an insight into several peripheral aspects of land ownership.

From the scarcity of water, or rather from want of effort to collect it on the part of the Dutch farmers, who sometimes make a deficiency of water a pretence for asking for an additional grant of land, a full- sized farm is reckoned from two to three thousand morgen, or double that number of acres. Buffels Fontein was two thousand morgen and the annual quit-rent was one hundred and thirty rix-dollars, a rix-dollar being one shilling and sixpence. This, however, was considered unusually high. The old surveys of the farms are very defective, generally inaccurate as to dimensions, and being mere diagrams, which show only the roads and water without indicating the inequalities of surface. Loan farms pay one pound sixteen shillings per annum to government, and only half transfer dues, because they have not been surveyed at all and thus the colonial chest has suffered from the insufficient strength of the surveyor-general’s department.

Source
The Cape of Good Hope and the Eastern Province of Algoa Bay by John Centlivres Chase [MDCCCXL111 i.e.1843, London, Pelham, Richardson, Connhill]
The Lovemore Story by Bernard Johnston Privately Published
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton (Packaging (Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth, on behalf of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth).
The Narratives of a Voyage of Observation by James Edward Alexander (1837, London, Henry Colburn Publisher)

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