Land Grant: Idutywa (Transkei Region, Eastern Cape) 1864

Hand-written letter (marked "Copy" in the upper left) dated 3rd December 1864 from Idutywa (Transkei region, Eastern Cape).
Of particular interest to researchers on Eastern Cape frontier history or those tracing the genealogy of colonial administrative staff in the mid-19th century.

Application and selection of a farm in the "Gunuhi Reserve" as a reward for colonial service.

The letter is addressed to J.C. Warner, Esquire, the Transkeian Magistrate at Idutywa. The writer (signed as J.M. Liefeldt, likely a Clerk or Interpreter) is following up on a promise made by His Excellency the Governor (Sir Philip Wodehouse at the time) to grant him a farm for his services.

• The writer was permitted to select a farm in the "Gunuhi Reserve in British Kaffraria (Eastern Cape)."

• He mentions having traveled to Kaffraria to make the selection and reporting his choice to "His Honor Colonel Maclean" (John Maclean, Chief Commissioner of British Kaffraria).

• The writer requests that the Governor be informed so that the land may be formally surveyed, and he explicitly offers to pay all surveying expenses.

• The Gunuhi (Gqunube) Reserve refers to land along the Gqunube River. During this period, the British colonial administration was actively surveying and granting "farms" to loyalists, settlers, and colonial officials to solidify control over the frontier.

• Joseph Cox Warner was a prominent colonial official and British Resident in the Transkei.

• Colonel Maclean was a pivotal figure in the administration of British Kaffraria during the frontier wars.

• This letter illustrates the administrative process of land dispossession and redistribution during the mid-1860s, a period marked by the transition of British Kaffraria being annexed to the Cape Colony (which occurred in 1866).

205mm x 333mm

R3,500