← The land

Farm PAR-000018

Part of Varsche Fontein

Welbedacht (Varsche Fontein No. 27 Ptn 4)

· on record 1924–2013 · show on the map

The farm's own history, the grant, the original survey, sits on that page.

Farm number
No. 27
Portion
4
Also recorded as
WelbedachtDIAGRAM, and the name this project has usedunnamedSRC-436, the 2023 valuation roll leaves this portion without a name
District
Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it
2536 morgen 291 sq roods
Modern surveyed area
2184.2 ha

The historic extent and the modern surveyed area are two separate measurements and are not presented here as confirming each other. The first is what a surveyor wrote on a diagram, usually in morgen. The second is what the modern cadastre draws.

Why this farm is here

Maria Magritha van Rensburg held it, a blood relative of the Oosthuizen, Marincowitz or Van der Merwe lines, 1 step away. 58 km from Klaarstroom.

  1. Maria Magritha van Rensburg
  2. parent of Catharina van der Merwe

Each step is a recorded parentage or marriage in this model, and the shortest one the record supports, follow the names to check it.

Held with the neighbouring portions

One holder had this ground and the pieces below at the same time, so on the ground they were very likely worked as one farm even though the cadastre keeps them apart. Each keeps its own history here; this only records that they were in the same hands.

Before this ground was cut out

This is the history of Varsche Fontein, the farm this ground was part of until 1925. It is shown here because this ground was that farm, and separately from what follows because before the cut the record says the farm's name and not which part of it. Not everything below necessarily happened on this piece.

  1. 1834 document SG diagram 353/1834 Bf.W.Q.6-23
  2. 1841-04-15 ownership Charl du Toit (1797-09-17–) Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence high
  3. 1848 grave B. Storm Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, B. STORM 1848, scratched on a slate slab set upright in a stone kerb. Nothing else is cut on the stone.
  4. 1849 grave M. Storm Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, M STORM / 1849, read across two fragments of one broken slab: 'M S' and '18' on the left piece, 'TORM' and '49' on the right. Deeply and neatly cut, in plain capitals, with no other text.
  5. 1874-06 grave G.F. Beukes Varsche Fontein - the single grave in the veld, 1874 / G F / BEU / KES / Juny, and below it what appears to be 15. Cut by hand into a thin sandstone slab, the letters shallow and irregular and the surname broken across three lines because the stone is narrow. Frans's reading; the 15 is the least certain part.
  6. 1897-04 document SG diagram No.2 1903 (CL-7) PA folio 1048
  7. 1897-04 document SG diagram verso 2/1903 (verso)
  8. 1902-06 grave Maria Elizabeth Freysen Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, MARIHA ELIESABET FREYSEN, GEBOR 6 OCTO[BER] 1901, OVERLEID [4?] JUNY 1902. Above the panel, a rayed sun or star inside an arch.
  9. 1903 ownership J.R.G. Luttig (1824~–1914-02-04) amended-title · confidence high
  10. 1907-08-03 grave M.J. Beukes, or a child of M.J. Beukes Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, [Ter ge]dachtenis aan / [illegible word] M·J·BEUKES / O[verlede] 3. 8. 1907. Cut by hand into a sandstone slab in a mixed script - the first line in cursive, the name in capitals - with a ruled border and an incised cross or star above. The word before the initials is not legible and it is the word that decides who is buried here.
  11. 1913 boundary subdivision: becomes Lot A (Varsche Fontein No. 27 Ptn 1)
  12. 1913-03 grave Jacobus Johannes Beukes (infant) Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, JACOBES : JOHANES / BEUKES / GEB 26 MAAIE 1912 / [O]VER[L] 10 MAART 191[3] / IS HET WEL MET / 'T KIND / HET IS ALLES WEL.
  13. 1914-10-14 grave Gerhardus Fransoiys Beukes Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, GERHARDUS FRANSOIYS BEUKES, GEB. 30STEN JUNIE 1838, OVERL. 14 DEN OCTOBER 1914
  14. 1922 boundary subdivision: becomes Groot Rivier (Varsche Fontein No. 27 Ptn 2)
  15. 1922-01 grave Aletta Sophia Jacoba Opperman, born Beukes Varsche Fontein farm cemetery, A BROKEN FRAGMENT AND MOSTLY UNREADABLE. Letters scratched into cement before it set, in at least four lines. What can be read with any confidence: 'TER' on the top line, and 'BEU' at the end of the bottom line. Scattered capitals between them include what may be A, G, J, C, E, R and N, in no order that can be trusted. NOTHING ELSE IS TRANSCRIBED.
  16. 1923 boundary subdivision: becomes Plaat Fontein (Varsche Fontein No. 27 Ptn 3)
  17. 1925 boundary subdivision: becomes Welbedacht (Varsche Fontein No. 27 Ptn 4)
  18. 1925 boundary remainder: becomes Varsche Fontein No. 27 Remainder

What the record holds, in order

  1. November 1924 document SG diagram A4049/1924
    2680/1925
  2. 17 November 1924 document surveyor report A4049/1924
  3. 1925 boundary change subdivision: from Varsche Fontein
  4. 24 March 1925 ownership C.M. Fourie
    transfer · confidence high
  5. 1973 to 1997 ownership Maria Magritha van Rensburg (28 October 1928–3 April 2019)
    purchase · confidence high
  6. 1997/ boundary change held_together: from Varsche Fontein No. 27 Remainder
  7. 6 November 1997 ownership a family trust
    trust · transfer · confidence high
  8. 27 September 2013 document deeds report
    T107406/1997

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it

Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, A4049/1924, November 1924 Surveyor-General diagram, A4049/1924, November 1924
10774364 (1).PDF
Scan of Surveyor's report, A4049/1924, 17 November 1924 Surveyor's report, A4049/1924, 17 November 1924
10774365 (1).PDF
held as pdf
 Deeds report, deed T107406/1997, 27 September 2013
170857414.pdf

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Surveyor-General diagram index for the whole farm, where the original survey of this ground sits.

Research notes

SG Dgm A4049/1924; deed 1925-60-2680. Sold to C.M. FourieH in 1925 and BACK in the family by 1973 - held with the Remainder by a family trustH under one title. Deeds extent 2172.5806 ha matches the diagram exactly.

[FAMILY, 6 Aug 2026] ONE FARM, TWO PARCELS. [FAMILY] Varschefontein 4 and restant go together... for all practical purposes its one farm, though 2 parcels. The Remainder (PAR-000019) and Welbedacht, Portion 4 (PAR-000018), have been held under ONE TITLE since 1997 and are worked as a single unit. The cadastre keeps them apart because title and working reality are different things - the same distinction 5 makes for vernacular names. Anything that counts farms here should count these two as one, and anything that maps them should show them together.

[13 Aug 2026] Renamed to the one form this model uses for every portion - the portion's own name, then the parent farm, its number and the portion in brackets - so that a name is legible in a list, a search result and a map popup without the reader having to know which farm number is which. It read "Welbedacht (Varsche Fontein Ptn 4)" before. Nothing about the ground changed.

[13 Aug 2026, FAMILY] Frans: on Varschefontein "two portions are considered one unit - so Varschefontein today is the portions 1 and 4, and the name Welbedacht is not used." THE DOCUMENTED POSITION IS KEPT, at his instruction, and the modern working arrangement is recorded beside it: Portions 1 and 4 are one farm in practice, known as Varschefontein, and Welbedacht is not in current use. Two things corroborate it independently - the 2023 valuation roll rates this portion at 2172.5810 ha and leaves it UNNAMED, matching this row's extent to four decimal places; and the roll has no Portion 1 row at all.

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.

What the record is missing

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.