Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127

127 on the cadastre · on record 1833–1937 · show on the map

Farm number: No. 127
On the cadastre: 127, whole farmregistered as KLEIN SLEUTLEFONTEIN
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 16916 morgen
Modern surveyed area: 14391.6 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

Ground a written history is set on. 23 km from Klaarstroom.

story A written history names this ground The fifteenth of April, 1841
story A written history names this ground Eighty-one thousand morgen
parcel Ground cut out of this farm: Kleinbotterkraal (Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 Ptn 1)
border Shares a boundary with Rhemhoogte No. 125 Rhemhoogte No. 125
…and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

mentions this farm The fifteenth of April, 1841
One surveyor works the Koup for two seasons. Eight years later, on a single day, the Crown turns a dozen loan farms into freehold - and the map of the district is set for a century.
mentions this farm Eighty-one thousand morgen
Frederik Simon 'Oom Frikkie' Oosthuizen died in 1936 holding, by one account, 81,000 morgen around Zwartkraal - about a quarter of all the ground on this map. This project holds not one deed in his name. What the money was probably in, what it was certainly not in, and the one document that would settle it.

What the record holds, in order

September 1833 document SG diagram B.326/1833
Bf.W.Q.6-5
September 1833 document SG diagram verso B.326/1833 (verso)
15 April 1841 ownership owner not named in the record
Perpetual Quitrent · grant · confidence medium
February 1937 boundary change subdivision: becomes Kleinbotterkraal (Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 Ptn 1)

Ground cut out of this farm

Kleinbotterkraal (Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 Ptn 1) 1/127 · 7186.0 ha

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

N Government ground
S Groote Sleutle fontein
E Reim Hoogte
W Tygerberg

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, B.326/1833, September 1833

Surveyor-General diagram, B.326/1833, September 1833
SCAN342.jpg

Scan of Diagram verso, B.326/1833 (verso), September 1833

Diagram verso, B.326/1833 (verso), September 1833
SCAN343.jpg

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

[30 Jul 2026 inbox] 'The farm Klein Sleutle fontein, Containing 16916 Morgens, Situated in the Traka field Cornetcy Beaufort District.' Bounded N by Government ground, S by Groote Sleutle fontein and Government ground, E by Reim Hoogte, W by Tygerberg. Surveyed for Johannes Stein by Lennox Stretch, Sept 1833; titled 15 Apr 1841, deed Bf.W.Q.6-5. Beacon A later consented to dgm 1404/1943 under Survey Reg. 17(b), signed A.C. Parry for the Surveyor-General 28 Sep 1943. [DIAGRAM] DOC-0137/DOC-0138. Internal features named on the sheet: Klein Sleutle fontein, Kleinbotterkraal, Groote Sleutle fontein, Sand River, a small spring.

[31 Jul 2026] Document ids corrected: the diagram rows for this farm were never created in July and the ids quoted here had since been reissued to unrelated TANAP inventories. Now DOC-0137, DOC-0138.

[3 Aug 2026, SRC-068/SRC-212] NAMED IN F.S. OOSTHUIZEN'S HOLDING. Judy Maguire's account of Oom Frikkie's 81 000 morgen (SRC-068, and STO-0020) lists "Groot and Klein Sleutelfontein and Zeekoegat" among the farms he held. This project recorded that as a name-only row, PAR-000098, without anyone noticing that BOTH FARMS WERE ALREADY HERE, pinned and drawn - this one at 14 398,3 ha. The 1971 Rhemhoogte diagram (SRC-212) supplies the farm numbers that join the two records. WHAT THIS IS AND IS NOT: the cameo says he held them; this row says the farm exists and where it is. There is still no deed or ownership span in this model putting him on it - which is the whole point of STO-0020. [TO VERIFY]

[4 Aug 2026, FRANS, FAMILY] TWO DISTINCT FARMS, CONFIRMED, AND THE SPELLING IS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER VARIED: "Klein and Groot sleutel fonteint had various spellings over the years. sleutel, sluitel, etc but seems it was always 2 distinct farms - at least since surveyd." That closes the question this row's own note left open and matches the cadastre independently: two farm numbers (126 and 127), two drawn polygons, and the two touch. The spellings recorded here are Sleutelfontein, Sluitel Fontein, Sleutlefontein, Sleutle fontein and Sluitelfontein - kept as they were written, per 5a, and never normalised into one. AND AN ODDITY WORTH KNOWING BEFORE ANYONE REASONS FROM THE NAMES: KLEIN SLEUTELFONTEIN IS THE FAR BIGGER FARM - 16 916 morgen / 14 398,3 ha against Groot's ~4 870 morgen / 4 199,1 ha, a ratio of about 3,4 to 1. Both figures check against their own diagrams. The likeliest reading is that groot and klein name the SPRINGS rather than the farms, which is how these names usually work, but that is a reading and not established here.

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

Open questions

Who actually received Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 in 1841? priority 2 · LEAD-0090
Read Bf.W.Q. 6-5. Is the grantee Johannes Stein, J. Steyn, or someone else?

What would settle it The deed. It names the grantee.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1841 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 was worked as far as 1841-04-15, with an unnamed holder the last owner on record. 185 years follow with nothing. Who held it after that, and is it still one farm?

What would settle it The current title deed traced backwards, each transfer names the one before it, or the Surveyor-General's subdivision diagrams, which are what usually explain a farm going quiet.
A tenure with no one in it second order · B7 no-owner
OWN-000065 records a grant on Klein Sleutlefontein No. 127 from 1841-04-15 and names no party. Either the holder was never read off the document, or the publishing rule withheld them, the page cannot tell you which, and neither can this.

What would settle it Re-read DOC-0137.

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.