Matjes Fontein No. 712

Farm number: No. 712
District: Calvinia (division)
Extent, as the diagram states it: 10340 morgen 242 sq roods
Modern surveyed area: 4450.6 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. 282 km from Klaarstroom.

story A written history names this ground The van der Merwes of the Hantam
document A document in the collection describes this ground DOC-0284

Stories

mentions this farm The van der Merwes of the Hantam
The maternal line, from Paarl in 1735 to Vredendal in about 1950, with every kinship spelled out. The crossing from the Piketberg district into the Hantam is dated to a fourteen-year window by two death notices; three farms were surveyed for the Commissie van Inspectie by one man in 1820 and 1823; a man called Kwaai Koos is named after his farm; and twice in three generations the family is standing on ground that came in through a woman.

What the record holds, in order

1885 document SG diagram 1908/1885

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, 1908/1885, 1885

Surveyor-General diagram, 1908/1885, 1885
10055127 712.jpg

Research notes

[10 Aug 2026, SRC-370/DOC-0284] WHERE FRANS JACOBUS WILHELMUS VAN DER MERWE WAS BORN, 24 March 1863 (PER-000762). S.G. 1908/1885 calls it 'the farm called MATJES FONTEIN AND ZWARTLANDS LEEGTE', 10340 morgen 242 roods of Crown Land, FIELDCORNETCY OF SOUTH ONDER ROGGEVELD - a third cornetcy, after Tygerhoek's Voor Hantam and Oude Muur's Onder Bokkeveld. Surveyed for Wm. de Smidt by E. B. Watermeyer; examiner Max Jurisch, the same man who examined Middelwater's 1883 resurvey. Beacons pointed out to Field Cornet's Assistant A. W. S. LOUW. Title Clv. Q. 16-3 of 23.1.1893. Bounded N by Annex Matjes Vley South, S by Ram Kraal, E by Leeuwen Kuil and Zand Kraal, W by Water Valley and Annex Krans Fontein. Stamped GEKANSELLEER, superseded by kaart 3256/1958. THE CADASTRE SPELLS IT MATJESFONTEIN, WITHOUT THE I. This project searched for Matjiesfontein and found nothing; the farm was there all along under the other spelling.

[10 Aug 2026] THIS FARM IS NOT ESTABLISHED AS THE BIRTHPLACE. The row was created this morning with a note tying it to PER-000762's birth in 1863; that tie rested on the name and the district and nothing else. There are at least twelve Matjiesfonteins in the Northern Cape, five of them in the FRASERBURG division, and The sheet and the farm are real and stay; the identification is withdrawn. LEAD-0151.

[11 Aug 2026] MEASURED: this farm lies 111.6 km from Oude Muur, which makes it the second furthest of the seven Calvinia Matjesfonteins from the ground this family held. Three others - 601, 791 and 679 - lie within 24 km of Oude Muur. It was entered here because it was the Matjesfontein this project found first, not because anything tied it to the family, and the withdrawn pin stays withdrawn. LEAD-0151.

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

Open questions

Which Matjiesfontein was Frans Jacobus Wilhelmus van der Merwe born on in 1863? priority 1 · LEAD-0151
FamilySearch records his birth on 24 March 1863 at 'Matjiesfontein, Calvinia'. The Northern Cape cadastre holds at least twelve farms of that name. Which one, and is it even in the Calvinia division?

What would settle it A van der Merwe named on the face of one of these 1823 diagrams, or on the boundary list of a neighbour, tying one Matjesfontein to this family rather than to its name.

What the record is missing

Nobody is on record as ever having held this third order · B8 never-held
Matjes Fontein No. 712 is in the model and drawn on the map, and carries no ownership record of any kind, not a grant, not a transfer, not an occupation.

What would settle it The Surveyor-General's diagram for the farm number names the grantee and the date; the deed reference on it opens the transfer chain.

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.