Welbedagt No. 150 (Attaquaskloof, Oudtshoorn)

THE OOSTHUYSEN LOAN PLACE ON THE SOUTHERN OLIFANTS. S.G. 219/1821 (SRC-469, DOC-0306) names it 'the LOANPLACE WELBEDAGT... in the fieldcornetcy ATTAQUAS KLOOF district of GEORGE', with 'Water Supply by the Olifants River' along its north-west boundary; the landholder in 1821 is Johannes Petrus Wagener.

MOOC8/50.101a and 50.101b (SRC-467) put MARTHINUS OOSTHUYSEN JANSZ (PER-001851) on 'de lenings plaats gen:t Welbedagt gelegen inde Attaquascloof aan de Oliphants Rivier', with TEN YEARS AND SIX MONTHS of arrear recognitie penningen owed on it - so held from about 1782 - and the farm inventory signed on the ground on 18 May 1792. He is a FIRST COUSIN of Ockert (PER-000118), and his brother WILLEM MARTHINUS (PER-001855) held the Modder Fenteijn on the Kafferkuils. LEAD-0223, closed.

NOT THE KOUP, and not core: this is the old Swellendam-then-George country the family came from, mapped here so the ground can be seen. 9a - a bounded set of records, not a second district to grow.

AREA: the cadastre gives 2,961 ha against the diagram's original 2,890 morgen (2,475 ha). The 1890 endorsement on the sheet itself resolves it - the Surveyor-General certified 3,067 morgen 60 sq roods, about 2,627 ha, as the true extent instead of 2,890. The polygon is larger again by a few per cent, which is what a chain-and-compass survey of 1821 read against modern coordinates does.

Superseded: answered below [22 Sep 2026, SRC-665] APPEL: a 'Jan Oosthuysen (jr.)' farmed 'Webedagt aan die Rietfontein' for almost a quarter century and by April 1778 was so poor he could not pay 13 years and 11 months of arrears on the loan farm; the government let him suspend payment (RLR 18 p. 19). VERY PROBABLY THIS FARM: Rietfontein No. 154 lies 10.5 km from Welbedagt No. 150, and an Oosthuysen (Marthinus Jansz, a son of Jan Hendrik) holds this loan place from about 1782. So Welbedagt was an Oosthuysen place from about 1753, two generations before 1792. Which Jan it was is LEAD-0362.

Superseded: answered below [22 Sep 2026] THE HAND-OVER IS DATED: Marthinus's 10 years 6 months of arrears in September 1792 put his holding from about MARCH 1782, the year his brother Johannes (PER-000739) died. So the farm runs Oosthuysen from about 1753 to 1792 without a break - a Jan to April 1778, then on to 1782, then Marthinus. Which Jan is LEAD-0362;

[22 Sep 2026, The Jan who held Welbedagt to April 1778 is JOHANNES (PER-000739), 'Jan d'jonge'; his brother Marthinus follows from about March 1782, the year Johannes died. LEAD-0362 closed.

[22 Sep 2026] 'AAN DIE RIETFONTEIN' IS THE FARM NEXT DOOR, and the distance objection was an artefact of measuring centroids. RIETFONTEIN No. 154 (Oudtshoorn) lies 10.5 km from this farm centre to centre but only 2.5 km EDGE TO EDGE: Welbedagt runs about 6 x 7 km and Rietfontein about 9 x 10, so the polygons very nearly touch. [FAMILY] 10.5km south west in those could have been neighbour. On a loan place that is the whole point - before survey a plaas was the opstal and about an hour's ride in each direction, and the ground between two of them belonged to nobody until it was granted later, which is what the strip between these two looks like. So Appel's 'Webedagt aan die Rietfontein' (SRC-665) names this farm by its neighbour and its water, the same way the 1792 estate names it 'in de Attaquascloof aan de Oliphants Rivier'. The identification now rests on three agreeing things: the Oosthuysen holding from about 1753 to 1792, the Attaquaskloof and the Olifants, and Rietfontein next door. RLR 18 p. 19 remains the confirmation, not an open question. AND THE QUITRENT NUMBERS ON THE 1821 SHEET ARE NOT FARM NUMBERS: 'No. 57 Quitrent' and 'Quitrent No. 51' cannot be Oudtshoorn farms 57 and 51, which lie 52 km and 35 km away. They are numbers in the George quitrent register.

[22 Sep 2026, SRC-666] A CANDIDATE FOR THE 1792-1821 GAP: the 1798 estate of Stephanus ter Blanche of Melkhoutekraal in Outeniqualand is owed 300 rixdollars by his son Johannes Ernst Terblanche Steph.z for the purchase of the opstal of 'de plaats Welbedagt' (MOOC8/22.44). The sheet does not say which Welbedagt and the name is common, so this is a candidate and not the answer [TO VERIFY]. Nothing else in the published MOOC8 names a Welbedagt in the Attaquaskloof besides the 1792 estate.

[22 Sep 2026, SRC-669] THE HOLDERS BEFORE MARTHINUS: Ockert Olivier was ordinansiehouer of 'Welbedagt aan die Olifantsrivier' in 1772 and the permit was re-issued to him in 1777 (RLR 22 pp. 49-50); M. Oosthuizen follows, 1780-1783 (RLR 27 p. 67). *** AND THAT RAISES A CONFLICT WITH APPEL, WHICH IS NOT RESOLVED. *** Appel has a Jan Oosthuysen on 'Webedagt aan die Rietfontein' for almost a quarter century, in arrears until April 1778 (SRC-665) - years in which this farm was Olivier's. Two readings: EITHER there are TWO Welbedagts and Appel's is elsewhere, which would undo this row's identification of it with Rietfontein No. 154; OR one farm was described by two waters and the two entries overlap for a reason not yet understood. The 1792 estate's own words, 'in de Attaquascloof aan de Oliphants Rivier', match Olivier's entry and not Appel's. UNRESOLVED [TO VERIFY]: what would settle it is a district or ward on RLR 18 p. 19.

*** [23 Sep 2026, FRANS] ONE FARM, NOT TWO, AND THE DOUBT WAS MINE. *** He put it plainly: Welbedagt is west of Oudtshoorn on the Olifants and was tagged here already. Both tests agree - PAR-000277 lies 19 km WEST of Oudtshoorn, and it is the ONLY Welbedagt on that river in the whole published MOOC8 (the others are at Buffeljags, Elandskloof, Drevers Vallei, Wagenmakersvallei, Kochelmanskloof, the Gouwersrivier, the Neysna in Outeniqualand and Uitenhage). SO APPEL'S 'WEBEDAGT AAN DIE RIETFONTEIN' IS THIS FARM, with Rietfontein No. 154 2.5 km off. WHAT I TREATED AS A CONTRADICTION IS TWO INSTRUMENTS: a loan place, whose arrears stood against Jan's name, and an ORDINANSIE, a permit, issued to Ockert Olivier in 1772 and re-issued in 1777. A debt outlives an occupation. The April 1778 entry is the government allowing the arrears to be suspended, not evidence that he was still farming it - his payments had stopped about 1764. WHAT IS STILL WORTH ASKING, and it is a detail rather than a doubt: when Jan actually left the ground, and what an ordinansie granted that a leningsplaats did not.