Wolwekraal No. 17

17 on the cadastre · on record 1841–1857 · show on the map

Farm number: No. 17
On the cadastre: 17, whole farmregistered as WOLVE KRAAL
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 14502 morgen
Modern surveyed area: 11462.0 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

Jan Adriaan Venter held it, a blood relative of the Oosthuizen, Marincowitz or Van der Merwe lines, 4 steps away. 44 km from Klaarstroom.

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

story A written history is set on this ground The fifteenth of April, 1841
story A written history names this ground Rondabel No. 124: a farm history
story A written history is set on this ground The farm he was born on
parcel Ground cut out of this farm: Venterskraal (Wolwekraal portion)
…and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

about 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 Rondabel No. 124: a farm history
From a loan-farm widow who signed with a mark to the Marincowitz farm of today: the full documented history of Rondabel No. 124 - the Venter household of 1829, the twelve-farm grant day of 1841, the Oosthuizen-Theron partnership of 1868, the 1910-34 subdivisions, and the two graves by the huis nobody has read.
set here The farm he was born on
Jan Adriaan Venter was born on Wolve Kraal in 1823, orphaned off it at five, bought it at thirty-one, halved it and named half after himself at thirty-three, and spent the next thirty-seven years selling that half away.

What the record holds, in order

1841-04-15 to 1855-11-20 ownership Johannes Hendrik Venter
quitrent · grant · confidence high
1851 lived here Frederik Hendrik Swanepoel (b6c5d7e3) (16 April 1827–8 September 1909)
farming
1855-11-20 to 1857-03-10 ownership Johannes Hendrik Mostert, Jan Adriaan Venter (8 December 1823–23 November 1898)
freehold · transfer · confidence high
10 March 1857 boundary change subdivision: becomes Venterskraal (Wolwekraal portion)
undated boundary change subdivision: becomes Leeuw Rivier (Venterskraal resurvey)

Ground cut out of this farm

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.

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

[SRC-072] About 80 km from Prince Albert on the Rietbron road. Granted 15 APRIL 1841 to Johannes Hendrik VenterL (PER-000095) - AK: Qts Vol 6 Fol 9. THE NINTH FARM ON THAT DAY, and the deed volume/folio sits inside the same run as Varsche Fontein (Bf.W.Q.6-23). Split in half 10 Mar 1857 into Venterskraal (PAR-000055) and the Wolwekraal remainder. Still held by a descendant of the original owners in 2002 - Francina Christina Schneider nee de Swardt.

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

Open questions

The Rondavel Venters - parentage, the two Jan Louis Venters, and Wolwekraal priority 2 · LEAD-0015
(a) Who were Jan Adriaan VenterL's (PER-000350) parents - vernoeming suggests a father named Willem; (b) who are 'Jan Louis VenterL j:r' and 'the widow of Jan Louis VenterL' in the 1829 debts, given the tree kills Johanna Jacomina SmitM in 1824 and a Jan Louis witnesses a baptism in 1837; (c) is the Wolwekraal grantee Johannes Hendrik VenterL (PER-000095) the widow's brother Johannes Henricus (); (d) 8 Nov vs 8 Dec 1823 for Jan Adriaan jr (PER-000096); (e) when did the Venters arrive on Rondavel and how did it pass to the Strydoms by the 1833 survey?

What would settle it Registers and the two grant/survey files.
Why did Swanepoel's Aanleg leave the family in the rinderpest year? priority 2 · LEAD-0101
Swanepoel's Aanleg was sold out of the family on 14 December 1897, to the Venter who had been buying Venterskraal fragments since 1879. Was this distress, or the last step of a deliberate re-assembly of the old Wolwekraal ground?

What would settle it The price on deed 10724, read against other transfers of the same years.