Willem Johannes Gous

active 1833–1841 · Gous line

Connection to the Koup

Held ground in this district: Reim Hoogte No. 167 (../1833).

land Reim Hoogte No. 167 1841-04-15
event Reim Hoogte and Venters Kloof surveyed by C. Lennox Stretch1833-08

Names

Given: Willem Johannes
Surname: Gous

The formal baptismal name and the name a person was actually called are both kept, and neither is derived from the other. Spelling drift between records is evidence, not noise.

A life in the record

before 1833 land Held it, Reim Hoogte No. 167
August 1833 event Reim Hoogte and Venters Kloof surveyed by C. Lennox Stretch
Two more of Stretch's August 1833 surveys in C. Hatting's Zwartberg ward, both touching Middelwater: Reim Hoogte for William Gouse, and Venters Kloof - a HALF loan farm, and the only sheet in the run that names no holder at all.
15 April 1841 land Held it, Reim Hoogte No. 167
15 April 1841 event Reim Hoogte granted to Willem Johannes Gous
Perpetual quitrent BF.W.Q 5-10 - the folio the model had recorded against an unplaced diagram.

Ground they are on record on

Reim Hoogte No. 167 held it · before 1833
Reim Hoogte No. 167 held it · 15 April 1841

What we don't know

No birth date is recorded.
No death date is recorded.
Neither parent is recorded, so this person is not attached to the tree above them.

A sourced gap beats an unsourced fill. These are the open questions on this person, stated rather than papered over.

Research notes

[31 Jul 2026 inbox] Held the loan farm Reim Hoogte No. 167 when Stretch surveyed it in August 1833 (as 'William Gouse') and was granted it in perpetual quitrent on 15 April 1841 (as 'W.J. Gous'). The 1908 Rossel Erf diagram (DOC-0127) gives the full name - WILLEM JOHANNES GOUS - and confirms the grant, which is why this row is a named person and not an initials-only stub. Gous/Gouws/Gouse are the same surname in period spelling; recorded as each document writes it.

These are working notes, not finished prose: they carry the reasoning, the corrections and the things still marked to verify. They are kept here so the page itself can read as what is known.

What the record is missing

The record stops in 1841 and never resumes second order · B2 trail-ends
Reim Hoogte No. 167 was worked as far as 1841-04-15, with Willem Johannes GousH 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.

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.