Quote from Steve on October 8, 2025, 2:22 pm

As a preface to this post, here is a little introduction to the effect that the rule of law had on some of South Africa's people.

Griquatown Residency, Court and Post Office

I thought to start this thread with this postcard which I bought many years ago from a rather reluctant Paul van Zeyl who had been planning an unrealised Griqualand West display.

1914. 'The Residency, Court House & Post Office - Griquatown'. Unstamped. '17 / 11 / 14'.
The stone building right survives today on Main Street, Griquatown. It was presumably the Residency.
The original is a faded sepia photo. This has been restored by AI (ChatGPT).

The history of Griqualand and the Griquas begins in the Cape, the ancestrral home of the Khoi. In 1740 they were a small Khoi clan of pastoralists, a remnant of the Guriqua, in the vicinity of Piquetberg who offered refuge to runaway slaves and Europeans who had problems with Dutch colonial rule and its oppresive, slavery-supporting Roman-Dutch law.

Over time this group increasingly mixed-race people became known as ‘Basters’ or ‘Bastaards sought freedom from Dutch colonial rule. Their solution was to trekked out of the Dutch Cape into the hinterlands under the leadership of ex-slave Adam Kok 1st. Over decades the Basters slowly passed through Namaqualand until settling along the Gariep (Orange River), the northern border of the Dutch colony. Eventually they crossed the river to settle on its far bank outside of colonial jurisdiction, both Dutch and British.

In 1801 the first LMS (London Missionary Society) Station north of the Orange River was founded among the Basters at Klaarwater by the Revds William Anderson and Nicholas Kramer. This settlement was soon so successful that in 1805 the traveller, Dr Heinrich Lichtenstein, described it as a “Hottentot Republic under the patriarchal government of the missionaries”. On his second visit to Klaarwater in 1819 (see cover below) the LMS's inspector of mission stations, the Rev. Dr Campbell, renamed the settlement at Klaarwater 'Griquatown because he objected to his mission station’s mixed-race parishioners being called ‘Bastards’.

1818. Entire letter from SPITALFIELDS, LONDON, 8th Nov 1818’ to KLAARWATER ‘received 1819’.
Addressed to the Revd William Anderson at the LMS Missionary Station, Klaarwater.
This was addressed to Klaarwater before Rev. Dr Campbell changed it to 'Griquatown'.

The above letter's contents reveal that the writer had arranged forRev. Dr John Campbel to deliver this letter to Rev. Anderson at Klaarwater. It is believed to be one of the first, if not the earliest, letter to be delivered north of the Orange River. (1819.)

The territory of the Griqua clan was controlled by three families - the Koks, Barendses and Waterboers. They were not a united people and after violent disagreements Adam Kok II left to settle around the new London Missionary Station at Phillipolis. Like the Khoi before them the Griquas lacked cohesion and political unity. Largely illiterate they had no written or binding laws to glue their society together. When 'Boer' trekkers into what was to be the south-western Orange Free State after 1836 their arrival would lead to its slow legal dismantling of the Griqua clan claim to the land. This collapse would be accelerated once diamonds were discovered in their disputed territory in 1866/7 and the Boer states and the Cape Colonial power saw the value in it.

As there was no post office operating in Klaarwater / Griquatown in 1818, mail was conveyed privately in and out by helpful visitors or between mission stations by runners and riders. After the Cape government appointed an agent in Griquatown in 1822 it is thought that mail departed Griquatown in the official mail bag. By 1824, letters were being carried out by wagon. It is thought this mail was probably taken to the post office in Beaufort, (later Beaufort West), 480 km away, from where it entered the weekly eastern frontier mail route to Cape Town. In 1828, the nearest post office to Griquatown was Graaff-Reinet, more than 400 km away.

After Colesberg post office opened in 1841, Griquatown was closer to established postal routes, but even this office was some 400 km away. At this time the regular transport of mail from Griquatown to Colesberg was quite unreliable. It would remain this way until a post office was opened in Hopetown, some 100 km from Griquatown in 1855. By 1873 - 1874 there would be eleven post offices in Griqualand West, two which were run by women. The Griquatown Post Office was run by Mrs A Hughes, a widow, and Junction by a Mrs Adendorff.

Once both Boer and Brit saw the vast potential for huge profits in an area that had previously been too dry, dusty and poor to deserve their attention, they came to covet the Griqua's land, each finding reasons why it more rightly belonged to them than the Griqua. How the decision was reached that Griqualand would become British territory rather than part of the Orange Free State (OFS) was once a well-kept secret. The OFS's desired to be shot of the Griqua 'bastards' and any lingering clam they might have against the land purchases made by Boers who bought Griqua land, then lodged the deeds in the OFS, not Griqualand, thereby making Griqua land OFS territory. The OFS agreed to Britain taking control of the Diamond Fields provided the Griqua's were cleared out. This the Cape did, relocating many to 'OFS Griqua" to the far side of the Drakensberg in the disputed land of the Xhosa, a place called 'Griqualand East'.

Unaware of the British /OFS intrigue. the Griqua leader Nicholas Waterboer appealed to the British authorities, arguing that his people had long-held rights granted by Britain and that British protection was now necessary to protect their teriritory from the Boers. To resolve the conflict, the matter was put up to 'independent' arbitration under no less an impartial authority of than the British Lieutenant-Governor Robert Keate of Natal. Unsurprisingly, the OFS agreed to his appointment. Complicating matters were the diggers who had flooded in as part of the “diamond rush’ who attempted to set up their own an independent republic.

The Keate Award of 1871  decided in favour of the Griquas who opted for British protection, becoming Griqualand West (GW), a separate Crown Colony in 1873 with its capital at Kimberly. Railways from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London opened the colony up to immigration, capital and industrialisation. In 1880 GW was annexed to the Cape Colony. The court house was presumably built around this time.

A very brief look at some of the Stamps and Postmarks of Griquatown 1886 - 1912. From left:
1877 Cape of Good Hope SG2 1d pale carmine overprinted 'G. W.' in black. Probably used in Cape Town - cancelled BONC 1.
1888 Cape of Good Hope SG21da 4d blue overprinted large 'G' inverted. Fine used, possibly at Orange River.
1885 SG49 Cape of Good Hope 1d red obliterated BONC 529, used GRIQUATOWN 'DE 28 93'.
1886. Province of Griqualand West 5s Bourne Head Revenue cancelled 'NO 8 86' with Squared Circle. Pre-TO so fiscal use.
1912. SG D3 Union of SA Interprovincial use of Transvaal 2d Postage Due cancelled GRIQUATOWN '18 AU 12'.

The only stamp among those above likely to have been used in the Griquatown Court is the rather wonderful 1886 5/- Bourne head. However, it is more likely an example of telegraphic use rather than fiscal. A TO (Telegraph Office) was opened in Griquatown in 1893, the same year that this stamp was cancelled. Given its high-ish value and the date it has been cancelled on, 28th December 1893, there is a very good chance that this was used  in the TO, probably to send a belated Christmas wishes or a New Year message.