William Musgrove Hopley

After Marthinus Steyn's death, Klippe Rivier was split into three, and in 1837 one portion was sold to William Hopley (the surveyor), one to Alexander Reid and one to P G Steyn. After a few months, Hopley sold his portion to Alexander Reid, and P G Steyn sold his portion to F W Reitz, setting the scene for the future Reitz tenure. The first Hopley arrived in South Africa from Kent in England with the occupying British Fleet in 1806, and settled in Cape Town as a Schoolmaster. His son, William Musgrove Hopley was born in 1796, and came to the Cape in 1812 when his father was appointed Schoolmaster. William was the land surveyor at Swellendam, and also surveyed Klippe Rivier, which he owned briefly in 1837. There is a delightful story about how Hopley used to measure the circular loan farms in the early 1800's in Edmund Burroughs book "Overberg Outspan". He employed a coloured lad whom he had timed with a stop-watch, over a long distance so that he knew exactly how fast the boy paced. Hopley would then estimate the farm radius in paces and send the lad off in different directions with a beacon and Hopley would then time him with a stop-watch, and fire a shot when the time was right. The lad then had to plant the beacon in the earth as a marker when Hopley fired the shot! Some of the circular farms were not perfect circles as the lad obviously tired at times!