in town and English-language services at the NGK church were discontinued. First three pastors Somerset-East's first pastor was the Rev. Morgan. He left for a post in the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa in Cape Town in 1841, and he was succeeded by the Rev. John Pears, invested on October 24 of that year. After Pears died in the parsonage, the Rev. Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (minister), who served from 1867 to 1908. Hofmeyr married a daughter of the Rev. Andrew Murray, and just like Ms. Hofmeyr's parents they had five sons who all became pastors. One of the sons, John Murray Hofmeyr, was curate from 1907 and succeeded his father as pastor from the latter's death the following year until 1940. Thus, in its first 115 years in existence, the congregation had only four pastors. The Rev. Jan Hofmeyr's tenure The Rev. Hofmeyr and his family arrived on Thursday, March 28, 1867, in Somerset East. In the local Courant that day, the following was written on the heartfelt reception they received there: A long and cherished dream of the Dutch congregation is finally fulfilled here by the arrival of their pastor, the Rev. J. H. Hofmeyr. The high esteem in which his parishioners in Murraysburg, and the sadness tempered with cordial well-wishes expressed by same, betray the loss of a friend and spiritual guide in him that will be difficult to replace. On Thursday morning, the 28th, a large community delegation which would have been much greater if the arrival time had been known, came to meet him in Somerset East. The welcome and greetings were very warm. The Rev. was accompanied by the whole congregation to town and at the parsonage, up the steps where a group of young women, fellow congregation members, waited to sing him home with appropriate hymns. He was then offered and read aloud numerous signed blessings welcoming him, expressing the signers' gratitude to God for his arrival after so much hoping and waiting, and wishing him and his family good fortune among them. They were convinced that it cost him dearly to leave his beloved Murraysburg congregation and accept his calling to Somerset, so a greater force must have brought him there; thus, they trust and pray that God's hand will give him the strength and wisdom to fulfill the duties of his great mission, to further the cause of Christ and bring