gradually grew around this church. During September 1847, following the "urgent wishes of [his] neighbors", C.P. Rademeyer requested permission from the Cape government to turn his farm, Hartebees River, into a town, which he would name after Baron Pieter van Rheede van Oudtshoorn. On 12 August 1847, it was announced in the Government Gazette that a number of wet and dry plots from the Hartebees River would be auctioned on 15 November of that year. The terms of sale stipulated that each plot owner or resident could use 1/500 of the water in the Grobbelaars River, and reserved certain preferential rights in this respect for the original owners. However, the title deed issued to Rademeyer on 8 March 1832 had included the following servitude: "irrigation shall be effected by the river called Grobbelaars River." This servitude effectively excluded the entire would-be town from the use of the river's water. Rademeyer successfully applied to the government to have the servitude struck. Civil commissioner Aspeling van George recommended that the original servitude be amended so that water from the river could be led across the farm Grobbelaars River to Hartebees River for irrigation purposes. In 1848, Oudtshoorn was officially founded. Development The founding of Oudtshoorn provided a central service area situated between the Swart and Outeniqua mountains, and by the time that the first resident magistrate, Colonel A.B. Armstrong, arrived in 1855, the settlement had spread over a mile and a half. It was not until December 1847 that a Thomas Harris started the first state-supported "Farmers' School" next to the Grobbelaars River. Prior to that, even the most prosperous inhabitants employed private tutors, the use of which was forced upon them by the poor state of the roads in the region at the time, the costs of accommodation, as well as the continuing lack of farm workers. Private tutors solved the problem of transport and accommodation, and allowed the children to continue to help with farm work. In 1853, the Dutch Reformed church was officially established as a kerkplaats (church farm). Oudtshoorn was proclaimed as its own, separate magisterial district in 1858. In that same year, the first British settlers settled in the area. The settlement's growth was constrained by the limited supply of water in the area. In the early years, water was transported to the town in barrels, which were sold for sixpence per bucket. Forced to cope with