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History ArchiveBirth of King Williams Town
INTRODUCTION:
The establishment of the Buffalo Mission Station on the banks of the Buffalo River, by Scottish missionary John Brownlee of the London Missionary Society, in January 1826, led to the settlement that would later be known as King Williams Town.
Due to warfare between the Xhosa and British during the nineteen century, Xhosa tribes people attacked and destroyed the Buffalo Mission Station in 1835 and drove away the missionaries. Sir Benjamin D'urban, then Governor of the British Cape Colony, intervened and the Rifle Brigade, under the command of Colonel Harry Smith, drove the Xhosa away on 24 May 1835.
Sir Benjamin D'urban then continued to proclaim a new district, the Province of Queen Adelaide, naming the warm valley of the Buffalo River after Queen Adelaide. The settlement at the Buffalo Mission Station was named King Williams Town, after the reigning British Monarch, King William the Fourth, and proclaimed capital of the Province of Queen Adelaide.
However, the new Colonial Secretary of the British Government, Lord Charles Glenelg, reinstated the Xhosa people on 26 December that same year. The British abandoned the Province of Queen Adelaide, and King Williams Town was deserted, even though the Buffalo Mission Station had already been rebuilt.
Missionary John Brownlee returned to the area and once again took up his missionary work. The favourable position of King Williams Town made it a popular destination and base location for traders. Many of these traders eventually settled in the area of King Williams Town.
King Williams Town was again sacked and burned by the Xhosa, during the War of the Axe of 1846. Sir Harry Smith, now the Governor of the Cape Colony, returned to the King Williams Town area and proclaimed the Crown Colony of British Kaffraria, with King Williams Town as capital.
Military buildings initially dominated the small town of King Williams Town, because of the constant clashes between Britain and the Xhosa people. But King Williams Town continued to grow slowly, regardless, and after the last frontier war with the Xhosa in 1856, and following the tragic self-sabotage of the Xhosa people, the King Williams Town population grew more rapidly. King Williams Town developed into an important agricultural and commercial centre, through regional trade with the local tribes.
During 1857, when the British German Legion was disbanded, more than two thousand German legionnaires settled in the area, bringing a strong German influence into the King Williams Town area.
King Williams Town remained a garrison until a few years into the 20th century. After the 1861 royal visit by Prince Albert, son of British Queen Victoria, King Williams Town was declared a Royal Borough.
