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[Cuyler family] : Uitenhage District, Eastern Cape: early survey maps and correspondence

A collection of official survey maps of farms in the Uitenhage District, largely originals with some contemporary copies, dating from the early 19th to the early 20th century, with accompanying correspondence between government forestry and survey offices, and the surveyor on the ground. The documents were assembled by a descendant of Jacob Glen Cuyler (1775-1854), soldier, landdrost and farmer, considered the father of Uitenhage. Cuyler was for a time commandant of Fort Frederick, Algoa Bay, and supervised the reception of the English Settlers in 1820. His name is closely connected with all significant events in the region during the first third of the nineteenth century, from the Slagtersnek Rebellion to the Frontier Wars. Several of the maps cover the Elands River Forest, and at least one of these appears to date from the time of Cuyler himself. It has the penned caption 'Granted to Lieut Colonel J. G. Cuyler on the 11th October 1820.' Cuyler had received the rank of lieutenant-general by the time of his death. Other place names featuring prominently are Elandsfontein, Kakkerlaks Vlei, Geelhoutboom, and Gras Rug (Grass Ridge). Preparing for the defence of Uitenhage at the outbreak of the Fifth Frontier War (1818-1819), Cuyler placed forces at Grass Ridge and other farms in the district. According to the account of Cuyler's life by P. M. Calitz, "When he died at his home, Cuyler manor, only his daughters were alive; he had adopted the son of one of his daughters so that the family name could survive. The descendants of this grandson remained in possession of Cuyler manor until the Uitenhage municipality bought it and other farms that had originally belonged to Cuyler." - Dictionary of South African Biography I, p. 197. The correspondence and maps largely relate to the demarcation of properties in the Uitenhage District, including property granted to descendant Jacob Glen Cuyler in June of 1921.

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