Griqua Records The Philippolis Captaincy 1825-1861 - Compiled and edited by Karel Schoeman

1996 hardcover with dust jacket new and unread. R50 postage in SA. Van Riebeeck Society second series volume 25.

Early in the nineteenth century there were four small semi-independent Griqua states in the Trans-Orange, each reigned over by its own ‘Head’ or ‘Kaptyn’. They were of the greatest importance to British authority in the Cape, as well as to the London Missionary Society. This volume contains a collection of official and semi-official documents concerning the Captaincy in Phillipolis, in the later Free State, from 1826 to 1861, when it was transferred to Kokstad in Griqualand East. The documents give a detailed picture of a poorly documented aspect of our history.

The Griqua Captaincy of Phillipolis had no flag or national emblem. The lion shown here, obviously a block from a local printer, was used at the head of printed land grant forms issued by the Captaincy of Kokstad as early as 1867, and clearly seems to have been intended as an emblem.