Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/379

1825] secretary. Two political commissioners represented the government in the synod: Sir John Truter, chief justice of the colony, and Mr. Pieter Jan Truter, one of the judges of the high court. The session closed on the 19th of November, when the resolutions were sent to Lord Charles Somerset for approval, and by him were provisionally confirmed pending the decision of the imperial government. He neglected, however, to forward them to England.

The resolutions infringed upon nothing that can nowadays be regarded as pertaining to the civil power, though they created full machinery for the government of the church under the presbyterian system. Three presbyteries were formed. The first represented the congregations of Capetown, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Zwartland, and Somerset West; the second the congregations of Tulbagh, Swellendam, George, Caledon, and Worcester; and the third the congregations of Graaff-Reinet, Uitenhage, Cradock, and Beaufort West.

Between the first and second meetings of the synod four other congregations were formed.

Shortly after the reverend Andrew Murray was appointed to Graaff-Reinet he commenced to hold periodical services at a place indifferently called Toornberg or Toverberg, in the northern part of his extensive parish. Two years later the farmers thereabouts requested the governor to allow them to form a distinct congregation, and to grant them a tract of land at Toverberg large enough to afford sufficient grazing ground for their cattle when they attended the services and also to allow of their selling village erven in order to build a church and parsonage with the proceeds. Lord Charles Somerset gave his consent to both these requests. On the 28th of July 1825 he approved of elders and deacons, whose names were forwarded to him by the landdrost. The congregation was thus formed, but matters progressed very slowly thereafter. Services were held under the shade of waggon sails. The clergyman of Graaff-Reinet continued to act as consulent until the 22nd of March 1836, when the reverend Thomas Reid was appointed resident minister. In