Ref: G5222
- £275.00
1852 folded letter (12th April) from Merrefontein to Bloemfontein, that would have been hand carried. Merrefontein was a hamlet in the Philippolis District that didn’t have a post office. A m/s 14th April arrival is inside the letter. By 1851, the population of Bloemfontein was about 300 people with about 60 houses. At that time the Free State was still under British Sovereignty. In August 1853, Sir George Russell Clark was sent as a special commissioner to Bloemfontein to make the necessary arrangements for Britain's withdrawal from the area and on 23 February 1854 the Bloemfontein Convention was signed, which gave the Orange River Sovereignty self governing status. A rare early letter.
