King William's Town - History
The establishment of the Buffalo Mission Station on the fertile banks of the Buffalo River in January 1826, by Scottish missionary John Brownlee of the London Missionary Society, led to the settlement that would later be known as King William's Town.

By 1832 the mission consisted of at least five substantial but unpretentious buildings, with a new church under construction. Over the next decade there were numerous skirmishes with the Xhosa people who in 1835 attacked and destroyed the mission and drove away the missionaries.

The Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, subsequently intervened and the Rifle Brigade, under short-lived command of Sir Harry Smith, drove the Xhosa’s out of the area, whereafter the settlement at the Buffalo Mission Station was named King Williams Town, after the reigning British Monarch, King William the Fourth. The town was proclaimed the capital of the Province of Queen Adelaide on the 24th May 1835.

The new Colonial Secretary, Lord Charles Glenelg reinstated the Xhosa in the annexed territory between the Kei and Keiskamma rivers, in December 1935, and in spite of the Mission Station being re-built, the British abandoned the Province of Queen Adelaide and King William's Town was left deserted.

John Brownlee eventually regained possession of his mission station and home and once again took up his missionary work in the area. In 1846, Sir Harry Smith, succeeded Sir Benjamin D'Urban as Governor of the Cape Colony and returned to the area and proclaimed the Crown Colony of British Kaffraria, with King William's Town as the capital.

In 1857, the number of European inhabitants was boosted by the arrival of 2500 German military settlers from the disbanded German Legion, bringing a strong German influence into the King William's Town area. King William's Town was declared a Royal Borough in 1861 after the visit of Prince Albert, son of Queen Victoria to the region.

The favourable position of King William's Town, at the foot of the Amatola Mountains, 389m above sea-level made it a popular base for traders and the town grew into a large established industrial base producing textiles, soap, candles, sweets, jams, matches, leather, cartons and clothing. In the early 1800s the area's economy depended on cattle and sheep farming, and the thickly populated agricultural district came to boast a lucrative wool, hide and grain trade with neighbouring East London. King William Town’s proximity to the Provincial Capital, Bhisho, has resulted in further growth of the area in recent years.