He and a Dutch colleague Nicholas Kramer encouraged the Griqua, who had hitherto lived mainly by hunting, to settle at a place they called Klaarwater (meaning Clear Water) and plant gardens and grow wheat and other crops.

Anderson briefly returned to Cape Town where he met and married Johanna Maria Schonken, the daughter of descendants of early Dutch and French Huguenot settlers.

In 1814 Governor John Cradock demanded that Anderson make sure that "all deserters criminals, slaves, (Hottentot or Bastard)"{quote taken from LMS reports in the archives of London University School of Oriental and African Studies} who had escaped north of the Orange River to Griquatown should be returned to the Cape Colony.

Anderson was outraged and found it extremely hard to explain these demands to the Griqua as few had any loyalty to the Cape which lay hundreds of miles to the south.

When Anderson wrote to the Cape authorities to argue his case he received an even stronger reply from the new governor Lord Charles Somerset on 4 July 1814.

Trouble surfaced in Griquatown when a European outlaw from justice in the Cape, Conrade Buys, who a large following amongst the Khoikhoi (and several wives in addition to his Dutch wife) came to the area north of the Orange River.

He asked the local people why they should worry about Anderson and their traditional chiefs when they could be free and when it was easier and more profitable to trade "illegally" with farmers in the remote border areas of the Cape Colony.

Tensions increased following a major blow to the reputation and work of the LMS in southern Africa when in 1817 it was discovered that Read had committed adultery.

By early in 1820, William and Johanna Anderson felt they needed to leave Griquatown to avoid being a stumbling block for the Church and community moving forward.

There followed a further 30 years of extremely fruitful service amongst the Khoikhoi and mixed race people (later called Cape Coloureds) in a scenic part of South Africa.

Their children were active both in Pacaltsdorp and other centres with youngest son Bartholemew Ebenezer becoming a leading pastor in the Congregational Church in Oudtshoorn.