--part1_a0.23b169d.260580ba_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --part1_a0.23b169d.260580ba_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <listadmin-bounces@rootsweb.com> Received: from rly-st02.mx.aol.com (rly-st02.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.135]) by air-yd01.mail.aol.com (v70.19) with ESMTP; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:25:47 -0500 Received: from rly-zd04.mx.aol.com (rly-zd04.mail.aol.com [172.31.33.228]) by rly-st02.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/AOL-5.0.0) with ESMTP id QAA19856 for <BMarble@aol.com>; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:18:46 -0500 (EST) Received: from bl-14.rootsweb.com (bl-14.rootsweb.com [209.85.6.30]) by rly-zd04.mx.aol.com (v70.20) with ESMTP; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:18:33 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-14.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id NAA13473 for MARKHAM-admin@lists.rootsweb.com; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:18:29 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:18:29 -0800 (PST) X-From_: markham@hixnet.co.za Sat Mar 18 13:18:26 2000 Received: from bl-3.rootsweb.com (bl-3.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.19]) by bl-14.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA13445 for <MARKHAM-L@lists.rootsweb.com>; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:18:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from rio.hixnet.co.za (rio.hixnet.co.za [196.34.218.10]) by bl-3.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA16229 for <MARKHAM-L@rootsweb.com>; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:18:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from SirKen.hixnet.co.za ([196.35.8.50]) by rio.hixnet.co.za (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-12345L500S10000V35) with SMTP id za for <MARKHAM-L@rootsweb.com>; Sat, 18 Mar 2000 23:18:49 +0200 Message-ID: <009e01bf911f$8afe5280$320823c4@hixnet.co.za> Reply-To: "Sir Ken" <markham@hixnet.co.za> From: markham@hixnet.co.za (Ken Markham) To: "Markham Mailing List" <MARKHAM-L@rootsweb.com> Old-Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 23:17:17 +0200 Organization: Sir Ken MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 X-Diagnostic: Not on the accept list Subject: {not a subscriber} PORT ELIZABETH'S FIRST HOTEL ... ... ... BY MARGARET HARRADINE, PE, RSA ... ... ... X-Envelope-To: MARKHAM-L Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by bl-14.rootsweb.com id NAA13473 PORT ELIZABETH'S FIRST HOTEL - BY MARGARET HARRADINE. Our very first hotel was established by Richard Hunt at the end of 1821. The building he used was none other than Captain Fairfax Moresby's house on its elevated site facing the Bay and with a wonderful view of the river and the sea, much commented on by later visitors. Moresby had been granted a piece of land by Donkin in gratitude for his able assistance in 1820 when the British Settlers were landed here and the foundation stone of the house had been laid by Donkin himself, the labour being performed by Settlers still in Port Elizabeth. Moresby named his house "Markham House" after Donkin's late wife whose maiden name it was and the name also echoed that section of the Baakens River called "Markham Cove", down to whose banks the gardens of the house stretched. Moresby had little time in which to enjoy Markham House, for he was called to Mauritius in 1821 and the distinguished career which followed and created of him an Admiral, and never returned to live in Port Elizabeth. The whole of Moresby's grant is the Rufane Vale, part of the Baakens River Valley, and the piece on which Markham house stood, and which today is bounded by the river, Baakens Street, Military Road and Dalgleish Street, was taken over by Richard Hunt. It is possible that he is the 1820 Settler of the same name who came out as a farmer in Mandy's party on the Nautilus with his wife Ann and their children, George and Mary. Hunt was 50 when he died in 1843 and this agrees with the age of the Settler of 1820. Hunt ran a store as well as the hotel, but by 1829 he was insolvent and the Valley land was sold to J.B. Board. Hunt's Hotel seems to have continued for some years after this, but by the mid-1830's it had become the property of James Scorey, former captain of the schooner "Flamingo". In 1829 Scorey had married Ann Robinson in Port Elizabeth and it is of interest that a traveller to these part in 1832 commented that the best inn was kept by a Mrs. Robinson. Perhaps the now-settled seaman became part of a family business. The hotel became known as "Scorey's" and its popularity with visitors who admired its fine position and its gardens reaching down to the river, continued. In 1838 it was offered for sale. William Whybrew, who had been running the hotel at Somerset (today's Somerset East), had bought Scorey's by the end of 1839 and moved to Port Elizabeth at the beginning of the following year. "Whybrew's Hotel" was the venue for meetings of the Turf Club and was presumably a successful venture, but its owner had become ill and was forced to sell it early in 1841. In July he died at the age of 58, to be followed only a month later by his wife, Alice Eliza, aged 42. Nathaniel Randall was probably the next owner of the hotel, certainly he was a hotel keeper in 1842 and is listed with E.H. Salmond who had the Phoenix. Randall was a man of many parts who was later to serve a term as postmaster here and was also a shopkeeper and boarding house proprietor. Insolvency forced him to sell and in 1843 William O'Hara, a retired sergeant, announced that he was now running Scorey's Hotel. It is possible that it was during his time the hotel took the name which was to stay with it long after the building was gone: "Hope Hotel". In January 1844 the new name was already in use and it was announced that Mrs. O'Hara had left the Hope Hotel. What had become of William is not known. A few weeks later Joseph Jackson advertised that he now had the Hope or Scorey's Hotel. Before very long Joseph Avent Jeffery had bought the Hope Hotel, but he too became bankrupt and over the space of a year =97 October 1846 to September 1847 =97 it was offered for sale several times. Jeffery kept a canteen in Jetty Street after this and then had one in Rodney Row, but at the same time he had gone into business with John Glendinning of Humansdorp and by 1849 they had sold their store at Kabeljouw River and built a new one at the Fishery in St. Francis Bay, and were busy landing goods from ships and whaling. The partnership was over by 1851, but Jeffery and his family had settled at the Bay and that part soon acquired his name, though the spelling changed. In December 1848 the Hope Hotel was sold, the land having been divided into seven lots. Moresby's house was never again used as an hotel. The various parts had various owners over the years, one rebuilt the southern wing of the house and sold it in 1857, J. Berry offered it for sale in 1865, and in 1866 the site as a whole was owned by John Miller, I. McIvor and William Jones. Port Elizabeth's first fine house degenerated so, that in March 1899 the Town Council decided to condemn the stone buildings which then belonged to Henry Nash. Throughout, the area was known as "Old Hope Hotel", "Hope Hotel Stoep" and "Hope Stoep". A study of the old drawings, paintings and photographs of the town shows the old, flat-roofed, double-storeyed house clearly visible above the river. As time went by first the central section and then the whole building acquired a sloping roof, but its high position makes it conspicuous even after it had been surrounded by other buildings. It should be quite clear from this description of the original Markham House, that the present Markham Hotel is not on the same site. Although the ground on which the hotel stands is part of the grant to Moresby, it has its own history. J.F. Comfield's sketch of the small town at the end of 1823 shows a cottage below and to the right of Moresby's house. This cottage features in all the old pictures and must be the same building which became known, in its turn, as Markham House. Richard Hunt must have owned it, but whether he built it, or whether it had already been built when he bought the land, is not known. In 1838 when Scorey sold the hotel, there was a "comfortable dwelling house, detached": on offer as well. It doesn't seem to have found a buyer, for after Scorey's death in 1847 (he died in Cape Town and his tombstone is now in the Woltemade Cemetery) it was offered again with the rest of his property. The advertisement stated that the house had an extensive frontage to two streets and was in the occupation of Mr. Coleman. Coleman bought the house and continued to live in it and in August 1848 the Herald reported that a well was being dug "near Mr. Coleman's residence, formerly Mr. Scorey's". The house was a convenient one for William Coleman because in 1848 he built a steam mill on land nearby in Baakens Street. The mill was something of a wonder in the town and the Herald described it as "perhaps the most complete in the Colony and offering to every lover of the science of Mechanics a sight which he would do well to inspect". So well did the lovers of mechanics respond that Coleman had to close the doors to visitors unless they came by appointment. The mill prepared flour, pollard, bran, ground rice and crushed barley and was followed by the addition of a sawmill. In 1854 Coleman sold his mill privately and offered "Markham House" for sale as well, so the house was known by this name then. Coleman was running a woolwashing and pressing business nearby on the banks of the Baakens and one photograph shows the raised stages for the drying wool built on the river bank. In 1856 Coleman moved his business further up the Valley and Kirkwood and Co. bought his premises, the well-known James Somers Kirkwood living in Markham House for a few years before buying Hillside House in Bird Street from the merchant, Joseph Simpson. As it happens, Simpson bought Markham House, and with the stores next door, which he leased, ran a wool-pressing business. In 1876 he was bankrupt and, though the business continued until the store was burned down in 1878, Markham House was sold to Peter Finlay for =A3650. Simpson played a prominen= t part in the mercantile world during a long life, and died full of honours in 1890. There is a fine window given in his memory in the chancel of St. Mary's Church. Peter Finlay, proprietor of the Goose and Gridiron in Main Street, lived in Markham House for a while and then let it to one Herman Werth who, besides m aking it his home, manufactured cigars there, and in 1883 it was damaged by a fire. The following year Markham House appears for the first time in the guise of a hotel, with a new liquor licence being granted to George Nelson Pell. This was transferred to Loughlin Brennan in September 1885, the month in which he bought the "newly-built" two-storey Markham House for =A31975. >From this it seems possible that the re-building actually took place at the beginning of 1884, after the fire which was said to have gutted the old house. A sketch of the hotel made in 1885 shows a building with balustrade and arched windows and doorways built onto the pavement with a verandah over it. In a later photograph there is a verandah in front of the upper storey as well, but the building is the same one which continued in use under various owners until it was demolished and the present hotel built in 1951. SOURCES: Local newspapers, Port Elizabeth directories, and numerous sources in the South African Collection of the P.E. City Libraries. ______________________________________________________________________ EDITOR'S NOTE: Elizabeth Donkin, wife of Sir Rufane Shawe Donkin, maiden name was Elizabeth Markham, descending from the Archbishop of York. See "TW" for more details and pictures. This chapter was written by Margaret Harradine, PE, RSA, and submitted by Len Stratford. The complete article with pictures is found in my section of the main "TW" menu called "PORT ELIZABETH'S FIRST HOTEL". ______________________________________________________________________ MARKHAM WORLD NEWS: http://members.xoom.com/kenmarkham/zim/news/ [You may feel free to send me items you feel may be of interest to others relating to news items in your local area, around the world, for other Markhams to read. This does not have to be Markham genealogy related at all. Items will NOT be references to the sender of the information, nor indexed. Items should be scanned in either greyscale or colour, depending on the original document. A scan resolution of 144 DPI and saved in .JPG format is suitable, depending on how you scan your pictures, etc... If pictures are too large etc., I will adjust items myself etc. These items MUST be sent directly to myself. Depending on content, some items will not be uploaded here, and no reason will be given, not necessary here to do so, etc. This section of "TW" should NOT spill over on to this list for any reason whatsoever. I am looking items to add here that might catch an eye or the interest of others, and relating to the current affairs in your part of the world. This link above is NOT linked into any menu of "TW" as yet. Intended to use the space we have on the website until it is required later for Markham books etc.] ______________________________________________________________________ O'GRADY / EDWIN MARKHAM: http://members.xoom.com/kenmarkham/zim/ogrady/ [I am looking for some-one to type out the texts here so they can be placed into chapters in "TW" in web format in HTML.]______________________________________________________________________ Yours Sincerely, Capt. Columbus & Super Ken, [Phenomenal Researchers In The Mists Of Time] [Genealogists Extra-Ordinaire] ______________________________________________________________________ --part1_a0.23b169d.260580ba_boundary--