Hi Sharon Oops that was naughty of me. The book is called Rondebosch down the years 1657 to 1957 edited by F.J. Wagener. There is no publisher and it was printed by the Cape Times. Kind regards Heather Heather MacAlister Learning on Line 46 Hof Street Gardens 8001 Tel: 021-481 8316 -----Original Message----- From: Sharon Warr [mailto:snw@absamail.co.za] Sent: 31 October 2004 06:39 PM To: SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Rondebosch - a bit of History Part 3 Hi Heather Thanks for this interesting account of the History of Rondebosch - could you please give us your source? Thanks and regards Sharon View 1800s SOUTH AFRICAN PASSENGER LISTS at http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/DataArchive.htm SCRIBES PUBLISHING for Colonial Books on CD - visit http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/Scribes.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heather MacAlister" <heather@ancestors.co.za> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:15 PM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Rondebosch - a bit of History Part 3 > SOME EARLY VISITORS TO RONDEBOSCH AND THEIR IMPRESSIONS > > > > For more than 300 years-even before the Free Burghers settled on the banks > of the Liesbeek River-travellers have followed one route from the Castle to > Rondebosch. In his book "Old Cape Highways", Dr. Mossop has established that > "it is now beyond doubt that when we travel the Main Road to the suburbs by > Sir Lowry Road, Observatory and Rosebank, we are-as far as the hillock at > Rondebosch, now dominated by the Church of St. Paul-upon the very waggon > road of Van Riebeeck's wood-cutters". > > > > Along this road have come through the centuries a vast multitude of people. > In this article I have selected a few of the more famous of this multitude > who have fortunately left behind them their impressions of Rondebosch and > its environs, or whose visits have been recorded. Of necessity only those > who visited Rondebosch up till the middle of the 19th Century have been > included. > > > > These visitors came for a variety of reasons and made a variety of > observations. It was the age when the traveller frequently put down his > observations in book form, and we are fortunate that many of the impressions > of these early travellers have been recorded in books which have become > classics of our Africana. > > >From the fascinating pages of their books it would seem that the majority of > visitors journeyed to see the Company's Gardens at Rondebosch and Newlands. > The village is barely mentioned before 1811, and the official visits of > inspection were to see the conditions under which the Free Burghers were > farming. It was for this purpose that Commissioner Rykiof Van Goens, > Governor-General of Batavia, visited the settlement on the Liesbeek in March > 1657. He improved the conditions and made provision for one of the settlers > to be a burgher councillor. > > > > Nine years later, in December 1666, the Admiral of the French Fleet, > Monsieur de Monde Vergne, was one of the first of a long succession of > visitors who were entertained at Rustenburg, the Company's Country House at > Rondebosch in the Gardens. He is said to have referred to it as being > "well-built and very sumptuously furnished". > > > > The German, Peter Kolbe(n) who had been sent to the Cape to make > astronomical observations, and who remained there from 1705 till 1713, has > left a quaint description of the gardens at Rondebosch which deserves to be > quoted in full. "Several beautiful country seats, vineyards and gardens are > to be seen on almost every side of the Table-hill. The Company has here two > very spacious, rich and beautiful Gardens. In one of 'em stands, erected at > the Company's Expence, a noble Pleasure-House for the Governour, and near it > a beautiful Grove of Oaks, called the Round-Bush from which this Garden > takes its Name, being called the Round-Bush garden. The other Garden which > is at some distance from this is called Newland because but lately planted. > Both these gardens are finely watered by the Springs on the Table-Hill and > the Company draws from 'em a very considerable Revenue. > > > > "Between these Gardens and contiguous to the foremention'd Stable, lies a > lovely estate, called on Account of its Fertility, Bread and Wine. Between > those Gardens likewise stands Lonwens famous Brew-house, erected by Jacob > Lonwen who together with his family was transported to the Cape, at the > Company's expence, for this very purpose." > > > > Some thirty years later another German, Otto Mentzel arrived and left a > justly famous description of the Cape of Good Hope. Of the Company's gardens > on the other side of the Devils Berg he says: "The first of these is about > two hours or one German mile distant from the town, and is named the 'Ronde > Boschje' from a circular plantation of young oak trees in the neighbourhood. > My own opinion is that the garden has obtained this name from its own > somewhat round appearance, for owing to the action of the South-East wind > the branches of all fruit trees standing on the boundary lean towards the > passerby. Within this garden there is a summer house of modest designe for > the pleasure of the Governor and other prominent persons." > > > > Mentzel was extremely impressed by the success of the pomegranate which grew > in the gardens, and has some pleasant remarks to make about the climate. > "These gardens are watered by a stream, that flows from the Table Mountain > and enters the Salt River. They are more attractive than the one in the town > because they provide a finer view, and purer air. The neighbouring mountains > cast cooling shadows and the frequent cloud coverings on top mitigate the > heat of the sun. The prevailing summer winds are not so vehement nor so > sudden in their onslaught as in the town." > > > > In 1769 Rear-Admiral John Splinter Stavorinus, who was in the service of the > States-General of Holland, visited the Cape on his way to the Far East. He > described the gardens "on the acclivity of the Devils Mountain, one of which > is called Newland, and the other Het Ronde Bosch (The Round Grove)". He > found both "adorned with shady walks and planted with a great number of > fruit trees". At Newlands he was greatly impressed by an apricot tree "which > was so large and had spread its branches so wide that more than twenty men > could be sheltered under them, and it produced very good fruit at the same > time". Stavorinus was almost alone among the visitors in remarking that "it > is a great pity that these pleasant country seats are so subject to the > violent attacks of the furious south-east winds which continually sweep down > the mountain". Other travellers remark how comparatively sheltered this area > appeared. > > > > About the same time Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the famous French author of > Paul et Virginie visited Cape Town, and mentioned that although the price of > board and lodging was very high, one could always spend some days at his > landlord's country house at "Driekoppjes or Rondebosch" without extra > expense. It seems that some of the ordinary citizens of Cape Town already > had country seats at Rondebósch. > > > > In 1772 the famous Swedish professor of Physics at Stockholm University, > Andrew Sparrman, visited the Cape and stayed for some time at Alphen. He > found a rare animal vivera putorius (probably a kind of genet) at "Mr > Dreijer's farm at Rondebosch, situated nearer to the Cape than Alphen". > > Even old Rondebosch residents will no doubt be surprised to hear that in one > of his "excursions between Alphen and Rondebosch near a marshy place in a > dale", Sparrman came upon an animal with which he was totally unacquainted > and realised that it was a hippopotamus or sea-cow, which had probably > strayed from Zeekoe Vlei. > > > > Sparrman's Swedish colleague, Charles Peter Thnnberg, Professor of Botany at > Upsala University, visited the Cape at about the same time, and as a > botanist his impressions were largely related to plants and fruits. He > refers to Rondebosch which he visited on the 30th June 1772, as "a villa > belonging to the Governor", and says: "On this Eastern side, along Table > Mountain, the South East wind does not blow so hard as at the Cape, for > which reason both trees and shrubs grow here. Among other trees the pine > (pinus sylvestris) was conspicuous by its elegant crown. Wild vines made a > distinguished figure at this time with their red berries which resembled > cherries and were eatable". > > > > Thunberg again visited Rondebosch in 1774 and remarks that the Governor has > country houses at Rondebosch and Newlands "to which he may retire at > pleasure, and unbend his mind when oppressed with the cares of state". > > On the 15th September 1795, Rondebosch received two famous visitors when the > Cape was surrendered to General Craig and Admiral Elphinstone at Rustenburg. > > During the first British Occupation we have a description of Rustenburg by > the famous Lady Anne Barnard. "At Rondebosch," she remarks, "is the > pleasantest country house belonging to Government, four miles distance from > the Cape." In one of her letters she writes: "All is sweet you know that > grows in the neighbourhood of Constantia and Rondebosch." > > Also during the first British Occupation Robert Semple in his delightful > book "Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope" describes a visit through > Rondebosch to the Brewery of Mr. van Reenen. "A mile from Cape Town we > passed the lines, a range of redoubts and blockhouses . . . Having passed > the lines the road winds further to the right and in about half an hour > brought us through an avenue of trees to Rondybosch the seat of the > Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape. A little beyond Rondybosch we ascended a > small rising ground towards the right and eontinuing to approach still > nearer the hills, arrived at the Brewery, the estate of D. van Reenen, as > well known and as famous at the Cape as that of Constantia; and here we > stopped to take some refreshment. > > > > The house of Mr van Reenen though not yet compleated, is by far the most > elegant of any building public or private in the whole colony. It was > planned by Thibault a French engineer." > > Ten years later, in December 1811, the great English naturalist William > Burcheil visited Rondebosch and left us a most charming description. > "Rondebosch (Round-wood) is an assemblage of villas and gardens, distributed > along the first part of the road; and here many of the inhabitants of Cape > Town have their country seats. A little farther on, we crossed the > Liesbeecks river, a plentiful streamlet, at a place called Westervoort > Bridge. Hereabouts the country becomes exceedingly beautiful, every where > shaded with groves, and large trees of luxuriant growth, between which are > interspersed vineyards, gardens, and many handsome buildings. Turning to the > right or westward out of the Wynberg road, we followed another equally broad > and good, and delightfully shaded by large oaks. This led us by Nieuwlands > (Newlands) at that time the seat of General Grey; but which has since become > the official country residence of the Governor. Near this place is a > beautiful spot called the Brewery where in the midst groves and plantations > stands an elegant mansion built after the designs of Mons. Thibault, the > government architect and surveyor." > > Rondebosch residents will perceive a familiar note when Burchell mentions > that at Roodebloem "we felt the symptoms of an approaching hot day; but at > Rondebosch, owing perhaps to a cool and more open situation, the thermometer > fell to 73". > > Some years later, in 1838, Rondebosch began to assume its present character. > Charles Bunbury, foreign secretary of the geological society, describes a > drive to Muizenberg. "Our way," he writes, "lay at first along the foot of > the Devils Mountain, and skirting the flats past the pretty little village > of Rondebosch; in this part, the broad level road, bordered by high hedges, > and shaded by oak or fir trees, the neat cottages and gardens by the wayside > and the public houses with English names on their signs, put me much in view > of my own country." > > > > A curious visit was paid to Rondebosch by Andrew Geddes Bain the great road > engineer; when in search of coal he put down a borehole on the "Rondebosch > Flats to test the lignite found there". > > A frequent visitor in the middle of the nineteenth century was Thomas > Bowler, the artist who gave drawing lessons at "Bishops". Three of the > pictures of Rondebosch subjects he painted at this time are illustrated in > this booklet. > > Rondebosch has come a long way through the centuries from the days when Van > Riebeeck settled the Free Burghers on the banks of the Liesbeek. It has not, > however, lost the early charm and individuality which made such an appeal to > these early travellers. > > More still to come > kind regards > Heather > > > Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and > www.familytree.co.za > > Join the Cape Town Family History Society > www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm > > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > FamilyTree.co.za.......it's the place to hang out and do your Family Tree > > ============================== > OneWorldTree - The World's largest family tree. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13971/rd.ashx > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== Heather's South African Genealogy Help List www.genealogy.co.za ============================== New! OneWorldTree. Building Trees. Connecting Families. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13970/rd.ashx

Hi Heather Does your source on Rondebosch mention a house or property called 'Merchiston' in Rondebosch - I am interested to know a little about the owners. Thanks Sharon View 1800s SOUTH AFRICAN PASSENGER LISTS at http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/DataArchive.htm SCRIBES PUBLISHING for Colonial Books on CD - visit http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/Scribes.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heather MacAlister" <heather@ancestors.co.za> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 9:19 AM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Rondebosch - a bit of History > Good morning Everyone > > I thought some of you with Roots from Rondebosch might be interested in this story. > > March 1, 1657 is an important date because it marks the most important event in South African history, for on this day-it was a Thursday-South Africa was permanently established at Rondebosch. On this day the European for the first time in world history took permanent title to land on the African continent, an event whose significance surpasses even the romance and adventure of the enterprise. > > > > Slowly but inevitably, like the labouring ox-wagon, we forged northwards from the Liesbeek to the Limpopo, and to-day South Africa is a bastion and a basis whence the continent of Africa to the equator and beyond can be held against barbarism, and the tropical growths of awakening millions be pollinated with Western culture. > > To-day Southern Africa would seem to be the only European offshoot in Africa with every evidence of permanence as a white man's home, and so on 1st March we celebrate the tercentenary of an event of such import as not even van Riebeeck, gifted with rare vision, could have realized. > > > > Again and again he brushed aside material restraints imposed upon him by his realistic, bargain-hunting superiors, and exclaimed with prophetic insight that he foresaw a great country emerging from the timid excursion into commercial enterprise to which the settlement was limited by their policy. To them as to Lord Salisbury more than two centuries later, the Cape Peninsula was all they needed. > > > > Van Riebeeck looked beyond Table Mountain; indeed, he does not seem to have really seen the mountain. It was a most welcome, and to him who had visited the Cape before, a characteristic sight duly celebrated on board when at the close of the tedious voyage of their little flotilla a look-out shouted from the crow's nest that they had arrived. > > > > Never once did he rise to the panegyric of a Drake over our mountains and the contours of our coast line. He was a Dutchman bred in the Lowlands and very likely did not relish mountains. But to his eternal credit he saw South Africa from the inside and standing on the slopes of Devil's Peak with his back to the mountain he broke into panegyric over the flats and exclaimed that it surpassed in beauty even Formosa (the beautiful) which he knew so well. And who, taking the same stand to-day, would be so dead of soul as to view the exciting panorama of range upon range with rolling lowlands rising to their peaks without being stirred as he was ? > > > > Looking downwards he saw at his feet a scene dotted with lakes and streams and a landmark surrounded by teeming fruitfulness, a landmark which was to give a name to the locality of his first permanent settlement; it was a curious formation of trees in a round cluster which he named "Het Ronde Doornbosjen". This clump of thorn trees had probably grown from a Hottentot stockade around one of their cattle kraals and the situation of this celebrated grove at whose shrine we may well hold a tercentenary dedication can be determined with fair correctness. It was situated some five miles from the fort on the mountain side of the Liesbeek and along the old woodcutters' route which was to become the first Cape Highway now followed by the present main road. I would place it between the University School of Music and Groote Schuur on what became known as the Rustenburg estate, with which indeed it became synonymous, and if anyone located it at about the present Rondebosch fountain I do! > ubt if he would be a hundred yards out. > > > > The size of this Rondebosjen, to this day known as Rondebossie to the older generation, may be gauged from van Riebeeck's instruction dated 7th February 1657 that the inside must be cleared to leave a hedge some ten feet wide all round on the outside to form a suitable shelter or kraal for cattle, or otherwise serve "tot meerder deffentie rontom de redout aldaer geprojecteert" (as a further line of defence about the redoubt he planned to erect there). > > > > But van Riebeeck had had his eye on Rondebosch for some years then. In first mentioning the place he remarked on the extraordinarily sheltered position of Rondebosch in the most picturesque terms. Whereas Table Mountain and its slopes were the scene of the roaring South- Easter, the bane of van Riebeeck's life, there reigned at Rondebosch and environs an elysian calm where only mild zephyrs blew, when in Table valley veritable tornadoes tore his plants out by the roots and flattened his shelters to the ground. To the end Rondebosch and thereabouts remained to him the place where "fell not hail or any snow, nor ever wind blew loudly". Rondebosch had completely won his affection and it followed almost automatically that a little further along he selected a site for his own farm, Boschheuvel, at Bishops Court. The settlement pinpointed by the Ronde Doornbosjen soon included the area now comprising the greater part of Wynberg, Kenilworth, Claremont to Rosebank and Mowbray onward! > s. > > > > But it was not only the sheltered position of this area which roused him to enthusiasm. He literally licked his lips over the fat loamy soil which he found here. "Seer fraaie gronden bequaem ter culture" (lovely soils fitted for cultivation) he exclaimed again and again, and to convince his cautious, hardheaded principals he suited the action to the word and started cultivation there early on. > > > > So on 17 May 1656 he noted in his diary: "By 't rondebosjen suydwaarts achter de Taeffelbergh ongeveer mergen lands met de ploegh claer gemaeckt ende besayt met taruw, rys ende haver tot een proefien om te sien off het daer minder schade van de harde winden sal hebben te lyden ende ingevolge te pyne waert wesen om het in 't aanstaende met meerder vigeur te vervolgen," which being translated reads: > > "At the Rondebosch southwards behind the Table Mountain prepared about a quarter of a morgen of land with the plough and sowed it with rye, rice and oats as an experiment to see whether they stood to suffer less damage there from the driving winds and if it would consequently be worth the trouble to follow up with greater vigour in the future." > > He went further; he put a small sentry box there with two men on duty day and night. > > > > Van Riebeeck did not do things by halves. The time was soon to come when he was to carry out his project "met meerdere vigeur". > > Again in October 1656 he notes: the prepared lands at the "ronde doornbosjen" sowed with broad beans, "oock eenige pattatissen aihier uyt Brasil becomen". So now we know the origin of our sweet potato. Turkish beans, tobacco and vines were also put in. Van Riebeeck had a nice sense of drama. We watch him working up to the climax in his play with the Council of Seventeen, whetting their appetites for gainful extension and whipping up their interest in profitable expansion. The curtain had gone up and the first scenes been presented. > > > > It was therefore a triumphant scene which was enacted in the fort and one which was to draw resounding plaudits from generations down the centuries when on 21 February 1657 there were seated at the council table in the commander's hall Jan van Riebeeck, Roelof de Man, bookkeeper; Casper van Weede, secretary; with sergeant Jan van Harwarden in attendance and on the other side of the table nine who had applied to become the first citizens of our land, the first Free Burghers. They were meeting to discuss the terms and conditions of settlement and to sign on the dotted line. The Council of Seventeen had at last, albeit dubiously and provisionally, approved! > > > > The men were Herman Remagen, Jan de Wacht, Jan van Passel, Werner Cornelissen, Roeloff Janssen, to whom were assigned as much land each as they could cultivate in three years, the settlement to be called the Groeneveld (Greenfields) beyond the Liesbeek to the Kromboom. They were to apply themselves more particularly to the growing of wheat besides raising cattle, pigs, etc. The remaining four, Stephen Botma, Hendrick Elbrechts, Otto Janssen and Jacob Cornelissen would settle on this side of the Liesbeek in the Hollandsche Thuyn (Dutch Garden) and apply themselves to growing tobacco, wheat, rice and other crops. It was this group who were at the Ronde Doornbosjen and their lands would stretch from the small bridge leading to the forest on the mountain slopes above Bishops Court to the furthest redoubt to be built in the Rosebank-Mowbray area. > > > > The terms and conditions were many and often varied subsequently, but they stated that Free Burghers had to be men of character and ability, and that in respect of the grants "de gemelte leyden zullen zijn ende blijven in vollen eygendom eeuwich ende erffelijck om daermede te doen na eygen welgevallen" (the persons mentioned would have and remain in full hereditary title of such land forever to do therewith according to their pleasure). The contracts would date as from 1 March 1657 and on that historic Thursday the watering station became a settlement, the halfway house a home and the trading port a country; South Africa was permanently founded. As Admiral van Goens, who later came to approve Van Riebeeck's plans, said: > > "We cannot become good citizens until we have been good farmers." > > > > In the second five years' term of Van Riebeeck's tenure much is recorded of the vicissitudes of our settlement. On Sunday, 4 March 1657, after the usual inspection on the parade followed by divine service, Van Riebeeck, as anyone could have guessed, set out for Rondebosch to see how his new settlers were doing, and thence onwards the activities of the Free Burghers and the growth of the settlement supply much enthusiastic though sometimes anxious material for the diary. The company's gardens in Table Valley were now running a bad second in Van Riebeeck's interest and attention. > > > > The building of a granary and the erection of mills were further steps and so it happened that Groote Schuur was built and Wouter Mostert was appointed the first free miller, the beginning of private enterprise. So also a wynberg or winery was indicated, a word which by a process of popular etymology was later associated with the slopes of the suburb later named Wynberg. On 20 July 1657 we read that Van Riebeeck went to Rondebosch to pick his site for the "corenschuyr" (wheat store) and decided that night to build it 108 Dutch feet long and 40 feet wide. Orders were given for trees to be felled for the necessary timber; but there were delays, and not till 25 January 1658 did Van Riebeeck go to look for thatch for the roof of his groote schuur. On 4 December of the same year he records proudly that his vineyard at the Boschheuvel was "fraey aen't wassen", or growing (waxing) beautifully. > > > > There were difficulties and dangers, however. The lions had become so bold that neither man nor beast could venture out. Wouter Mostert came face to face with a lion and only just saved himself by shinning up a tree ("op een boom gesalveert"). But a more serious threat came from the Hottentots who had noted with growing misgiving that the white man was digging himself in. There came days when the Free Burghers were called to arms and orders were issued to abandon farms. There were anxious sieges, ghastly fires and ruinous raids by brutal and crafty savages, but steadily the settlements prospered and the settlers began looking further afield. As early as June 1657, some of our Free Burghers went on an expedition southwards and returned with tales of a land of beauty and plenty which surpassed even Rondebosch. They encountered a superior tribe of Hottentots who entertained them most hospitably and who on listening to their accounts of the beauty and riches of Holland replied t! > hat this fertile country was their Holland and could be styled the Hottentots Holland. And so Somerset West was "discovered". > > > > But our settlement on the Liesbeek (lies - water reeds; beek - a beck or stream) gave us a very important development of another kind. The Free Burghers were henceforth to be represented on Van Riebeeck's Council and so began democratic local and civic government. > > > > Van Riebeeck had indeed done a fine job of foundation work. Religion and its sacred observances, education, the beginnings of democratic government, Roman-Dutch law, social order and justice were firmly established. He saw to it that this would be no land of buccaneers and pirates, but a country solidly founded in the best traditions of European civilization. There were times when it seemed that this far-seeing man with his inflexible tenacity of purpose alone stood between our infant country and relegation, exposure or abandonment. To him and those whom he inspired, his noble wife not the least, belong the chief credit; but in the whole exciting drama of our birth throes and teething pains Rondebosch and the suburbs into which it developed played a major part and have indeed a proud tradition. > > The development and growth of each of these suburbs jointly and severally would form the subject of a worthy history. Great families, historic farms, noble buildings and events which are the roots of South African history remain to be recorded in more than episodic form. May our celebration foster such historical writing. > > > Wasn't that interesting ??? > Would you like more ? > kind regards > Heather > > Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and www.familytree.co.za > > Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > FamilyTree.co.za.......it's the place to hang out and do your Family Tree > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx > >

Hi Heather Thanks for this interesting account of the History of Rondebosch - could you please give us your source? Thanks and regards Sharon View 1800s SOUTH AFRICAN PASSENGER LISTS at http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/DataArchive.htm SCRIBES PUBLISHING for Colonial Books on CD - visit http://www.sagenealogy.co.za/Scribes.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heather MacAlister" <heather@ancestors.co.za> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:15 PM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Rondebosch - a bit of History Part 3 > SOME EARLY VISITORS TO RONDEBOSCH AND THEIR IMPRESSIONS > > > > For more than 300 years-even before the Free Burghers settled on the banks > of the Liesbeek River-travellers have followed one route from the Castle to > Rondebosch. In his book "Old Cape Highways", Dr. Mossop has established that > "it is now beyond doubt that when we travel the Main Road to the suburbs by > Sir Lowry Road, Observatory and Rosebank, we are-as far as the hillock at > Rondebosch, now dominated by the Church of St. Paul-upon the very waggon > road of Van Riebeeck's wood-cutters". > > > > Along this road have come through the centuries a vast multitude of people. > In this article I have selected a few of the more famous of this multitude > who have fortunately left behind them their impressions of Rondebosch and > its environs, or whose visits have been recorded. Of necessity only those > who visited Rondebosch up till the middle of the 19th Century have been > included. > > > > These visitors came for a variety of reasons and made a variety of > observations. It was the age when the traveller frequently put down his > observations in book form, and we are fortunate that many of the impressions > of these early travellers have been recorded in books which have become > classics of our Africana. > > >From the fascinating pages of their books it would seem that the majority of > visitors journeyed to see the Company's Gardens at Rondebosch and Newlands. > The village is barely mentioned before 1811, and the official visits of > inspection were to see the conditions under which the Free Burghers were > farming. It was for this purpose that Commissioner Rykiof Van Goens, > Governor-General of Batavia, visited the settlement on the Liesbeek in March > 1657. He improved the conditions and made provision for one of the settlers > to be a burgher councillor. > > > > Nine years later, in December 1666, the Admiral of the French Fleet, > Monsieur de Monde Vergne, was one of the first of a long succession of > visitors who were entertained at Rustenburg, the Company's Country House at > Rondebosch in the Gardens. He is said to have referred to it as being > "well-built and very sumptuously furnished". > > > > The German, Peter Kolbe(n) who had been sent to the Cape to make > astronomical observations, and who remained there from 1705 till 1713, has > left a quaint description of the gardens at Rondebosch which deserves to be > quoted in full. "Several beautiful country seats, vineyards and gardens are > to be seen on almost every side of the Table-hill. The Company has here two > very spacious, rich and beautiful Gardens. In one of 'em stands, erected at > the Company's Expence, a noble Pleasure-House for the Governour, and near it > a beautiful Grove of Oaks, called the Round-Bush from which this Garden > takes its Name, being called the Round-Bush garden. The other Garden which > is at some distance from this is called Newland because but lately planted. > Both these gardens are finely watered by the Springs on the Table-Hill and > the Company draws from 'em a very considerable Revenue. > > > > "Between these Gardens and contiguous to the foremention'd Stable, lies a > lovely estate, called on Account of its Fertility, Bread and Wine. Between > those Gardens likewise stands Lonwens famous Brew-house, erected by Jacob > Lonwen who together with his family was transported to the Cape, at the > Company's expence, for this very purpose." > > > > Some thirty years later another German, Otto Mentzel arrived and left a > justly famous description of the Cape of Good Hope. Of the Company's gardens > on the other side of the Devils Berg he says: "The first of these is about > two hours or one German mile distant from the town, and is named the 'Ronde > Boschje' from a circular plantation of young oak trees in the neighbourhood. > My own opinion is that the garden has obtained this name from its own > somewhat round appearance, for owing to the action of the South-East wind > the branches of all fruit trees standing on the boundary lean towards the > passerby. Within this garden there is a summer house of modest designe for > the pleasure of the Governor and other prominent persons." > > > > Mentzel was extremely impressed by the success of the pomegranate which grew > in the gardens, and has some pleasant remarks to make about the climate. > "These gardens are watered by a stream, that flows from the Table Mountain > and enters the Salt River. They are more attractive than the one in the town > because they provide a finer view, and purer air. The neighbouring mountains > cast cooling shadows and the frequent cloud coverings on top mitigate the > heat of the sun. The prevailing summer winds are not so vehement nor so > sudden in their onslaught as in the town." > > > > In 1769 Rear-Admiral John Splinter Stavorinus, who was in the service of the > States-General of Holland, visited the Cape on his way to the Far East. He > described the gardens "on the acclivity of the Devils Mountain, one of which > is called Newland, and the other Het Ronde Bosch (The Round Grove)". He > found both "adorned with shady walks and planted with a great number of > fruit trees". At Newlands he was greatly impressed by an apricot tree "which > was so large and had spread its branches so wide that more than twenty men > could be sheltered under them, and it produced very good fruit at the same > time". Stavorinus was almost alone among the visitors in remarking that "it > is a great pity that these pleasant country seats are so subject to the > violent attacks of the furious south-east winds which continually sweep down > the mountain". Other travellers remark how comparatively sheltered this area > appeared. > > > > About the same time Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the famous French author of > Paul et Virginie visited Cape Town, and mentioned that although the price of > board and lodging was very high, one could always spend some days at his > landlord's country house at "Driekoppjes or Rondebosch" without extra > expense. It seems that some of the ordinary citizens of Cape Town already > had country seats at Rondebósch. > > > > In 1772 the famous Swedish professor of Physics at Stockholm University, > Andrew Sparrman, visited the Cape and stayed for some time at Alphen. He > found a rare animal vivera putorius (probably a kind of genet) at "Mr > Dreijer's farm at Rondebosch, situated nearer to the Cape than Alphen". > > Even old Rondebosch residents will no doubt be surprised to hear that in one > of his "excursions between Alphen and Rondebosch near a marshy place in a > dale", Sparrman came upon an animal with which he was totally unacquainted > and realised that it was a hippopotamus or sea-cow, which had probably > strayed from Zeekoe Vlei. > > > > Sparrman's Swedish colleague, Charles Peter Thnnberg, Professor of Botany at > Upsala University, visited the Cape at about the same time, and as a > botanist his impressions were largely related to plants and fruits. He > refers to Rondebosch which he visited on the 30th June 1772, as "a villa > belonging to the Governor", and says: "On this Eastern side, along Table > Mountain, the South East wind does not blow so hard as at the Cape, for > which reason both trees and shrubs grow here. Among other trees the pine > (pinus sylvestris) was conspicuous by its elegant crown. Wild vines made a > distinguished figure at this time with their red berries which resembled > cherries and were eatable". > > > > Thunberg again visited Rondebosch in 1774 and remarks that the Governor has > country houses at Rondebosch and Newlands "to which he may retire at > pleasure, and unbend his mind when oppressed with the cares of state". > > On the 15th September 1795, Rondebosch received two famous visitors when the > Cape was surrendered to General Craig and Admiral Elphinstone at Rustenburg. > > During the first British Occupation we have a description of Rustenburg by > the famous Lady Anne Barnard. "At Rondebosch," she remarks, "is the > pleasantest country house belonging to Government, four miles distance from > the Cape." In one of her letters she writes: "All is sweet you know that > grows in the neighbourhood of Constantia and Rondebosch." > > Also during the first British Occupation Robert Semple in his delightful > book "Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope" describes a visit through > Rondebosch to the Brewery of Mr. van Reenen. "A mile from Cape Town we > passed the lines, a range of redoubts and blockhouses . . . Having passed > the lines the road winds further to the right and in about half an hour > brought us through an avenue of trees to Rondybosch the seat of the > Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape. A little beyond Rondybosch we ascended a > small rising ground towards the right and eontinuing to approach still > nearer the hills, arrived at the Brewery, the estate of D. van Reenen, as > well known and as famous at the Cape as that of Constantia; and here we > stopped to take some refreshment. > > > > The house of Mr van Reenen though not yet compleated, is by far the most > elegant of any building public or private in the whole colony. It was > planned by Thibault a French engineer." > > Ten years later, in December 1811, the great English naturalist William > Burcheil visited Rondebosch and left us a most charming description. > "Rondebosch (Round-wood) is an assemblage of villas and gardens, distributed > along the first part of the road; and here many of the inhabitants of Cape > Town have their country seats. A little farther on, we crossed the > Liesbeecks river, a plentiful streamlet, at a place called Westervoort > Bridge. Hereabouts the country becomes exceedingly beautiful, every where > shaded with groves, and large trees of luxuriant growth, between which are > interspersed vineyards, gardens, and many handsome buildings. Turning to the > right or westward out of the Wynberg road, we followed another equally broad > and good, and delightfully shaded by large oaks. This led us by Nieuwlands > (Newlands) at that time the seat of General Grey; but which has since become > the official country residence of the Governor. Near this place is a > beautiful spot called the Brewery where in the midst groves and plantations > stands an elegant mansion built after the designs of Mons. Thibault, the > government architect and surveyor." > > Rondebosch residents will perceive a familiar note when Burchell mentions > that at Roodebloem "we felt the symptoms of an approaching hot day; but at > Rondebosch, owing perhaps to a cool and more open situation, the thermometer > fell to 73". > > Some years later, in 1838, Rondebosch began to assume its present character. > Charles Bunbury, foreign secretary of the geological society, describes a > drive to Muizenberg. "Our way," he writes, "lay at first along the foot of > the Devils Mountain, and skirting the flats past the pretty little village > of Rondebosch; in this part, the broad level road, bordered by high hedges, > and shaded by oak or fir trees, the neat cottages and gardens by the wayside > and the public houses with English names on their signs, put me much in view > of my own country." > > > > A curious visit was paid to Rondebosch by Andrew Geddes Bain the great road > engineer; when in search of coal he put down a borehole on the "Rondebosch > Flats to test the lignite found there". > > A frequent visitor in the middle of the nineteenth century was Thomas > Bowler, the artist who gave drawing lessons at "Bishops". Three of the > pictures of Rondebosch subjects he painted at this time are illustrated in > this booklet. > > Rondebosch has come a long way through the centuries from the days when Van > Riebeeck settled the Free Burghers on the banks of the Liesbeek. It has not, > however, lost the early charm and individuality which made such an appeal to > these early travellers. > > More still to come > kind regards > Heather > > > Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and > www.familytree.co.za > > Join the Cape Town Family History Society > www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm > > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > FamilyTree.co.za.......it's the place to hang out and do your Family Tree > > ============================== > OneWorldTree - The World's largest family tree. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13971/rd.ashx > >

SOME EARLY VISITORS TO RONDEBOSCH AND THEIR IMPRESSIONS For more than 300 years-even before the Free Burghers settled on the banks of the Liesbeek River-travellers have followed one route from the Castle to Rondebosch. In his book "Old Cape Highways", Dr. Mossop has established that "it is now beyond doubt that when we travel the Main Road to the suburbs by Sir Lowry Road, Observatory and Rosebank, we are-as far as the hillock at Rondebosch, now dominated by the Church of St. Paul-upon the very waggon road of Van Riebeeck's wood-cutters". Along this road have come through the centuries a vast multitude of people. In this article I have selected a few of the more famous of this multitude who have fortunately left behind them their impressions of Rondebosch and its environs, or whose visits have been recorded. Of necessity only those who visited Rondebosch up till the middle of the 19th Century have been included. These visitors came for a variety of reasons and made a variety of observations. It was the age when the traveller frequently put down his observations in book form, and we are fortunate that many of the impressions of these early travellers have been recorded in books which have become classics of our Africana. From the fascinating pages of their books it would seem that the majority of visitors journeyed to see the Company's Gardens at Rondebosch and Newlands. The village is barely mentioned before 1811, and the official visits of inspection were to see the conditions under which the Free Burghers were farming. It was for this purpose that Commissioner Rykiof Van Goens, Governor-General of Batavia, visited the settlement on the Liesbeek in March 1657. He improved the conditions and made provision for one of the settlers to be a burgher councillor. Nine years later, in December 1666, the Admiral of the French Fleet, Monsieur de Monde Vergne, was one of the first of a long succession of visitors who were entertained at Rustenburg, the Company's Country House at Rondebosch in the Gardens. He is said to have referred to it as being "well-built and very sumptuously furnished". The German, Peter Kolbe(n) who had been sent to the Cape to make astronomical observations, and who remained there from 1705 till 1713, has left a quaint description of the gardens at Rondebosch which deserves to be quoted in full. "Several beautiful country seats, vineyards and gardens are to be seen on almost every side of the Table-hill. The Company has here two very spacious, rich and beautiful Gardens. In one of 'em stands, erected at the Company's Expence, a noble Pleasure-House for the Governour, and near it a beautiful Grove of Oaks, called the Round-Bush from which this Garden takes its Name, being called the Round-Bush garden. The other Garden which is at some distance from this is called Newland because but lately planted. Both these gardens are finely watered by the Springs on the Table-Hill and the Company draws from 'em a very considerable Revenue. "Between these Gardens and contiguous to the foremention'd Stable, lies a lovely estate, called on Account of its Fertility, Bread and Wine. Between those Gardens likewise stands Lonwens famous Brew-house, erected by Jacob Lonwen who together with his family was transported to the Cape, at the Company's expence, for this very purpose." Some thirty years later another German, Otto Mentzel arrived and left a justly famous description of the Cape of Good Hope. Of the Company's gardens on the other side of the Devils Berg he says: "The first of these is about two hours or one German mile distant from the town, and is named the 'Ronde Boschje' from a circular plantation of young oak trees in the neighbourhood. My own opinion is that the garden has obtained this name from its own somewhat round appearance, for owing to the action of the South-East wind the branches of all fruit trees standing on the boundary lean towards the passerby. Within this garden there is a summer house of modest designe for the pleasure of the Governor and other prominent persons." Mentzel was extremely impressed by the success of the pomegranate which grew in the gardens, and has some pleasant remarks to make about the climate. "These gardens are watered by a stream, that flows from the Table Mountain and enters the Salt River. They are more attractive than the one in the town because they provide a finer view, and purer air. The neighbouring mountains cast cooling shadows and the frequent cloud coverings on top mitigate the heat of the sun. The prevailing summer winds are not so vehement nor so sudden in their onslaught as in the town." In 1769 Rear-Admiral John Splinter Stavorinus, who was in the service of the States-General of Holland, visited the Cape on his way to the Far East. He described the gardens "on the acclivity of the Devils Mountain, one of which is called Newland, and the other Het Ronde Bosch (The Round Grove)". He found both "adorned with shady walks and planted with a great number of fruit trees". At Newlands he was greatly impressed by an apricot tree "which was so large and had spread its branches so wide that more than twenty men could be sheltered under them, and it produced very good fruit at the same time". Stavorinus was almost alone among the visitors in remarking that "it is a great pity that these pleasant country seats are so subject to the violent attacks of the furious south-east winds which continually sweep down the mountain". Other travellers remark how comparatively sheltered this area appeared. About the same time Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the famous French author of Paul et Virginie visited Cape Town, and mentioned that although the price of board and lodging was very high, one could always spend some days at his landlord's country house at "Driekoppjes or Rondebosch" without extra expense. It seems that some of the ordinary citizens of Cape Town already had country seats at Rondebósch. In 1772 the famous Swedish professor of Physics at Stockholm University, Andrew Sparrman, visited the Cape and stayed for some time at Alphen. He found a rare animal vivera putorius (probably a kind of genet) at "Mr Dreijer's farm at Rondebosch, situated nearer to the Cape than Alphen". Even old Rondebosch residents will no doubt be surprised to hear that in one of his "excursions between Alphen and Rondebosch near a marshy place in a dale", Sparrman came upon an animal with which he was totally unacquainted and realised that it was a hippopotamus or sea-cow, which had probably strayed from Zeekoe Vlei. Sparrman's Swedish colleague, Charles Peter Thnnberg, Professor of Botany at Upsala University, visited the Cape at about the same time, and as a botanist his impressions were largely related to plants and fruits. He refers to Rondebosch which he visited on the 30th June 1772, as "a villa belonging to the Governor", and says: "On this Eastern side, along Table Mountain, the South East wind does not blow so hard as at the Cape, for which reason both trees and shrubs grow here. Among other trees the pine (pinus sylvestris) was conspicuous by its elegant crown. Wild vines made a distinguished figure at this time with their red berries which resembled cherries and were eatable". Thunberg again visited Rondebosch in 1774 and remarks that the Governor has country houses at Rondebosch and Newlands "to which he may retire at pleasure, and unbend his mind when oppressed with the cares of state". On the 15th September 1795, Rondebosch received two famous visitors when the Cape was surrendered to General Craig and Admiral Elphinstone at Rustenburg. During the first British Occupation we have a description of Rustenburg by the famous Lady Anne Barnard. "At Rondebosch," she remarks, "is the pleasantest country house belonging to Government, four miles distance from the Cape." In one of her letters she writes: "All is sweet you know that grows in the neighbourhood of Constantia and Rondebosch." Also during the first British Occupation Robert Semple in his delightful book "Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope" describes a visit through Rondebosch to the Brewery of Mr. van Reenen. "A mile from Cape Town we passed the lines, a range of redoubts and blockhouses . . . Having passed the lines the road winds further to the right and in about half an hour brought us through an avenue of trees to Rondybosch the seat of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape. A little beyond Rondybosch we ascended a small rising ground towards the right and eontinuing to approach still nearer the hills, arrived at the Brewery, the estate of D. van Reenen, as well known and as famous at the Cape as that of Constantia; and here we stopped to take some refreshment. The house of Mr van Reenen though not yet compleated, is by far the most elegant of any building public or private in the whole colony. It was planned by Thibault a French engineer." Ten years later, in December 1811, the great English naturalist William Burcheil visited Rondebosch and left us a most charming description. "Rondebosch (Round-wood) is an assemblage of villas and gardens, distributed along the first part of the road; and here many of the inhabitants of Cape Town have their country seats. A little farther on, we crossed the Liesbeecks river, a plentiful streamlet, at a place called Westervoort Bridge. Hereabouts the country becomes exceedingly beautiful, every where shaded with groves, and large trees of luxuriant growth, between which are interspersed vineyards, gardens, and many handsome buildings. Turning to the right or westward out of the Wynberg road, we followed another equally broad and good, and delightfully shaded by large oaks. This led us by Nieuwlands (Newlands) at that time the seat of General Grey; but which has since become the official country residence of the Governor. Near this place is a beautiful spot called the Brewery where in the midst groves and plantations stands an elegant mansion built after the designs of Mons. Thibault, the government architect and surveyor." Rondebosch residents will perceive a familiar note when Burchell mentions that at Roodebloem "we felt the symptoms of an approaching hot day; but at Rondebosch, owing perhaps to a cool and more open situation, the thermometer fell to 73". Some years later, in 1838, Rondebosch began to assume its present character. Charles Bunbury, foreign secretary of the geological society, describes a drive to Muizenberg. "Our way," he writes, "lay at first along the foot of the Devils Mountain, and skirting the flats past the pretty little village of Rondebosch; in this part, the broad level road, bordered by high hedges, and shaded by oak or fir trees, the neat cottages and gardens by the wayside and the public houses with English names on their signs, put me much in view of my own country." A curious visit was paid to Rondebosch by Andrew Geddes Bain the great road engineer; when in search of coal he put down a borehole on the "Rondebosch Flats to test the lignite found there". A frequent visitor in the middle of the nineteenth century was Thomas Bowler, the artist who gave drawing lessons at "Bishops". Three of the pictures of Rondebosch subjects he painted at this time are illustrated in this booklet. Rondebosch has come a long way through the centuries from the days when Van Riebeeck settled the Free Burghers on the banks of the Liesbeek. It has not, however, lost the early charm and individuality which made such an appeal to these early travellers. More still to come kind regards Heather Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and www.familytree.co.za Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm

Morning all Can anyone please help with my plight on another part of my family jigsaw puzzle ? I am trying to trace the ancestors of a Richard Gordon Cressy Horsley who was married to a Margery Cooper on 30 December 1908 ? he was the youngest son of the late C. Cressy Horsley of Neasden, Middlesex. I am trying to find out where the name of Cressy fits in to this Family ? as I have Cressy's and Horsleys in my family tree. Descendants of Frank Walter Horsley 1 Frank Walter HORSLEY Born: in Sea Point, Cape Town Died: 15 May 1951 in De Beers Road, Strand, Cape .. +Elizabeth Elsie EVANS Died: 23 January 1955 ... 2 Kenneth HORSLEY ....... +CATHERINE ......... 3 Christopher Charles HORSLEY ............. +Mrs HORSLEY ............... 4 Nicole HORSLEY ............... 4 Byron HORSLEY Elizabeth Elsie Evans great great grandmother was a Horsley and I need to find out if Richard Gordon Cressy Horsley is a relation of Frank Walter Horsley ??? Any help would be great kind thanks Heather Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and www.familytree.co.za Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm

Morning all Here is part two of the Rondebosch saga: The story of Rondebosch would not be complete without the share of the non-European people and their aboriginal ancestors being given due recognition. The Bushman and the Bantu do not come into the picture. The Bantu were pillaging north of the Limpopo when Van Riebeeck was practising the arts of peace along the Liesbeek. They have no prior title to South Africa on any terms. The Bushmen had been scattered and decimated by the Hottentots and had accepted the role of the rogues of society with every man's hand against them. Theirs indeed is a pathetic history. The Hottentots, a light brown people, had migrated from Northern Africa down to the West Coast as far south as Agulhas. They must have been some quarter-million in number and had a simple primitive culture which Van Riebeeck praised highly. Their laws and customs were patriarchal, but women were accorded some respect and position. One of the most picturesque incidents in the Van Riebeeck Diary tells how the chieftains and their wives, mounted on oxen, rode in cavalcade to the Fort to be entertained by the commander whom they trusted and loved. They were an intelligent people who loved music and dancing and possessed great droves of sheep and cattle, but as their social structure was communistic and their way of life nomadic, imposed upon them by the necessity of going where the grazing led, they roamed the country in great drives and sweeps. Possessive title to land was a concept foreign to them, yet the various tribes often came into lethal conflict and, had Van Riebeeck not protected them against themselves their fratricidal wars would have exterminated them. The position was so bad that there were large bands of refugees and fugitives among them who were in hiding in the Cape Peninsula and along the coastline in caves and among the crags. They had become a menace and a danger to all, and at one time these desperadoes threatened the very existence of the settlement at the Cape. Van Riebeeck finally taught them a sharp lesson, to the relief of the peaceful tribes and the salvation of the Free Burghers. The idea of work was foreign to the Hottentot, a commendable way of life, but unfortunately impossible in civilization; slaves were therefore obtained mainly from the Portuguese, Dutch and British, who secured a monopoly of the lucrative slave trade. No Hottentot was ever enslaved. Many of these slaves came from the East and had long straight hair. They were often of superior culture and Van Riebeeck started a school for their children. When the slaves were finally emancipated under British rule there were some 40,000 of them, but many had already been freed and all would eventually have been so in terms of the regulations under Dutch rule. They mixed with the Hottentots and helped to form the coloured people of to-day. In regard to European admixture, Van Riebeeck imposed strict political and territorial apartheid and forbade private dealings between Europeans and Hottentots. While he frowned upon miscegenation he would not allow promiscuity and illegitimacy. The occasional cases of births from mixed "marriages" were therefore duly recorded in the baptismal registers. A very strong social sanction also developed early and it is safe to say that the European admixture while obvious in individuals is infinitesimally small in the race as a whole. The coloured people have thrived in the main. There are more than a million of them to-day and theirs is no mean achievement to have acquired most of the forms of European culture and languages in the short space of three centuries. It took our European ancestors longer to acquire Roman culture. In Van Riebeeck's time there were Coloured chieftains more or less settled about the Flats. There was Gogosoa, the fat captain in Rondebosch, and Doman lower down the Liesbeek, and as their descendants acquired the ways of civilization they made their contribution to the stability and progress of the country. There is every reason and inducement for the coloured people to join in acclaiming the foundation by which we have given them in generous measure a share in the heritage and tradition of Western civilization. Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and www.familytree.co.za Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm

Good morning Everyone I thought some of you with Roots from Rondebosch might be interested in this story. March 1, 1657 is an important date because it marks the most important event in South African history, for on this day-it was a Thursday-South Africa was permanently established at Rondebosch. On this day the European for the first time in world history took permanent title to land on the African continent, an event whose significance surpasses even the romance and adventure of the enterprise. Slowly but inevitably, like the labouring ox-wagon, we forged northwards from the Liesbeek to the Limpopo, and to-day South Africa is a bastion and a basis whence the continent of Africa to the equator and beyond can be held against barbarism, and the tropical growths of awakening millions be pollinated with Western culture. To-day Southern Africa would seem to be the only European offshoot in Africa with every evidence of permanence as a white man's home, and so on 1st March we celebrate the tercentenary of an event of such import as not even van Riebeeck, gifted with rare vision, could have realized. Again and again he brushed aside material restraints imposed upon him by his realistic, bargain-hunting superiors, and exclaimed with prophetic insight that he foresaw a great country emerging from the timid excursion into commercial enterprise to which the settlement was limited by their policy. To them as to Lord Salisbury more than two centuries later, the Cape Peninsula was all they needed. Van Riebeeck looked beyond Table Mountain; indeed, he does not seem to have really seen the mountain. It was a most welcome, and to him who had visited the Cape before, a characteristic sight duly celebrated on board when at the close of the tedious voyage of their little flotilla a look-out shouted from the crow's nest that they had arrived. Never once did he rise to the panegyric of a Drake over our mountains and the contours of our coast line. He was a Dutchman bred in the Lowlands and very likely did not relish mountains. But to his eternal credit he saw South Africa from the inside and standing on the slopes of Devil's Peak with his back to the mountain he broke into panegyric over the flats and exclaimed that it surpassed in beauty even Formosa (the beautiful) which he knew so well. And who, taking the same stand to-day, would be so dead of soul as to view the exciting panorama of range upon range with rolling lowlands rising to their peaks without being stirred as he was ? Looking downwards he saw at his feet a scene dotted with lakes and streams and a landmark surrounded by teeming fruitfulness, a landmark which was to give a name to the locality of his first permanent settlement; it was a curious formation of trees in a round cluster which he named "Het Ronde Doornbosjen". This clump of thorn trees had probably grown from a Hottentot stockade around one of their cattle kraals and the situation of this celebrated grove at whose shrine we may well hold a tercentenary dedication can be determined with fair correctness. It was situated some five miles from the fort on the mountain side of the Liesbeek and along the old woodcutters' route which was to become the first Cape Highway now followed by the present main road. I would place it between the University School of Music and Groote Schuur on what became known as the Rustenburg estate, with which indeed it became synonymous, and if anyone located it at about the present Rondebosch fountain I do! ubt if he would be a hundred yards out. The size of this Rondebosjen, to this day known as Rondebossie to the older generation, may be gauged from van Riebeeck's instruction dated 7th February 1657 that the inside must be cleared to leave a hedge some ten feet wide all round on the outside to form a suitable shelter or kraal for cattle, or otherwise serve "tot meerder deffentie rontom de redout aldaer geprojecteert" (as a further line of defence about the redoubt he planned to erect there). But van Riebeeck had had his eye on Rondebosch for some years then. In first mentioning the place he remarked on the extraordinarily sheltered position of Rondebosch in the most picturesque terms. Whereas Table Mountain and its slopes were the scene of the roaring South- Easter, the bane of van Riebeeck's life, there reigned at Rondebosch and environs an elysian calm where only mild zephyrs blew, when in Table valley veritable tornadoes tore his plants out by the roots and flattened his shelters to the ground. To the end Rondebosch and thereabouts remained to him the place where "fell not hail or any snow, nor ever wind blew loudly". Rondebosch had completely won his affection and it followed almost automatically that a little further along he selected a site for his own farm, Boschheuvel, at Bishops Court. The settlement pinpointed by the Ronde Doornbosjen soon included the area now comprising the greater part of Wynberg, Kenilworth, Claremont to Rosebank and Mowbray onward! s. But it was not only the sheltered position of this area which roused him to enthusiasm. He literally licked his lips over the fat loamy soil which he found here. "Seer fraaie gronden bequaem ter culture" (lovely soils fitted for cultivation) he exclaimed again and again, and to convince his cautious, hardheaded principals he suited the action to the word and started cultivation there early on. So on 17 May 1656 he noted in his diary: "By 't rondebosjen suydwaarts achter de Taeffelbergh ongeveer mergen lands met de ploegh claer gemaeckt ende besayt met taruw, rys ende haver tot een proefien om te sien off het daer minder schade van de harde winden sal hebben te lyden ende ingevolge te pyne waert wesen om het in 't aanstaende met meerder vigeur te vervolgen," which being translated reads: "At the Rondebosch southwards behind the Table Mountain prepared about a quarter of a morgen of land with the plough and sowed it with rye, rice and oats as an experiment to see whether they stood to suffer less damage there from the driving winds and if it would consequently be worth the trouble to follow up with greater vigour in the future." He went further; he put a small sentry box there with two men on duty day and night. Van Riebeeck did not do things by halves. The time was soon to come when he was to carry out his project "met meerdere vigeur". Again in October 1656 he notes: the prepared lands at the "ronde doornbosjen" sowed with broad beans, "oock eenige pattatissen aihier uyt Brasil becomen". So now we know the origin of our sweet potato. Turkish beans, tobacco and vines were also put in. Van Riebeeck had a nice sense of drama. We watch him working up to the climax in his play with the Council of Seventeen, whetting their appetites for gainful extension and whipping up their interest in profitable expansion. The curtain had gone up and the first scenes been presented. It was therefore a triumphant scene which was enacted in the fort and one which was to draw resounding plaudits from generations down the centuries when on 21 February 1657 there were seated at the council table in the commander's hall Jan van Riebeeck, Roelof de Man, bookkeeper; Casper van Weede, secretary; with sergeant Jan van Harwarden in attendance and on the other side of the table nine who had applied to become the first citizens of our land, the first Free Burghers. They were meeting to discuss the terms and conditions of settlement and to sign on the dotted line. The Council of Seventeen had at last, albeit dubiously and provisionally, approved! The men were Herman Remagen, Jan de Wacht, Jan van Passel, Werner Cornelissen, Roeloff Janssen, to whom were assigned as much land each as they could cultivate in three years, the settlement to be called the Groeneveld (Greenfields) beyond the Liesbeek to the Kromboom. They were to apply themselves more particularly to the growing of wheat besides raising cattle, pigs, etc. The remaining four, Stephen Botma, Hendrick Elbrechts, Otto Janssen and Jacob Cornelissen would settle on this side of the Liesbeek in the Hollandsche Thuyn (Dutch Garden) and apply themselves to growing tobacco, wheat, rice and other crops. It was this group who were at the Ronde Doornbosjen and their lands would stretch from the small bridge leading to the forest on the mountain slopes above Bishops Court to the furthest redoubt to be built in the Rosebank-Mowbray area. The terms and conditions were many and often varied subsequently, but they stated that Free Burghers had to be men of character and ability, and that in respect of the grants "de gemelte leyden zullen zijn ende blijven in vollen eygendom eeuwich ende erffelijck om daermede te doen na eygen welgevallen" (the persons mentioned would have and remain in full hereditary title of such land forever to do therewith according to their pleasure). The contracts would date as from 1 March 1657 and on that historic Thursday the watering station became a settlement, the halfway house a home and the trading port a country; South Africa was permanently founded. As Admiral van Goens, who later came to approve Van Riebeeck's plans, said: "We cannot become good citizens until we have been good farmers." In the second five years' term of Van Riebeeck's tenure much is recorded of the vicissitudes of our settlement. On Sunday, 4 March 1657, after the usual inspection on the parade followed by divine service, Van Riebeeck, as anyone could have guessed, set out for Rondebosch to see how his new settlers were doing, and thence onwards the activities of the Free Burghers and the growth of the settlement supply much enthusiastic though sometimes anxious material for the diary. The company's gardens in Table Valley were now running a bad second in Van Riebeeck's interest and attention. The building of a granary and the erection of mills were further steps and so it happened that Groote Schuur was built and Wouter Mostert was appointed the first free miller, the beginning of private enterprise. So also a wynberg or winery was indicated, a word which by a process of popular etymology was later associated with the slopes of the suburb later named Wynberg. On 20 July 1657 we read that Van Riebeeck went to Rondebosch to pick his site for the "corenschuyr" (wheat store) and decided that night to build it 108 Dutch feet long and 40 feet wide. Orders were given for trees to be felled for the necessary timber; but there were delays, and not till 25 January 1658 did Van Riebeeck go to look for thatch for the roof of his groote schuur. On 4 December of the same year he records proudly that his vineyard at the Boschheuvel was "fraey aen't wassen", or growing (waxing) beautifully. There were difficulties and dangers, however. The lions had become so bold that neither man nor beast could venture out. Wouter Mostert came face to face with a lion and only just saved himself by shinning up a tree ("op een boom gesalveert"). But a more serious threat came from the Hottentots who had noted with growing misgiving that the white man was digging himself in. There came days when the Free Burghers were called to arms and orders were issued to abandon farms. There were anxious sieges, ghastly fires and ruinous raids by brutal and crafty savages, but steadily the settlements prospered and the settlers began looking further afield. As early as June 1657, some of our Free Burghers went on an expedition southwards and returned with tales of a land of beauty and plenty which surpassed even Rondebosch. They encountered a superior tribe of Hottentots who entertained them most hospitably and who on listening to their accounts of the beauty and riches of Holland replied t! hat this fertile country was their Holland and could be styled the Hottentots Holland. And so Somerset West was "discovered". But our settlement on the Liesbeek (lies - water reeds; beek - a beck or stream) gave us a very important development of another kind. The Free Burghers were henceforth to be represented on Van Riebeeck's Council and so began democratic local and civic government. Van Riebeeck had indeed done a fine job of foundation work. Religion and its sacred observances, education, the beginnings of democratic government, Roman-Dutch law, social order and justice were firmly established. He saw to it that this would be no land of buccaneers and pirates, but a country solidly founded in the best traditions of European civilization. There were times when it seemed that this far-seeing man with his inflexible tenacity of purpose alone stood between our infant country and relegation, exposure or abandonment. To him and those whom he inspired, his noble wife not the least, belong the chief credit; but in the whole exciting drama of our birth throes and teething pains Rondebosch and the suburbs into which it developed played a major part and have indeed a proud tradition. The development and growth of each of these suburbs jointly and severally would form the subject of a worthy history. Great families, historic farms, noble buildings and events which are the roots of South African history remain to be recorded in more than episodic form. May our celebration foster such historical writing. Wasn't that interesting ??? Would you like more ? kind regards Heather Visit South Africa's Premier Genealogy Web Sites www.ancestry.mweb.co.za and www.familytree.co.za Join the Cape Town Family History Society www.ancestors.co.za/society/socweb.htm

There was - possibly still is - a Mr. Norman who was an auto electrician in Sun Valley, near Fish Hoek a year or two ago... Go well! Ivy Trott ----- Original Message ----- From: "Foster, Coral A." <Coral.Anna.Foster@wwrc.virginia.gov> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 1:23 PM Subject: RE: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Fw: GRIMBEEK & NORMAN IN CAPETOWN 1895-1986 > Hi Ken: > > I know there was a Norman family in Cape Town, probably resident in the southern suburbs - perhaps, Wynberg or Plumstead - mid-50's. Not researching, but just might give you a "bump of locality"? > > Good luck, > Coral Anna > Mt. Solon, VA USA > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ken Dickins [mailto:kdickins@northnet.com.au] > Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 3:34 AM > To: SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Fw: GRIMBEEK & NORMAN IN CAPETOWN > 1895-1986 > > > Dear Listers, > > I am looking for anyone with the following amongst their family, possibly > still shown as 'living' on Rootsweb websites. > > Christian Calcott NORMAN 2/12/1895 - 28/4/1986 > Marie Eileen NORMAN (nee GRIMBEEK) 21/9/1905 - 23/4/1986 > > Christian probably born Strand RSA, died Cape Province > Marie probably born Beaufort west RSA, died Capetown > > Regards > > Ken Dickins > Armidale NSW Australia > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > Heather's South African Genealogy Help List > www.genealogy.co.za > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > > > > * CONFIDENTIALITY/PRIVACY NOTICE - The documents included in this transmission may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the information to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of these documents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this document in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange for return or destruction of these documents. > > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > Cape Town Family History Society > www.genealogy.co.za/society/socweb.htm > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 >

Dear Listers, I am looking for anyone with the following amongst their family, possibly still shown as 'living' on Rootsweb websites. Christian Calcott NORMAN 2/12/1895 - 28/4/1986 Marie Eileen NORMAN (nee GRIMBEEK) 21/9/1905 - 23/4/1986 Christian probably born Strand RSA, died Cape Province Marie probably born Beaufort west RSA, died Capetown Regards Ken Dickins Armidale NSW Australia

Dear all, Am also looking for two people that might appear as 'living' on Rootsweb lists: Richard John GELDENHUYS, b about 1911, married Marie CHRISTIANSEN, b abt 1914, on 10 Oct 1934 in Cape Town. They were divorced in 1934, having lived in Observatory, by which stage RJG was a ship's steward. Before their marriage, RJG lived at 1 Montague Rd, Maitland, and MC lived at 102 Princess Alice Drive, Brooklyn. Would love to find their parents, Kind regards Sharon

Hi Ken: I know there was a Norman family in Cape Town, probably resident in the southern suburbs - perhaps, Wynberg or Plumstead - mid-50's. Not researching, but just might give you a "bump of locality"? Good luck, Coral Anna Mt. Solon, VA USA -----Original Message----- From: Ken Dickins [mailto:kdickins@northnet.com.au] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 3:34 AM To: SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Fw: GRIMBEEK & NORMAN IN CAPETOWN 1895-1986 Dear Listers, I am looking for anyone with the following amongst their family, possibly still shown as 'living' on Rootsweb websites. Christian Calcott NORMAN 2/12/1895 - 28/4/1986 Marie Eileen NORMAN (nee GRIMBEEK) 21/9/1905 - 23/4/1986 Christian probably born Strand RSA, died Cape Province Marie probably born Beaufort west RSA, died Capetown Regards Ken Dickins Armidale NSW Australia ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== Heather's South African Genealogy Help List www.genealogy.co.za ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 * CONFIDENTIALITY/PRIVACY NOTICE - The documents included in this transmission may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the information to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of these documents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this document in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange for return or destruction of these documents.

Edwin James HARRIS 1862-? and his wife Cecelia Agnes (WHITE) 1867-? emigrated from Australia to South Africa around 1900 with their children: Cecilia Maude b.1889 Ann Florence b.1891 Edward James Roy b.1893 William John b.1896, and Thomas Leslie b.1897 Do any listers have a connection to this family? Ken Dickins

Hi George, I don't now if this person might be an early ancestor, but according to Peter Philip's 'British residents at the Cape 1795-1819': John Pemberton BATTEN, from London. 3.11.01 Permission to Remain in the Colony (Cape Archives BO 196). 14.10.07 Permission to Remain in the Colony 390, securities WF Venables/H Sandenberg (Cape Archives CO 6055/2). 27.2.08 at the store of Hudson and Batten which they have just opened in the Long Market Street, behind the hotel. 5.3.08 H&B at 7 Keizergracht, Market Str, behind the hotel, 1809 ditto (Cape Town Gazette & African Advertiser, African Court Calendar Directory). 1808 Thos. Hudson & JPB, 7 Keizersgracht, receive shopkeeper's licence (Cape Archives RDG 110). 9.5.12 JPB secretary to Britsih Lodge of Freemasons (CT Gazette & Advertiser). 1814-15-16 clerk to the Agent for Transports & Prisoners of War (African Court Calendar). 5.2.14 witness to will of T Hudson (Cape Archives MOOC 7/1/67-16). 16.11.17 died at the Cape, aged 44 (Cape Archives A 1939 1/1/1; Archives & Records of the Cape by Graham Botha).. 23.5.18 estate declared insolvent (Cape Archives MOIC 2/72-696). The Thomas Hudson mentioned above was a well-known figure at the Cape and there is a lengthy entry for him and other associated names, if you would like more info. There are three BATTENs listed in the Cape Town directory - I can forward details if you think this will help. I would be very interested to know more about your Winifred SHAW, as I have a number of Cape Town SHAWs I am trying to trace - unfortunately I don't have access to the Transvaal Archives, so cna't do thi slook-up. Please shout if you think this may provide leads, Kind regards Sharon Marshall ----- Original Message ----- From: George de Beer To: SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 8:22 PM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Henry William Batten Dear All,(Heather all the best with your new Web Site) Please let me introduce myself: Name: George de Beer Reside in: Great Missenden - United Kingdom Researching my Wife's (Margaret Elizabeth Batten) Family History. Her family ties started in Cape Town hence why I joined this group. My first query is Margaret's Fathers parents. I have attached her fathers details below. Is there anyone in this group who would be able to help find out who her Grand Parents where? ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ Henry BATTEN (1895-1958) ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ Name: Henry William BATTEN Sex: Male Father: - Mother: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Individual Events and Attributes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Birth 1895 Cape Town,Cape Province Death 1958 (age 62-63) Pietermaritzburg,Kwa-Zulu Natal Occupation Technical Foreman (Railways) Additional Information Birth: Dont have Birth Certicate and dont know Parents Address: Unknown Death Cause: Lung Cancer Address: 53 Pietermaritz Street,Pietermaritzburg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Marriage (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Spouse Jessie Elizabeth THOM (1910-1990) Children Margaret Elizabeth BATTEN (1952- ) Harry William BATTEN (1955- ) Jessieann BATTEN (1949-1996) Marriage 6 Nov 1943 (age 47-48) Cape Town,Cape Province Additional Information Marriage Living at Buena Vista,Upper Scott Street, Gardens,Cape Town Union of South Africa Certificate B 246154 Address: Gardens Presbyterian Church ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Marriage (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Spouse WINIFRED SHAW ( - ) Status Divorced Marriage 1940 (age 44-45) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Note on Marriage to WINIFRED SHAW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DEPOT TAB SOURCE TPD TYPE LEER VOLUME_NO 5/598 SYSTEM 01 REFERENCE 448/1943 PART 1 DESCRIPTION: ILLIQUID CASE. DIVORCE. HENRY WILLIAM BATTEN VERSUS WINIFRED (BORN SHAW). STARTING 19430000 ENDING 19430000 Kind Regards George de Beer Landline +44 1494 866241 Mobile +44 07833681331 ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== FamilyTree.co.za.......it's the place to hang out and do your Family Tree ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237

Hi Michele, I just started to do some research on Harrison who was married to my G/Uncles daughter Gladys Constance Speck.His name was ARTHUR GERALD HARRISON Place of birth Cape Town Parents Unknown age at time of death 52yrs 11m. Occupation Shoe Merchant Place of residence 33 Cradock Ave, Rosebank Spouse Gladys Constance Harrison born Speck Place of Marriage Johannesburg Date of death 15.6.1944 Place of death General Hospital, Johannesburg Children: Richard Gifford Harrison (Major) Michael James Harrison born 10.8.1923 David Baldwin Harrison born 9.8.1928 If you come across any of these names in you search pse contact me. Regards John Speck jspeck@lantic.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michele Shaw" <michele.shaw@absamail.co.za> To: <SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 11:17 AM Subject: [South-Africa-Cape-Town] Harrison > > Does anyone recognise these people?? > Is there SKS out there researching the Harrison line from > 'England'?? > > *Sydney Neville Harrison > born 1869 - England (!!) > married > Grace Addison > born 1872 - England (!!) > > * Robert Harrison > born 1865 - England (!!) > > * William Harrison > born 22 Nov 1864 - S, England > > * Moses Harrison > born 1849 > > * Fredrick Fletcher Harrison (son of Sydney) > born 1893 - England (!!) > > * Emily Harrison (daughter of Sydney) > born 1898 - England (!!) > > * Benjamin Harrison (son of Moses) > born 1890 > > > Most of these I have as being born in England??? It's annoying, but that's > all the info I have. > Many Thanks > Michele Shaw > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.705 / Virus Database: 461 - Release Date: 6/12/2004 > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004 > > > ==== SOUTH-AFRICA-CAPE-TOWN Mailing List ==== > Cape Town Family History Society > www.genealogy.co.za/society/socweb.htm > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 >

Dear All,(Heather all the best with your new Web Site) Please let me introduce myself: Name: George de Beer Reside in: Great Missenden - United Kingdom Researching my Wife's (Margaret Elizabeth Batten) Family History. Her family ties started in Cape Town hence why I joined this group. My first query is Margaret's Fathers parents. I have attached her fathers details below. Is there anyone in this group who would be able to help find out who her Grand Parents where? ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ Henry BATTEN (1895-1958) ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ Name: Henry William BATTEN Sex: Male Father: - Mother: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Individual Events and Attributes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Birth 1895 Cape Town,Cape Province Death 1958 (age 62-63) Pietermaritzburg,Kwa-Zulu Natal Occupation Technical Foreman (Railways) Additional Information Birth: Dont have Birth Certicate and dont know Parents Address: Unknown Death Cause: Lung Cancer Address: 53 Pietermaritz Street,Pietermaritzburg ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Marriage (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Spouse Jessie Elizabeth THOM (1910-1990) Children Margaret Elizabeth BATTEN (1952- ) Harry William BATTEN (1955- ) Jessieann BATTEN (1949-1996) Marriage 6 Nov 1943 (age 47-48) Cape Town,Cape Province Additional Information Marriage Living at Buena Vista,Upper Scott Street, Gardens,Cape Town Union of South Africa Certificate B 246154 Address: Gardens Presbyterian Church ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Marriage (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Spouse WINIFRED SHAW ( - ) Status Divorced Marriage 1940 (age 44-45) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Note on Marriage to WINIFRED SHAW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DEPOT TAB SOURCE TPD TYPE LEER VOLUME_NO 5/598 SYSTEM 01 REFERENCE 448/1943 PART 1 DESCRIPTION: ILLIQUID CASE. DIVORCE. HENRY WILLIAM BATTEN VERSUS WINIFRED (BORN SHAW). STARTING 19430000 ENDING 19430000 Kind Regards George de Beer Landline +44 1494 866241 Mobile +44 07833681331

Hi Researchers, I'm looking for more information on the McCallums. George Thomas was born in Cape Town in Nov 24, 1867. He was the son of Alexander (Wallace) McCallum born April 7, 1829 and Christina Frances Helena Heintjies born in Germany, in 1844. They were married April 23, 1860 in Cape Town. They went on to have 12 children. What became of Who did Alexander Wallace born 18 Nov 1862, marry? Frederika Margaret Christina born 14 Aug 1869 Peter Christin born 25 Dec 1875 Henry born 1873 William Henry born 11 Oct 1877 Mary born 1879 The rest I can account for, but what happened to the above children?? Alexander died 21 July 1891. 1. What became of Christina? 2. Did she change her name to Grace? 3. Did she marry a 'Livingstone' 4. Did she own a 'bar'? 5. Was Alexander's second name Wallace? 6. What of Alexander's parents Samuel and Mary? 7. Did they immigrate? 8. What was Mary's maiden name? Please, please does anyone know this family? I have had lotsof promised leads, but no follow-throughs. There has been lots said about what happened, but what really happened? Regards Michele Shaw --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 10/1/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004

I'M REPOSTING.... Hi Researchers, I am hunting for the Pratts. Florence Jane Pratt married Bert Edward Wheller 28 April 1908 in Pietermaritzburg. They went on to have 9 children all born in PMB: Alice Mary(my gm)born 11 Nov 1909 Florence Jessie born 1 Dec 1912 Leslie Frederick born 14 Jan 1817 Arthur William Clarence born 6 June 1919 Margorie Hazel born 15 Nov 1921 Eric John born 18 July 1925 Mona Natalie born 11 Aug 1926 Bert Edward born 19 Dec 1930 What ever happened to her parents?? William Pratt born 1851 Leighton Buzzard and Esther Yirrell born Mary 1854 They both died in South Africa, Esther died at a train station at the South Coast in Natal. 1. When did William and Esther immigrate? 2. Is there a death notice out there for them? 3. When did William Pratt die? Anyone out there know of these people? Regards Michele Shaw --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 10/1/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004

Does anyone recognise these people?? Is there SKS out there researching the Harrison line from 'England'?? *Sydney Neville Harrison born 1869 - England (!!) married Grace Addison born 1872 - England (!!) * Robert Harrison born 1865 - England (!!) * William Harrison born 22 Nov 1864 - S, England * Moses Harrison born 1849 * Fredrick Fletcher Harrison (son of Sydney) born 1893 - England (!!) * Emily Harrison (daughter of Sydney) born 1898 - England (!!) * Benjamin Harrison (son of Moses) born 1890 Most of these I have as being born in England??? It's annoying, but that's all the info I have. Many Thanks Michele Shaw --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.705 / Virus Database: 461 - Release Date: 6/12/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004

I'm looking for my family... anyone know of them? Michele Shaw Bert Edward Wheller b. 1852 Maiden, Newton, Dorset, England m. 15 Dec 1879 d. 13 Jan 1907 Pietermaritzburg, SA sp. Mary Woodward b. 1866 England 4 children: John b. 23 Nov 1880 Frank b. 16 Aug 1884 Bert Edward b. 1 May 1888 (my line) Ernest James b. 2 Oct 1891 Bert Edward snr's father was James Wheller, and his mother is listed as Ann. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004

I'm researching the PRATT line and would like to know if the information below is familiar? William Pratt b. 1851 Leighton, Buzzard, England m. Esther Yirrell b. 1854 Leighton Buzzard children: Kate Elizabeth b. 1879 Thomas Arthur b. 1880 Esther Cecily b. 1881 Lillian b. 1882 Edward b. 1884 Frederick George b. 1888 Florence Jane b. 3 Sept 1890 (my GGGrandmother) Recognise any?? Regards Michele Shaw --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.776 / Virus Database: 523 - Release Date: 10/12/2004