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• Settlers home page
• A brief history of Grahamstown
• Notes on Wedderburn Settlers
• Mandela's speech re-dedication of the 1820 Grahamstown Settlers Monument, 1996
• A history of the Wedderburn name  
• The LINKS page
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GRW Introduction

GRW Chapter 1

GRW Chapter 2

GRW Chapter 3

GRW Chapter 4

GRW Chapter 5

GRW Chapter 6

CHAPTER SEVEN

  We must now return to a very interesting and striking personality in Esther Wedderburn, the youngest daughter of Great Grandfather, as we have before mentioned, was six years of age when she arrived in South Africa with her parents with the Settlers of 1820. She was probably born in Manchester, where Great Grandfather was then in business and it is to her chiefly that I am indebted for a great deal of the information concerning the early history of the family, for she had a very retentive memory and it was her delight to recount the many vicissitudes that befell the family during their pioneer days and, of course, took part in most of the incidents recorded of these early days so that she was well fitted in, after years, for the life of adventure she subsequently was called upon to pass through.  

She spent the early part of her life with her parents in the old home, first at Green Fountains and, after Aunt Ann’s marriage to Uncle George Duffield, became her mother’s right hand, especially after they moved to Lindale, when the work became very much more varied owing to the greater activities on the farm and, it was here she met young Richard Crouch, who was then a partner in the firm of Crouch Bros. of Grahamstown, who were the founders of the first Leather Tanning Factory in the Eastern Province, as before stated and, sometime during October 1841, became married to Uncle Richard, by whom she had three sons, Richard, Ambrose and Gordon.

Shortly after her marriage, Uncle Richard sold out his share in the tannery and went up into Kaffirland, on which was, at that time, a very profitable business, although it was attended by much hardship and many an interesting tale old Aunt Crouch, as we called her, could relate of the hair-breadth escapes they had from being killed by the treacherous Galakas and Gaikas, among whom they traded. It was upon the return from one of these expeditions that Uncle Richard fell ill and died, about the year 1849. Aunt returned to Lindale to occupy the two rooms next to the dairy, for something like eleven years, until her sons were old enough to support her. In this time, she managed to conduct her old wagon, which was about all she had, with a span of oxen, doing transport riding to such places as Cradock and Bedford and other places farther afield. She was a splendid horsewoman and could handle a gun or revolver as well as a man and entirely devoid of fear. She was particularly fond of young people and loved to entertain them with her interesting tales of adventure while she prepared a nice cup of tea for them and gave them one or more of her toothsome cookies. In later years, after living next to us at Spring Cottage on the Isthmus of the only peninsula in Salem, near to Mr Cholwich’s house, in this she remained until her family of sons and their families removed from Salem. Her eldest son, Richard, married Sarah Willis, daughter of William Willis of Uitenhage; Ambrose married Mary Brown of Kimberly and Gordon died unmarried. After leaving the Cottage on the Isthmus, she lived with Uncle William Attwell and Aunt Libby until they left for Johannesburg and, after this, lived, for many years, with Mr and Mrs Robert Attwell, until she passed away on 2 September 1903, at the ripe old age of 89 years and was buried in the old churchyard at Salem near to where her Father, whom she told me she deeply loved, and her Mother were laid to rest many years before.

We must now turn our attention nearer home and recapitulate some events, possibly before recorded, bearing upon those of the family which has increased with the succeeding generation and which, we will try, to bring in review to the best of our ability, taking my dear Father and Mother’s family first, from among those of our Grandfather’s family, that is, George Wedderburn of Lindale.

My father, James Hamilton Wedderburn, was born at Lindale, near Salem on 14 August 1843. He was the only son of George and Mary Wedderburn, as we have mentioned before, and his birth was an event of particular joy and pride, not alone to his parents but  to his grandparents as well for, he would, in the ordinary course of events, become heir and master of the Lindale Estate; but, as we have before stated, his birth coincided with a chapter of unfortunate historical events which mitigated against the peaceful progress of the country, for the succession of Kaffir Wars following each other in rapid succession, left the farmers of the young colony, in a parlous condition, so that Father was reared amidst repeated attacks upon the settler colonists, which ultimately robbed him of his father in the war of 1851, in which he was killed and thus, from the early age of eight years, he had, after a few years schooling in Salem, to assist in the management of his widowed mother’s farming activities and, at the age of 13 years, undertook to full management of the farm. 

Like most of the boys of that time, he became a splendid horseman and one of the best game and target shots in the district. He was a very energetic and active young man and, under his management, Lindale became one of the best developed farms in the Albany division. His supervision of the stock and field activities, added to the splendid work of supervising the dairy and gardening part of the farm by his mother, led to a regular income which, with the sale of slaughter stock at Grahamstown and very sound business methods, soon put grandmother in a well-to-do position, which she improved every year until her marriage, as before stated, with Mr Amm. From thence onward, Father left Lindale and, with much regret, never returned to it to take what rightly belonged to him as the son and heir of his father.

We pass over the unpleasant happenings of those days, which led to his being robbed of his rightful inheritance and, as he very often related to me later in life, may have been the very best chastening he could have had, to bring out those splendid Christian and gentlemanly characteristics he, throughout a long and interesting career, so grandly manifested. There was one very beautiful result from the unfortunate marriage referred to for, from among the daughters brought into the Lindale home by Mr Amm, one, the fairest among them – so Father thought – whom he married six years later who, not only proved a lovable and devoted wife, but a grand and wonderful helpmeet to him for 63 years; so he always told me that, although Lindale was taken from him, dear mother, more than a hundred times, com-pensated him for that loss. We have been anticipating events rather rapidly and breaking in on the sequence of what transpired. When Father was eighteen, he left Lindale and he was allowed to take a wagon and span of oxen and a few odds and ends, as part of his inheritance in his father’s estate. He also had 12 cows and calves apportioned to him, these latter to remain on Lindale until he became established somewhere else – this was about 1861. He entered into a partnership with Uncle Simon Amm to do transport riding up country, which was just then developing into a profitable industry. To go back, once again, to the birth and childhood of my Father, I may mention that he was baptised in the old Salem Chapel by the Rev. John Richards, Wesleyan Minister and was, at a very early age, taken to the Sunday services conducted in the old building and this, no doubt, was very largely the foundation of his love of observance of the Lord’s Day and his regular attendance at the sanctuary for worship and praise on the Sabbath, which he continued up until a few years before his death. I have mentioned before that his marriage to dear Mother was an event that was solemnised when he was 22 years of age and here I propose to give a brief résumé of the early life of my beloved Mother.

As before stated, she was the third daughter of Philip and Mary Amm and was born in Bonin’s old house on the hill overlooking Salem, where her father and mother resided at that time, on 7 February 1847. Her childhood was spend amidst the quiet surroundings of that quaint old house, where care and guidance of a loving and Christlike mother, whose saintly life left a lifelong influence upon her little daughter. Mother, first of all, attended her father’s school in Salem and also that of Miss Slater and she related to me how, on one occasion, when returning from school, she was met by a dignified old gentleman, on horseback, attended by a number of officers and men, the old gentleman in question being the Governor of the Colony, Sir George Grey, who inquired of her the whereabouts of Mr W. H. Matthews’ (resident J.P. of Salem) residence, which she promptly pointed out to him, on the hill where it still stands. She was thirteen years of age when her beloved mother passed away on 13 August 1860, and was a dreadful sorrow to her, as it was to the whole family, for her wonderful Christian character and loving disposition and wise counsel endeared her, not only to her own family, but to the whole community. She was the eldest daughter of Richard Gush and his wife, Mary, Settler of 1820 and a highly cultured Christian couple who were held in the highest respect by the whole community. They were among the first Quakers to settle in this country, so that dear old Grandma was brought up under the beautiful influence of her Quaker parents and their wonderful home life.

To return to Mother, who had to take charge of Grandfather’s household after her mother’s death, as her two elder sisters were about to be married just at this time, but only for about a year, as her father married our Grandmother Wedderburn and, shortly after the marriage, moved from Lindale to Graham’s Town, where Mother had the opportunity of completing her education under the tuition of a Miss Copeland, one of her classmates being Maria Dugmore, who was later married to Mr J. Hellier M.L.A. 

I have stated before how Father and Mother became betrothed and later, on 15 August 1865, were married by the Rev. Thos Guard in Commemoration Church, Grahamstown. The young couple were attended at the ceremony by Uncle Simon Amm, as bestman and Aunt Esther, who later married Uncle Frederick Berrington, Aunt Margaret, who married Uncle George J. Hill, Aunt Emma, who married Uncle Timothy W. Lake and Aunt Hannah (Amm), her youngest sister, who married Uncle Ollie, or Oliver Webb, and the reception was held at the home of her parents, West Hill, Grahamstown. After the ceremony, they drove out to Spring Valley, near Nazaar, a few miles from Seven Fountains, where dear Father had prepared his little home for Mother and where they established that loving and devoted companionship which they were spared to enjoy for 63 years. They resided at Spring Valley for four years and, it was while residing here, that two elder sons were born; the first was George Richard, Born 4 June 1866 at 8am. in the house of old Aunt Hill (née Clarissa Croft), Beaufort Street, Grahamstown. Later it was called “Cannon House” and, when I visited it a few years ago, was being used as a girls’ school hostel. The second son, Philip Hamilton, was born at Spring Valley on 7 May 1868.

Father carried on farming operations, on a small scale, at Spring Valley, with occasional trips up country, doing transport riding, which had become quite a lucrative industry at that time. Towards the end of 1869, he moved from Spring Valley to Mount Pleasant, near the Kariega River, about five miles from Salem, and carried on the same as he had done at Spring Valley and, it was just about this time that the discovery of diamonds in the Hope Town district took place and which led to his deciding to join the great body of South Africans who were on their way up to the Vaal River, where the discovery had developed into, what was later known as the River Diggings at Klip Drift and, as it was later called, Barkly West and Peniel, near the German Mission Station of that name. On 8 June 1870, their third son, James Walter, was born and, in September of the same year, 1870, Father and Mother, with their three sons, trekked away from Mount Pleasant and arrived, about the middle of October, at Klip Drift, where he pitched his camp, along with Henry Hill, Henry John Cyrus and Thomas Hill, all from Salem, and started digging on the claim they had pegged out on the river bank and the ground was then washed in, what was called a “baby’s cradle” and, after that, the gravel was sorted out on rough wooden tables and, in this crude way, the diamonds were recovered. The ground was not very productive and it was decided to move across the river to the Peniel side, but this did not prove much better.

Soon after moving to Peniel, one of the party from Salem took ill from dysentery, which broke out owing to the unhygienic conditions prevailing in the fields and, although everything was done for him, poor Henry John Cyrus died and, shortly after, Mother took ill and nearly lost her life and then, Father went down; and had it not been for the assistance of friends and the aid of Dr Sampson, they would, neither of them have survived and it was, at this juncture, Uncle Timothy Lake arrived on the scene and decided that they had better pack up and return to Mount Pleasant. Well, this they did and the whole of the enterprise didn’t amount to a return of £100 for all the diamonds they sold, so that the whole thing was a wash out as far as they were concerned and Father wisely decided there was a great deal more in transport riding than in diamond digging and this proved to be the case; so that, by the end of 1871, he was able to purchase an allotment of 100 morgan, in what was known as the Trotter’s Valley Settlement or Location from Mr John Gardner, who had purchased it from the estate of Mr Chas. Pering of Salem.

Father moved over from Mount Pleasant and settled in the Allotment in Trotter’s Valley and called the farm Salem Park and, it was here he established himself for ten years and prospered and lived in comparative comfort and affluence, building a nice home and developing his farm and improving it in many ways by building dams, fencing lands, at the same time as he was carrying on transport riding which, from 1872 to 1876, was not only a very profitable occupation, but a very pleasant one in many respects, which was made possible by the tremendous development of the diamond fields at Kimberly and Du Toitspan and De Beers.

A wave of prosperity had suddenly come to South Africa and everyone was benefiting financially from the great influx of visitors from overseas. Father often remarked to me that he was never better off in his life than during this period.

But it was not all sunshine at Salem Park for, in February 1872, during one of his trips to Port Elizabeth, on which he was accompanied by Mother and her three boys, the youngest of them, Walter, became ill on the journey and the evening we arrived at Port Elizabeth, staying with old Mrs Sterley at North End, our dear little brother passed away and was laid to rest, by his sorrowing parents, in the cemetery in Russell Road, where there is a little headstone erected to his memory, still standing, on which is inscribed: “In Memory of James Walter, the infant son of James H. and Charlotte G. Wedderburn, who died on February 20, 1872, Aged 1 year 8 months. For such is the Kingdom of Heaven”. This was followed by another sorrow in June of the same year, in the death of another baby son, Arthur Frederick, who only lived eight days, having been born on June 4th and died on the 12th. The loss of these two little children was a deep and sad blow for my dear parents. Things went on smoothly at Salem Park, for Father had taken into partnership Mother’s youngest brother, Uncle Willie Amm, who carried on the transport side of the compact, while Father did the farming and, while this partnership lasted until 1876, they both did remarkably well and, in 1874, on the 27th March, our home was filled with great joy by the birth of my sister Ethel May. How proud our two parents were with their sweet little daughter. It was in January of this year, I was sent, as a weekly boarder, to Mr Samuel B Shaw’s school in Salem, an event of very great importance to me.