I want to tell you about a discovery I made when I was looking for a marriage on the Mormon site www.familysearch.org I was using the Cape Marriage Index. For those who don’t know it, it is an index of all the marriage that took place in the Cape Colony and later Cape Province.
Although these indexes seem to start very early on under the DEIC, from 1839 they seem more formal. From that point on, the minister who conducted marriage services had to forward to the Cape Colonial Government information on all the marriages they conducted. Basically, the bride, groom, two witnesses and the minister signed the Church’s Marriage register and then filled in and signed another register which had the strange name of ‘Duplicate Original’ and this page was sent to the government.
I presume, and by the look of the similarity in the hand writing, once a month some poor clerk would have to capture the information and write it up in the index book. As I was paging through the index for 1895, I started thinking about the poor clerk whose job it was to do this. I started trying to work out how he would go about it. That just shows my personality. I am always curious to know how anything works.
Imagine a pile of marriage certificates from all over the Cape Colony – from Port St Johns to Calvinia including the big cities of Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. First, they needed to be sorted in date order, then each given a unique number for that year. This was written on each certificate. Then they would be sorted in alphabetical order according to the first letter of the surname of groom, The clerk would enter the following into the index. The groom’s surname, his initials, the bride’s surname and initials, the date of the marriage, the unique certificate number and the district the marriage took place in. Then the clerk would have to flip over to the page of first letter of the bride’s name and enter the whole thing again, this time placing the bride’s name first then the groom’s. All the time being as accurate as possible.
Goodness this must have been so boring! I’m not being sexist when I say it is a known fact that women are must better at doing this sort of repetitive task than men but in the 1890s, were there any female civil service clerks? Looking at marriages of that time all the brides had no occupation given in the ‘Occupation’ column – their occupation was in home. In the USA in `1890s only 19% of office workers were female.
And then I thought, hang on! There were no ball point pens until after the second world war, so were these entries written with fountain pens? Although they had been invented in 1830s, the general use of fountain pens only started in 1880s and 1890s. So, it was most probably written with a dip pen. If we look at some pages we can see how bored those clerks were becoming by the untidiness of the entries.
As I said at the beginning, I was paging through the “O” pages of the index looking for an Opperman who married a Bosman in Kimberley some where between 1891 and 1897 when I turned over the page and saw this.
This fascinated me to such an extent that I had to stop my searching and think about what I saw. I had presumed that in the 1890s all clerks were male – most women didn’t work outside of the home. So, was this drawing done by a young male clerk, dreaming about what his future wife would wear on their honeymoon? Or was this a progressive female clerk describing to her female workmates her new bathing costume or tennis dress? The mind boggles!
Seeing this drawing made me re-think about these busy clerks (male or female) and realised just how like us they were one hundred and thirty-one years ago, getting bored and doodling in the open space on the page.
But more importantly I want to say a big THANK YOU to them all.
This article first appeared in the Cape town Family History Society Newsletter, December 2021.
As one goes through Baptism, Marriage and Burial registers one comes across names that are connected with some other historical event than the one you were looking for. In between the SMITHs, the JONESs and other common names suddenly a name pops up and with it, some interesting connections.
The other day I was paging through the 1849-1937 St Francis, Simon’s Town Burial Register looking for a specific name when my eye was distracted by this entry:
St Francis, Simon’s Town Burial Register entry for Dr James Moyes Deas, M.D.
James Moyes Deas M.D. Convict Ship Neptune October 1st 1849 35 years The Rev Edward Judge, MA Colonial Chaplain
This entry has at least four things that perhaps deserve more attention. 1
Convict Ship Neptune
The first thing that did attract my attention was ‘Convict Ship Neptune’. I first came across this ship when I was at school over 50 years ago! We had an Afrikaans setwork book dealing with the attempt to land convicts at the Cape. My Afrikaans was appalling then, so besides the name ‘Neptune’, I remember nothing about the book! More recently I seem to remember someone talking at the Cape Town Family History Society (CTFHS) meeting about Sir Robert Stanford who had supported the ‘Neptune’ by providing fresh produce for the feeding of the convicts (and crew) which the British government were hoping to disembark in the Cape Colony.
Once again, some questions arose in my mind. Never mind the story of the Neptune (I will deal with that below), I was curious why the British Government were trying make the Cape a penal colony? I found a fascinating doctoral thesis by John Marincowitz submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 1985. His thesis looked at labour and production in the rural areas of the Cape Colony, particularly the wheat growing region, in the 19th Century. His opening chapter tells of the growing tensions between ex-slaves who sought to reduce their dependency on farm wages and the farmers who sought measures to ensure they remained as wage-labourers (or as Dr Marincowitz, using Marxist terminology, called them ‘proletarianization of the ex-slaves’)2 This tension culminated in the years 1848 to 1853 when the Colony hovered on the brink of civil war.
The Need for Convict Labour at the Cape? Many of the town-dwelling merchants such as John Bardwell Ebden, were keen that British labourers should be encouraged to come to the Cape. Most Farmer saw these as being too expensive to pay when compared to ‘the cheaper and more malleable’ black labourers. Some attempts were made by the Cape Legislative Council to have aided immigration from the UK. Esme Bull lists in the appendices of her book, Aided Immigration from Britain to South Africa: 1857-67, those who came under this initial scheme between 1848 and 1851.
Sir Harry Smith proposed to the British parliament that British labourers be imported to the Cape but the British Parliament changed ‘labourer’ to ‘convicts.’ This created an uproar at the Cape with a large number of objections from people across a wide spectrum. They thought a large number of criminals would create instability as the rural areas had few policemen. As Marincowitz puts it so succinctly ‘Employers at the Cape did not want convicts: they wanted labourers; in the mind of the British ruling class there was little distinction.’3 It turned out that the prisoners that were planned to be sent to the Cape were not common criminals or as Earl Grey said: ‘not the refuse of English gaols’4 but political offenders mainly from Ireland many of whom had risen up against the English landowners as a result of the potato famine. Being political offenders rather than common criminal didn’t help to change attitudes at the Cape. The Cape had experienced two politically active Irish seamen, James Hooper and Michael Kelly, together with the slave Louis from Mauritius and Muslim slave Abraham van die Kaap who had fermented a protest march of slaves in Cape Town in 1808.
But it wasn’t just the labour shortage that led to convicts being sent to the Cape. Magistrates in the Ireland were sentencing more and more people to be transported. In 1846 six hundred and ninety-seven offenders had been transported but two years later in 1848 the number had risen to two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three. As Lord Grey told parliament: ‘the parishes throw their burden on the counties, the counties upon the nation and the nation is forging schemes to throw it upon the colonies’.5
Thus, the Neptune filled with 282 prisoners6 and 55 crew was ‘throw upon the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope’. She arrived in Simon’s Bay on 19 Sep 1849.
Even before it arrived at the Cape a mass meeting was held on the 5 Apr 1849 where a crowd of 5,000 formed the Anti-Convict League. The League was headed by John Bardwell Ebden, Hamilton Ross, Hercules C. Jarvis, H. E. Rutherford and Dr. James Adamson, all well-known settlers at the Cape. They launched a vigorous campaign to boycott supplying the ship or dealings with any of the convicts that might be landed. A large number of people in the Colony signed in agreement. However, there were a few local businessmen who did not sign and they supplied the ship with provisions while it waited for a total of five months in Simon’s Bay. These few who had not signed the petition found that local shops would not serve them and they could buy no foodstuffs for themselves.
A Thomas Bowler water-colour of the protest meeting. It must have been a windy, wintery day. The orange arrow points to the smoke from the smoke-stack going horizontally towards the S.E. It must have been a gale-force North-Wester as the blue arrow shows the driving rain. Yet there was still a massive crowd.
Among these people was Robert Stanford – more about him below. A brief search for him on Google produced a few Irish sites who praise this Irish-born man for his humanitarian support of the convicts and crew of the Neptune by selling produce to the ship. Stanford was later awarded a knighthood, by the same British government who had arrested those Irishmen on the Neptune for fighting for their political freedom, so was it not as a support of the Irish independence struggle that Stanford supported the Neptune. I also found a history of the Neptune crisis on a wine estate website. This wine estate is on the estate, Kleinrivier Valley which was the estate originally owned by Robert Stanford. On their website is an interesting comment:‘…the colonists believed [those on board the Neptune] to be convicts and would not stand for this and declared that anyone associated with the ship or its occupants would no longer be supplied with any provisions or services. Thus, when the “convict” ship Neptune arrived its passengers, who were ordinary Irish men, were kept at sea for five months.’
This statement opens up some interesting ethical discussion points. Firstly, two things needed to confirmed. Were all the convicts Irish and secondly, can they be called ‘ordinary Irish men’?
The Australian website https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/neptune/1849 lists by the name all those who were on the Neptune off Simon’s Town and later sent on to Van Diemen’s Land. It lists where the people were convicted. This shows that of the 306 passengers or convicts, 46 were convicted in English, Welsh and Scottish courts as well as 9 military personnel convicted by Court Martial in such diverse places as Malta, Athlone, Barbados, Belfast Barracks, Gibraltar, Salford Barracks, and St Johns Newfoundland. Some of these (Athlone and Belfast Barracks perhaps) might have an Irish connection but certainly the majority of the forty-six people were convicted for criminal activity. There were 192 Irish ‘convicts’ many of whom had turned to crime because of the infamous ‘Great Potato Famine’ of 1848.7 André Morkel summarises the situation very well when he wrote on the Morkel family website:
In April 1849 the Privy Council in London decided to make the Cape Colony another convict settlement, similar to those in Australia. The third Earl Grey, Colonial Secretary, intended to send a special class of convicts to the Cape. They were Irish peasants who had been driven to crime ((My emphasis)) by the famine of 1845. They were also towards the end of their sentences and the idea was that they could obtain a ‘conditional pardon’ to settle as ‘free exiles’ at the Cape, provided they did not return to Ireland, England or Scotland. Earl Grey sent a letter to the Governor at the Cape asking to ascertain the feelings of the colonists regarding this special category of convicts. Due to a misunderstanding, the Neptune arrived unannounced before the sailing vessel with Grey’s letter landed at the Cape. The ship also had the famous Irish rebel and activist, John Mitchel on board. In his book, Jail Journal, Mitchel is eloquent and scathing about the treatment of the Irish and the transportation system.
Although one can sympathise with these Irish men who, through hunger, turned to crime but they were still arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced for transportation as convicts.
One of the convicts transported on the Neptune was Michael Morton (Moreton on the list of convicts). His Australian descendants have written a short history of the Moreton family. Two brothers – John who had been transported earlier for an attempted assassination of Theophilus Roe 8 and Michael who had stolen a cow. The writers of the story suggested that many cow-stealers were given a short sentence but maybe Michael Moreton was hoping to join his brother in Van Dieman’s Land. Perhaps at the trial, the judge passed a harsh sentence because of Michael’s brother, John Morton’s connection to the Young Irelanders protest group. However, to call the people onboard the Neptune, ‘ordinary Irish men’ is, I think, stretching it a bit.
Sir Robert Stanford
Stanford originally supported the blockade of the Neptune but he finally relented to a plea from the government at the Cape, after a visit from the Derry-born Attorney-General, William Porter, to offer assistance. This, Stanford believed, would bring “timely assistance” and thus “open rebellion and civil war would be averted”. He was given the option of providing supplies or a state of martial law would be declared and the provisions would be taken by force. Duty-bound to comply, Stanford complied with the Governor’s request but was not seen as a hero in the eyes of the colonists. They regarded his actions as treason and ostracised Stanford and his whole family. Stanford and others who provided help were persecuted, banks refused to do business with them, their children were expelled from school and the servants left their farms. The persecutions continued even when Stanford’s youngest daughter fell ill and the doctor refused to even see her, let alone treat her. Tragically this resulted in her death. Desperate, Robert Stanford travelled to England to plead his case and ask for compensation for his losses. His plea resulted in him being knighted and he received £5,000 for his return to the Cape. Upon his arrival, he discovered his farms were in ruins and had been stripped, some even sold by the people he left in charge. His farm Kleine Riviers Valley was sold for a pittance to a Phillipus de Bruyn at auction. Reduced to poverty and defeated by life, Sir Robert Stanford returned to England, where he passed away in Manchester at the age of 70. On 30 September 1857, De Bruyn sold the first plot of the new village he decided to call Stanford.
By February 1850, Earl Grey realised a resolution could not be reached and he ordered that the Neptune continue on its voyage to Van Dieman’s Land (the name used by Europeans for the island that was renamed Tasmania, in 1856). In London, Lord Adderley pleaded the Cape Colony’s case and this led to the Imperial Government changing their mind and the Neptune was sent on its way to Tasmania. In gratitude, the main street of Cape Town, Heerengracht, was renamed Adderley Street.
In his memoir (later published as Jail Journal) John Mitchel wryly remarked about the stand-off in Cape Town: “So the contest is over, and the colonists may now proceed about their peaceful business. Long may they sleep in peace without bolt or lock on their hospitable doors!”9
One of the good things to come out of this event was that the British Parliament asked the governor, Sir Harry Smith, to report whether the Cape was ready for self-government. This was granted in 1854 with a liberal constitution.
James Moyes Deas M.D The medical officer on the Neptune was the Royal Navy surgeon, Dr James Moyes Deas. He died 29 Sep 1849 at the Naval Hospital, Simon’s Town and was buried 1 Oct 1849 in the old Seaforth Cemetery. His age in the burial register is given as 35 years but on the tombstone in the Seaforth Cemetery it states 37 and this matches his Baptism record. An Ancestry online family tree has a comment next to his death:
Surgeon, RN. He was the surgeon on board the Convict Ship, Neptune, which was prevented from docking in Simon’s Town due to protest. The stress of the situation led to his having what appears to have been a “nervous reaction”, which led to his death.[2]
James Moyes Deas Grave in the old Seaforth Cemetery, Simon’s Town
The source for this entry in the online family tree was the Royal Naval Officers Service Index which states only his name and appointment date to the Neptune as 16 Jan 1849. No mention is made of his death or “nervous reaction” in this record. The Neptune had arrived in Simon’s Bay on 19 Sep 1849 and within ten days Dr Deas had died.
James Moyes Deas was born on 11 Nov 1811 in Falkland Parish, Fifeshire where he was baptised on 16 Nov 1811. His parents were Francis Deas and Margaret born Moyes. James’s father, Francis Deas was Provost[3] of Falkland. His mother Margaret Moyes had connections with slave-owning Moyes family from The Hermitage, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, a coffee plantation and they were paid compensation after the emancipation of slaves.
James Moyes Deas had two brothers who appear in the Oxford National Dictionary of Biography. They are Sir George Deas (Lord Deas) 1804-1887 who was a judge, and Sir David Deas (1807-1877) who, like his brother James, was a Naval Surgeon. He fought in the Crimea War and was awarded a knight hood. Sir David Deas had gone to Edinburgh High School and trained as a doctor at the University of Edinburgh, so probably this was the same route James Moyes Deas took as well.
The Naval part of the cemetery is well looked after as this falls under the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The eGGSA database of cemeteries has 211 names of persons buried there. The Dutch Reformed section was where many Boer Prisoner-of-War who died in the two camps at Simon’s Town were buried. Besides the individual graves there are numerous monuments and memorials to sailors who died at sea or while on patrol up and down the African coast while their ships were based at Simon’s Town
The Colonial Chaplain Rev Canon Edward (Conduitt) Judge, MA. Bishop Gray called for a Synod to establish a Church of the Province of South Africa. In the eyes of the courts this was seen to be a church separate from the Church of England. This caused much dissent and schism. In 1861 St Francis, Simon’s Town representatives attended the Synod and joined the Church of the Province of South Africa. However, as it can be seen, the priest at St Francis continued to sign the register as ‘Colonial Chaplain’. This seemed to continue right until the 1890s. It would be interesting to know when the Cape Government ceased to pay Colonial Chaplains. Was the continued use of the title by priests a protest against Gray or merely habit they failed to stop?
The Rev Edward Judge
The Rev Edward Judge
Born: London in 1801, the son of Joseph Judge, of the London Custom House.
Educated: St Paul’s, London; and at Gonville and Caius (admitted pensioner, 12 January 1820), and Trinity (migrated, 11 May 1820; matriculated, Michaelmas 1820; Scholar, 1823; BA, 1824; MA, 1825) Colleges, Cambridge.
Ordained: Deacon, 7 November 1824, by the Bishop of Ely for the Bishop of London, and Priest, in the Reformed Church, Cape Town on 9 September 1832, by the Bishop of Calcutta, the Rt. Revd Daniel Wilson, under special commission for the Bishop of London. (One of the first two Anglican priests ever ordained in Africa.)
Career: Arrived at the Cape, 2 May 1825. Committee member, South African Infirmary Fund, and the Philanthropic Society for aiding deserving slaves and slave children to purchase their freedom (established 1828). Professor of Classics, South African College, 1829-1830. Resigned from the South African College “in consequence of a resolution of the Council not to allow religious instruction”, August 1830. Founded his own private grammar school in Cape Town, 1830.
Provisional Chaplain of Wynberg (1832-1834);
Colonial Chaplain of Rondebosch (1834-1840);
Colonial Chaplain of Simon’s Town (1840-1874), all in Cape Colony.
Priest-in-charge (later Rector) of St. Frances’, Simon’s Town (licensed by the Bishop, the Rt. Revd Robert Gray, 2 August 1848; served until 1874), and Canon of St. George’s Cathedral (1852-1875), both in the diocese of Cape Town.
Fell ill, May 1852, and sailed for England on leave, June, 1852, returning to the Cape in November 1853. Attended the first synod of the diocese of Cape Town, January 1857.
Died: Simon’s Town, on 6 January 1875.“His history is written in the hearts of many and many a Cape family. What the present great educational enthusiasm of the Cape owes to him it might be hard to apportion exactly, but we are inclined to call him ‘the Alfred’ of it. At all events, with that calm, quiet resolution so characteristic of him, he strove hard to give to the Cape boys of nearly fifty years ago the same refined and liberal education which he had received and so highly prized himself. His sweet temper, sportive humour, never failed him to the end” (The Cape Argus, quoted in The Church News).
CONCLUSION A chance spotting of ‘Convict ship, Neptune’ in the burial register of the parish of St Francis Simon’s Town resulted in further research into the area of labour shortage at the Cape in 1840s; the attempt by the Colonial Secretary and the British parliament to make the Cape Colony a penal settlement; the varied response of the people at the Cape; the death of the medical officer or surgeon on board the Neptune and his family, and a brief look at the Rev Edward Judge, the Colonial Chaplain. This research has opened a desire in me to visit the Seaforth Cemetery again (last I visited it was in 1970s) as well as a huge growth in and respect for the people of the Cape in the 1840s and 1850s.
A. Convict Ship Neptune B. Dr Deas himself C. Date of Death – Comparison between date of death and date of burial and why Neptune still in Simon’s Bay? D. Colonial Chaplain. [↩]
John Marincowitz, Rural Production and Labour in the Western Cape, 1838 to 1888, With Special Reference to the Wheat Growing Districts. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis SOAS, University of London, 1985 quote from the Abstract. [↩]
There is some variance in the numbers found at different websites. An Australia convict site lists 306 ‘passengers’ https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/neptune/1849. However, The Irish Times says 18 died at sea before arriving at the Cape [↩]
All the nice girls love a sailor! So goes the old song and we all hear about sailors having a girl in every port. This became very real to me when I researched a marriage in Simon’s Town for an overseas client. With the fascinating information I gathered I did a presentation at the Cape Town Family History Society in January 2020, just before lock-down. As the CTFHS is now using ZOOM for its meetings, I thought I might as well make a video of that January 2020 talk. So here it is https://youtu.be/AaloL9b8niM
My mother had a Kate Greenaway Birthday Book with a fancy green suede cover. It was a birthday gift from Elsebeth TAIT in 1921 when my mother was 6 years old. In the book are seventy three names written up next to their birthdays. She must started filling in her friends’ birthdays quite early on and some handwriting is very ‘youthful’ but she kept it going and I can see her hand writing change to what I remember it as an adult. My sister also added a few names I noticed! Obviously no birth year is given and in many occasions the name is merely ‘Mrs Robertson’ or ‘Auntie Olga’ or just initials like ‘S. M. Stuart’ which makes it hard to find out who these people were and how they fitted into my mother’s life. some have “R.U.C.” behind them which means she knew them at Rhodes University or ‘Rhodes University College’ as it was know when she attended it in 1931-1934. I’m going to list all the names and their birthdays. If anyone recognises them as their ancestors do add a comment or contact me via email and we can compare notes.
Recently a number of people who knew that I was researching the St Paul’s Graveyard, Rondebosch sent me a Facebook or email message about the article on St Paul’s on The Heritage Portal by S. J. de Klerk.1 In the article de Klerk makes mention of the NIGHTINGALE grave and the fact that the gravestone mentions William, ‘who fell a victim to Delagoa Bay fever on his way to the Gold Fields and died at Geelhoutboom…aged 23 years.’ Purely by chance in the same week as I was told about this article, I was working on the NIGHTINGALE family’s history for my St Paul’s Graveyard Project vide www.thefamilyhistorian.co.za and click on St Paul’s Graveyard on the menu.
The Nightingale Grave at St Paul’s
William himself is not buried at St Paul’s Graveyard but his brother Charles NIGHTINGALE is. They were sons of Joseph NIGHTINGALE who was a draftsman for ‘Her Majesty’s Ordinance Department of the War Office’. He was married three times and had a daughter in each of the first two marriages and six children with his third wife. His first wife died, his second, from what I’ve found, ended up in the Wandsworth Workhouse and in the list of those who died in the workhouse it shows her death on 23 August 1840. In the list next to her name and her age (29y) and date of death and it also says ‘Intoxication’. I find it strange that a man who is obviously doing well financially (he had servants in the Census records) should send his wife to the workhouse to die but unfortunately the mere BMDs do not tell you the story behind the facts. The daughter from this second marriage married an engineer and like her step sisters and brothers came to the Cape.
I am not sure if Joseph’s children all left for the Cape at the same time. All children but William appear at home with mother and father in Surrey in the 1871 Census. Charles must have left within the next year or two because he died ‘suddenly’ in Kalk Bay in January 1873 and his death notice was filled in by younger brother Walter Maxwell NIGHTINGALE and the gravestone commemorates William NIGHTINGALE dying a year later (1874) ‘on his way to the goldfields…’
Where did William die?
As S. J. de Klerk points out in The Heritage Portal website article, Geelhoutboom is a farm in the Graskop area where gold was discovered. The actually diggings were called Mac-Mac. Today there is a waterfall still bearing that name in Mpumalanga. It is a two-stream waterfall, because of the early gold-diggers using explosives to get to the gold and thus divided the stream.
For gold-diggers from overseas or the Cape Colony and Natal, it was a long trek to get from the coastal areas to the goldfields by going across land. Thomas Baines, writing in his book The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa tells of the attempt to get to the fields via Delagoa Bay in Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa.
He wrote: A small iron steamer, the “Adonis,” had been brought from Europe and put together in Port Natal, and by the close of 1873 was fit for sea. Several persons took passage in her for Delagoa Bay, with the view of shortening the land journey, but the exposure to fever in the rains then prevalent, the detention and difficulty of procuring native carriers in Delagoa Bay, the entire absence of accommodation and consequent hardships, privations, and exposure, during a pedestrian journey of 178 miles, during which two large and several small rivers must be crossed, far more than countervailed the 240 miles saved in the distance. ((Thomas Baines, The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa. (Port Elizabeth: J.W.C.Mackay, 1877)page 148 also re-published in 1968 by the Rhodesiana reprint library, v. 1 ))
William NIGHTINGALE appears to be one of those who were infected by the fevers and hardships that Thomas Baines is talking about. Baines continued:
A letter from Pilgrim’s Rest, dated Feb. 16, 1874, records the death of three persons who had arrived, via Delagoa Bay, and states that hardly one had been exempted from attacks of fever; while many narrowly escaped with their lives, and were compelled to abstain from work till the bracing air of the elevated regions should restore their health. The first who died at McMc was William Nye Nightingale, aged twenty-six or twenty-seven, believed to have come from Durban; next, Thompson, aged twenty-seven or twenty-eight, formerly connected with a brewery in Cape Town. The third victim was named Stewart, aged about forty-seven. He was supposed to have come from Algoa Bay, was formerly an engineer in the service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company, was a widower, and had left a daughter. The writer considerately gives these particulars to facilitate the identification of the unfortunate victims to a deadly climate, and adds that every attention was shown them during their illness by the ladies of Mr. MacLachlan’s family, and they had such medical assistance as could be obtained on the fields. (( Baines, Gold Region ))
Delagoa Bay Fever But what actually was Delagoa Bay Fever that William NIGHTINGALE is supposed to have died from? Most websites will tell you that it is Enteric Fever (Typhoid) or Malaria. I got this information when I googled it and found a digitised booklet by a Dr J.A. Simeons who had developed certain medications to fight this disease.
The booklet was published by B G. Lennon & Co. of Port Elizabeth. Lennon’s were a well-known pharmaceutical company and the inside cover of this tract tells the reader that
The medicines referred to in this Book are manufactured solely by B. G. LENNON & Co., and none are genuine unless bearing their name and address. The cost of a complete Medicine Chest is 50/nett each. Postage extra. (( J. A Simeon, Advice and Instructions for the prevention and cure of fever, which is prevalent in the Low Districts of the Transvaal, in Delagoa Bay, and East Africa. (Port Elizabeth: B. G. Lennon, 1890) p2 ))
Then there is a list of the ten different pills, mixtures, tinctures and powders with only Epsom Salts being given a name and not a number. The tract also had positive ‘reviews’ of the efficaciousness from numerous doctors and hospitals in the Eastern Transvaal. I must admit I felt it a bit like a classical quackery tract especially after I read the opening paragraph of this tract:
The poisonous substance giving rise to malarial fever is produced by putrefaction and decomposition of the decayed vegetable matter; the decomposed matter gives out an invisible poisonous substance called malaria, which, mixing with the air, gets into the human system through the lungs…. When a person breathes such a poisonous air and his blood becomes impregnated with malaria, he gets fever. Usually he receives premonitory warnings of the coming attack of fever one or two days before he is seized with it, for he feels a sense of weariness or fatigue on exertion, a disinclination for work, a want; of vigour and of cheerfulness, headache, pains in the body, want of appetite, disturbed sleep, and a general feeling of being out of sorts. The symptoms are observed more in new-comers in malarial districts, and in persons who are about to suffer for the first time from an attack of fever.2
However, that made me ask when was it realised that the mosquitoes were the spreaders of malaria. I discovered that this discovery only came in 1897 by Dr (later Sir) Ronald Ross whose story is also fascinating.
Sir Ronald Ross was born in Almora, India in 1857. At the age of eight, like most children of the Raj, he was sent to England to be educated. During these early years he developed interests in poetry, literature, music, and mathematics, all of which he continued to engage in for the rest of his life.
Although he had deep desire to study medicine, at the age of 17 he submitted to his father’s wish to see him enter the Indian Medical Service. He began his medical studies at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, London in 1874 and sat the examinations for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1879. He took the post of ship surgeon on a transatlantic steamship while studying for, and gaining the Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, which allowed him to enter the Indian Medical Service in 1881, where he held temporary appointments in Madras, Burma, and the Andaman Islands. During a year’s leave, from June 1888 to May 1889, he developed his scientific interests and studied for the Diploma in Public Health from the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in England and took a course in bacteriology under Professor E. E. Klein.
In 1892 he became interested in malaria and, having originally doubted the parasites’ existence, became an enthusiastic convert to the belief that malaria parasites were in the blood stream when this was demonstrated to him by Patrick Manson during a period of home leave in 1894. Sir Patrick Manson is considered by many to be the father of tropical medicine. He was the first person to demonstrate, in 1878, that a parasite that causes human disease could infect a mosquito—in this case, the filarial worm that causes elephantiasis. He was the founder of the London School of Tropical Medicine.
On Ross’s return to India in 1895, he began his quest to prove the hypothesis of Alphonse Laveran and Manson that mosquitoes were connected with the propagation of malaria, and regularly corresponded with Manson on his findings. However, his progress was hampered by the Indian Medical Service, which ordered him from Madras to a malaria-free environment in Rajputana. Ross threatened to resign but, following representations on his behalf by Manson, the Indian Government put him on special duty for a year to investigate malaria and kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis).
On 20 August 1897, in Secunderabad, Ross made his landmark discovery. While dissecting the stomach tissue of an anopheline mosquito fed four days previously on a malarious patient, he found the malaria parasite and went on to prove the role of Anopheles mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria parasites in humans.
While Ross is remembered for his malaria work, this remarkable man was also a mathematician, epidemiologist, sanitarian, editor, novelist, dramatist, poet, amateur musician, composer, and artist. He died, after a long illness, at the Ross Institute on 16 September 1932.3 “…With tears and toiling breath, I find thy cunning seeds, O million-murdering Death.” (This is a fragment of a poem by Ronald Ross, written in August 1897, following his discovery of malaria parasites in anopheline mosquitoes fed on malaria-infected patients)
So maybe I’m being too harsh on Dr A J Simeon especially as he had good medical school qualifications. He was Doctor in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Brussels, had the Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Licentiate of the University of Bombay, and qualified in Sanitary Science and Public Health in the University of Durham.
What about the rest of the NIGHTINGALE family? Louisa, Joseph’s daughter from his first marriage married George GARWOOD, a horse dealer. They had four children before Louisa died in 1857.
Emily daughter of second wife Emily Kilbourn NIGHTIGALE and Joseph, married an engineer and had five children who seemed to have come to South Africa at some point. One daughter died as an unmarried Art Teacher and another married into the HARE family – well-known in Rondebosch and St Paul’s.
Joseph, with his third wife Julia NELTHORPE had seven children and all of them seem to spend at least some time in South Africa, if not living (and dying) here. Laura (b1948-d1927) had an estate file in Cape Town although dying unmarried in Exmouth, Devon. Charles and Williams died as described on the grave at St Paul’s, Rondebosch. The third son, Arthur was manager of Cape of Good Hope Bank in East London when he decided to head off to the same goldfields that took his brother’s life. Arthur NIGHTINGALE died 23 March 1884 ‘between Delagoa Bay and Lydenburg’ as his death notice puts it. He was unmarried. His Death notice was only filed nearly a year later in February 1885. It was completed by sister Florence Julia NIGHTINGALE who later married John DALLAMORE and had three children.
The only son of Joseph and Julia to marry and have off-spring, was Walter Maxwell NIGHTINGALE (b1855-d1921). After farming in Natal, he went to Kenya. One daughter married a HULETT, one son farmed in Kenya after his father’s death and the youngest daughter married and moved to the USA. Walter Maxwell NIGHTINGALE was awarded a MBE. These initial appear on many of his records but I am not sure whether it was for his war service in East Africa during WW1 (he must have been over 60 years old) or for colonial service in Kenya – his name does not appear in my searches of MBE recipients in London Gazettes where the awards would appear.
That only leaves the youngest child, Frederick Joseph NIGHTINGALE which I managed to find in Alexis Creek, British Columbia, Canada. When he died in 1897, his probate was carried out in London and he left £45 to his sister Laura. I found him listed as a rancher in Chilcoten County but no mention in the Canadian Census of 1891.
Bibliography Books
Baines, Thomas. The Gold Regions of Eastern Southern Africa. Port Elizabeth: J. W. C. MacKay, 1877
Simeon, J. A. Advice and Instructions for the prevention and cure of fever, which is prevalent in the Low Districts of the Transvaal, in Delagoa Bay, and East Africa. Port Elizabeth: B. G. Lennon, 1890
The SA Archaeological Society, W. Cape Branch. Tombstones & Transcripts: St Paul’s, Rondebosch 19th Century Churchyard. Plumstead: My Shelf Publishing, 2007.
The Burial Register of St Paul’s, Rondebosch for the year 1918 makes fascinating reading. Particualrly interesting is the period in October when the second wave of infections of the so-called Spanish Flu caused havoc in South Africa.
Although Apartheid legislation – especially the Group Areas Act (GAA), was not yet legally part of the South African way of life, society was most definitely divided, usually economically but, in truth, that meant racially because of the poverty among the people of colour. In Cape Town that meant the so-called ‘Coloured’ or Mixed Race population. These people were descended from various sources. They were descendants of the original population from around the Western Cape (San and Khoi people), the descendants of slaves brought to the Cape during the previous two centuries, and the descendants of mixed-race marriages. Having traditionally held lowly paid jobs and without any opportunity to improve themselves through education, the ‘Coloured’ people were frequently forced to live on the edges of the towns and cities. In attempts to improve the health and sanitation of the city, they had been moved to suburbs well away from the White colonial settlers.
Rondebosch in 1918 (in fact up to the introduction of the GAA in 1950 and forced removals in the 1960s), was a very mixed community with pockets of large houses of the wealthy property owners and small cottages where the servants lived.
The Parish of St Paul’s, Rondebosch at that time consisted of the Parish Church (St Paul’s on the Main Road to Simon’s Town) and four Chapelries. The chapels were St Thomas’s near Rondebosch Common, St Mark’s in Athlone which was called at various times, West London or Milner, St George’s in Rylands (later the church moved to what is now known as Silvertown) and St James, Black River (the area immediately below where Red Cross Children’s Hospital is now).
The Parish graveyard at St Paul’s had been shut in the 1880s and that at St Thomas in the early years of the 20th Century, however a piece of land had been donated near where Garlandale High School is today and this became known as Black River Cemetery and in the burial Register the initials “B.C.” next to an entry meant that the burial had occurred at Black River Cemetery. Because of where it was situated, most (if not all) of the burials at Black River Cemetery were of ‘Coloured’ people and usually members of St Paul’s Parish worshipping at the Chapelries. Other burials were at Maitland Cemetery. In 1918 there was not crematorium in Cape Town.
A careful examination of the burial register shows a strange phenomenon of two batches of burial entries for October 1918. Instead of each entry being in date order, the first batch covered the period from 7 Oct to 24 Oct 1918 and entered by the Rector, the Rev. John Brooke. No racial classification was required in the burial and the baptism registers. This was only required in the Marriage Register where the minister became a quasi-government official carrying out the marriage for the state. Other Civil Registrations (Births and Deaths) were done through official government channels so church records registers for these did not require racial classifications. Therefore it is hard to know which of the burials done in this first batch of entries were of White people and which were ‘Coloured’ people who lived near the Parish Church in what would later (in the 1960s) be a White area of Rondebosch.
1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic in Rondebosch Parish
First Batch of Burials
Second Batch of Burials
No. of Burials
28
153
< 15 years of age
3
47
Between 15 and 45 years of age
22
95
> 45 years of age
3
11
Average age
29y 4m
23y 6m
Males
17
80
Females
11
73
Days in period when funerals held
13 of 17 days
16 of 17 days
Average number of funerals per day
2
9
Largest number of funerals per day
6 on 10 Oct
6 on 11 Oct
18 on 12 Oct
20 on 13 Oct
16 on 14 Oct
The Second Batch of entries in the Parish Burial Register were from 5 Oct to 21 Oct 1918. These burials were carried out by the curate, the Rev. T. L. Floyd, who had responsibility for St Marks, St George’s and St James. (St Thomas’s fell under the Rector, whose rectory was right next door.)
Conclusion Over five times more ‘Coloured’ people living in West London (Athlone) died and were buried in the first three weeks of October 1918.
Of the total of 178 people, 50 were younger than 15 years – 47 of whom came from West London. What must be borne in mind is that poverty with malnutrition and poor housing made the young ‘Coloured’ children more vulnerable to disease. Of the 178 people, only 14 were older than 45 years. Seven percent of West London deaths in the older category and 10 percent from the Parish Church (most probably White).
The balance (117 people) were in the working age of 15 -45 years. In the West London (‘Coloured’) community this made 62% of those buried. In White or Parish Church area this made up 78% of those buried.
As far as Gender breakdown goes, in the West London there was hardly any difference, which is interesting to think about (male 80, female 73, ratio 1.09). In the parish church the number of male to female death is more stark (male 17, female 11, ratio 1.54). Researchers say that younger males in the working age group (15y to 45y), because they met others at work, were more susceptible to being infected. This explains why, in the White community, more males than females succumbed. All I can suggestion at the similar number of deaths in West London is that poverty malnutrition and over-crowded housing has no gender-awareness.
Throughout the COVID19 pandemic we were told how the elderly were more vulnerable, which is different the Spanish Flu of 1918.
The following extracts come from S. Paul’s Record, November 1918 Edition.
The Rector’s Letter My Dear Friends and Parishioners, Only one has occupied our minds during the past month, and that is epidemic of “Spanish Influenza.” Unseen, but swift as the wind, it swept over the whole country, and has left behind it such a legacy of sorrow that this beautiful month of Spring will always be remembered as the Black October of 1918. Everything had to give way before it. The arrangement of “Our Day”, so splendidly organised and copiously advertised, went to pieces. Business was brought almost to a standstill. Every home was affected by it. In most cases the servants were the first to be taken ill, and either went home or had to be nursed by their employers, while the housework had to be done by members of the family, who soon fell victims themselves to this treacherous sickness. The ordinary work of the parish ceased, and all the energies of those who were well and could be spared from their homes were devoted to the work of tending the sick, feeding the hungry, trying to save the dying. or helping the bereaved to bury their dead.
I am deeply grateful to all those who worked so splendidly in Rondebosch and on the Flats, and helped to save many lives by providing them with proper nourishment and giving them valuable advice and attention. At a time when it was possible for the clergy to visit only the most urgent cases, it was a very great relief to them to know that the bodily needs of all the poorer people were being attended to daily, either at the various depots or at the house of the sick. As you will see from the list of burials at the end of this issue, the mortality in this parish has been terrible, especially among the poorer parishioners. At Black River no less than five of one family died in a week. One of our old coloured parishioners of Rondebosch, Alfred Adams lost two sons, a daughter, and a son-in-law, one of the sons and the daughter being married and leaving behind several young children. The verger at S. Paul’s lost a son of 15, and the verger of S. Thomas’s a daughter of 20. One of the saddest deaths was that of choir boy of S. Paul’s, Jack Andrews, at the age of ten years. On behalf of the parish I wish to convey to the bereaved parents, in each of the above cases, our heart-felt sympathy. It is difficult express adequately our sympathy for Mr and Mrs Roper in their great sorrow. Their eldest daughter seemed to be going on well, when collapse came suddenly, and in a few hours she was called to her eternal rest. The shock to her family was accentuated, too, by the fact that she died at a time when help was unobtainable from those who ordinarily arrange the details of a burial. May God in His infinite mercy help and comfort her sorrowing family and those thousands who have been plunged into mourning by this terrible visitation.
I am sorry to have to refer to finance in this letter, but I am afraid that I must do so, as the parish has been reduced to a very serious position by the epidemic. During October the Church collections have been about a quarter of the average for a month, for the Sunday congregations were the smallest on record. The Mission Schools have been closed, and so no school fees have come in. And as the parents pay by the week, and only then if their children have been to school that week, the school fees that ought to come in during October are irretrievably lost. But the teachers’ salaries must, of course, be paid in full, as usual. And the income for the General Purposes Fund during October will be very small, as many of the collectors and subscribers have been ill, and home expenses have been heavy. The consequence is that in order to pay stipends, salaries, and other current expenses, the Churchwardens have been compelled to overdraw to the extent of £75. We must somehow make this amount good before the end of the year, as well as pay the next two months’ expenses. I would therefore make an earnest appeal to all who were absent from Church during October to bring with them, next time they are able to attend the House of God, the offerings that they would have made each Sunday if they had been in church. And I would suggest that all who have been spared an attack of this treacherous sickness, and those who have safely recovered their health, should endeavour to make a worthy thanksgiving to Almighty God for His “late mercies vouchsafed unto them.”
I am your faithful friend and Rector
J.C.H. Brooke —————————- Notes on the Epidemic [Also from St Paul’s Record. November 1918]
As soon as it was realised that a large number of the poorer parishioners were ill with “Spanish Influenza”, Mrs Currey, of “Welgelegen” very kindly sent a large quantity of milk daily to the Rectory for distribution. The demand soon began to exceed the supply, even though the latter was supplemented from another source. Just in time the public depot at the Town Hall was opened and put in working order with wonderful promptitude and the milk from “Welgelegen” was sent elsewhere to those who needed it. Mrs Cripps and her band of helpers lost no time in making Rondebosch Town Hall a centre of relief and a blessing to the neighbourhood. Medicines, soup, and milk for the sick, and food for the families thrown out of employment or rendered destitute and helpless by sickness, were served daily to very large number of applicants, The suburb was divided into districts, and all the houses of the poor were visited daily by ladies, who brought nourishment and medicine to those who were unable to send for them, and who gave valuable help and advice to the sick and those of their friends who were nursing them. Scarcely any poor were able to secure the services of a doctor, though, when the seriousness of the situation was realised, Dr Parson and Dr Galpin, who years ago retired from practice, kindly turned out and attended all whom they had time to see. Even so, in the first ten days of the epidemic many poor people died without comfort of seeing a doctor. At first the City Corporation provided for only one Relief Depot in this parish, at the Town Hall, and so some of the ladies of the parish, Mrs Cronwright, Mrs Peters, and Mrs Nimmo Brown, with the help of other parishioners, opened a depot for Black River at the Klipfontein Hall (formerly a slaughter-house, now kindly lent to us by the Imperial Cold Storage Co. for parish purposes). Almost as soon as it was opened, the City Hall authorities made themselves responsible for all the expenses incurred in connection with its maintenance .
Meanwhile the state of things at Milner (i.e. West London) was most serious, and Mr Floyd made urgent representations to the authorities. As soon, therefore, as Mr Sawkins had completed his arrangements for the Rondebosch Town Hall, he paid a visit to Milner with Mr Floyd. The Wesleyan Church building, being central and near the hard road, was chosen as the most suitable place for a depot, and the Wesleyan authorities very kindly at once agreed to lend it, and gave every facility to the workers. Miss Hall, Miss Parson, and Miss Syfret, soon established a soup kitchen there, with medicines, etc., for all applicants. Mr Floyd was given authority by the City Corporation to issue bread, meat, and other necessaries to those who were in urgent need. Both at the Black River and Milner, and later at Welcome Estate, he organised a committee of coloured men and women to visit from house to house in their district. He selected the most respected and reliable persons for this purpose, those who knew the coloured people and could best judge their needs.
From further down the Flats came reports of sickness, helplessness, and destitution, and on the second Sunday in October Mr Floyd was able to establish another depot at Welcome Estate some five or six miles from Rondebosch Town Hall. The Black River Depot being in full running order, Mrs Peters and Mrs Nimmo Brown were able to leave it in Mrs Cronwright’s hand, and they transferred their energies to organizing and carrying on the Welcome Estate Depot. In this they were devotedly assisted by Mr Nimmo Brown. This served the people at Rylands Estate and for miles around, food, etc., being carried on foot or by the motor-car to people as far as ten miles down the Cape Flats.
This work could not have been carried on if Mr Hartford of “Elwyngor”, Silwood Road, had not been so thoughtful and kind as to place his motor-car entirely at the disposal of the workers. Every day they were taken to their depot and brought back by car, and incidentally Mr Hartford’s car relieved the Rector and Mr Floyd of some their longer bicycle rides to Maitland Cemeteries and down the Flats. The Rector is also very grateful to Mr L. Spilhaus for taking him on a round of visits one night after a long and tiring day on his bicycle.
When anyone in this parish dies without having been attended by a doctor in his last days the body has to be removed to Wynberg for a post-mortem examination by the District Surgeon. By October 7th this rule has been suspended, as more than half of them who were dying of pneumonia had not been able to see a doctor’s attention. Mr Floyd was appointed a Registrar of Deaths in those districts, and from early in the morning his house and the Rectory were besieged by those wanting burial orders, coffins and graves. From October 7th it was especially impossible for the poorer people to get a coffin from undertakers and even some of those who are well-to-do found themselves in the same dreadful situation. The City Corporation realised the position of this just in time, and placed large orders with firms who employed carpenters. The Rector made representations to our local City Councillor, Mr Sawkins, who immediately got a dozen coffins from the City Hall, and saw that a sufficient supply was sent daily to the Rondebosch Town Hall and the Relief Depot at West London. These are gruesome details, but they help one to realise what an extraordinary time we have been passing through.
The Cemetery at Black River was originally secured for the Church people of that Mission Station, and by them it was fenced in and put in order. Since then, as the Flat became populated, it was thrown open to Church people in our other mission stations at Milner and Rylands Estate. This epidemic, however, produced a sudden congestion at the Maitland Cemetery Office in Capetown. It was besieged to such an extent that sometimes it took hours for the bereaved to get into the office and purchase a grave. And even then, when the funeral at last arrived at Maitland No.3 (the cemetery of the poor), there was more congestion and a long delay before anyone could be found to point out which was the right grave. Accordingly the Rector and Mr Floyd decided to suspend the rule limiting the right of burial in Black Cemetery to Church people who lived on the Flats, and it was thrown open to people of all denomination in the parish. Several additional gravediggers were engaged with orders to dig graves all day long. At 5 o’clock each day the funerals began, when Mr Floyd had finished his work at the Depots. When possible after his return from Maitland, the Rector went to assist him at Black River Cemetery.
Over 150 burials took place there in three weeks where the monthly average is about six or seven. This little cemetery has been rapidly filling up, and we shall have to endeavour to enlarge it by securing some of the adjacent vacant ground. A glance at the list of burials at the end of this issue will show that it makes an interesting, if terribly sad “barometer” of the epidemic.
