George Thomas Franklin

George Franklin, although baptised a member of the Established Church, had become a Wesleyan. He had settled in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, his mother's birthplace, some time after his arrival from India. It is possible that his mother took him there but there is no proof of this.

In Laugharne, George married Mary Thomas daughter of Stephen and Jane Thomas and they had ten children between the years 1823 and 1847, three of whom died in early childhood. Whether his elder brother Mark settled in Laugharne or whether he remained in Melksham with his father's people is not known. (See Appendix B.) George, although a son of an army officer, had been trained as a builder. It is possible that his father's untimely death and his mother's straitened circumstances prevented him from completing his formal education.

2.3. Emigration of George Franklin and his family to Natal. George landed in South Africa at D'Urban in May 1850 a passenger on the "nile" ship. After the death of his mother, Jane, in 1849, George decided to immigrate to Natal. He together with his wife Mary and their eight surviving children, George Thomas, Stephen, Mark, Jane, John Wesley Maria, Anne and Sarah, sailed from London on 14th June, 1850 aboard the sailing ship "Nile" under the Lidgett Land Settlement Scheme. George would have seen the Cape in 1821 on his voyage from India after his father's death since their ship stopped in at the Cape. Perhaps this brief visit influenced his later decision to immigrate to Natal, the Garden Colony of South Africa.

The "Nile" was owned by Mr. John Lidgett. Some of the passengers went to work on John Lidgett’s landholdings beyond Pietermaritzburg. Each settler family was granted sixty acres (11) of land at Lidgetton for farming purposes, which must have seemed a sizeable farm to an Englishman but which we know by experience was pitifully small in Africa. With our climatic and soil conditions a six hundred acre farm in the Natal Midlands is barely an economic unit.

The outward voyage imposed great hardships on the settlers. The "Nile" was a brig, 130 ft. long, of 237 tons, with a draft of ten and a half feet. She was commanded by Captain Sinclair with Mr. Alexander as third mate and a crew of twelve. She left London with 101 passengers aboard and arrived in Natal 101 days later with one additional passenger, Rebecca Oceania Stonell, who was born during the voyage (11). In addition to her passengers and crew she carried the household goods of the settlers and livestock for fresh meat en route.

George Franklin was granted permission by the captain to enclose part of the steerage as cabin accommodation for his large family. Others did not fare so well and tempers became frayed in the cramped quarters. It was customary for the passengers, who carried small supplies of foodstuffs with them, to make puddings to relieve the monotony of the ship's fare and these were cooked in a large boiler. Jane Franklin, George's eldest daughter, records in her memoirs that on one occasion her father and Mr. Singer came to blows over the cooking of these puddings “with pot, hook and kettle".

Normal fare aboard the "Nile" was salt beef, salt pork, ship's biscuits and tinned bouillon and vegetables, with fresh bread and meat served only on Mondays. When writing of the voyage Jane says very little about the discomforts experienced by the settlers. She does however note that “The ship rolled so that the yardarms used to dip into the water. It had a wonderful way of righting itself". She also mentions that water was in very short supply and that toward the end of the voyage it was far from fresh.

The "Nile" arrived off D'Urban on the 15th September, 1850 but put to sea again for a further ten days as she was unable to cross the bar. She eventually entered D'Urban Bay on the 25th September, bumping the bar hard several times at the entrance.

The passengers were carried to the shore by surf boats and were carried from the surf boats to the beach by natives. The manner of their landing and their first sight of the semi-naked natives must have caused some consternation among the

ladies of the party, nor was this the only shock in store for them for the settlement of D'Urban which they had expected to find was nowhere to be seen! Instead they were confronted by the then luxuriant sub-tropical bush. One can imagine that even their relief at leaving the cramped confines of the ship must

have been tempered by dismay.

Once the passengers had been put ashore their goods were unloaded on to the beach where all but the most immediately necessary articles were stacked. Camping equipment, some of it makeshift, was then carried by the settlers along a narrow sandy track through the bush to the first clearing which presented itself. Here they found a number of people; settlers like themselves, already encamped. These people were awaiting transport to take them to their now homes The state of unpreparedness of the settlers is well illustrated by the fact that the majority of them had no proper camping equipment. They were living under a motley assortment of makeshift shelters including packing cases and sheets or blankets stretched on holes.

This temporary encampment rejoiced in the name "King William's Town", bestowed no doubt b7 some wag who had arrived aboard the "King William" in January,1850 (12).

Having made camp the settlers from the "%Lila" set out to find D'Urban for it was imperative that food supplies be obtained. They succeeded with some difficulty in making their way through the bush and were at last rewarded by sight of the metropolis - described by Jane Franklin later, in her memoirs, as "twenty houses". The village of D'Urban was about two miles from the Point. It was little more than a cluster of wattle and daub or green brick buildings, among which were an hotel - Macdonald's - and a post office ( Shuter,1963).

The settlers were directed to a low wattle and daub building which housed the store of Messrs. Blackwood and Cowper. Here they purchased various foodstuffs, but a problem arose over the purchase of sugar and coffee for the luxury of wrapping paper was then unknown in D'Urban and customers ware expected to provide their own containers (12).

Jane Franklin records that there was a coffee shop at the point where they were able to obtain coffee and real bread and butter - a great treat for people who had spent more than three months at sea. She also notes that the ~Wesleyan Minister in D'Urban was Mr. Holden.

The Franklin family remained in D'Urban for more than a month and during this time George realised money by selling carpenters' tools which he had brought with him for this purpose. He then arranged the hire of a cart from a Mr. Jee and

a wagon from a Mr. Harish to transport his family and their belongings to their new home at Lidgetton about 24 miles beyond Pietermaritzburg (11).

They left D'Urban on 4th November, 1850 and after a journey which lasted a week, since there were no roads and the draught oxen had to pull the wagon and cart over rough veld, they arrived at their destination. Some of the settlers did not go on to Lidgetton but elected to settle. ‘in Maritzburg. 'Among those who went to fidget ton where the brothers Richard and James Jeffries Hudson,

and the Britton family. A Mrs. Pridgeon, who must have come from Britain on another ship as her name does not appear in the passenger list of the "Nile", is

reported by Jane to have gone to Lidgetton, surveyed the scene, exclaimed " 0 Lor, we can't stay here:" and gone back either to Maritzburg or D'Urban.

The Franklin family lived in tents for some time after their arrival at Lidgetton while a more substantial albeit temporary home of wattle and daub with a thatched roof was being erected. This was a two-roomed dwelling. Ignorant as they were of their surroundings they thatched this house with the wrong

kind of grass which "went to pieces" when it dried. Since their first season in Natal was a very wet one they must have experienced great discomfort. They were not alone in their discomfort however. The unfortunate Mr. William Britton converted a disused anthill into a cave to be used as a temporary shelter while he was building a house. This cave was swamped and to add insult to injury a party of horsemen, among whom were Mr. James Methley and Mr. William Lister, rode over the roof of his abode in ignorance of its very presence. It was fortunate for all concerned that the roof did not collapse and speaks

highly for Mr. Britton's skill as a roof-maker:

Temporary housing having been organised, George and his sons set about making bricks with which to build a more permanent home. They themselves felled trees in the indigenous bush and sawed them for timber. Within sixteen months of their arrival at Lidgetton a brick house was constructed on a site at

what is now known as Caversham, near the Lidgetton village. This house, one of the first brick dwellings in rural Natal, was destroyed in the "Great Fire" of 6th September, 1878, which destroyed most of the original settlement (13). The family with the exception of Jane who had married James Jeffries Hodson had all left Caversham for Maritzburg by the time of this disastrous fire.

The site of the original Franklin home on the same side of the road as the little Caversham Wesleyan Church is now marked only by a giant oak tree. This tree was planted by George Franklin shortly after the family's arrival from Britain

(13) and it is said that he brought the acorn with him from there.

When first the settlers-arrived at Lidgetton the problem of obtaining food supplies was a major one. There were a few Dutch farmers in the neighbourhood and these good people helped their new neighbours by selling them fresh meat whenever a beast was slaughtered. The meat was sold to the settlers for. 10/- a quarter - roughly 200 lbs. (11).

The settlers also bought some goats and cattle from their neighbours and to feed these animals they made hay in the autumn. Jane describes their haystack as "the first ever made in Natal”. Cooking was a problem too, since it had to be carried out on open fires. In fine weather this was feasible, but it was a very wet season and the lot of the housewife was far from an easy one. Since there were no ovens baking was well-nigh impossible - an attempt to bake bread in a three-logged kaffir- pot was not a success as the shape of the pot made it impossible

to remove the loaf when it was cooked except in pieces.

One must remember that most of the settlers had come from comfortable urban homes and the conditions under which they were living in their new country were completely strange to them. Their efforts apparently caused considerable amusement to the Dutch farmers for Jane writes of these people, “Oh they did

laugh at us The settlers were however determined to succeed in this their new land and despite great difficulties, they did.

George Franklin remained at Lidgetton until 1857, farming and running an inn, the "Castle Inn". Then he moved to Maritzburg where he set up in business as a storekeeper. It is erroneously stated in Hattersley's book "The British Settlement of Natal" that George went to Australia in 1852. It was in fact his son Mark who went to Australia aboard the "Hannah" in 1852 and returned to Natal in 1859 with a wife and two children.

During the 1860's there was a period of economic depression in Natal. The list of insolvencies of the time which is in the Natal Archives makes depressing reading. George was among those whose business enterprises failed and on 15th November, l865 he went insolvent. His debts amounted to £379. 15. Od. (14). His business premises, his stock-in-trade and his house in Chapel Street were sold and he went to live with his youngest son, John Wesley Franklin, at Uys Doorns (Thorneybush) outside Maritzburg, where they both tried their hands once more at farming.

George discharged his insolvency on 2nd november, 1869 and returned to Maritzburg where he set up in business once mere. He and Mary lived in Longmarket St. On 11th December,1874, Mary died, aged 71 years, of paradysentery.

Nearly twelve years later, in April, .1886, George took out a special licence to marry Mrs. Eliza Jones nee Shepherd, a widow from Nottingham. After their marriage George and Eliza went to live at 19, Gutridge Street, where they remained until Eliza's death fro acute bronchitis on 19th November, 1893. After Eliza's death George retired from business in Maritzburg and went to live at York with John Wesley who was storekeeper there. George died on 17th March, 1897 in his 89th year. He is buried at York