Maria Johanna Ross

SA Settlers

• Ross, Maria Johanna
• Last Name: Ross (nee Ross)
• First Name: Maria Johanna
• Date of Birth: 1802
• Place of Birth: at sea on British ship
• Parents – Father: Hamilton Ross
• Parents – Mother: Catherine Elizabeth van denBerg
• Name of Spouse: widow of John Ross
• Date of Death: 25 Apr 1887 age 85
• Place of Death: Cape Town
• Notes: DN 660/1887. Gentlewoman. Children, all majors:
• Hamilton Hodgson, deceased
• KatharineHodgson, deceased, was m. to Dirk Stein
• Charles Hunter Hodgson
• Maud Drew Hodgson, deceased
• Hamilton Ross
• Jhn Robert Ross
• William Henry Ross
• Olivia Charlotte Ross m. to Godfrey
• Mary Ross m. to Sheildham, deceased
• Charlotte Emily Ross, deceased, was m. to Cradley
• Ellen Hamilton Ross Thomas

Winifred Ann Thomas, 1882 - 1977 - Lidderdale.com

• Maria Johanna Ross.
• Maria's first husband, Joseph Hodgson, died leaving her with four young children.
• She then married her cousin, John Ross.

History of the hotel

• 1843: Sir Hamilton Ross purchased the property. It was to remain within the Ross family for many years during which a beautiful garden was established, complete with deer and regal fountains. (Sir Hamilton is said to have been a passionate gardener, and Mount Nelson was known as one of the most magnificent gardens in Cape Town).
• Fact fact: When Mount Nelson was still the private home of the Ross family, the low wall in Orange Street was used as a convenient resting place for washerwomen on their way to the municipal wash houses below Table Mountain’s Platteklip Gorge.
• Hamilton Ross died at Sans Souci (a homestead located in what is now Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs) in February 1853 and his tombstone can now be seen in the Crypt of St George’s Cathedral.
• In 1870’s John Ross’s three eldest sons (Hamilton, John Junior and William) unearthed a heavy iron-bound chest. Their father thought it was a coffin and ordered them to bury it immediately. 25 years later, the only surviving brother tried to locate it, and had to conclude that it was under the laundry (designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built in 1899). So began the legend of Mount Nelson Hotel’s buried treasure…