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This project has been split into 3 sections.
Firstly A list of known Pioneers on Geni not mentioned in the following two lists Secondly those mentioned in Pioneers of Rhodesia: Selected transcription of excerpts from article by Edward. C. TABLER in Africana Notes and News, September 1972, vol 20 No. 3 Thirdly Abridged excerpts from “Africana Notes and News” Vol 19, no. 5, March 1971 posted by Jack Wright in Dec. 2005
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List 1
Please add links to geni profiles of pioneers not mentioned in lists 2 and 3
List 2
Pioneers of Rhodesia: Selected transcription of excerpts from article by Edward. C. TABLER in Africana Notes and News, September 1972, vol 20 No. 3
ANDERSON, Alexander Gillies (c.1843-1912). "Sandy" Anderson came to Durban 1868.
ANDERSON, Andrew Arthur. He was an early advocate of Imperial expansion in Southern Africa in the interests of British trade. His journey to Matabeleland in 1877-78 was apparently undertaken without official sanction, and its primary object was to investigate the ancient gold workings.
ARKLE, E. Stationary engineer, miner, prospector. He arrived at the Jesuit mission station in Matabeleland from the south on 16th March 1886 and went on to New Bulawayo. ARKLE, EDWARDS and McMENEMY were mining gold at Tati during November and December 1886.
BAILEY, Alexander Cumming (1850-1903)
BENINGFIELD, Reuben. He owned a schooner that he used for his trade between Natal and the Portuguese ports of the east coast.
BLANCA, Father Salvatore. He was born in Sicily in 1839, joined the Society of Jesus in 1859, and went as far as Tati with the first party. He remained at Tati from August 1879 until 20th October 1880, when he left for the Transvaal and Grahamstown with PARAVICINI and J. ENGELBRECHT. At Grahamstown in February 1881, BLANCA and ENGELS were ordered to go to LAW's relief in Mzila's country. They sailed from Port Elizabeth in the same month, and from Inhambane they started to walk to Mzila's, but they were forced to go back because ENGELS came down with fever. When ENGELS became somewhat insane, BLANCA put him aboard a ship for Cape Colony on 14th May 1881, and BLANCA himself sailed for the Colony on 12th July, after learning of LAW'S death. Blanca was in charge of the Jesuit Mission at Graaff-Reinet from 1881 till he returned to Sicily in 1883.
BLOCKLEY, J. George. He became the guide of the Jesuit party at Pandamatenga in June 1880 in place of WALSH, who had been badly injured in a wagon accident. BLOCKLEY was then married to a Toka woman and fluent in Sekololo.
BOTHA, Cornelis. Hunter. An elephant hunter from the Transvaal who in 1870 crossed the Limpopo at the northeastern corner of the Transvaal and reached the Sabi River three days later and Mzila's kraal in six days more. He also hunted along the Limpopo near its mouth.
- BOTTON, Claude Wilfred
- BOTTON, Oswald Victor
BROWN, Alexander. He managed LEASK's branch store at Potchefstroom for some time after its establishment in 1878 or 1879.
BULLEN. An engineer and a Roman Catholic who in early 1879 lived in the Eastern Province. He offered to guide the first party of Jesuit missionaries to the interior, but Bishop RICARDS of Grahamstown would not agree to his being given the job.
CARRUTHERS, James (1835-1916) Father of Jack, Bob & Norman. Arrived at Algoa Bay on the Ship Coldstream. Occupation: Master shoe & bootmaker.
CARRUTHERS, John (Jack) (1863-1951). Dutch interpreter to Cecil Rhodes during the Stellaland Campaign, Victoria Scout in 1893 & owner of the Oatlands Estate surrounding & incorporating the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Jack was a great writer, fortunately recording most of his experiences.
COCKIN, The Rev. Joseph. COCKIN, COLEMAN and JOHNSON left Bulawayo for the south on 9th January 1880.
COILLARD, The Rev. Francois. He was born on 17th July 1834.
COLLISON, Henry C. Collison, J. S. JAMESON and Dr. CROOK were at Umganin at the end of April 1880; they were still there on 27th May
CROONENBERGHS, Father Charles (1843-1899). He was born in Belgium and joined the Society of Jesus in 1863. He painted for Lobengula a picture of the Inxwala in early 1880. CROONENBERGHS was Superior of the Jesuit station near Old Bulawayo from 1880 until December 1883, when he departed for Tati; he continued southwards from Tati with NIGG on 3rd January 1884, to spend nearly a year at Vleesfontein in the Transvaal. He then went to the United States to collect funds for the Zambezi Mission, after which he returned to Belgium. CROONENBERGHS died at Verviers, Belgium, in 1899.
CROSS, Alfred. He settled on Kemba Farm, near Blaney, Cape Province, where he died c. 1926.
DAWNAY, The Hon. Guy Cuthbert. In March 1872 he went from Natal to Zululand, intending to hunt with John DUNN, but DUNN was unable to go and MOORE accompanied DAWNAY instead. They traveled through Zululand to the Pongolo River.
DAWSON, James. At Bulawayo on 3rd May 1886, he witnessed the document confirming Loben's grant in the Tati area to the Northern Light Gold Mining Company. DAWSON was in Matabeleland during May 1885 and March 1386, and in late July 1888. On 18th September 1890 Lobengula gave DAWSON a letter authorizing him to peg claims (for Iohe,) in Mashonaland on the Umfuli and Zimbo rivers. DAWSON went to Salisbury to protest to the authorities that settlers had claimed his reefs. H. J. BORROW accompanied him to the area of the Sebakwe and Bembesi rivers to mark alternate claims for the King.
DEANS, Alexander. He was a witness to the confirmation of Lohengula's concession in the Tati area to DOBBIE, D. and W. FRANCIS and DODDS, at Bulawayo on 2nd September 1881. DEANS was present at the indaba held on 29th December 1890 by Gungunhana, chief of the Shangaans, with the Portuguese official J. ALMEIDA. GUNGUNHANA declared himself a vassal of Portugal and thus disavowed a previous flirtation with the Chartered Company.
DEPELCHIN, Father Henri (1822-1900). He was born in Belgium, entered the Society of Jesus in 1842, and served in India from 1859 to 1877, where he was Superior of the Jesuit mission in Calcutta. Only DEPELCHIN and TERORDE visited the Victoria Falls from Pandamatenga from 10th to 17th July 1880. DEPELCHIN was in Europe during September and October 1883 and at the end of that year he left Europe for India. He died at Calcutta in 1960.
DE VIJLDER, Brother Louis. He was born in Belgium in 1841, fought in the Papal Army at the Battle of Mentana, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1877.
DOBBIE, Hugh Y. Secretary of Northern Light Gold Mining Company. His house at Tati was used by the Jesuit missionaries. Father BLANCA wrote to him to Potchefstroom to ask permission, but Dobbie never received the letter. Dobbie told Terorde at Kimberley in February 1880 that he planned to go to Tati soon and would require his house. He left Kimberley with a wagon in March 1880 and reached Tati on 7 May. DOBBIE, EDWARDS, D. FRANCIS and T. OWEN trekked through Bechuanaland to Tati, July to October 1881.
DRAKE, Frederick. He was Native Commissioner at Tati during late 1895 and early 1896, when he apparently also worked for Tati Concessions Ltd. in other capacities. He witnessed an agreement between that company and Chief Rauwe, made in the Tati District on 23 October 1895.
DRIVER, Charles Henry 1846-1897 He was appointed the Native Commissioner in Gwelo in 1896 when his wife and family traveled up by wagon to join him (see Rhodesia's Pioneer Women project).
DRIVER, William Impey Stanford - Hon. Maj. 1872-1948 He served in the Matabele Rebellion as a Lieut. and in the Transvaal Rebellion as a Captain. He served in the First World War in East Africa and retired as Hon. Major (Mil. Political).
EDKINS, Ebenzer Crouch (store owner Filabuzi)
EDWARDS, Samuel Howard. Sec Northern Light Gold Mining Company. EDWARDS, D. FRANCIS, DOBBIE and T. OWEN trekked through Bechuanaland to Tad. July to October 1881. EDWARDS, FAIRBURN and SELOUS arrived at Tati from Kimberley on 5 April 1883. EDWARDS is recorded as having been at Tati in November 1883, May-July 1884. May 1887, February 1888, July 1888, November-December 1888, early January 1889 and June-July 1890. He was at Port Elizabeth on 27 February 1889 and was about to leave Tati for the south in September 1890. EDWARDS was in London during June 1893. Lobengula gave EDWARDS magisterial and legislative powers in the area. By a written note to EDWARDS dated 15 November 1888, Loben granted the Tati Concession and Exploration Company the power to prevent settlement in its concession area and the exclusive right to pasture livestock and cut wood in that area. EDWARDS was called from Tati to New Bulawayo by Loben in June 1890; the King asked him about the intentions of the Pioneer Column.
ELSTOB, J. D. During 1902-04, when he taught a school on F. Greef's term in the Figtree-Marula area, he was a qualified teacher and a minister the gospel. Perhaps he was a son of the J. D. ELSTOB who was in Matabeleland during Lobengula's time.
ENGELBRECHT. Jan. He had been to the Zambezi before 1880, when he was living at Tati. ENGELBRECHT and De SADELEER, with one of the Jesuit wagons, arrived at Bulawayo from Tad on 11 January 1880. ENGELBRECHT departed for Tati in a Jesuit wagon on the 13th. Father BLANCA lent him the money to buy a salted horse at Tati in 1880. ENGELBRECHT was living at Tati in 1883 and in January-February 1885. Was in Matabeleland proper during April-May 1886.
ERSKINE, St. Vincent William. He was sent to Mzila in 1871-72 by SHEPSTONE to survey the possibilities inherent in Mzila's offer to place himself under the protection of Natal and to trade with that colony. The chief promised to send a present of ivory to the mouth of the Limpopo if an envoy were sent him, but the officials at Pietermaritzburg thought the cost of ERSKINE'S journey would be greater than the value of the ivory; so he paid his own expenses in return for the tusks. ERSKINE was unable to travel up the Limpopo to Mzila's in September 1871 because that chief had become unco-operative. He reached Mzila's kraal, on the slopes of the Chimanimani Mountains and near the source of the Buzi River, directly from Inhambane in March 1872. He stayed for weeks without seeing the chief, who at last interviewed his visitor and declared that ERSKINE'S present was unsatisfactory and that he wanted a shipload of guns; he refused to let his people go to Natal to work and he gave ERSKINE only 42 tusks. ERSKINE'S mission to Mzila was a failure. When he visited Mzila again in 1874 he gave the chief 100 Tower muskets for leave to hunt elephants. ERSKINE quarreled with Mzila and had to threaten the use of force to get his ivory to Inhambane. ERSKINE attempted to persuade the Natal officials and the Portuguese to attack Mzila, but the latter had no wish to arouse the Shangaans and Natal was not sympathetic because other British subjects traveled freely in the Gaza country.
FAIRBAIRN, James. His father owned land at Dalkeith, Scotland. Fairbairn saw his German assistant (Schuch) off from The White Stones on 3 September 1879. He gave Father DEPELCHIN a letter of introduction to WESTBEECH. FAIRBAIRN witnessed the concession to the Tati area granted by Lobengula to DOBBIE, D. and W. FRANCIS and DODDS at The White Stones in September 1880. Fairbairn is recorded as being in Matabeleland during August 1882, March 1884, February-March 1885, August 1885, April-May 1886 and November-December 1886. FAIRBAIRN, SELOUS and EDWARDS arrived at Tati from Kimberley on 5 April 1883, and FAIRBAIRN and SELOUS departed for Matabeleland next day. In February 1887 FAIRBAIRN witnessed Loben's authorization of EdWards to be magistrate and legislator in the Tati area. FAIRBAIRN was ill at Klerksdorp in January 1889. Late in 1890 the British South Africa Company gave him the same privileges as the Pioneers enjoyed. FAIRBAIRN, who died of fever and dysentery, did much to reconcile the Matabele indunas to white rule after the war of 1893.
FINAUGHTY, William (1843-1917). In mid-1887 FINAUGHTY and two other men told R. C. WILLIAMS, British agent at Pretoria, that they planned to seize Delagoa Bay from the Portuguese, and they asked for British support. When WILLIAMS refused it they threatened to turn to the South African Republic for help, and FINAUGHTY said that Rhodes would aid them.
FRANCIS, Daniel. See Northern Light Gold Mining Company. FRANCIS, EDWARDS, DOBBIE and T. OWEN trekked through Bechuanaland to Tati, July to October 1881. FRANCIS sold his mining rights in the Tati area to the newly-formed Tati Bluejacket Syndicate in London on 8 May 1894. The right to peg and work 200 claims in the area was granted him in April 1894 by the Tati Concession Mining & Exploration Company.
FRANCIS, William Curle. See Northern Light Gold Mining Company. See Wood-Chapman-Francis Syndicate. He was in the Eastern Province of Cape Colony during February and March 1879 and at Shoshong in July 1879, when he promised to forward letters for the first Jesuit missionaries by the "traders' post". By April 1880 he had for some years maintained a cattle post near the junction of the Limpopo and Little Notwani rivers, to which the whites of Shoshong retreated whenever there were rumours of an impending Matabele raid. A man named FRANCIS helped sink a well for the Jesuits at Tati in August 1882.
FUCHS, Father Karl. He served in the Prussian medical corps in the Franco-Prussian War, left Germany in 1872, and worked first in England and then in France.
GARLAND, T. John. He lived at Durban, where he died in May 1904. Formerly he lived at Verulam, Natal.
GIFFORD, Hon Maurice Raymond
GRANDY, Lieutenant William James. In 1873, during his attempt to find LIVINGSTONE, he passed through Sao Salvador, seat of the long-defunct Christian Kingdom of Kongo. He penetrated only as far as Tungwa, 60 miles to the north, where he was turned back by the tribesmen.
GRANT, Harry I. In 1879 he was a bachelor and had a small farm, Homoshlangi, about 18 miles from Old Bulawayo; he offered to sell or rent it to the Jesuits, but Loben refused to permit it. When Father CROONENBERGHS learned at Bulawayo on 2 November 1880 that Father LAW and his companions were ill and near starvation at Mzila's, he hired GRANT and his wagon, for £70 and 10 pounds of gun-powder to take help to them. Loben ordered the indunas of the village where GRANT would leave his wagon to give him guides and porters to go on to Mzila's. GRANT started on 5th November 1880 but was turned back by high water in the Sabi River. The Chartered Company at the end of 1890 permitted GRANT to peg 30 mineral claims in Mashonaland.
GREEF, Frederick Charles. He was at LEE's house on Mangwe River in February 1880, and he was there with his family in September 1884. GREEF after 1890 became a transport rider and hauled machinery to Mashonaland from Johannesburg via Tuli. His son Petrus Johannes was born at Semokwe Drift, and one of his daughters was named Cecil John RHODES GREEF for her godfather. GREEF settled in the Bulalima-Mangwe District, where his descendants live today. In 1902 he lived on a farm near Leigh-woods.
GREENSTOCK, The Rev. William. He went to Matabeleland to investigate mission possibilities for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and reported favourably, but the Society found itself unable to begin a mission there.
GREITE, August. His wife spoke Sindebele well. The first Jesuits to reach Matabeleland lived at his premises, which he sold to them on 19th November 1879. GREITE gave them possession on 5th March 1880 and started out with his wife and children and four wagons on 10th March. GREITE settled at Zeerust. He, VERMAAK and Van ROOYEN arrived at Tati from the south on 30th November 1882. He started down country from Matabeleland with the Vicomte de la PANOUSE and his party in January 1885. GREITE wrote Father DEPELCHIN from Zeerust on 24th February 1883 to offer the Jesuits his farm Vleesfontein in the Transvaal for £800. He was still living at Zeerust in January 1887.
HALYET, John. In May or June 1881 he agreed to build for the Jesuits at Old Bulawayo for £42 10s. HALYET accompanied the Jesuit Father PROEST to Umpandini to look for a site for a mission, 16th to 25th March 1885. Halyet was in Matabeleland in April-May 1886, November-December 1886 and late July 1888.
HARTLEY Henry (1835-1916). His second wife was named Mary. In 1866 the HARTLEY party penetrated Mashonaland as far as the Umfuli River, reached on 3rd August. His party shot 91 elephants, which yielded nearly 4 000 pounds of ivory worth £1000, on its journey to Mashonaland, 15th March to 1st December 1867; they also bagged 2 giraffes, 8 elands, 2 hippos, 3 buffalo and 5 rhinos when shooting for the pot. Sechele refused HARTLEY permission to prospect in Kwena territory in 1871.
HEDLEY, Brother Joseph (1846-1933). He was born at Wapping, London, and died in North Wales. HEDLEY was a merchant seaman as a youth and joined the Society of Jesus in 1873. He replaced the tents on two of Loben's wagons and otherwise repaired them, at the end of 1879. HEDLEY left New Bulawayo for Grahamstown on 18th June 1887, and he returned to England in 1889.
HILL, Albert
HURRELL, William
JESUIT MISSION. The start of the first party for the north in 1879 was delayed by the British defeat at Isandhlwana in the Zulu War. Sir Bartle FRERE and Father DEPELCHIN had been acquainted in India, and Frere advised him not to approach Lobengula until the Matabele's kinsmen the Zulus were defeated. To save time. the Jesuits decided to go as far as Shoshong and then go on to Matabeleland when it was safe to do so. A young man named IMPEY conducted the first party to Kimberley; he was not engaged to go further because A. C. BAILIE told the Jesuits they would not need a guide and wagon manager. At Kimberley Father LAW stayed with BAILIE, who lent them a Matabele servant to act as guide. DEPELCHIN and LAW met Sir B. FRERE there, and he gave them a passport addressed to Khame and Lobengula. H. M. BARBER gave them a letter of recommendation to Khame, and they also met John MACKENZIE there. The first party used DOBBIE's house at Tati for their station. They reached Tati too late in the season to go on to the Zambezi. Father BLANCA was Superior at that place. Lobengula would not permit the Jesuits to buy or lease GRANT'S farm to grow crops and raise livestock.
On 18th October 1879 he said that they could remain in the country till April 1880; he did not at first favour them because they planned to go to his powerful neighbours the Barotse and the Shangaans. However, CROONENBERGH'S skill at painting and healing and HEDLEY's and NIGG's usefulness as artisans, and the King's own fear of the consequences if he expelled them, caused him to change his mind and let them remain in his country. The Father General ordered Father De WIT, a Jesuit of Graaff-Reinet, to investigate the Zambezi Mission as an official visitor, in consequence of TERORDE's complaint that they were starving and suffering from dysentery. So De WIT led the second party upcountry. DEPELCHIN and NIGG met the second party at the Mhalapshwe River on 27th April 1880. When De WIT reached Bulawayo in May he found nothing much amiss with the mission, though he found some fault with DEPELCHIN's leadership.
KIRTON, Argent Blundell
LAW and De SADELEER left Bulawayo for Tati with a wagon on 9th February 1880. They went to help BLANCA, for FUCHS had died and PARAVICINI was ill. LAW left De SADELEER at Tati and took PARAVICINI to Bulawayo to recuperate, 18th to 26th February. Lobengula gave LAW the road to Mzila's and DEPELCHIN (in absentia) the road to the Zambezi, at The White Stones on March 13 1880. WESTBEECH and BLOCKLEY welcomed the Jesuits to Pandamatenga in June 1880, and WESTBEECH gave them permission to found a station there. Father WEISSKOPF died there on 1st July 1883. Father BOOMS and Brother De SADELEER, who were recalled to Vleesfontein, abandoned the Pandamatenga station on 25th November 1885. Vleesfontein (now Kalkfontein), near Zeerust, was made a station in support of the efforts in Matabeleland and near the Zambezi.
LEASK, Thomas Smith (1839-1912). After the death of his partner TAYLOR in 1878, LEASK established branch stores at Lichtenburg, Wolmaransstad and Potchefstroom. Alexander BROWN managed the store at Potchefstroom, and LEASK imported two nephews to manage the others.
LEE, Hans. He was born in the Transvaal in 1863 and was the son of John LEE by his first wife. He was brought by his mother to his father's farm at Mangwe c.1866. H. LEE was at New Bulawayo in late July 1888. For guiding Randolph CHURCHILL (1849-1895) in 1891 he was given the farms Kolbooi and Sterkfontein in the Manila area. His first wife was Martha, a daughter of F. GREEF, and after her death he married Laetitia PRESCOTT. LEE was a good shot and African linguist.
LEE, John. He first went to Matabeleland, where he obtained Mzilikazi's permission to hunt, in 1858, and by 1861 he was shooting elephants in the area of the Shashi River. His favourite camp site was near the Mangwe Pass. LEE obtained his grant of land from the Matabele in 1862 or 1863, and after he built his first house Mrs. LEE and their infant son Hans and other children joined him there, in 1866. Mrs. LEE died in childbirth in 1870. LEE was at his house at Mangwe in February 1880, when he and his wife had fever. Early in that year he invited the Jesuits to establish a station on his land, in order to have his children educated, but nothing came of this. LEE and his wagon, with others, arrived at Umganin from the south on 30th May 1880. He was at his house in May 1880, August 1882, and March 1884; in the last-named month he was not feeling well, and in 1884 he went to live at Zeerust, perhaps because his health was bad.
After the death of his first wife LEE had a succession of house-keepers, one of whom he married, but she ran off with a transport rider. He married a third time, and his descendants live in Bulalima-Mangwe District. He refused to serve the Chartered Company as guide and interpreter in the Matabele War of 1893.
LOCK, Robert Bartholomew
LYNCH, William Patrick
MADDOCKS, Charles Snr & Jnr
MANDY, Frank. In 1879 he had a wife and a business in the Eastern Province of Cape Colony. He was recommended as the best possible conductor for the first Jesuit mission party; his terms were one-third of the profits of the journey (he proposed to trade) or £1000, whichever sum was greater, plus £20 per month for his wife. He was not hired, primarily because his fee was too high, and also because he did not speak Sindebele.
MARTIN, George Frederick. He and his wife were at their house at Old Bulawayo in September 1879, when her brother was with them. MARTIN opposed the Chartered Company, so that its secretary informed COLENBRANDER at Bulawayo, in a letter of 28th February 1891, that MARTIN was not to be favoured in any way, and that COLENBRANDER should try to have him expelled from Matabeleland if he continued to attempt to injure the Company.
MAUCH, Karl Gottlieb. He went to London in 1863 and arrived at Durban on 11th January 1865, 75 days from England. Failing to get work or assistance, MAUCH soon went to New Germany, near Pinetown, where a German pastor gave him a letter of introduction to a German trader of Pietermaritzburg, BERGTHEIL, who gave him work. A German merchant from the Transvaal gave him a lift on his wagon to Rustenburg, 27th April to 22nd June 1865. MAUCH visited the upper Limpopo with a party of Boers from Rustenburg, and he explored the Pilansberg. In July 1865 he travelled to Potchefstroom with a fellow German and stayed still September when, threatened with conscription into a commando going to assist the Free Staters against the Basuto, he fled to the Marico District with a farmer.
For a time MAUCH stayed at the farm of an ex-missionary of the Hermannsburg Society, but he found the Boers generally inhospitable to a suspicious-looking vagabond, so he returned to Potchefstroom. In January 1866 MAUCH joined by invitation a party of men who inspected farmland between the Limpopo and the Matlabas rivers. He met Henry HARTLEY, who was returning from a short hunting trip to the Limpopo, on 15th February 1866 and was immediately invited by HARTLEY to go to the Matabele dominions. MAUCH tried to compile a map of the Transvaal about January 1866. However, presumably because his observations were too few, he gave it up and turned his data over to F. JEPPE. The HARTLEY party and MAUCH stopped for 16 days during July 1867 on the Biri, a tributary of the Umfuli, and MAUCH found his first gold near the Sterkstroom.
On the pretence of hunting for honey with an old Shona, he prospected near the Umsweswe River when the wagons stood there. The party started for Matabeleland in August; it was near the Umniati River on 25th August and arrived at Mzilikazi's temporary kraal on 10th September. They parted with the KING on the 13th, made Manyami's on the 20th and the Ingwesi River and the ruins of Makobi's village on the 23rd, and Thorndale on 28th November. MAUCH walked on to Potchefstroom by 1st December 1867. MAUCH feigned insanity to prevent the Matabele guides from thinking he was spying in their country.
The receipt of subscribed money sent by Dr. PETERMANN of Gotha enabled Mauch in 1868 to explore independently rather than live by conducting a party of prospectors to the newly discovered gold fields. MAUCH and JEBE were at Pretoria on 1st June 1868 and at Lydenburg on 1st July. Helped by the Rev. Mr. NACHTIGAL of the Berlin Mission, they left Lydenburg on 10th July with three Africans, a pack ox and a donkey. Tsetse soon finished the ox and the donkey ran off with a herd of zebra north of the Limpopo, which they crossed on 31st August about a mile north of the mouth of the Bubye River. They ascended the Bubye to near its source, and the Africans they encountered were without much food because of a severe drought. About 125 miles from Inyati they met nine Matabele warriors who arrested them; Mzilikazi had recently died, and they were taken to Inyati by 18th October. MAUCH was regarded as a spy because earlier in the year
McCABE, Edward Gordon
VILJOEN had denounced him to Mzilikazi and had prejudiced the traders against him; and HARTLEY had thrown all the blame for the discovery of gold onto him. Sykes had gone down country, and T. M. THOMAS warned MAUCH to meet the new King and inform him of his plans. Called to Mhlahlanhlela on 9th November, MAUCH went there in two days, was interviewed and absolved by Nombate, and returned to Inyati on 16th November. MAUCH found JEBE "unsuitable" as an explorer and parted with him at Inyati, where MAUCH remained about six months. He sent letters south by George WOOD in October 1868 and asked WOOD to bring his equipment and supplies from Potchefstroom, but WOOD did not leave the Matabele country after all. MAUCH was forced to go out because his gear was not brought up to him. He visited the Diamond Fields in 1869 and afterwards travelled to the Blauberg from Potchefstroom, to which he returned on 28th December. MAUCH was elated by the formation of the German Empire in 1871. He resolved to discover the ruins of Ophir above the Limpopo to add to the glory of the German nation.
McMENEMY, Robert. His two wagons and those of FAIRBAIRN, SELOUS, J. LEE and VERMAAK arrived at Umganin from Tati on 30th May 1880. McMENEMY arrived at Tati from the south on 29th March 1883; he was at New Bulawayo in December 1885, and he was mining at Tati with EDWARDS and ARKLE during December 1886. McMENEMY was at Tati in July 1887.
MEIKLE, Thomas
MILLER, Edwin. He left Pandamatenga on foot on 2nd October 1883 and arrived in Matabeleland on 20th October. MOFFAT, The Rev. John Smith. He was appointed Native Commissioner for the Western Border by the British administration of the Transvaal on 22nd August 1880. He resigned on 30th July 1881.
MILLER, Alfred John
MOIR, Joseph Thackwray (1865-1946) He was living in Bulawayo before his marriage in 1896, this is noted on his marriage register 27 Oct 1896.
MOODIE, George Benjamin Dunbar
MORRIS, Herbert John
NAUHAUS, Carl Frederick Wilhelm
NIGG, Brother Theodore (1848-1891). He was born in Lichtenstein and joined the Society of Jesus in 1869. He served as cook, builder, tailor and musician on the Zambezi Mission from 1879 to 1884. He died in Cape Colony, where he served from 1884.
NORTHERN LIGHT GOLD MINING COMPANY LTD. (1880-1888). DOBBIE, D. FRANCIS, W. C. FRANCIS and Samuel R. DODDS with the help of TAINTON and EDWARDS, obtained from Lobengula at The White Stones on 2nd September 1880 an exclusive concession to mine and prospect for gold between the Shashi and the Ramaquabane rivers, for a yearly payment of £30. The King also revoked all previous grants in the area. The document was witnessed by FAIRBAIRN and T. M. THOMAS. The grantees formed the Northern Light Gold Mining Company.
Loben authorized DOBBIE in 1881 to exclude others from building and hunting in the concession area. EDWARDS obtained from Loben at Bulawayo on 2nd September 1881 an enlargement of the earlier concession, on behalf of DOBBIE, D. and W. FRANCIS and DODDS. The right to erect machinery was added, and the Company formally recognized Loben's sovereignty over its area and agreed to pay a royalty of £50 per year. DEANS, PETERSEN, SELOUS and T. M. THOMAS were witnesses. DOBBIE transferred his rights in the concession and his share of the machinery, buildings and stores at Tati to D. FRANCIS at Kimberley on 16th June 1883. DODDS sold his interest to E. W. TARRY at Kimberley on 9th August 1886, and by 1888 W. C. FRANCIS sold his interest to Alfred BEIT.
Lobengula reconfirmed his grants to the Northern Light Company in a document witnessed at Bulawayo on 3rd May 1886 by DAWSON and W F USHER (1851-1916. The King appointed EDWARDS his deputy in the Tati district in February 1887, which helped the enterprise. In October 1888 EDWARDS, D. FRANCIS, TARRY and BEIT ceded their rights and property in the Tati area to the Tati Concession Mining & Exploration Company Ltd., which was floated at Kimberley with BEIT and D. FRANCIS as major shareholders. EDWARDS obtained a new and expanded concession for this company on 15th November 1888. It became Tati Concessions Ltd. in 1895 and the Tati Company Ltd. in 1914.
PARAVICINI, Brother Pietro. He was born in Italy in 1834, joined the Society of Jesus in 1864, and served at Grahamstown in 1881 and at Pandamatenga from 25th June 1882 until 1884. PARAVICINI then worked for a time at Vleesfontein and later in Cape Colony. Presumably he left South Africa for Europe in 1887.
PAPENFUS, Ludwig Napoleon
PETERSEN, H. He witnessed the concession to the Tati area given to DOBBIE, D. and W. FRANCIS and DODDS at Bulawayo on 2nd September 1881. PETERSEN was in Matabeleland during March-May 1884, September-December 1884, April 1885, October-November 1885, March-June 1886, November-December 1886, all of 1887 and 1888, and in 1890 and 1891.
PHILLIPS, George Arthur? (1816-1883). He gave Father DEPELCHIN a letter of introduction to WESTBEECH. PHILLIPS was at Bulawayo in January 1880, and he and TAINTON left that place for Tati in TAINTON's wagon on 20th March 1880. PHILLIPS was living at Tati in April 1880 and May 1881; he was at New Bulawayo in August 1882, at Tati in February 1884, and in Matabeleland during June and October 1885. PHILLIPS witnessed, on 15th November 1888, Loben's further grants in the Tati area to EDWARDS on behalf of the Tati Concession Mining & Exploration Company.
PINTO,Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa. He was very active in promoting the cause of Portugal in the Scramble for Africa, subsequent to his crossing of Africa in 1877-79. PINTO came to Mozambique town in 1884 with 100 Shangaan troops; he intended to go inland to Lake Nyasa and then northwards to assert Portuguese sovereignty in the area, but he became ill and handed his command over to A. CARDOSO. PINTO became Portuguese consul general at Zanzibar in 1885 and left that island for Lisbon c. April 1886. Pinto, appointed to command an expedition to secure the area round Lake Nyasa for Portugal, arrived on the Zambezi in Mozambique c. April 1889. He started up the Shire River, on which he was halted by the Kololo in August 1889, and when H. H. JOHNSTON passed upriver on a treaty-making expedition he did not help PINTO. The Kololo kept PINTO's camp under partial siege, and he went to Mozambique town to see the Governor General. He returned to his camp 25 miles south of the Ruo River in November, and on 8th November he beat off a determined attack by the Kololo, who were inspired by the British and the African Lakes Company. PINTO received reinforcements, advanced up the Shire, and dealt adequately with the Kololo, but on 21st November he became very ill and sent his men ahead under one of his officers. He returned to Mozambique town by 26th December 1889.
RENDERS, Adam (1822-1869). According to his son, he was killed by Africans near Zimbabwe.
SADDLER, Tom. Little Tom's and Big Tom's spruits in Wankie National Park were named for him.
SCHUCH, Harry. Fairbairn saw SCHUCH off from The White Stones on 3rd September 1879.
SELL. He was in Matabeleland from September to December 1884.
SELOUS Frederick Courtenay. He was at Grahamstown at the end of March 1876, reached the Marico River via the Diamond Fields on 19th July, and was at Tati on 15th August. When SELOUS was at Deka in mid-October 1877, trade and hunting in Barotseland were depressed as a result of Sipopa's death and the subsequent civil turmoil. SELOUS gave up the hunting of elephants for a living after 1880. SELOUS gave Father TERORDE a Toka vocabulary and one of his Toka servants who wanted to go home, at Tati in May 1880. SELOUS suggested to the Jesuits that they make a beginning with the Toka because those people were not as warlike and cruel as the Barotse.
SELOUS, FAIRBAIRN, McMENEMY, J. LEE and VERMAAK brought their wagons to Umganin from Tati on 30th May 1880. SELOUS is alleged to have witnessed the enlarged concession to the Northern Light Company at Bulawayo on 2nd September 1881. However, he was then in England and did not reach the Cape till November, so he must have signed the document at a later date. SELOUS, FAIRBAIRN and EDWARDS reached Tati from Kimberley on 5th April 1883 and SELOUS and FAIRBAIRN left for Matabeleland next day. SELOUS returned to Tati from the north on 13th February 1884.
The Selous Exploration Company of Cape Town was floated in mid-1889, with Frank JOHNSON of the Bechuanaland Exploration Company as a prime mover. SELOUS, hired to take a prospecting party to the Mazoe River for the Bechuanaland Company, sailed from England on 3rd May 1889 and from Port Elizabeth to Durban in mid-June. The party arrived at Vicenti on the lower Zambezi on 25th July, and the agent of the African Lakes Company furnished boatmen to take them to Tati, where they waited for porters. In the area of the upper Mazoe, on 25th September 1889, SELOUS obtained a concession for the Selous Exploration Company from the Korikori chiefs Mapondera and Temaringa. The B.S.A. Company offered 100 square miles in the area in return for the concession, but it was sold to W. A. LIPPERT c. January 1890. However, the Colonial Secretary would not admit its validity and Lippert's claims.
By December 1889 SELOUS was being paid a retainer by the B.S.A. Company. In that month he persuaded RHODES to send the Pioneers to Mashonaland by a route that would avoid the Matabele. During February and March 1890 RHODES sent SELOUS to Lobengula to tell him of the forthcoming occupation of Mashonaland. SELOUS was at Palapye on his journey back down country, 26-30th March.
SELOUS was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer to the Pioneer Column on 15th April 1890. JAMESON, his secretary, COLQUHOUN, SELOUS and a few troopers left the Pioneer Column at Fort Charter to obtain Manicaland for the Company. At Mtasa's, near present-day Umtali, SELOUS and COLQUHOUN on 14th September 1890 persuaded that chief to sign a treaty placing his country under the protection of the B.S.A. Company. When Utasa had second thoughts, COLQUHOUN sent his secretary, SELOUS and a policeman to Macequece, ostensibly to buy trade goods and provisions, but actually to reconnoiter the Portuguese position. They followed the Umtali Valley, stopped at Dambarara, and near Macequece turned back to camp to get there ahead of a party sent to protest the seizure of Portuguese territory. COLQUHOUN then left SELOUS to make treaties with chiefs nearer Salisbury.
SELOUS and Trooper ARMSTRONG left Salisbury by ox wagon on 19th December 1890 to get a concession from Mtoko, chief of the Mabudja between the Mazoe and the Ruenya rivers. They reached Mtoko's on 2nd January 1891, reached an agreement with the chief, and returned to Salisbury by 25th January. SELOUS and PENNEFATHER led reinforcements in May 1891 from Umtali to the Company's people opposing the Portuguese at Macequece. The two men followed the retreating Portuguese nearly to Chimoro and then returned to Umtali. SELOUS left the service of the B.S.A. Company in June 1892 and returned to England. He rejoined the Company in 1893. Mr. and Mrs. SELOUS left England for Rhodesia on 30th March 1895, spent two months at RHODES's house at Cape Town, and journeyed via Beira to their farm 20 miles from Bulawayo.
STROMBOOM, Jan Oscar. He was at Shoshong, bound for the Zambezi, in July 1887.
SWARTZ, Lucas Marthinus. At the end of 1867 he returned to the Transvaal from the Zambezi. During July 1867 he met Africans who had seen Livingstone 20 days' march beyond the Victoria Falls.
SYKES, Rev. William (1827-1897). His eldest son, Frederick William, was born at Inyati in 1861. His second child, Mary Margaret, was born at Inyati in 1862. She married David CARNEGIE after his arrival at Hope Fountain in October 1882.
TAINTON, William Joseph. In Matabeleland during September 1879, he agreed to act as interpreter for the first Jesuit missionaries. TAINTON was at Bulawayo in January 1880, and on 13th March 1880 he interpreted for Father LAW when LAW was given the road to Mzila's by Lobengula at The White Stones. TAINTON and PHILLIPS left Bulawayo for Tati in TAINTON's wagon on 20th March 1880, and TAINTON returned to Bulawayo on 25th April. He helped DOBBIE, DODDS and D. and W. FRANCIS obtain their concession to the Tati area in September 1880. TAINTON warned Loben's sister Nini to retire from public life when her brother took Mzila's daughter as his great wife, but Nini would not take his advice. TAINTON was in Matabeleland during May-June 1880, August 1882, April-June 1886, November-December 1886 and July 1888. He interpreted when Loben gave EDWARDS magisterial powers in the Tati area on 24th February 1887; and on 15th November 1888 when Loben gave EDWARDS the power to prevent or regulate settlement in that area. TAINTON was paid £25 per month by the Chartered Company for unspecified duties at Bulawayo in 1890. He was employed by the Company as COLENBRANDER's deputy during the latter's absence from Bulawayo in 1891. TAINTON was Loben's secretary during June and July 1893.
TEROERDE, Father Victor Anthony. He was conscripted into the Prussian medical corps for the Franco-Prussian War. He left Germany, studied theology in England, and taught in Austria.
THACKWRAY, Harry Oswald Thackwray 1868 - 1927 He had been a Rhodesian Pioneer who had gone to that country with the Cecil John Rhodes’ Column in 1891. After serving with the Grey Scouts in the Matabele Rebellion of 1896, he returned to the Cape Colony and in 1898, and married Anna Jacomina Van Zyl (1879–1951) and settled (on Snijmanskraal) our family farm in the Wodehouse District (just a few miles West of Dordrecht town).
THACKWRAY, James Mortimer 1866 - 1947 He had been a Rhodesian Pioneer who had gone to that country with the Cecil John Rhodes’ Column in 1891. He is noted as a transport driver and contractor on the Salisbury Cathederal baptism registers of his two daughters born in Salisbury, Mashonaland in 1892 and 1894. His 1st wife was Margaret Milne 1863 - 1945. Their 1st daughter Margaret Elizabeth Thackwray, was born 2 Dec 1892, and baptised on 15 Feb 1893 by Ven. James Hay Upcher, Archdeacon of Mashonaland. Their 2nd daughter was Amy Constance Thackwray who was born in the Salisbury district on 18 Mar 1894, and was baptised on 15 Feb 1893 in the Cathedral, Salisbury. NOTE - James Mortimer Thackwray left Rhodesia by 1900 to settle near Pretoria after his 1st wife divorced him to marry another Rhodesian Pioneer Dr. Richard Frank Rand who was a well-known botanist in the Pioneer Column.
THOMAS, David (Morgan). He came to Tati from Shiloh, en route to Zeerust, on 23rd February 1883. He was killed at the Zambezi in October 1886.
THOMAS, Rev. Thomas Morgan (1830-1884). He witnessed the enlarged concession to the Northern Light Company at Bulawayo on 2nd September 1881. After THOMAS's death his widow stayed at Shiloh till 1889, when JAMESON advised her to get out before trouble occurred over the occupation of Mashonaland. at Tati on 30th November 1882. Van ROOYEN, VERMAAK and LEE's son came to Tati on 13th April 1883, and the two first-named returned to Tati from Bulawayo on 30th June 1883. Van ROOYEN was at Bulawayo in July 1888 and at Tati in September 1890.
VANROOYEN, Cornelius Johannes Snr & Jnr
VERMAAK, Solomon Cornelius. He, his wife and their two sons all had fever at Tati in February 1880. The wagons of VERMAAK, FAIRBAIRN, SELOUS, McMENEMY and LEE arrived at Umganin from Tati on 30th May 1880. VERMAAK and Van ROOYEN arrived at Tati on 30th November 1882. VERMAAK and his party left Tati for Shoshong on 29th March 1883, and he returned to Tati with Van ROOYEN on 13th April. The two men visited Bulawayo and returned to Tati on 30th June 1883.
WALSH, Alexander. He was considered a trustworthy and excellent guide to the Zambezi country and so was chosen to lead the second Jesuit party upcountry and to guide DEPELCHIN's parties to the Zambezi in 1880 and to Barotseland in 1881. WALSH and one of the BARBERS helped Father TERORDE buy oxen at Kimberley in December 1879. On 10th June 1880 WALSH was jolted from the wagon and two wheels passed over his body and badly injured him. DEPELCHIN thought him dying and baptized him. They waited till 22nd June for WALSH to recover enough to travel; he was in bed for more than a month and could do little for the remainder of the journey.
WALSH was buying supplies for the Jesuits at Kimberley in March 1881. Wagons were started to him from Grahamstown in May to be taken north with the next Jesuit convoy. DEPELCHIN, BERGHEGGE, De VIJLDER and WALSH visited Barotseland from Pandamatenga, 6th June to 11th October 1881. They left Lealui on 11th October for Pandamatenga, whence DEPELCHIN, WALSH and De VIJLDER departed to visit Mwemba's, where TERORDE had died.
WESTBEECH, George Copp (1844-1888). He was born at Liverpool on 5th October 1844, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Copp WESTBEECH and the grandson of Captain Joseph WESTBEECH, R.N. He was educated in the local schools and he emigrated to Natal in 1862, probably as a result of the depression in the cotton trade caused by the American Civil War. WESTBEECH was in Matabeleland during November 1870.
At Zeerust on 1st June 1875 he married Cornelia Carolina GRONUM, daughter of A. J. GRONUM, who owned the nearby farm Weltevrede. She returned to her father's farm from the honeymoon journey to the Zambezi by 22nd November 1875. WESTBEECH passed a good part of 1876 in the Transvaal. He started for the Zambezi in November 1876, and he was at Tati by the end of that month and at Bulawayo in early December. His wife followed him with the cook Jean GOSLIN, and she perhaps overtook him on the road, for she was with him at the Zambezi at the beginning of 1877. She had fever badly there during January and February and she, GOSLIN and others started down country in September 1877.
WESTBEECH and his wife separated after 1877. He spent most of 1878 in the Transvaal arranging the details of the separation, and he and LEASK began discussing at Klerksdorp the possibility of obtaining a gold concession from Lobengula. WESTBEECH started from the Transvaal in November 1878 with four wagons loaded with trade goods. At Shoshong he talked with DAWSON, probably about concessions. WESTBEECH first met COILLARD, who was returning from the Zambezi, towards the end of 1878, and he promised to help COILLARD with the Barotse.
WESTBEECH and BLOCKLEY welcomed the first Jesuits to Pandamatenga in June 1880, and WESTBEECH gave them permission to build a station there. He fell out with them about the ownership of a strip of arable land and for the next four years worked against them. WESTBEECH went to the Transvaal in April and May 1881 to see LEASK and to try to get gunpowder, which was in short supply owing to the Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81. At that time he and LEASK made plans to get a concession from Lobengula.
PHILLIPS brought a party of sportsmen to see the Falls in 1883, and WESTBEECH met them at Lesuma. PHILLIPS returned to Matabeleland where, prodded by WESTBEECH to speed up negotiations, he obtained their first concession on 25th January 1884. After helping COILLARD'S party in July 1884, WESTBEECH, who had not been south since 1881, started down-country. 1886 was a bad year for WESTBEECH. WATSON left the Zambezi in December with only 1800 pounds of ivory for Leask at Klerksdorp. On his last journey to the south in 1888, WESTBEECH took along a gang of Africans he had recruited to work in the new gold fields near Klerksdorp.
WILLMORE, Alexander. He became a transport rider and con-ducted wagons for Rhodesia from Gaborone to Tati, September-December 1895. He was at Tati until early January 1896.
WOOD-CHAPMAN-FRANCIS SYNDICATE. Edward G. CHAPMAN and Joseph G. WOOD of Grahamstown and W. C. FRANCIS of Shoshong formed a syndicate in March 1887 to obtain mining concessions in Mashonaland. WOOD reached Loben's kraal on 1st June 1887 and on 16th June received the King's leave to prospect in the Mashona country. Upon his return it required much negotiating to obtain from Loben, on 17th November 1887, a concession to the area between the Shashi and the Maklautsi rivers. Khame also claimed that territory, and he gave a concession to it to the Bechuanaland Exploration Company.
Baron d'ERLANGER offered in March 1888 to form a company to develop WOOD's concession, provided that Lobengula's title to the area was shown to be valid. In July 1888 WOOD started for Matabeleland to prove the title good. With him went H. PAULING, ERLANGER's representative, and experts sent by the Baron to make sure there was gold in the area. At Pretoria WOOD learned that the High Commissioner had ordered the arrest of any European entering the disputed area, so he made a wide detour to the east to avoid it. While waiting for his messenger to Loben to return, at a place 60 miles south of Bulawayo, WOOD was overtaken by Major GOOLD-ADAMS and Sir Sidney SHIPPARD, who escorted him down country. WOOD was arrested at Shoshong on charges of inciting the South African Republic against Britain and of trying to cause war between Khame and Loben. The charges were dropped when he agreed to stay out of Matabeleland until the border dispute was settled.
The firm of Francis & Clarke was expelled from Shoshong by Khame in December 1887, perhaps chiefly as a result of the Syndicate's activity rather than because the firm was selling illegal liquor. Khame refused to permit the Syndicate to prospect in his territories.
FRANCIS and CHAPMAN travelled together to Matabeleland in 1888, though they did not accompany WOOD and PAULING. They were arrested by the Administrator of Bechuanaland when they left Matabeleland in October or November. FRANCIS and CHAPMAN were released when they made affidavits, and they went home through the Transvaal.
In 1889 WOOD offered RHODES his rights in the Syndicate, but after making a first offer RHODES refused to buy. The British South Africa Company, the Bechuanaland Exploration Company, and the Wood-Chapman-Francis Syndicate agreed in April 1891 to combine their interests and claims in the Shashi & Macloutsie Exploration and Mining Company. But for reasons of policy the Colonial Secretary prevented the registration of this Company until July 1894.
WOOD, George. In October 1868 MAUCH sent letters south by WOOD and proposed that WOOD fetch his supplies and equipment from Potchefstroom by March 1869. However, WOOD did not go down country! he was called to Mhlahlanhlela to wait for some indunas who were to go with him to Natal to find the missing heir Kuruman.
List 3
Abridged excerpts from “Africana Notes and News” Vol 19, no. 5, March 1971 posted by Jack Wright in Dec. 2005
AREND, Joseph alias Joseph AARON, alias AARON Joseph. - This man, or his son of the same name, travelled along the Botletle River in Ngamiland during 1850 or 1851. The elder AREND lived at Kuruman in March 1835.
ARKLE, E. - He was mining and/or prospecting for U. P. SWINBURNE between the Maklautsi and the Shashi rivers, at the start of 1888.
BALDWIN, E. -He and his Boer wife were visiting at an Englishman’s farm in Marica District, when about 5 February 1867 he fell with his horse at a drinking and racing party and was seriously injured.
BLOCKLEY, J. George. - He married a daughter of Klaas Afrika and died of a chest disease in June 1887.
BRADSHAW, Dr, Benjamin Frederick. He left Westbeech's employ, or was discharged, in January or February 1877 because he was not interested in trade. BRADSHAW stayed in Zambezia for about two years more and lived by hunting and collecting. BRADSHAW and SELOUS walked from Kazungulu to the Victoria Falls in October 1877.
CAMPBELL, Donald. J. Chapman says that CAMPBELL visited the Chobe River from Lake Ngami in 1852.
CHAPMAN, Edward George. He led the Part Elizabeth party to Tati in 1868. {Graham's Town Journal, 23 September 1868.}
CHAPMAN, James Jr. CHAPMAN and EDWARDS reached Lake Ngami from Walvis Bay in November 1856. It seems unlikely that CHAPMAN revisited Ngamiland in 1857, for he was at Cape Town in October of that year. His next visit to the Lake was in 1859-60, through South West Africa with the POLSON brothers and Kenny. When he was in Hereroland in early in 1861, at the start of his expedition to the Zambezi with BAINES, CHAPMAN refused to help ANDERSON lead the Hereros against Hottentot cattle thieves, which ANDERSON resented. After his return to the Cape from South West Africa about September 1864, CHAPMAN worked in the Customs at Cape Town and then became superintendent of a convict station in Knysna District. Later he was in charge of convict stations in George District, and he returned from George to live at Cape Town in 1868, when his controversy with the Roman Catholic priesthood led to a separation from his wife. James CHAPMAN Jr. did not lead the Port Elizabeth party to Tati in 1868. In 1870 CHAPMAN returned to Hereroland, whence he hunted and traded into Ovamboland as far as the Okavango and Kunene rivers; he shot a good number of fine bull elephants but was nearly caught by them several times. CHAPMAN returned to Cape Town early in 1871 and soon afterwards went to the Diamond Fields to join his brother Henry.
CALLISOA, Henry C. He, SELOUS, J. DAWSON and Van ROOYEN were near the source of the Sebakwe River in Mashonaland during November 1885.
CAAKSLEY, John Skinner. He was a ship's carpenter who went ashore at Port Elizabeth, became a trader, and found his way to Matabeleland. CAAKSLEY settled at Lovedale Park, 15 miles from Louis Trichardt, where he died in 1899.
DAWSON, Alexander. Trader. An elder brother of James DAWSON (q.v.) who went from Scotland to South Africa in 1870. A. DAWSAN went to, Bechuanaland 1872 and at Shoshong worked for the partnership of CRUICKSHANK and FAIRBAIRN. He first visited Matabeleland in 1873. A. DAWSON was at Bulawayo in early 1874, and two, wagons sent there to him by CRUICKSHANK were at John LEE's an 1 February. FAIRBAIRN and DAWSON loaded them with ivory and took them to Tati during March, SELOUS and G. WOOD accompanying them. WOOD remained at Tati while SELOUS and OATES and the two traders went on to Shoshong, 4 to 11 April.
DAWSON, James (1852-1921). Trader, secretary, settler. He was born at Macduff, Scotland, in November 1852, the third son of Alexander DAWSON, a builder. He studied law in a practitioner's office and then joined a legal firm at Edinburgh. DAWSON sailed to Cape Town in 1876 and at once went to Shoshong to join his elder brother Alexander. The younger man presumably arrived at the Ngwato town early in 1877. The DAWSON brothers traded together at Shoshong for about eight years. In March 1896 J. DAWSON raised F Troop of the Bulawayo Field Force and served as its captain. During March he led a patrol to Amanzi Manyami in Gwanda District. He and his men were in action at Fonseca's Farm under Sir M. GIFFORD on 6 April and at Umguza River under MACFARLANE on 25 April.
DAWSON, Lieut. A. BUTLERS and 40 men built a fort at Wilson's Farm during May and June. DAWSON handed the fort over to BUTLERS on 8 July and resigned his commission two days later. J. DAWSON was again in Scotland by October 1896, when he married Mary THOMPSON, once the fiancé of Alan WILSON. Mr, and Mrs. DAWSON travelled to Rhodesia at the end of 1896 and he resumed his business there. Dawson's Stores Ltd. operated until about the close of 1898. DAWSON was farming near Essexvale in 1899, and in 1945 he established himself at Lealui, Barotseland. Financial troubles stemming from an epidemic of cattle disease caused him to shoot himself fatally on 7 October 1921. He was buried in Mongu cemetery.
DRAKE, Frederick and Spencer. They were at or near the Wegdraai on the Limpopo, 5-7 March 1876, when GILLMORE was there. F. DRAKE was at Shoshong at the end of December 1879, when SELOUS arrived from Lake Ngami; SELOUS and DRAKE took four spans of borrowed oxen to Klabala to. bring SELOUS' wagons in. Spencer DRAKE fought with the Boers in the War of 1899-1902. He was with Commandant SNYMAN's force investing Mafeking in December 1899, when he helped Lady Sarah WILSON, Lord Randolph CHURCHILL's sister, to go through the Boer lines to her husband in the town. DRAKE was in action at Game Tree Hill, 26 December 1899.
EDWARDS, Samuel Howard. - EDWARDS and J. CHAPMAN reached Lake Ngami again from Cape Town and Walvis Bay in November 1856. About October 1885 a group of speculators at the Cape hired EDWARDS, DENISON and BARNES to get them a grant of land from Khame.
EXTON, Dr. Hugh (1831-1903). -He was born in 1831.
FINAUGHTY, William. His, son William Jr. told a visiting sportsman that his father once accompanied a gang of counterfeiters to Australia to work racetracks. He also said that his father was once a smuggler for illicit diamond buyers. (Letter from the late George L. HARRISON, Philadelphia, 2 March 1953.)
GILLMORE, Captain Parker. - He met Lieut. GRANDY when both men were serving in the Crimea. GILLMORE and LOTHIAN sail to South Africa in the same ship with GRANDY in October 1875. GRANDY left the vessel at Cape Town, the others went on to Durban. GILLMORE was at Monteive's in southern Bechuanaland in 12 June 1879; he was going to Sechele's on government business.
GRANT, Harry I. - He left Bulawayo in advance of the Matabele War, on 3 October 1893 and was murdered in Mashonaland during the Rebellion of 1896.
GREEN, Frederick Joseph. - At Cape Town in 1864 he married a daughter of the elder STEWARDSON, a hunter, trader and settler in South West Africa from the late 1840's. About March 1876 Green and his family arrived at Walvis Bay and sailed to Cape Town. They returned to the Bay late in April and with W. CHAPMAN started inland for a hunt. GREEN was very ill, and he died of abscess of the liver at Haigamkab on 4 May 1876. Palgrave buried him while W. CHAPMAN took the news to Walvis Bay. Chapman returned and escorted the widow and children to Omaruru.
GREITE, August. Miner, prospector, trader. A German Jew who came to Matabeleland with SWINBURNE in April 1869. He visited the Northern Goldfields during the winter of 1869 and worked at Tati until about October 1871, when he went down country. GREITE returned to Europe and married Bertha, a friend of Queen Amelie of Portugal. They sailed to Durban and six months after disembarking reached Matabeleland in 1875, when Lobengula sent an impi to help them in to Bulawayo. GREITE had four children, two sons and two daughters, all born in four years in the Matabele country. He delivered all of them. The children never returned to Matabeleland after being sent to school in England.
HALYET, John. He was born about 1828 and came to South Africa in a British warship c.1843 as an adolescent. For a long time he lived among the Boers, and he came to Molepolole in January or February 1868. HALYET stayed there for a time to build Price's new house. He was a good workman though fond of brandy.
HARMSE, Baart and Christiaan. They were the sons of Cornelis HARMSE (b.1797) , who in 1850 worked for J. MCCABE at his farm near Potchefstroom. Christiaan HARMSE was at MCCABE'S farm early in April 1850; he was the best elephant hunter in the country, and he had just come from a journey with the tusks of forty-seven elephants.
HEWITT, G. H. -- Hunter, trader, collector. He once visited Lake Ngami. HEWITT had spent some time in Germany and he collected insects for a German museum. He was at Shoshang, coming from the interior, at the end of November 1863. Because HEWITT sold brandy, Khame told PRICE that he was a drunkard.
JACOBS, Piet (b.1789) . He was born c.1802 in the Cape Colony. JACOBS lost four salted horses worth £200 to lions at a waterhole between Shoshong and the Botletle River in mid-July 1858. Two of the horses were killed and two ran away. JACOBS was forced to turn back because they were all the mounts he had.
KISCH, Daniel Montague (1840-98). - He was a Jew who was born at Sprouston, England, in June 1840. KISCH accompanied H. CHAPMAN and RACKHAM (Rawbone ?) on a hunting and trading journey to Ovamboland from Hereroland in 1860-61, when RACKHAM died of dysentery. KISCH and H. CHAPMAN reached J. CHAPMAN's camp near Windhoek in April 1861, stayed a few days, and then departed for Walvis Bay, where KISCH arrived with Mr. and Mrs. LATHAM on 2 May 1861, four days before H. CHAPMAN. KISCH was still at the Bay in early June. He died at sea on 11 December 1898.
LAING, John. -He served in the 74th Highlanders in the Kaffir War of 1850-52, when he met Thomas BAINES.
LEASK, Thomas Smith (1839-1912. He took an oath of neutrality during the Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81 and stayed at Klerksdorp. After retiring to Ardrossan, Scotland, LEASK retained business interests in the Transvaal.
McCABE, Joseph (1816-65). He bought a farm near Potchefstroom early in the 1840's and became a hunter-trader in the interior. About March 1846 McCABE arrived at Ohrigstad to trade and was accused of selling guns and ammunition to Africans, notably to Sechele. The Volksraad seized a wagon load of goods consigned to him and held it for a month or longer, until a letter from his accuser withdrew the charge. But he was fined 100 Rixdollars and costs for shooting elephants without a licence. McCABE was on a hunting trip in September 1848, when one of his African servants was killed by a lion in daylight. McCABE's sister and widowed mother lived at Cradock in February 1850. His brother John farmed on Kerk Spruit of Modder River in 1850. John McCABE became a burger of the O.F.S. and a heemraad for Harrismith. McCABE was one of a small commando, led by Adriaan STANDER and J. M. ORPEN on 13 February 1855, to remove a small werf of Bushmen from a farm near Winburg. The commando was attacked and driven off with three dead and McCABE, who rode to Winburg for reinforcements, had a narrow escape. McCABE died at Molepolole on 28 November 1865.
MOFFAT, the Rev. John Smith. - On 21 August 1888 the first official post was sent from Bulawayo to Mafeking by MOFFAT and C. D. HELM. It was carried by African runners via Palapye, Shoshong, Molepopole and Kanye. That postal service had been inaugurated on 7 August.
MUSSON, Alfred (1851-1938). - MUSSON Brothers of Shoshong took over WESTBEECH's business in Barotseland after his death in 1888. MIDDLETON, an artisan of the Paris Mission who had quit it in 1888, returned to Barotseland in December 1889 as the MUSSONs' agent at Lealui. Alfred MUSSON died in 1938.
OSWELL, William Cotton. - On his deathbed he had his voluminous African journals burned, so that Livingstone, to whose memory he was devoted, would get all the credit for their early journeys together.
POLSON, George and Arthur. - J. CHAPMAN sent G. PALSON and Kenny to reconnoitre to the Zambezi from Lake Ngami in September 1859. POLSON and KENNY were camped at the Matetsi River on 19 July 1860, when BALDWIN met them. POLSON shot no elephants on this journey, though KENNY killed a few. They did not reach Wankie's. POLSAN had dealings with SNYMAN near the Zambezi, and the former made Letsholathebe angry by promising that chief many presents that J. CHAPMAN did not bring. POLSON and KENNY left Gerufa with BALDWIN c.23 September 1860 and trekked with him till the 29th, four days above the Nata River, where they parted with him to return to Lake Ngami and Walvis Bay by their inward route. POLSON and KENNY met R. PRICE east of the Lake about October 1860. They reached the Botletle east of Semonganga's town and travelled the north bank to Makgetho's, where their wagon was ferried over in a big canoe. POLSON and KENNY arrived at Otjimbingwe in mid-February 1861 with 3704 pounds of ivory and twenty karosses, and POLSON soon left for Walvis Bay and Cape Town. G. and A. POLSON arrived at Walvis Bay in May 1861. G. POLSON left his brother at the Bay because he was ill and started inland with several wagons loaded with goods. A. POLSON was still ill at the Bay at the end of June. G. POLSON arrived at Barmen on 21 July, and the brothers reached J. CHAPMAN and BAINES's standplace beyond the Olifant River c.3 August, and they continued together to Gobabis, which was apparently as far as the POLSON’s went to the eastward. They were forced to pay Jonker Afrikaner thirty bags of gunpowder, a total of 100 pounds of the explosive, in order to pass through his country.
READER, Henry. He and his wife were camped with a wagon at or near the Matetsi River on 16 August 1862, when J. CHAPMAN and BAINES met and dined with them. READER had brought upcountry some mares and other things ordered by Sekeletu and his headmen, but the Kololo refused to trade with him and he lost money on his journey.
RENDERS, Adam. -He was born in Germany in 1822 and reached South Africa c.1842 from the United States. He became a Transvaal burger in 1848 and later settled at the Soutpansberg, whence he hunted and traded across the Limpopo. He may have found the Zimbabwe ruins about 1867, and later he went to live there and marry a daughter of the Kalanga headman Magoma. It is thought that RENDERS died at Zimbabwe a few years after his return there in 1872.
SOLOMON, Louis. He was going to Shoshong on horseback and with an after-rider when he met GILLMORE near Sechele's c. May 1876. SOLOMON had a house at Stromboom's station on the Lake River near Ngami in 1877. SOLOMON, STROMBOOM and McKIERNAN rode from the Lake in August 1877 to the wagons of G. THOMAS and JAMES near Ghanzi, after which SOLOMON and STROMBOOM returned to the Lake. SOLOMON left Ngami for Shoshong on 5 December 1877 and lost many of his animals to tsetse fly on the Botletle River.
TAYLOR, Robert. - When he was a resident trader at Sechele's in May 1876, he had been married recently to an Englishwoman, whose sister lived with them. TAYLOR was in the southern O.F.S. in early May 1879. He owned a farm, Willow Park, in Marico District near Zeerust, 1879-82.
THOMAS, the Rev Thomas Morgan. - He had eleven children by his second wife, and nine of them were still living when he died. Mrs. THOMAS stayed at Shiloh till 1889, trying to carry on mission work and living (not too well) by trading. Soon after her husband's death in 1884 she took her daughter Caroline, then fifteen years old, to Zeerust for formal education.
VILJOEN, Jan Willem (1812-93). He was born at Winterhaak, Uitenhage District, Cape Colony, on 14 May 1812, the son of Gerhardus and Sara VILJOEN. In May 1833 he married at Uitenhage Maria MESSER, daughter of J. G. MESSER, a German missionary of the L.M.S. who worked in Cape Colony. The VILJOENs had fifteen children. VILJOEN moved to Oudtshoorn District in 1836 and to Winburg, O.F.S., in 1843. In the Free State he took part in politics and resisted annexation by the British. He was taken prisoner in a skirmish with British troops at Winburg and spent several months in gaol at Colesberg. He fought at Boomplaats on 29 August 1848 and as a result Sir H. SMITH confiscated his farm, whereupon he moved to the Transvaal and settled on a farm he named Vergenaeg, 7 miles southwest of Zeerust. VILJOEN was a veldkornet in the O.F.S., and in 1849 he was made veldkornet of Marico District. He became commandant of that district in 1859. After his return from the interior in 1852, following the attack on Sechele, VILJOEN acted as peacemaker between the Kwena and Tlhaping and the Transvaalers. VILJOEN may have been at the Zambezi with two wagons in November 1862, when he sent two servants to buy ivory at Wankie's. In 1869 he was instrumental in founding Christiana, which was formally established as a town next year. VILJOEN resigned as commandant of Marico District in May 1870. At the beginning of 1881 he was acting commandant of Marico District, his task being to maintain peace with the tribes during the First Anglo-Boer War. VILJOEN died at Vergenoeg on 30 March 1893.
WARE, Harry. A small group of Kimberley men, among them C. E. NIND and H. J. KING, backed Ware in trying to obtain a concessions in Barotseland. In June 1889 WARE was granted a mineral concession north of the Zambezi and between the Machili and the Kafue rivers. Rhodes bought it and in October 1889 sent LOCHNER to get further concessions from Lewanika. Last seen Gwelo Diamond fields, Rhodesia.
WHITELEY, Frank. - He was a resident trader at Shoshong in 1884 and a good friend of Khame. WHITELEY was in business at Mafeking as Whiteley, Walker & Co in the 1890's, and he was mayor of the town during the siege, from October 1899 to May 1900.
WOOD, George. - He died of malaria during August 1882 at Deka; to which he had retreated from the Zambezi.
1918 - Frederick Clayton Trust Act last will- list of descendants benefiting from this trust -
"At the death of My Wife the Hatcliffe Estate to be held in perpetuity for the use of Pioneers and descendants of pioneers (especially those descendants of pioneers who have been disabled during this present war) whom are in need of help".
this project is in History Link 