CHAPTER FIVE

THOMAS QUESTED'S CHILDREN

WILLIAM QUESTED

 
Nothing has come to light regarding William's early life except that he was baptised at Stockbury,  Kent, and so presumably was born there.  He was born on 7th July 1822, the elder son of Thomas and Harriet Quested, and christened on 11th August of that year.

While it is probable that William attended school at some time, it seems evident that his scholarly progress did not extend very far because it is known that although he could read and write, his knowledge of arithmetic was negligible.  This lack of knowledge obliged him to employ bookkeepers to do his correspondence and to write up his estate and sugar factory accounts.  Family rumour has it that advantage was taken of this situation so that he was at times cheated and done down by others who were more clever with figures than he was.

The earliest definite information available concerning William is that he married Martha Ann Monforte (Montforte), the daughter of a cooper, Michael Monforte, in England on 13th May 1844 at St George's district church, in the parish of Camberwell, South London.  William was 21 and Martha 24.  At the time, according to a description, St George's Church, in Wells Street, on the bank of the Surrey canal, could have passed as a parish church of a country village.  Wooded hills rose behind the church and a windmill stood close by.  Since that time the whole area has been built up, the woods and windmill having long since disappeared.

William's residential address on his marriage certificate was given as Kent Road, Camberwell.  This was said to have been a green and pleasant lane in 1844.  Today it is a thoroughfare of ugly buildings and teeming traffic.

William's occupation when he married, was that of a servant and he was still working in that capacity when his youngest child, Frederick John, was born in 1849.  He evidently moved around from time to time in his employment, because when his first child, William Richard, was born in 1845, William and Martha were living in Dartford, Kent, while in 1849 they were at Chatham, which is also in Kent.

On the birth certificate of Frederick John (180), William's address was shown to be Brompton Barracks, Chatham, in the district of Gillingham.  Brompton Barracks was a military establishment, being the headquarters of the Royal Engineers.

William was evidently a civilian servant living at the barracks.  Married officers lived outside and only bachelor officers lived in the barracks, so it seems most likely that William was employed by the officer's mess, possibly as a steward or gardener.  It is clear that he worked as a servant for a number of years, but it may have been in different capacities.

The year 1850 was a focal point in William's life, when he and his family left England and came to live in Natal.  Their arrival on the ship Minerva has already been described.

After the wrecking of the ship, William managed to salvage a few pieces of timber from the vessel, and from these he later made a small but somewhat rough and ready bookcase.  This he kept until he died.  It has survived the years and now reposes in the Old House Museum in St Andrews Street, Durban. (Lost??)  After William's death the little bookcase passed into the possession of his sister, Harriet Whittaker (348), from whom it was handed down to her daughter, Caroline Whittaker (351).  After Caroline's death it came into the hands of Mrs Louisa Gurney (287), a niece of William's, whose father, George Quested, had as already mentioned, been on the Minerva when it was wrecked.  Mrs Gurney donated the bookcase to the South African National Society who then passed it to the Old House Museum.

William and his family lived at Congella for some years where he became a small scale farmer or market gardener.  Later, he became a lime burner as well.

It was at Congella that Martha (004) died on 1st November 1856.  Poor Martha!  It is believed that she had never taken kindly to being uprooted from her familiar surroundings in England and had never really settled down, finding it very difficult to adapt herself to conditions of life in Natal.  She was apparently terrified of the wild animals, snakes and almost nude Africans met with daily around the homestead at Congella.  It was said that on one occasion when she was hanging out washing to day a mamba slithered across her arms, giving her a tremendous fright.  The primitive live was really too much for her and her nerves suffered accordingly.

She died in childbirth, but it is likely that she had been in a low state of health for some time, because for some months in 1856 there had been local epidemics of fever and sickness following the extraordinary rainy season in Natal earlier in the year.  In the Durban area 27 inches of rain had fallen in four days in April and large areas were flooded.  In Pietermaritzburg the bridge over the Umsindusi river collapsed in the flood waters.  The Umgeni river burst it's banks and other rivers flooded, causing severe damage to sugar cane plantations and to properties in and around Durban.  Some of the swampy areas took months to dry out and caused very unhealthy conditions to prevail.  It was reported that hardly a house in the Durban area escaped damage from the rain and resulting floods.  Scores of cattle, horses and fowls were lost and never seen again.  Martha's death must have been a grievous loss to William and his children, the oldest of whom was about 11 at the time.

In 1858, William left Congella and moved a few miles down the coast to Isipingo, where he established himself on a piece of land bought from Dick King.  This property eventually became known as Quested's Sugar Estate.

About 1858, as well as purchasing land at Isipingo, William  bought from a farm of some 1,006 acres at Stoney Hill, a few miles inland from Isipingo.  This he obtained from Mr James Patullo and he rented it to his brother George.  

As has been described, sugar cane was already being grown by a number of people at Isipingo and it is probable that William had sugar planting in mind when he made the move from Congella.  Stoney Hill was possibly considered better for cattle and general farming at that time.  Also, because cattle did not thrive so well at the coast in those days, it may have been the intention to keep the plough and trek oxen at Stoney Hill when they were not actually working at Isipingo.

William cleared the land and began general farming before turning his attention to sugar cane cultivation.  When he did plant cane, it is recorded that he planted on the hill slopes and rising ground rather than on the swampy flats, where most of the other planters had done in that neighbourhood.  By using the higher ground William avoided the probabilities of suffering from inundation by the severe floods which occurred from time to time.  It is believed he was a pioneer in planting on the hillsides instead of in the flat lands.

William's first cane was planted in 1860.  He built a small mill for crushing the cane in 1861.  This was driven by oxen but some time after this he was able to install more up-to-date machinery.  By 1867, William had enlarged his milling capacity, installing an eight hp steam engine, a centrifugal unit, two clarifiers and five evaporator pans.  It is assumed that George Quested, who by this time was a sugar planter also, had his cane processed there.  The mill was situated alongside the main road at Isipingo and it was said to be notable for it's cleanliness and for the good sugar it produced.

John Robinson, editor of the Natal Mercury, who later became Sir John Robinson, Prime Minister of Natal, writing in his "Notes on Natal, an Old Colonist's Book for New Settlers", written in the 1860's and published in 1872, stated "Mr Quested on the other side of the hill, (at Isipingo) has the advantage of hill land for his plantation, one of more recent growth.  He has 190 acres cultivated, a substantial steam mill and altogether a very economically worked estate, and one which promises to be a very successful one."

William was one of the early employers of indentured Indian coolie labour in his fields and factory.  From this fact it may be deduced that he was one of the many who found native labour unsatisfactory and this is perhaps understandable, because from his background in England it is likely that William himself had been an active and hard worker who would have been inclined to be intolerant of slackness and indolence in others.   Where William made his first home at Isipingo is not known, but on 21st March 1874 he purchased a block of land at public auction, from the estate of Edward Thompson.  This was sub-division a.b. and e.f. of Lot 4, comprising about 66 acres of Dick King's original farm.  William paid £610 for this property, and on the hill which formed part of the land he built a new home which he named Forest Hill.  What induced him to give this name to the property?  It might have been given quite fortuitously because of it's position but it is a pleasant thought to consider that it may have been named after Forest Hill, Lewisham, South London, a small hamlet on a wooded hill, the highest in the neighbourhood, which he must have known when he lived only two or three miles away at Kent Road, Camberwell, in the 1840's.  Forest Hill at Lewisham was a well known beauty spot from whence extensive views were obtainable.

William's new home was built on the inland side of the hill at Isipingo, just under the crest, which was planted with a large plantation of  trees.  The trees not only afforded protection against the strong sea breezes  but probably also provided fuel for the sugar mill boilers and domestic cooking as well.  From the garden of the house extensive views inland and up and down the coast were obtained.  Altogether, the house was extremely well situated.  Here William lived for about 38 years.  When his brother George died in 1875, William took over the care and upbringing of George's five orphaned children, Emma (255), Eleanor (257) (Pugh), Fanny (273), Louisa (287) (Gurney), and Thomas (319).  Forest Hill became their home.  The Stoney Hill farm was sold and from thenceforth William concentrated his whole effort on the Quested Sugar Estate (Delta Estate).  

The factory was extended over a period of years and by 1878 William had a new 12 hp mill, a 25 hp steam boiler, two engines, one of 12 hp and one of eight hp, a concreter and nine concreter pans, three clarifiers, three wetzels and two centrifugals installed.  Still another concreter was installed by 1880, which meant by that time it was a very substantial mill.  It appears that it cost about £1,000 to install a concreter capable of producing ten cwts of sugar an hour.  It is evident therefore that William had a considerable capital investment in his machinery and factory.

A concreter consisted of a steam-heated apparatus designed to evaporate off the volatile fractions from the cane juice, leaving behind a solid block of dark-coloured sugar suitable for export or for further refining.  The wetzels and centrifugals between them produced a lighter coloured crystalline sugar suitable for the local market.  William thus appears to have produced for both the local and the export demands.

In the year 1882, the Quested mill was one of only five remaining in the Isipingo district, the others being Reunion, Platt's Sugar Bush Prospect mill, the Delta Estate and Albion mill.

Although in the 1860's William was said to have had 190 acres under cultivation, it seems that in 1881 he owned only 166 acres but it is possible that he rented other lands as well.

The Quested mill continued to operate until about 1884, when it was closed down and William presumably sold off the plant and machinery.  It would seem, however, that he still retained some portion o cane lands and he must, therefore, have had his cane processed at one of the other mills.  For some time past opinion had been growing that it was more economic to operate fewer and larger mills at suitable centres rather than to continue with a large number of small ones on individual estates.  For example, Reunion Estate had offered in 1881 to undertake the crushing of cane for the Isipingo, Merebank, Clairmont and Bellair areas.  It is interesting to note that whereas in 1877/78 there were 74 mills operating throughout Natal, by 1884 this number had decreased to 44, while by the year 1900 only 30 mills remained, but they coped with a larger throughput than ever before.

William carried on for some years but must have sold out all his remaining sugar interests by about 1890 or 1892, and four years later he sold his home, Forest Hill, together with about 13 acres of land surrounding the house, this being all that survived of his former estate.  The buyer of Forest Hill was Edmund Pugh (258), husband of William's niece Eleanor (257).  An arrangement was made, however, by which William would continue to live at Forest Hill with Eleanor and Edmund for as long as he wished.  He did, in fact, remain there for many more years, because he lived there until he died, and he did not make his departure from the scene until 1913.

There appears to be some substance to a story that William gave his younger son, Frederick, an amount of £1,000 on the understanding that the latter would provide his father with a certain sum of money each month for life.  No definite information has come to light as to when this arrangement was agreed upon, but it seems reasonable to assume it was made when William sold Forest Hill, because he was said to have asked what he was to live on if he gave Frederick the amount requested.  When asked how much he would require, he apparently replied that £16 a month would be adequate.  If therefore, the agreement  was made in 1895 or 1896, which was about the time that Frederick gave up transport riding, and Frederick paid £16 month until 1913 when his father died, he certainly paid back more than he received.  No doubt, however, both parties benefited and were quite happy with the outcome of  the agreement.

It may be questioned, in view of the fact that William had developed a valuable estate and an efficient sugar factory up to the early 181980's, how it was that he had become almost penniless later.  There appear to have been several reasons for this state of affairs.  It has been said that he was continually paying off debts incurred by his elder son, William Richard, who apparently was a bit of a spendthrift and speculator.  Also, as has been mentioned earlier, it may be that William was done down by some of the bookkeepers he employed to manage his accounts.  Again, it is possible that he had borrowed money to pay for the milling plant he had installed and had not managed to pay off his outstandings, so that his properties had reverted to the mortgagees, but no evidence of this has been found.  The fact remains that he eventually lost all of what he had built up over the years.

William enjoyed good health and was active right up to the end of his life.  He died quite suddenly on the railway platform at Isipingo Station while waiting for a train on 13th March 1913, in his 91st year.  He was buried the next day in the West Street cemetery in Durban, in the family plot, nearly 57 years after the death of his wife Martha.

William died without making a will.  He had little to leave; a bookcase and some books, a clock and watch, a table and some chairs, and a few personal effects valued altogether at less than £50.  Probate was granted to Frederick, and after the sale of these possessions the proceeds were shared between William's three children.

On 29th March 1913, the following obituary appeared in the Natal Mercury:  "William Quested senior (great-grandfather) died 13/3/1913 in his 91st year.  He arrived on the Minerva in 1850.  His residence was for some years at Congella when elephant and leopard inhabited the all but trackless wilds.  He was one of the early sugar planters and employers of indentured Indians.  His mill on the main road at Isipingo was notable for it's cleanliness and the good sugar it produced, although the vacuum pan was not used in its manufacture.  His home on the hill was the frequent scene of reunions of congenial spirits who met around his hospitable board, and where they discussed the native  problem.   With a ready wit and light of heart Mr Quested was ever a friend of the children and foremost promoter of fun and frolic for them.  His memory will be held in evergreen remembrance.  As a Colonist he has done his part.  He used the simple resources of the Colony whilst no better were to be had."

On William's tombstone in the West Street cemetery is engraved the epitaph:

"A sparkling eye beneath a wrinkled front

the veteran showed, and gracing a grey beard

with youthful smiles he descended towards the grave,

spritely and almost without decay."

 

THOMAS QUESTED'S CHILDREN

GEORGE QUESTED

George Quested (253) was born on 25th July 1824, the second son of Thomas and Harriet Quested.

No information has come to light regarding his younger days nor where he worked at in England before coming to Natal.  The first available knowledge of George is that he was living at Chatham, Kent, in the year 1845 and that he came to Natal as a bachelor with his brother and two sisters on the Minerva in 1850.

He, with his sisters, was allocated a block of 60 acres of land, Lot No. 2 on River Illovo, on the Dunbar-on-Illovo Estate in the Byrne Valley, and a ½ acre plot in the proposed village of Byrnetown, a few miles from what is now the town of Richmond.  

It is clear that the allocation was never taken up and George, with his sisters, settled on a small plot at Congella adjacent to his brother and his family.

In due course George became a carter, perhaps because he had done similar work before he left England.  If this was indeed the case he must have found a considerable difference between using horses and oxen as draught animals.  He worked closely with his brother in the business of farming or smallholding, and also in lime burning.  In 1854 George described himself as a carter, but by 1856 he was stated to be a lime burner.  On 19th September 1854 he married Phebe (Phoebe) Gordge, one of five children who had come to Natal with their parents on the ship Elizabeth Jane which arrived on 9th March 1849 before the first of the Byrne immigrants appeared on the scene.  The Gordge family had settled a few miles inland from Durban, and they built their first home on the property now occupied by the Queensburgh Girls High School.  They named their home Bellair House after a property on which the family had worked in Devonshire before leaving England.  The name Bellair continued in the Queensburgh district after the Gordges had left it, and it is a well known residential suburb today.  The family engaged themselves in farming but after some time, because they found their crops of beans, which they grew for export to Mauritius, were so often damaged or destroyed by elephants, monkeys and other animals, they abandoned their farm and moved to the coast at Congella.  Here, the Gordges took up market gardening and fishing.  They remained in the district for many years.  It is on record that William Gordge, Phebe's father, was engaged by the Durban town authorities in 1853 to plough a furrow to assist in draining the swampy vlei at the end of West Street between Durban and Congella.  For this he was paid the sum of £4-10-0.

For some years Henry Gordge, one of Phebe's brothers, ran a hotel at Congella and Gordge Road, which is situated just across the Umbilo Road from Congella Park, commemorates the family's association with the neighbourhood.

So far as can be ascertained, Phebe (254) could have been only 15 years old when she married George Quested.  The wedding was in Durban and the witnesses were Phebe's brother Henry, George's youngest sister Eliza Quested and a friend, James Gordon.  George continued as a smallholder and lime burner at Congella until 1858 when he moved down the coast to the Isipingo district with his brother William.

Then, he rented from his brother the farm known as Stoney Hill which was situated in the Dering/Beaumont area at Upper Umkomanzi.  Although this was some miles away, it was still within the parish of Isipingo.

Stoney Hill farm was part of a former Voortrekker farm, originally called Valsch River, comprising some 6,038 acres, first owned by a Mr Neuman.  The property was later split up to make four farms and the portion bought by William Quested and which was rented by George was of about 1,006 acres.

It seems likely that George started general farming, possibly cattle, maize and beans, but in due course he also went into sugar cane cultivation, and by the middle of the 1860's he described himself as a sugar planter.  It is likely that he had an interest in William's mill there is little doubt that he carted his cane to the Quested mill at Isipingo for processing.

Phebe had six children:

Emma Caroline (255)  Born 26th January 1857.
Helena Hester Elizabeth (257) Born 23rd July 1858(generally known as Eleanor)
Fanny Coulter  (273)  Born 19th September 1860.
Louisa Susan   (287)  Born 26th August 1862.
George (318)   Born December 1864.  Died aged two weeks.  Buried December 1864.
Thomas William (319)  Born 4th February 1866.
Phebe died on 9th January 1867 at the age of 28, and was buried in the church cemetery at Isipingo.  The cause of her untimely death has not been established but it must have been a dreadful loss to her children, the oldest of whom was not quite ten years old and the youngest.  Less than a year.  No information has come to light as to how the children managed without a mother's care over the next few years, but it is possible that George managed to find a housekeeper to look after them.

A further blow befell the children in 1875 when their father died as a result of injuries he suffered when he was thrown from his horse.  How and where this accident occurred is not known but he died on 7th May at Umbilo, probably at his mother's residence.  George was buried in Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery, Durban.  His five children were then adopted by their uncle William and went to live with him at Forest Hill, Isipingo.

After a while, Stoney Hill farm was sold and eventually it went back to James Patullo, from whom William had bought it earlier on.  Then it went to J.G. Mack and W.G. Mack, but today it is part of the Illovo Sugar Company's estates which in turn is part of the C.G. Smith Group.

 

THOMAS QUESTED'S CHILDREN

HARRIET SUSANNAH AND THE WHITTAKER FAMILY

 
Harriet Susannah (348), the eldest daughter of Thomas and Harriet Quested, was born on 10th August 1826.  She accompanied her brothers William and George and her sister Caroline to Natal on the Minerva in 1850.

In the Local History Museum in Aliwal Street, Durban there is a slim volume entitled 'Book of Family Prayers and Prayers for use at Sea'.  Inscribed on the flyleaf of this small booklet are the words "H.S. Quested, presented to her on H.M. ship Minerva 1850".  There is no indication as to who gave the booklet to Harriet, but it is most likely one of the clergymen amongst the passengers, perhaps the Reverend Walton,  who no doubt handed out the booklets to those who attended services on board.  The volume came to the museum from the Whittaker estate after the death of Harriet's daughter, Caroline Whittaker, who died in 1943.

With a little imagination it is possible to visualize Harriet desperately reciting her prayers from this little book during the time of waiting to be rescued from the wreck of the Minerva off the Durban Bluff.  The fact that she kept this book of prayers throughout her life suggests that it had some deep significance for her.

On her arrival in Natal, Harriet lived for some time with the other members of the family group in the tents at the foot of the Bluff and then in one of the cottages at Congella.  It would seem that she and her sister Caroline (354) shared a cottage with their brother George (253).

In less than a year, however, on 23rd June 1851, Harriet married Thomas Whittaker.  The wedding is recorded in the register of St Paul's Church, Durban, although the church had not, in fact, been built at that time.  Presumably a register was maintained by the Colonial Chaplain before the church came into being.

Thomas, who was a year younger than Harriet, came from Warrington in Lancashire.  He had arrived in Natal before the Questeds, having made the voyage on the barque Ina from Greenock, Scotland, which reached Port Natal on 8th March 1850.  Because of bad weather after arrival, many of the passengers had to remain on board this ship in the outer roadstead for more than a week before they could be landed at the Point.  Not a very pleasant welcome to their new country!

A fellow passenger on the same vessel was John Webb (355), who later became Thomas's brother-in-law by marrying Harriet's sister, Caroline.

Thomas (349) was allocated 45 acres of land at Cotton Lands Estate in the Inanda district, between what became the townships of Verulam and Tongaat, but it is evident that he never took up occupation of the land.  It seems instead that he decided to live in Durban.

In the Ina passenger list Thomas had been described as a shoemaker, but there is no evidence that he ever took up this trade in Durban.  Records indicate that he became a canteen keeper and his marriage certificate showed that in June 1851 he was a publican.  Later he proceeded to learn the business of brick making, and by the year 1859 he was the owner of the Berea Brickfields in Durban.

Harriet had three children:

 Thomas Coulter (350)   Born 21st October 1851.  (4 months after the wedding.)
Caroline Alice (cousin Carrie) (351) Born 24th April 1858.
Harriet Jessie (352)   Born 17th February 1863.
It appears that Harriet's (348) marriage was not entirely a happy one because on 1st September 1865, she went to the courts and sued Thomas for divorce, alleging 'mensa et thoro', continued desertion and cruelty.  Her attorney was John David Shuter.  It is evident that at the time Thomas (Whittaker) was out of the jurisdiction of the court and so did not appear in court when called upon on the dates 1st September and the 2nd November.  In fact he was in England!  The voters roll for Durban, published in April 1865, gave his address as England but it is not known just when he had left Natal.

Thomas was away from the country for a long time but he did  eventually return to Durban and after an absence of nine or ten years, his name was found again in the jury lists and voters rolls for the years 1874 and 1875, when he was shown to be a brick maker at Umbilo and living in rented premises at Congella.

In July 1876 a judgement for debt was entered against him, the plaintiff being one Elizah Middleborough, a canteen keeper.  As a result of this judgement his leasehold property, Lot 3A of Town Lands, Umbilo, comprising four acres, was put up for sale by auction.  It appears likely that this was his brick field site.

Thomas died of cirrhosis of the liver on 16th January 1882 at the age of 54.  This suggests that he had become an alcoholic.  A question which arises is, did he become reconciled to his wife before his death?  It does not look like it because he seems to have been living separately from Harriet, but it does appear that she must have helped him from time to time.  Plot K at Congella, which he occupied, was rented from the Durban Corporation by Harriet and Lot 3A at Umbilo which was leased by Thomas appeared later in the list of properties owned by Harriet.

Thomas was buried in the Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery.

While Thomas appears to have been a somewhat unreliable character Harriet was evidently of a stronger and more resourceful nature.  On her own, she managed to make a successful living for herself and her children.  She obtained a licence as a retail dealer and later ran The Kentish Tavern on her mothers behalf, and on her own behalf, for some years until in due course Mr Thomas Robbins took over as manager.

Harriet inherited property from her mother and the Durban  valuation rolls for 1894 showed that she owned Lots 3 and 4, Block E, and Lots 8 and 9 Umbilo River, comprising approximately 33 acres in all, having a house and other buildings thereon, the whole having a rateable value of £1,140. (Land owned by cousin Carrie's mother.)  She also had a five acre plot, erf B, Block J, of empty land on Umbilo Road, valued at £540.  Besides this, she had The Kentish Tavern property in West Street, this being sub-division A of erf 6, Block E and part of erf 8, Block D, which was next door, the whole having a rateable value of £1,970.  Another property was at 103 St Georges Street, erf 12, Block W, valued at £710.

For a number of years before and after her mothers death Harriet lived with her two daughters at Umbilo on the property in what is known as Prospect Road.  This property was at some time named Boxley and it seems likely that it was called this either by Harriet or by her mother, the Widow Quested, to remind them of the small village bearing that name about three miles from Maidstone, which they both undoubtedly must have known before they left Kent to come to Natal.  Boxley village was at the foot of the Downs near the old route of the Canterbury Pilgrims of Chaucer's time.  Close by were the runs of Boxley Abbey, destroyed during the reformation by Cromwell's troops, formerly the seat of the Cistercian Monks, founded by William de Ypres in 1146.  Exactly what Harriet did with her large property at Umbilo is not clear, but she carried on a little farming of sorts.  At the time of her death, she had about 150 fowls and three pigs, and she must have had a horse or two, because she owned two spring carts and a lady's phaeton.  It is also likely that she had cows to supply milk for the household.

When she died on 2nd June 1913, at the age of 86, Harriet was quite well off.  She had acquired further properties and she also owned Durban Corporation Debentures and shares in the St George's Coal Estate Company.

In her will, drawn up on 25th March 1896, she left £300 in Durban Corporation Debentures to her unmarried niece, Emma Caroline Quested, the eldest daughter of her late brother George.  She left £50 to her brother William and £15 monthly for life to her sister, Caroline Emma Webb.  The remainder of her estate was left to her only surviving child, Caroline Alice Whittaker.

At Harriet's death in 1913, the immovable property was valued at £13,240.  Shares, mortgages, household furniture and effects £4,986 and cash in hand amounted to £1,146.  She directed that all her immovable property should be sold, including The Kentish Tavern and the adjoining small piece of land when the leases ran out.  One of the properties put up for sale was a house at 330 Moore Road, Durban, sub-division 1 of E, Lot 42, Block C.  From it's description it appears to have been quite a substantial dwelling containing a hall, dining room, breakfast room, five bedrooms, bathroom, lavatory, store room and kitchen, a fine staircase and a balcony giving extensive views.

Caroline die not in fact sell the Umbilo property but had it transferred to herself.  Harriet was buried in the Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery where her mother, her two brothers and her ex-husband had already been interred.

There is something of a mystery regarding Harriet's only son, Thomas Coulter Whittaker (350).  It has been said that he was sent off to school in England when he was a young boy but no real information is available as to why or when  he was sent. It seems somewhat unlikely that it was simply to go to school in England when there were perfectly adequate schools in Natal by the time he was of school-going age.  There is another possibility, namely that he was taken off by his father, away from his family, when his father deserted Harriet in 1865 or before.  This seems a more likely explanation and may be one of the reasons Harriet sued for divorce.

It has not been possible to find out just when Thomas, and his son, went off to England, but it is was presumably when Thomas junior was between the ages of 12 and 14 and it is assumed that he was taken against his mothers wishes.  He never returned to Natal.  In trying to trace information about him in England it has been ascertained that a young man named Thomas Whittaker of about the right age had lived  at Warrington in Lancashire and had worked as a broker's clerk.  It is known that Harriet's son died before he reached his majority and it is interesting to learn that the young man at Warrington died at the age of 19, on 10th May 1871, after suffering from enteritis complications.  He died at Church Place, Warrington and if this young man was indeed Harriet's son as he appears to be, the point to note is that Warrington was his father's home town.  This would seem to confirm that he was taken to England by his father. Had the boy been sent to attend school in England by Harriet it would have been expected that he would have lived with some of her relations in Kent.

Since it is evident that Thomas senior was in England for some years before returning to Natal it would be expected that he would go back to his old home and it is a possibility that he and his son lived with his parents.  It is significant that Thomas senior did not re-appear again on the Durban scene until 1873 or 1874, two or three years after the death of the young man at Warrington. It is unlikely now that the full story of Harriet's son Thomas will ever come to light.

The Whittaker's younger daughter, Harriet Jessie (352), generally known as Jessie, was married on 25th May 1886 to George Cookman Robinson, son of a farmer of the same name, who farmed at Elloughton and at Waterfall View, Rietvlei.  G.C. Robinson senior was a son of George Robinson, who edited and published the Natal Mercury and was brother of John who later became Sir John Robinson, journalist, politician and the first prime minister of Natal.  This family came to Natal from Balmoral in 1853, arriving on the King William on 23rd January.  

Alas, only a year after her wedding, Jessie died of cancer at the end of a long and painful illness.  Her death occurred on 23rd August 1887 at the early age of 24.  She died at her mother's home at Umbilo and was buried in the Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery.  Jessie had been a good singer and according to her obituary notice "her voice had charmed many a Durban audience as an amateur vocalist".

Jessie's husband married again later and lived at Rietvlei on the farm he inherited from his father.  He lived to the good old age and on his death on 4th December 1941, was buried in the churchyard of the little church that stands on the peninsular sticking out into the waters of the dam which was made in more recent years at Rietvlei.

Harriet's elder daughter, Caroline Alice (351), (cousin Carrie) remained a spinster all her life and as the sole survivor of the Whittaker family, inherited most of her mother's estate, thus became quite well to do.  She had the house at Umbilo rebuilt and because she considered that suitable furniture and furnishings for her new home were not available locally, made the journey to England to purchase all her requirements there.  It is possible that while she was in England she took the opportunity to look up some of her mother's family connections and places her mother had known in earlier years but no record of any such visits have been discovered.

Caroline lived for many years at Umbilo on the property named Boxley in very comfortable circumstances, waited on by a retinue of Indian servants and she turned into a somewhat formidable old lady.  

She was referred to as Aunt Carrie or Cousin Carrie by most of the Quested relations and when any of them, the younger ones in particular, went to call on her they tended to accord her a certain deference and to be on their best behaviour.  This  was an attitude she evidently enjoyed, and flattered by this kind of attention, she often showed her appreciation, not to say generosity,  in a rewarding manner.

At one period Caroline became involved in expensive litigation with the Durban Borough Council regarding rates on her various properties.  She lost a number of cases brought against her and learned that litigation costs ran away with a lot of money.  Otherwise she was a good businesswoman.  She was reputed to have made Charles Argo, a tinsmith and plumber of West Street, pay a high price for a narrow strip of land she owned, situated between The Kentish Tavern, and his property next door.

In her later years Caroline weakened both physically and mentally and began to lose her grip on the situation around her.  Her household was virtually ruled by the Indian servants who did much as they pleased.  According to family rumour, she was cheated on the household accounts and robbed of many of her possessions.

Caroline died at Boxley, Umbilo, on 9th May 1943, at the age of 87.  She was buried in the Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery alongside her mother and father.  The estate was sold up and in her will (mother's will), Caroline left legacies to some of her friends and to practically all of the descendants of the Natal Questeds, who thus had good cause to remember her.  An exception, however, was the family of Thomas Quested (319) of Rhodesia.  Thomas was the son of George Quested,  Caroline's uncle, and was therefore a first cousin of Caroline's.  He had died about three years before she did but she must have known him well when they were children.  Since his early days however, he had been regarded as an independent character and having left Natal to go with the Pioneer Column to Mashonaland in 1890, Thomas evidently had little to do with his relatives in Natal from then onwards, and they may have lacked news of him and his family.

With the death of Caroline, the Whittaker family in Natal died out.

Extracts from the registers of St Paul's church, Durban:

Marriage     Harriet Susannah Quested to Thomas Whittaker, 23rd   June 1851.

Baptisms     Thomas Coulter Whittaker - Born 21st October 1851, baptised 2nd May 1854.  Sponsors John Webb and James Jordan.

         Caroline Alice Whittaker - Born 24th April 1858, baptised 10th June 1863.  Sponsors John Webb, James Catterall and Eliza Ann Catterall.

        Harriet Jessie Whittaker - Born 17th February 1863, baptised 10th June 1863.  Sponsors John Webb, James Catterall and Eliza Ann Catterall.

 

 

THOMAS QUESTED'S CHILDREN

CAROLINE EMMA AND THE WEBB FAMILY

Caroline Emma (354) was the second daughter of Thomas and Harriet Quested and was born at the old market town of Ashford, on the river Stour, about 14 miles from Canterbury, Kent, on 29th April 1830.   She was baptised at the church of St Mary the Virgin on 11th June 1830.   She came to Natal with her brothers William and George, and her sister Harriet.  With them she endured the ordeal of the wrecking of the Minerva off the Durban Bluff.

After living for some time at Congella with the other members of the family, she married another immigrant from England, a man named John Webb, who had arrived at Port Natal with his parents, James and Sarah Webb, in the ship Ina on 8th March 1850.  John was about the same age as Caroline, being born in 1830 or 1831.  In the ship's list of passengers he was described as a groom while his father called himself a labourer.  The family was allocated 135 acres at the Cotton Lands Estate in the Inanda district, which stretched from the neighbourhood of Verulam to Tongaat.  It is not known whether they ever went to live there.

Caroline's wedding took place in Durban on 21st September 1852.  Witnesses to the signing of the marriage register were Robert Gibson and Sarah Kirkman.  Within a week of their wedding John and Caroline Webb left Durban and sailed off to Australia together with John's parents, to seek their fortunes on the gold fields of central Victoria, some 80 miles or so north of what is now the city of Melbourne.

They left Port Natal on the Hannah, commanded by Captain George J. Wetherall, together with a number of other people who felt there were better prospects of making a living in the Australia gold fields than on the soil of Natal.  The ship, which was of only 150 tons, sailed on 27th September 1852, and arrived at Port Phillip, now a part of Melbourne, on 15th November.  

On arrival in Australia, both John and his father described themselves as inn-keepers and they travelled to the small mining settlement which was colloquially called Bendigo, after a local pugilist known by that name.  This settlement, originally named Castletown, had been founded after gold was discovered there by a shepherd in 1850, and it very quickly became a major source of the precious metal, sending away about £1-million worth of gold a month in the early 1850's.  During the first ten years of the gold rush the area produced over 4,000,000 ounces of gold.

The settlement gradually developed into an impressive town of tree-lined streets and substantial buildings and was re-named Sandhurst.

In the early days, the Australian gold fields were very tough places in which to live.  Many of the diggers were really rough characters drawn from various quarters of the globe, and a number of them were men who had been transported as felons from the prison hulks of England after conviction for criminal offences.  There were also adventurers who were simply seeking to make quick fortunes as and how they could.  The diggers had little respect for law and order and on the whole appeared to be a much more unruly lot than the gold diggers of later years in South Africa.

Whether John Webb actively engaged in digging for gold is not known but it seems unlikely.  Information obtained shows that in  the year 1859 he and Caroline were running a boarding house in Raglan Street, White Hills, a suburb of Bendigo.  In 1872, John Webb was recorded as being the proprietor of Webb's Hotel in Hargreaves Street, Sandhurst.  They were still there in 1882 and an old advertisement for Webb's Hotel mentioned that John Webb was formerly at the Bendigo Hotel.  So far as can be determined however, he had not been the proprietor nor the licensee of the Bendigo Hotel, so the assumption is that he had been employed there as manager.

During their years in Australia the Webbs maintained contact by correspondence with the Questeds in Natal, and John Webb was named as a sponsor at the baptisms of the three Whittaker children.  Caroline Webb was of course sister to Harriet Whittaker, and John Webb had been acquainted with Thomas Whittaker from the time they travelled in the same ship together from Scotland in 1850.

It is understood that Caroline's niece, Harriet Quested (Aunt Hattie), William's daughter, made a trip to Australia to stay for some time with the Webbs, but it is not known exactly when this visit took place.  It must have been in the late 181970's, possibly about 1877.

Webb's Hotel had vanished by 1891 and that same year, after a plebiscite of the district residents, the name Sandhurst disappeared also, the town then officially adopting it's earlier name of Bendigo, which it retains to this day.  

By that time, the Webbs had left Australia and returned to Natal where, in 1891, they rented a store and sold groceries at 400 Point Road, Durban.  They kept this business going for a number of years up to 1903 or 1904, possibly up to John's death.  John Webb died at his residence, 336 Berea Road, on 8th October 1904, aged 74.  After his death, Caroline moved to 73 Frere Road, where she died some six years later, on  2nd May 1910, at the age of 80.  Both of them were buried in the Quested family plot in the West Street cemetery.

There were no children from this marriage.

Caroline's assets after her death were valued at less than £100 and because her will leaving everything to her husband was invalid since he had pre-deceased her, the proceeds of her estate were apportioned to all of her Quested relations or their descendants.

 

THOMAS QUESTED'S CHILDREN

ELIZA ANN AND THE CATTERALL FAMILY

Eliza Ann (358) was the third and youngest daughter of Thomas and Harriet Quested.

She was born at Maidstone, Kent, on 13th November 1833, and baptised at All Saints Church, Maidstone, on 8th January 1834.  Apart from these facts nothing is known of her early years.

Eliza came to Natal with her mother on the ship Roscoe in January 1853 and she lived for some years with her mother at the small property in West Street, Durban, which eventually became well known as The Kentish Tavern.  Here, she helped to make ginger beer for sale.

On 14th December 1857, Eliza married James Catterall (357) of Tongaat.  The wedding was carried out by the Reverend W.H.C. Lloyd in Durban and the witnesses were her sister, Harriet Whittaker, and her brother, William.

After the wedding Eliza and her husband lived at Tongaat where James was an overseer on the Tongaat Estate, firstly under the management of Mr M.J. McKen and afterwards under the new owner, Mr J.R. Saunders.

James Renault Saunders had farmed sugar cane in Mauritius before he came to Natal in 1854.  He was offered the job of manager of the Tongaat Estate and a share in the company which was owned by a Cape Town syndicate.  He took up this position but by 1860 had taken over the ownership of the estate.

James Catterall (357) was born in England in 1824, most likely in the County of Lancashire, where Catteralls had been established for some generations.  He sailed from Liverpool in the ship Henrietta which reached Port Natal on 4th July 1850, a few hours before the wrecking of  the Minerva.  Some of the passengers on James ship are known to have witnessed the drama of the Minerva drifting and wrecking whilst being helpless to do anything about preventing the disaster.  It is possible that James Catterall was one of those who watched events as they developed.

In the ship's passenger list James Catterall was described as a labourer, and as a Byrne settler he was allocated 20 acres of land at the Dunbar-on-Illovo Estate, sub-division 69, in the Byrne Valley, together with an erf in the proposed township of Byrnetown, plot 16.  He would have been a neighbour of the Questeds if they had taken up their allocations on the same estate.  However, it would seem that like the Questeds, he did not take up his allocations.

As well as being an overseer on the sugar estate James took out a licence for a retail store in 1861 and in  the following year he was appointed Postmaster for the district.  This appointment he held until 1877.  It is likely that Eliza did the running of the store and the postal work while James was occupied with his job as overseer.

From 1875 to 1877 James also held the appointment of Field Cornet for the district (Ward 2, County of Victoria).

During Mark McKen's period of management at Tongaat, an ox-driven sugar mill had been installed to crush the cane, but a steam driven mill was in operation by 1861.  It would appear that James Catterall was involved in the sugar industry before the Questeds took part in it.

 
Eliza had five children:

Emma Jane (358)  Born 7th October 1858, baptised 9th January 859.
Alice Eliza  Born 15th May 1860, baptised 12th August 1860.
Alfred James (381)   Born 18th June 1862, baptised 13th September 1862.
Emily (389)  Born 2nd August 1864.
Eliza Edith Ann (397) Born 11th May 1868.  She died in the same year on 27th  November 1868.

Eliza Catterall died in childbirth when her last child was born on 11th May 1868.  Almost certainly she was buried at Tongaat but no record of her burial has been found because the original Anglican church at Tongaat no longer exists and it's parish registers have disappeared with the years.  There is no tombstone indicating her grave in the old cemetery at Tongaat.

Some time after Eliza's death James married again, this time to Martha Greaves (398).  She had a daughter, Constance Greaves Catterall, born in the year 1872, but this girl died young in 1873.  Martha died on 17th September 1875, following the stillbirth of another daughter on 4th September and James was once more a widower.

He and his family moved then away from Tongaat in and during the years 1878 to 1879 he was an overseer at the Sea Cow Lake Estate at Umgeni, not far from Durban.  On 23rd January 1879, James married for the third time, his new wife being Margaret Wood McKen, widow of Mark Johnson McKen who had died in 1872, and who had earlier been James's original employer at the Tongaat Estate.  Mark McKen, after leaving Tongaat, had become curator of the Botanic Gardens in Durban and held that job for a number of years.

At some time around 1880, James apparently rented a brickworks at Clairmont and he continued as a brick maker for a number of years, but he appears to have retired by  about 1887 when he had a property in Umbilo Road, Durban.  It is believed James died in 1899.  Emma Jane Catterall married William Freeman Horning (1843-1922) on 16th October 1878 at the Sea Cow Lake Estate where the family were then living.   Emma died in 1937.  Alice Eliza married William Henry Eckersley (369) on 25th February 1880.  William was a cane planter and a carrier at Tongaat.  Alice died in 1913.

Emily Catterall married Harry Francis Fynney (390) on 2nd October 1882.  Harry was a cane planter at Tongaat.  Emily had two sons, James Fielding Fynney and Smallbrooke Best Fynney, and two daughters, Isabel Fynney and Vera Dorothy Fynney.