Grahamstown, Bathurst and Kasouga, South Africa 26 Nov - 1 Dec 07

In search of Angela's 1820 Settler ancestors

26 November 2007. Mountain Zebra National Park (Cradock) to Grahamstown.
It was about a 2-hour drive to Grahamstown, the capital of Settler Country, where we checked into a luxurious B&B named for its address: 7 Worcester Street. It was still sunny on arrival, so off we trotted lightly clad into town. Pretty Grahamstown, with its Victorian and Edwardian buildings and tree-lined streets, is home to Rhodes University and St. Andrew’s College, and we saw plenty of well-heeled students around. We had a super light lunch at the ‘Yellow Piano’ in an historical building on High Street, followed by an interesting visit to the Observatory Museum. Then it became cold, windy and wet, so we rushed out in search of a taxi back to our B&B. Dinner was at ‘La Galleria’, an excellent Italian restaurant.

27 November 2007. It was still cold and rainy in Grahamstown so an appropriate day for visiting the Albany History Museum. There was an interesting display depicting the conflicts with the Xhosas which followed the occupation of the land by the 1820 settlers. We met up with curator Fleur Way-Jones, who showed us interesting objects and paintings from the Bowker family, which were stored away in boxes awaiting remodelling of the displays. We have a personal interest in the Bowkers, as Angela’s great-great-great-great grandfather Miles Bowker and his wife Anna Maria Mitford were 1820 settlers, together with their 9 sons and 2 daughters, the second of whom was born on board ship in Table Bay by Cape Town.
After lunch, we drove up to a hill overlooking Grahamstown, to visit the 1820 Settlers Monument, founded by Thomas Bourchier Bowker. Outside the monument was a large statue of a settler family, sculpted by Ivan Mitford-Barberton, second cousin to Angela’s great-grandmother.
We drove to Bathurst in the afternoon where we checked into the Pig'n Whistle, the oldest pub in South Africa dating from 1832. What its fate will be in the future remains to be seen as it was up for auction. We understood from other locals that the owners were tired of running it and wanted out. It was certainly quite run down and the ‘pub grub’ was only just edible.

28 November 2007. We met up with Chris and Jan Webb at Tharfield, the 2000 ha farm the Bowker family ran from the 1820s until it was sold to Chris Webb's great-grandfather in 1925. Chris took us to see the Bowker gravestones near the farm house. Then his father, Tom Webb, took us for a walk in the bush and showed us a tree where Thomas Holden Bowker and Miles Bowker had engraved their initials in 1887. The initials were quite faint by now, and we had to pass through a lot of thick undergrowth to reach the tree. We would never have found it without Tom to guide us.
Then Flemming’s mobile phone rang. It was Chris who asked his father to round up 7 big bulls that had strayed from their field. It was a little unnerving to be in the same field as so many fierce looking animals. I would have preferred the same number of elephants. Tom said in passing that they were quite agitated as they hadn’t seen a cow for at least 3 months!
We gave Tom a lift back to his nearby house on our way to Riet river mouth. There we went for a wonderful walk on a beautiful, deserted beach to the Three Sisters (rocks) near the coastal end of Tharfield.
On our return to Bathurst we decided to check out a different restaurant for dinner and found one just down the road from the Pig’n Whistle. A local woman standing at the bar with friends greeted us like old pals as we came through the door. She introduced herself as Meryl and wanted to know all about our travels and our interest in Bathurst. We told her how I was descended from two families of 1820 settlers, the Bowkers and the Curries, who had lived near Bathurst and that we wanted to see inside the local church. Meryl knew just the person we needed: local historian, Merwynne Jones.