Frederick Edward George Aspeling

Frederick married Minnie Emilia Adams on 27 Mar 1895. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Eira Rex Aspeling was born on 13 Oct 1895 in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Dirk married Henriette Geddes Maria Bain Morroco Rex on 13 May 1861 in Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Henriette (daughter of Frederick Rex and Johanna Elizabeth Bain) was born on 31 May 1845 in Free State (Orange Free State), South Africa; died on 24 Feb 1917 in Seapoint, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Issue : 6 children

Frederick married Johanna Elizabeth Bain on 2 Sep 1838 in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Johanna (daughter of Andrew Geddes Bain and Maria Elizabeth Von Backstrom) was born on 7 Jun 1821 in Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape, South Africa; died in 1882. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married on 2 Sept 1838 Frederick Rex, illegit son of George Rex who was the illegit son of George III

Notes:

George Rex was given a Royal Warrant, and sailed as a grown man into CapeTown, South Africa in 1797. Some believe he was sent to the colony to save the monarchy from a scandal. This has been disproved, and there is no royal connection.

George Rex subsequently set off eastwards toward Knysna, taking with him his beloved companion, a coloured slave he had met and freed in CapeTown.

In his will, he took great pains to emphasise that all his children were illigitimate, he having steadfastly refused to marry their mother.

Many believe this supports the theory that the last words of George III to his son as he departed for South Africa were: "You must never marry. There must be no ligitimate heirs." This is 'folk lore' and not possible.
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George Rex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

'George Rex' redirects here. For ruling monarchs named George, see King George. You may also be looking for George Rex Graham.

George Rex (29 August 1765 - 3 April 1839) was a British-born entrepreneur, who spent most of his adult life in the Cape Colony, South Africa. He founded the town of Knysna in the Western Cape and played a key role in its development. Rex filled a number of positions in the Cape Colony - including Marshal of the Vice-admiralty Court, notary public to the Governor and advocate for the Crown - before settling on the farm Melkhoutkraal, in the Knysna district.

George Rex was the eldest child of John Rex (1726-1792) a prosperous distiller at Whitechapel, Middlesex, who was Master of the Distillers' Company in 1782, by his wife Sarah Creasey. His brothers and sisters were Sarah Rex (1767-1769), John Rex (1768-1821) a wine and brandy merchant who named his 'late brother George Rex of the Cape of Good Hope' in his will, Sarah Rex (1770-1842) who lived at Bath and corresponded with her brother George, and Elizabeth Rex (1772-1773). John Rex named his son George in his will in 1788, saying that he was 'already advanced ... very considerably more than I have my other son and daughter'[1][2].

George Rex was articled for seven years to one of the Procurators General of the Court of Arches in 1780 when aged 14, and admitted a Notary Public by the Faculty Office in 1786 when 21. He was a Supernumerary at Doctors Commons in 1787 and a Proctor there 1789-97. He was appointed Marshal and Sergeant-at-Mace of the newly created Vice-Admiralty Court at the Cape of Good Hope in 1797. He was Registrar of Courts Martial, 1797-1801, and Advocate for the Crown, 1798. He purchased four slaves in 1799. He was Marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court, 1800-02. He purchased the homestead Schoonder Zigt (now being run as the Flower Street Guest House in Oranjezicht), Table Valley, Cape Town, in 1800, and asked permission to sell gunpowder taken from a prize of war, 1801. The Vice-Admiralty Court closed in December 1802 and he signed the Oath of Submission to the Batavian Republic in 1803. He sold Schoonder Zigt in 1804 and purchased Melkhout Kraal, Knysna. He had 33 slaves there in 1805 and was part-owner of the ship Young Phoenix, 1810-16. He became a timber exporter and trader, having licence for 400 woodcutters in 1811. He was Postmaster of Plettenberg Bay, 1815-20, and held game-shooting licences, 1817-20. He purchased the further loan-farms of Sandkraal, Welbedacht (re-named Eastford), Jackals Kraal, Portland (1817) and Uitzigt (1830), about 24,000 acres. He built the yacht Knysna in 1831. He became a man of some influence at the Cape and regularly entertained at his estate distinguished visitors from overseas such as Lord Charles Somerset, the Earl of Caledon and, later, Sir Lowry Cole[3].

In his will George Rex said that he had not submitted himself to the matrimonial laws of the Colony, but he had four children by a former slave, Johanna Rosina van der Caap, and then nine children by one of her daughters (Carolina Margaretha Ungerer) by a previous master. It is possible that he had married in England before going to South Africa.

Royal descent disproved

It has often been stated, and was firmly believed by many of his descendants, that George Rex was the son of King George III and Hannah Lightfoot. They believed that he had been banished to the Cape, granted large tracts of land there, and forbidden to marry, a story with many later embellishments, that gained ground in the 1860s following contact with Mrs Lavinia Ryves the daughter of the imposter and forger Olivia Serres (Princess Olive)[4][5].

This claim to royalty was thoroughly disproved by Patricia Storrar in "George Rex: Death of a Legend".[6][7]. The lack of royal blood was confirmed by genetic testing in 2004.

References

1. ^ Anthony Camp, Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction 1714-1936 (London, 2007) pp.59-76.
2. ^ http://www.anthonyjcamp.com, re Sarah Creasey, accessed 2008.
3. ^ Patricia Storrar, George Rex: death of a legend (1974) and David Philip, British Residents at the Cape 1795-1819 (Cape Town, 1981) p.342.
4. ^ John Lindsey, The Lovely Quaker (1939)
5. ^ Sanni Metelerkamp, George Rex of Knysna (1955).
6. ^ Notes and Queries, vol. 220 (1975) 18-23 and 364
7. ^ Patricia Storrar, George Rex: death of a legend (Macmillan South Africa, 1974).

George married Carolina Margaretha Ungerer in 1808 in Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa. Carolina (daughter of Hendrik Christian Ungerer and Johanna Rosina van de Caap) was born about 1792 in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; died on 17 Apr 1866 in Knysna, Western Cape, South Africa; was buried in St Georges Cemetery,Knysna,Cape,South Africa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Geologist, Road Engineer, Archaeologist, Poet & Au

Notes:

Andrew Geddes Bain came to the Cape in 1816, probably on the Princess Charlotte with his maternal uncle Col. William Geddes, who was returning at that time on leave from Scotland to rejoin his regiment at the Cape. He was classified as an Independant 1820 Settler by Hockly. For some years Andrew Geddes Bain worked as a saddler in Graaff Reinet and during this time he often contributed articles to the S.A. Commercial Advertiser of Cape Town and later to the Grahamstown Journal. He became interested in road engineering and undertook, without charge, to supervise the construction of a road through the Oudeberg and van Ryneveld passes, from funds contributed by Messrs Stretch, Murray, Perry and other farmers. This work was so successful that the inhabitants presented him with a medal. While still at Graaff-Reinet (1825) he made a long and dangerous trading expedition over the Orange River to Kuruman. Then in the company of J. B. Biddulph, 1820 Settler, he penetrated in 1826 as far as Molopolele in Bechuanaland. In 1829 these two explorers made an expedition from Grahamstown to the Umzimvubu River in Pondoland. Bain's last and most hazardous trip was to the Molopo River where Mafeking now stands. On his return journey his three wagons, together with their oxen and some riding horses were captured by the Zulu general Mzilikatze; Bain and his party only escaping after long and desperate marches. Bain kept journals of his latter expeditions, which have recently been printed by the van Riebeeck Society. During the Frontier War of 1834-5 Bain served as Captain in the Graaff-Reinet Mounted Burghers and later in the Fort Beaufort Levies when he was in charge of Fort Thompson on the Tyumie River. Through Bain's success in constructing the Oudeberg and van Ryneveld passes he was attached to the Royal Engineers (1837-45) and was responsible inter alia for the Queen's Road between Grahamstown, Fort Beaufort and another military road through Pluto's Vale to Breakfast Vlei. Under the newly established Central Road Board he was made Road Inspector in 1845. In this capacity he completed by 1848, with the use of convict labour, Mitchell's Pass between Tulbagh and Ceres and later Bain's Kloof (1854) for which he was presented with a large silver candelabra. He also greatly improved the passes of Gydo and Karroo Poort. His last important work was the Katberg Pass between Fort Beaufort and Queenstown, a four year task completed in 1864. During this period with the Royal Engineers Bain made an intensive study of Geology and Palaeontology (fossils) and in 1844 sent to the Geological Society in London an account of the Geology of the Eastern Province together with a collection of fossils including a new discovery which the Society named dicynodon bainii. He also has a freshwater fish, the Eastern Cape Rocky (Sandelia Bainsii) named after him. He was given grants by the Geological Society and the British Govt. By 1851 he completed a map and Memoir on The Geology of S.A. A year later he declined the post of Geological Surveyor of the Cape as he preferred to remain with the Roads Department. Nevertheless he assisted the Government by reporting on the copper mines in Namaqualand. . Bain subsequently wrote Reminiscences and Anecdotes, Geology of the Western Province and finally Geology of the Eastern Province. Perhaps his best known literary work is Kaatje Kekkelbek, first recited in 1838. Andrew Geddes Bain died in Cape Town on 20 October 1864 and was buried in the old Somerset Road Cemetery but when this was demolished his remains were removed to the Maitland Cemetery.

"A Fort Beaufort farm manager, Gert VAN DER WESTHUIZEN, found 253-million-year-old footsteps when he was working in the bed of the Kat River. The ancient footprints are of a were made by a large dicynodont that lived in the Karoo millions of years ago and walked along the edge of an ancient river that once flowed across the flat Karoo from south to north. The tracks had been covered by debris that was washed away in the recent rains and were spotted when digging up an old water pipeline.
The same species was discovered in the area in 1838 by Andrew Geddes BAIN.
In a historical twist, the 1838 discovery was found on a farm owned by the MILDENHALL family. The latest discovery was made on Bath farm owned by Justin and Barry MILDENHALL. The family have farmed in Fort Beaufort since the 1830s."

Baptised Thurso, witnessed by Neil Sutherland & George Miller.
Migrated to South Africa in 1816, married 16 November 1818 in Cape Town. Started a saddlery in Graaf-Reinet in 1822, & started trading expeditions in 1825 to the Kalahari & Botswana. Served as captain>
in the Beamfort Levies in the 6th Frontier War. Built Mitchell's Pass 1846/48 and Bain's Kloof 1849/53. Fossil named after him (Dicynodon Bainii) as well as a freshwater fish, the Eastern Cape Rocky >
(Sandelia Bainsii). Produced South Africa's first comprehensive geological map in 1852. Went to England on sick leave in 1864 & died on his return. Had 3 sons & 7 daughters.

Andrew married Maria Elizabeth Von Backstrom in 1818 in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Maria (daughter of Johann Georg Friedrich von Backstrom and Johanna Georgina Spengler) was born on 1 May 1798; was christened on 6 May 1798; died on 19 Nov 1857. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Maria Elisabeth von Backstrom

Notes:

Of German immigrant descent. Possibly daughter of Johann Georg Friedrich von Backstrom who came from Wesel and who was either born, or arrived in South Africa, in 1764.