Notes |
- In 1828 they were sheep farming in the Tarka District and in 1848 farming "Biesjesfontein" in the Molteno District. Adam came to South Africa as a Merchant with his brother William, part of the Thornhill Party in 1820 sailing on the "Zoroaster", landing at Simon's Bay, Cape, then sailed to Algoa Bay on the "Albury", landing on 26/6/1820.
SHORT HISTORY OF THE AFRIKAANS GILFILLAN FAMILY OF CRADOCK.
During the period 1820 to 1933.
Adam Gilfillan ( b1800) , came to South Africa as a 1820 Settler on board the `Zoroaster`, while his brother William Frederick Anderson Gilfillan b1796 came on board the `Importer`. At that time Williiam F.A. Was a lieutenant in the British `60th rifles regiment, and was on half pay. In November 1819 he begged the `Secretary of State for Colonies` in a letter to grant him a free passage to go with the Settlers to South Africa, and it was granted. For this reason he was not regarded as a 1820 Settler.
Adam and William, of Scottish descent, sailed to Algoa Bay and ended up in Bathhurst where William married Anna Margaret Thornhill also a Settler from England , and this became the English branch of the Gilfillan`s of South Africa. Adam married an Afrikaans girl Sophia Cecilia Marais from Cradock during 1823, and this started the Afrikaans leg of the Gilfillan family of South Africa. Up to today almost all descendants of Adam married Afrikaans girls.
During the period 1820 to 1825 Adam was working as a clerk in the administration of Sir Andries Stockenstrom of Graaff-Reinette. Adam and Sophia then moved to the Tarka district where they farmed with sheep until about 1850 when the family settled in Cradock. On 7 December 1874 the 1820 Settler Adam Gilfillan died in his house `Bath (?) heights` Cradock, and his wife Sophia passed away on 18 September 1884. Both Adam and Sophia are burried in the Cradock cemetery , they had 11 children, of which the youngest son, Adam Fleetwood was well known in the Cradock area.
Adam Fleetwood was born in Cradock on 16 September 1846 and farmed most of his life on the farm `Boschjeskloof` some 10km West of the town. He married Margaret Johanna Schoeman daughter of Christoffel Andries Schoeman on 3rd July 1872 , and the seremony took place on the Schoeman farm `Groothoek` in the Somerset district. The couple also had 11 children, and when they retired from farming during 1903 they bought the parsonage of the reverent Reynecke in Cradock. They later bought and moved to a new house in Frerestreet that is currently occupied by an attorney firm.
As remembered by Adam and Margaret Gilfillan`s grandchildren, the house was huge, and had a few electric lights. There was horse stables and a vegetable garden on the back portion of the property. It was well furnished with paintings of Scottish immigrants and Scottish scenery with Muskox cattle. A piano belonging to one of the daughters, Lina, stood against a wall in the sittingroom, with next to it a rocking chair with a footrest that can be warmed-up with coles. In the huge diningroom there was a dinnerwagon on wheels with a cruet stand and a cheesedish on top. Two of the daughters, Miem a nurse, and Lina a teacher, never married and stayed with Adam and Margaret.
Because of the sturdy Dutch influence of their grandmother Sophia and mother Margaret, all the children spoke Afrikaans and became members of the Dutch Reformed Church of Cradock. In the May 1928 edition of the `Midland News`an article announced ``Adam Fleetwood Gilfillan aged 81 years and 8 months, youngest son of Adam Gilfillan an 1820 Settler, died at Cradock May 18, and a still further link in the ever shrinking chain of old Cradock worthies has been broken. Mr. Gilfillan was a loyal and devoted son of his church and a much respected man.`` The hearse at his funeral was a pitchblack horsedrawn cart with glass windows and pulled by two black horses draped in black cloth.
After his death, his farm `Boschjeskloof` was divided into three portions namely ; `Onder Boscheskloof` which was owned by Andries and Elise Combrinck in the 1930`s, and the Western portion was bought by Piet and Hannie Marais. The third portion called `Bo Boschjeskloof` is where Adam`s son, also Adam Fleetwood, kept on farming after his father`s death.
Margaret`s one sister Maggie was married to a dignified gentleman, Henry du Plessis that had a huge stomach draped with a silver chain and a zobo clock in the pocket of his waistcoat. Henry was a towncouncilor and later mayor of Cradock with a big shining limosine motorcar. Henry and Maggie had only one child, a son that drowned in the Orange river while on commando during world war one. Margaret`s grandchildren remembered her other sister, and their favorite, aunt Hennie Lombaard mother of Jenkins and Pierre Lombaard that also farmed in the district . When aunt Hennie`s husband passed away, she became a resident of the Masonic Hotel where she much enjoyed her `sundowners` to the discontent of her sister Margaret. Every Friday evening aunt Hennie would visit her sister Margaret in Frerestreet where she would give the grandchildren each two pennies. With this the youngsters could buy eight `niggerballs` or a packet of sherbert with a claypipe, that could be used afterwards for smoking horse droppings in the stables.
Margaret Johanna Gilfillan passed away on 26 May 1936. She took a deep interest in the work of the A.C.V.V. And also in the `Vroue Sendingbond van Cradock`. Her funeral was conducted by the reverent W.J. Lubbe of the Cradock Dutch Reformed Church of which Mrs. Gilfillan was a faithfull member. The two unmarried daughters Miem and Lina then bought a house in Cawood street where they stayed until their death. `Miem` ( Maria Magdalena ) was a well known nurse in Cradock died in 1939. `Lina,` ( Christoffelina ) qualified at Rocklands College, became a teacher at Wilson Primary School, and died of cancer on 3 May 1937. Both sisters are burried with their parents in the Cradock cemetery.
The other children of Adam Fleetwood Gilfillan and Margaret Johanna ( Schoeman ) was `Aunt Souf`( Sophia Cecilia) that married Willem van Heerden and farmed at `Perseverance` and `Elim`. ` Maggie` ( Margaret Agnes ) also qualified at Rocklands, became a teacher in Molteno where she met and married Johannes Coetzee. After the death of Johannes in 1924, Maggie settled in Middelburg Cape, as matron of the boardingschool where she also took responsibility of two of her brother Adam`s children Casper and Theo before her death in 1954. Another of Adam and Margaret`s sons Archibald, died when he was only twelve , and the youngest daughter Izetta, married Andries Basson from Exelcior. The youngest son of Adam and Margaret , also Adam Fleetwood Gilfillan was born on 15 January 1884 in Cradock.
Adam Fleetwood Gilfillan b1884 known as ` Fleet`, went to school at Cradock Boys High and married Magdalena Elizabeth ( Lena ) Opperman born on 4th April 1891. The marriage took place in the Dutch Reformed Church on the 4th of March 1912. Lena`s parents Casparus Johannes Rynardus Opperman, and Anna Cecilia (Vorster) died when Lena was stil very young, and she was raised by her uncle Schalk Willem Vorster on the farm `Schurweberg`. She qualified as a teacher at Rocklands. Lena had two brothers, Jabez and Jacobus Opperman, that farmed on the family farm, with the son of Jacobus, Abel, stil farming on the farm at about 1932 when he settled in town. Abel was a carpenter in Cradock and one of his specialities was the building of goat drawn carts of which he build one for his Gilfillan cousins to be used on their `Boschjeskloof` farm.
Fleet and Lena ran a dairy farm on `Bossieskloof`, (as the farm was commonly known), but without success, after which they switched to sheepfarming on the `Upper- Bossieskloof` portion. The farm is about 750 morgen in size, and could carry as much as 350 head of sheep in a good year. Their income was generated from wool sales sold in Port Elizabeth , auction of sheep in the Cradock sales pens and firewood sales at one Pound per wagon load. Outside contractors did the sheep shearing at one pennie per head with the Gilfillan children doing the compacting of the woolbales by foot tramping. `Bossieskloof` had only one borehole with a windmill, and if there was no wind, the small `Fleeties` had to climb to the top and turn the windmill by hand, but any mechanical breakdown on the windmill was repaired by mr. Cope from Cradock.
Fleet and Lena had great financial difficulty keeping their 7 boys and 1 daughter at boardingschool in Cradock, as the farm was to far from town for them to sleep at home. For their primaryschool at Wilsonschool, the first four boys stayed in the Dutch Reformed Church hostel of the A.C.V.V. that was housed in the old parsonage. This building is today the museum of Cradock headed by mr. Sykes. The boarding master Arend de Kock was named `Ou Das` ( old rockrabbit ) because he sat on his chair in the sun all day , and every now and then the children had to carry his chair to the next patch of sun all around the building. The only daughter of Fleet and Lena , Anna, stayed with her grandmother Margaret in her Frerestreet house while attending Rocklands Girls school.
The two eldest boys Adam(also called Fleet) and Christoph also stayed with grandmother Margaret while attending Boys High school. Fleet, the eldest got the nickname of `The big Fly` and the rest of his brothers that came after him, was called `The small Flies`. Christoph stayed in the hostel of Boys High for his matric year with mr. Latskey as the boarding master , and mr. Du Toit as the school headmaster.
After matric the two brothers Fleet and Christoph got a job on the farm of Gerrie Lategan to clear his farm of prickly pear which they did, and with their salaries Fleet bought himself a two wheel ` Spider` that was pulled by donkeys, and Christoph bought himself a bicycle. Two of the younger boys, Casper and Theo was taken by their aunt Maggie, then the matron of Middelburg Highschool hostel, where she helped them to pass matric, because at that stage her brother Fleet and Lena could not afford to keep them at school anymore. During his highschool years at Middelburg , Casper also took music lessons with mr. Kriek the organist of the church, and passed his music examinations with honours , as well as his matric with a first class. The two boys were most greatfull to their aunt Maggie for the opportunity she gave them.
It was during this time of drought that the depression of the 1930`s also contributed in making farming very difficult and Fleet and Lena had to do something to survive. Fleet went to his mother Margaret , and ask her if he, as the only son would inherit the farm. Margaret agreed, on condition Fleet get the `yes` from all 7 of his sisters which he then went to see one by one. All but Izetta the youngest, agreed. After realising that in this case he had no future on the farm, Fleet and Lena decided to pack-up and the whole family moved to Johannesburg where he started a mining transport business.
The farm `Bossieskloof` was later sold to dr. J. Schoeman from Cradock , a descendant of Margaret`s brother, and this marked the end of the Gilfillan family farm.
Dr. Schoeman sold the farm during 1996 to the `National Mountain Zebra Park` for the amount of R345,000-00.
The 8 children of Adam Fleetwood and Magdalena Elizabeth Gilfillan all born in Cradock, and left Cradock with Fleet and Lena for greener pastures in December 1993 were ;
Adam Fleetwood b 29/07/1914.
Anna Cecilia b 31/08/1915.
Christoph b 16/10/1917.
Casparus Johannes Rynardus b 16/03/1919.
Theofilus b 22/08/1921.
Eckard b 06/05/1923.
Archibald Justinus b 12/04/1925.
Jacobus b 25/05/1927.
This short history was compiled by Johan Gilfillan b1946, eldest son of Casparus Johannes Rynardus Gilfillan b1919. Johan is a 5th generation of the Afrikaans branch of the Gilfillan`s of South Africa, and lives in Louis Trichardt , Limpopo province.
e-mail; johangil@bridgeauto.co.za Dated ; 1st August 2009.
|