Notes |
- Came to Natal in 1864, worked diamond fields 1870's, friend of John Thomas
Daniel (Tom Daniel). Honeymoon in England, built house at Prynnsberg in
Clocolan district, O.F.S. St. Patrick o'Shaughnessy O'Brien Daniel mentions
him in his diary when he visited them in London in 1896, where they were
forced to go during the Anglo Boer war due to their Boer sentiments. He wrote
his life's story in brief and a typed version of this is in the Daniel file.
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Charles Newberry did take some time off his remorseless dedication to building his fortune at Kimberley. In the late 1870s he was invited to visit Thaba Nchu by a friend at Kimberley, Tom Daniel, the eldest son of the Wesleyan missionary, John Daniel. He met there Toms sister Libby (Elizabeth Mary), who was born in 1858. He:
"soon saw that she was the sort of girl I admired and I quickly made up my mind to ask her to marry me. I returned to Kimberley, but came again a few weeks later. I waited for over a year before the wedding was brought off, but most of that time I spent at Thaba Nchu.
They built the estate at Prynnsberg, and Charles Newberry was persuaded by his father-in-law John Daniel, against his own better judgement, to lend Tshipinare ¹2,000 shortly before the latters death in 1884. Over a year later, in July 1885, just after the details of the land dispositions were published, Newberry sought President Brands personal intervention to assist him to recover the debt, as security for which he held Tshipinares certificate of title to the farm Naneng (Eden 96 and Egypte 107).~~ It is probable that this part of Tshipinares debt was discharged by the sale of three farmsZamenloop 56, Khabanyana 57 and Morokashoek 58from his private estate to a farmer, L.J. Coetzer, for ¹3,545 in December 1885.88 It is also probable that Newberry had impressed his anxiety for repayment of this sum of ¹2,000 upon his father-in-law, for it was Daniels evidence to Gregorowski in June 1885 that partly persuaded the judge to change his mind over the inalienability of the titles granted by Tshipinare. Clearly the certificate of title to Naneng was worthless to Newberry unless such titles could be realised in the market place. (Black Mountain - Colin Murray)
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David Boddam-Whetham wrote a letter to Colin Murray on 23 April, 1983 regarding the Newberry family. Those portions that relate to Elizabeth Mary (Libby) Newberry (nee Daniel) are transcribed below.
"According to the books there had been as many as 17 Europeans employed on the estate at one time: Horticulturist, forester, tutor, two farm managers, stone-cutters, masons, and others. The house had been run, June Ellen Boddam-Whetham (nee Newberry) later told me, by numerous indigent relatives as in the way of old family homes in the UK. Charles Newberry and his wife, Libby, had dispensed open handed hospitality to travellers of like social rank. Libby included amongst her servants 'Lizzy', the daughter of a Chieftan. Libby spoke 'the language of the chiefs'. When she went over to the UK to be presented to the Old Queen she took Lizzy along as well. Libby's presentation dress may be seen today in the Grahamstown Settlers Museum, where June Ellen Boddam-Whetham presented it."
"Libby had been born a Daniel (daughter of Rev. John Thomas Daniel and one of the seven Sephton children, brought up by a Missionary in poverty at a Mission Station near Sterkspruit - near Lady Grey). She became very imperious as the chatelaine of Prynnsberg, according to all reports and died virtually penniless as you say, in 1935.
"Around the 1930's at the time of the Great Depression and the Great Drought, Libby was still paying out, for what Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham reckoned amounted to blackmail, considerable sums for the 'hospitalisation' of someone (Frank Waring is written in ink on the typed document) whom her youngest son, Charles Peter Newberry had injured in a traffic accident. Nobody seems ever to have gone down to check whether the 'victim' was in hospital. Charles (Newberry) was dead. Ernest (Newberry) was possibly 'on tour' at the time. Charles Peter (Newberry) was terrified of being sent to prison. Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham reckoned he ought to have been sent there instead of allowing his mother to ruin herself. De Beers paid no dividend on the large block of shares which Charles had left to her. Libby had to have money and sold the lot when they were rock-bottom. Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham said he went over to remonstrate with her, but she said /they are not paying anything so they have to go; I must have money!' I gather that Libby was not a good financial manager, and most imperious in her dealings; excepting only in regard to her sons, who could always wheedle money out of her."
"She continued to live extravagantly as always, according to Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham, who with Ruby Elizabeth Boddam-Whetham in those days lived on the smell of an oil rag. She apparently never checked what came into or out of the house. Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham told me in horror that entire pockets of sugar were wont to disappear. It is Basuto tradition that when the chief has plenty, they all have plenty who serve him; if the chief's store is empty those who remain with him cheerfully tighten their belts. Ruby Elizabeth Boddam-Whetham used to count the potatoes and prunes etc. for lunch!"
She married Charles Newberry, 1879,135 b. 17 May 1841 in Brampton, Huntingtonshire, England,135 (son of William Newberry and Mary Morlin), d. 28 Jan 1922 in Prynnsberg farm, Clocolan, OFS, SA,135 buried in Prynnsberg farm, Clocolan, OFS, SA.135, Charles: Came to Natal in 1864, worked diamond fields 1870's, friend of John Thomas Daniel (Tom Daniel). Honeymoon in England, built house at Prynnsberg in Clocolan district, O.F.S. St. Patrick O'Shaughnessy O'Brien Daniel mentions him in his diary when he visited them in London in 1896, where they were forced to go during the Anglo Boer war due to their Boer sentiments. He wrote his life's story in brief and a typed version of this is in the Daniel file.
David Boddam-Whetham wrote a letter to Colin Murray (author of "Black Mountain") on 23 April, 1983 with information on the Newberry's. Below is a transcript of what he wrote about Charles Newberry:
"The outbreak of war in 1936 caused me to return to the UK (from South Africa). Prynnsberg at this time was still the glorious wreckage of what had been a wonderful garden, built by Charles Newberry on the lines of the old country houses of the UK. Architecturally the house was a mess. Edward Tudor Boddam-Whetham used to express astonishment that the great solid stone walls of the second story did not cause the lower floor of stone-faced sun-dried brick to collapse.
Edgar Edward Newberry held Prynnsberg Estate on entail, and resented it bitterly; he said it was not his, but his grandson as yet unborn. He could not sell it. His mother allowed the place to deteriorate, but Edgar Edward Newberry did nothing to stop the deterioration. I remember in rainstorms his wife calling to the servants and basins being placed under the major roof-leaks. (Edward fixed it up when he rented)."
"According to the books there had been as many as 17 Europeans employed on the estate at one time: Horticulturist, forester, tutor, two farm managers, stone-cutters, masons, and others. The house had been run, June Ellen Boddam-Whetham (nee Newberry) later told me, by numerous indigent relatives as in the way of old family homes in the UK. Charles Newberry and his wife, Libby, had dispensed open handed hospitality to travellers of like social rank. Libby included amongst her servants 'Lizzy', the daughter of a Chieftan. Libby spoke 'the language of the chiefs'. When she went over to the UK to be presented to the Old Queen she took Lizzy along as well. Libby's presentation dress may be seen today in the Grahamstown Settlers Museum, where June Ellen Boddam-Whetham presented it."
"Below the Church lies the great shed which had housed the workshops, which were in use till recently. There was a 700 Volt D.C. Dynamo which supplied power to the lathes, and one line ran up the hill to the Managers House and refrigerated the Cold Room in which fruit from the orchard was stored. 700 Volt D.C. seemed a rather unusual voltage so I particularly remembered it."
Because of the tremendous plans that Charles Newberry made for the future, the Railways built his own halt and siding from which visitors used on occasion to come and go. I think the halt is still in use."
I gather that Charles Newberry had missed out on his education, and had plenty of hardship in his youth, coming out to South Africa to seek his fortune as a carpenter perhaps about 1860, settling first in Greytown. (June Ellen Boddam-Whetham and I went to Greytown to try to find out where he had worked, without achieving it.)"
"Perhaps because he had missed out himself, he was determined that his sons should not miss out. Ernest went to Harrow and on to Trinity Hall Cambridge. All expenses were paid via the family lawyer, one Frost. He also had a private allowance of 1000 pounds a year, a lot before World War I Ernest always exceeded it. Charles always let his son have more."
"Charles Newberry had been trained as a carpenter, so it was natural when he settled down in the timber less O.F.S., that he should try to find out what timber would grow in the O.F.S. and it was probably largely due to his efforts that the government established forestry stations at Ficksburg and at Thaba'Nchu (both have since been abandoned); and at the time of which I speak most of the area near the homestead was a 'forest' of useless unsaleable dead trees, mixed in occasional self-sown survivors of hardy useless timber. You can safely say that Charles Newberry started the first experimental forestry nursery in the O.F.S. (and possibly in the country). He also established the first 'Game Reserve' in the O>F>S> (and possibly in the country). The Black Widebeeste which Edward presented to the O.F.S. Administration provided the foundation (with clones from two other farmers) of the immense herd of Black Wildebeeste which thrive on Allemanskraal Game Reserve (Willem Pretoruis) between Senekal and Winburg and Ventersburg.
"One day while in the local Post Office at Gumtree the local Postmistress informed me that 'Mr Newberry was a very fortunate person to have been given a present of 200,000 pounds by the government.' I was completely staggered, so asked June Ellen Boddam-Whetham if she could through light on it."
Seemingly when Edgar Edward Newberry inherited Prynnsberg, ther was no money in the estate aft.er it had been wound up. The one section of farming which Edgar Edward Newberry knew well was stock farming, and he needed to buy. So he applied for a loan to the Landbank, which was refused because he did not have full ownership of the farm. So he took the case to court, and aft.er an awful lot of 'argy-bargy' and (doubtless) expanse, he got permission to get the loan from the Landbank, of 2,000 pounds (not 200,000 pounds as locally believed) to buy a foundation of breeding stock. The first lot of cattle I bought in 1938 cost me 7 pound a head, so he could have bought quite a few with the balance of 200o pounds."
:Charles Newberry held a central block of land in 'the big hole' in Kimberley, refused to be bought out in cash, and came in on the basis of owning shares in De Beers, with possibly a cash payment as a sweetener, and the means of buying a farm, being Prynnsberg. I can remember reading a round robin written years ago by Charles Newberry inn which he exhorted his family always to retain a parcel of De Beers Shares. I have no idea how many shares he held. When he died in 1926 he was supposed to have been worth about half a million, part land, part shares."
"During the Boer War, (which we call the South African War), his sympathies lay with the locals. His home was taken over by the military (General Nickerson?) and he was told to get out of the country or else. He took a lovely mansion on the Thames, where the family stayed out the war for its duration."
He was generous to all local causes, I believe. He even paid for the copper dome on the Dutch Reformed Church when it was built in Ficksburg. I was often shown his 'town house' in Ficksburg, in which he used to put up when he needed to go to town on business (Lawyers Tennent and Van der Merwe etc.)."
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