Generations of the Solomon
Family starting from Nathaniel Solomon
(1754-1816). (extracted from Internet).
Nathaniel Solomon
was born in 1754 in Kent, England. He
married Phoebe de Mitz or Metz circa 1774 (approx.). Nathaniel
died in 1816.
Phoebe De Metz was born in 1745 (approx.) in Leiden, Holland and
was part of a Dutch Jewish family some of whom settled down in London. Phoebe's
father was Simon be Menhame de Metz. Source = Jewish Genealogy, http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/provincialjewry/intro.htm
Phoebe married Nathaniel at the age of 15. She died at the age of
about 89, in comfortable Phoebe de Metz circumstances, on 19 February 1834.
Phoebe and Nathaniel Solomon had a
great number of children, some of whom are:
Edward Solomon (1774-1855),
Charles Solomon (1776 - ),
Saul Solomon (1776-1852),
Benjamin Edward Solomon (1777 - ),
Joseph Solomon (1789-1861),
Lewis Solomon/ Gideon (1789-1868).
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First Generation – the children of Nathaniel Solomon and Pheobe De Metz.
1. Edward Solomon, son of Nathaniel Solomon
and Phoebe De Metz, was born circa 1774 in Margate, Kent, England. He was a Law
Clerk who died on 10 May 1855 in Southwark, Surrey. Edward married Rachel Joseph. Rachel Joseph was born circa 1790 in
Aldgate, London. Rachel died on 18 June 1859 in Southwark.
Rachel Joseph and Edward Solomon had the
following children:
Nathaniel Solomon (1811-1894), Joseph Solomon
(1812- ), Saul Reginald Solomon (1816- ), Rosetta Solomon (1818- ), Simon Solomon
(1820- ), Benjamin Solomon (1821- ), Maria Solomon (1823- ), Isabella Solomon
(1824- ), Phoebe Solomon (1826- ), John Solomon (1828- ), Adelaide Solomon
(1830- ).
2. Charles Solomon, son of Nathaniel Solomon
and Phoebe De Metz, was born in 1776 (approx.) in Margate, Kent, England. Charles
married Elizabeth Gazel on 22 April 1798 in St. Helena. We have no further
information about Charles or his family at this stage.
3. Saul
Solomon, son of Nathaniel Solomon and Phoebe De Metz, was born on 25
December 1776 in Margate, Kent, England. At some point in his life, Saul travelled
to St. Helena, South Atlantic where, after some considerable time, he
established himself as a Merchant and Agent. The St Helena Solomon's and their
connections monopolised the prestigious albeit non-salaried post of Sheriff on
the island: Saul snr 1839-1842 and
1846-1850; his brother Lewis Gideon (who had taken on a new surname) 1842-1844
and 1852-1856; his son Nathaniel 1853-1855 and 1859-1860; his partner George
Moss 1870-1880; and his other son Saul jnr 1880-1888.
The
internet article below is from “In search of Saul Solomon of St Helena
1776-1852”.
Saul Solomon married Margaret Lee in circa
1800. After Margaret's death, Saul married Mary Chamberlain in 1815
in Saint Helena, South Atlantic. In 1815 Saul was living at Armstrong's Corner,
St. Helena. Mary Chamberlain died in
June 1823 in St. Helena and Saul then married for a third time, a Harriet Bryan on 24 June 1823 in St. Helena.
Saul
died of softening of the brain, paralysis, apoplexy, 9 months certified on 6
December 1852 in “Eastwood” in
Portishead, Bristol, England. His death certificate gave his age as 75 and
occupation "Consul", reflecting his appointments as "Consul for
Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg, the Brazils, Spain and Austria; Vice-Consul for
Belgium; Consular Agent for France; and Commercial Agent for Holland.
"Saul's
body was returned to St. Helena where he was buried at the north wall of St.
James' Church. The graveyard has since been cleared to make way for a
children's' playground but Saul's gravestone still survives and reads "Sacred to the Memory of S. Solomon,
Esq., who died in England." It is thought that his daughter Miriam Solomon secretly brought her father's body back to St Helena for burial.
Biographical
details for Saul Solomon: (Extract from article via Internet).
Saul's
wish to return to St. Helena was honoured in a rather bizarre sequel, revealed
by Mrs. Harriet Tytler sailing home from India in 1853 on the S.V. Camperdown. The
notes say remains of Mr. Saul Solomon arrived on 2nd March 1853 - on the
Perseverance. At the Cape we …… took in
fresh passengers, among them a Miss Solomon. …. [who] confided to some of us a
burden on her mind... Unknown to everybody she had brought her father's corpse
on the ship to have it buried on his beloved St. Helena. The burden was a
terrible one for fear that if the sailors found it out, they would chuck her
father overboard. Of course we were all under vow not to disclose the terrible
fact of a corpse on board, so that when we reached St. Helena and the contents
of that case were safely landed, her brother Nathaniel came on board and ....
invited us to his hotel as guests.
If the Camperdown's crew were unaware of the
contents of Miss Solomon's luggage, people at St. Helena were not. Both local
papers, recording the death of "our late Sheriff in London"[sic], had
announced that he was to be buried on the Island, the St. Helena Chronicle
reporting on 19 February "that his remains are at the Cape". Saul was
buried on 4 March 1853 in St. James Church, Jamestown, St. Helena Island. (FHL
Film No. 1259107, Gravestones and Memorials on St. Helena 1686-1975). The
tombstone for Saul Solomon reads as follows: “Sacred to the Memory of S. Solomon, Esq. who
died in England on the Sixth of December 1852 Aged 76 years”.
(In 2017 with further research by Steve Winterton from South Africa and myself, we believe that Saul's daughter Miriam Solomon was the one who secretly brought her father's body back to St Helena for burial. In 1870, Miriam Solomon was recorded on the Baptisimal record for Ada Annie Solomon (born 1865) to be her Parent, a 56 year old Spinster. Witnesses were Henry Solomon, Susan Solomon and Ann Knipe. Ada Annie Solomon married John Dunstan and died in South Africa in 1926).
(In 2017 with further research by Steve Winterton from South Africa and myself, we believe that Saul's daughter Miriam Solomon was the one who secretly brought her father's body back to St Helena for burial. In 1870, Miriam Solomon was recorded on the Baptisimal record for Ada Annie Solomon (born 1865) to be her Parent, a 56 year old Spinster. Witnesses were Henry Solomon, Susan Solomon and Ann Knipe. Ada Annie Solomon married John Dunstan and died in South Africa in 1926).
If one man dominates St. Helena's history it
must, according to 'the outside world', surely be Napoleon Bonaparte. But the
experience of daily life tells St.Helenians differently. Long before Napoleon
arrived, Saul Solomon had founded a business that, after 200 years, still
wields all-pervasive influence over their affairs. Yet the founder is as little
known as St. Helena's other benefactors. So what can a search, far from Island
sources, reveal about St. Helena's "Merchant-King"?
Solomon's origins seem mantled in mystery.
Where and when he was born, why and how he reached St. Helena, no-one yet
knows. Tradition has it that he was born in London about 1776 and in his 'teens
set out for India on a ship sailing via St. Helena. There he was left at
death's door and nursed back to health by an officer's family. Geoffrey
Kitching, pre-war government secretary, told W.E.G.Solomon that he was a
corporal in the St. Helena Corps in 1796. But the India Office Library has no
record of this.
During Saul's business career ships increased
from about 150 to over a thousand a year, St. Helena became a haven for
American whalers and a base for the Royal Navy's anti-slavery squadron, with a
Vice-Admiralty Court condemning slavers and unseaworthy vessels to the benefit
of Jamestown's ship chandlers.
Solomon had funds for speculation when it
mattered, which perhaps explains partners such as the shadowy Dickson and
Taylor, George Janisch of Teutonic Hall, and Robert Morrison, who had the fact
inscribed on his grave in 1865. (Daniel Hamilton's memorial in 1867 also
records service to the Company). But when calamity fell, like the collapse of
the St. Helena Whale Fishery Co., it was rivals, Thomas Baker, John Scott and
others, who lost, not Solomon, Gideon or
Moss. Ironically, forty years later his successors ignored, or were
ignorant of, this experience and made a disastrous investment in the Island whaler,
Elizabeth. If Saul speculated unwisely, it has yet to be discovered. At the
watershed of St. Helena history - the Island's transfer from the Company to the
Crown in 1836 - he was again among the winners, as old Company landed families
sold out at great loss, while merchants took their pickings and prospered.
Saul was no less skilful in climbing the
social ladder as the Napoleonic era receded. Despite being 'in trade', which
normally put one beyond the pale of polite society, he and his partners were
invited to sit with 'gentlemen' on various committees - Benefit, Benevolent,
Fire and those of other social welfare societies. Solomon, Gideon and Moss
virtually ran the Annuity Fund Committee. Indicators abound of rising social
status. In 1823 Saul's daughter Phoebe
married Capt. T.M.Hunter of the St. Helena Artillery; in 1838 his son Henry
(1806-47) became Colonial Surgeon and Health Officer, whose widow married
Governor Sir Patrick Ross; they were leading Freemasons, churchwardens and JPs.
For 50 years they almost monopolised the prestigious post of Sheriff ("no
salary") through Saul Solomon (1839-42, 1846-50), Lewis Gideon (changed
his name from Solomon) (1842-4, 1852-6), Nathaniel Solomon (1850-52, 1859-60),
George Moss (1870-80) and Saul Solomon, jun. (1880-88). In short, during the
founder's lifetime, Solomon & Co. became pillars of the Establishment and
of the Church, to be symbolised finally by Homfray Welby Solomon (1877-1960),
grandson of Bishop Welby, Churchwarden and Member of Council (from 1898),
commercial and social Island Supremo - "King Sol". His death on 30
October 1960 at 83 ended the Solomon dynasty at St. Helena, and in 1974 the
firm, dominating Island production and commerce, was 'nationalised' by the St.
Helena Government. Among his Victorian competitors only W.A.Thorpe & Sons
now survive as independent merchant-landowners. Saul was the undertaker at many
Anglican funerals, including in 1818 at that of Napoleon's Roman Catholic
valet, Cipriani."
We read
in “Who's who in Jewish history: after the period of the Old Testament” By Joan
Comay, Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok:
“On his way from England to India at the age
of twenty, Saul Solomon (1775 - 1850) became ill and was put ashore on the
Indian Ocean island of St. Helena. He became the leading merchant and ships
purveyor on the island and an intimate of Napoleon during his years of exile
there. His nephew, also Saul Solomon (died 1892), was educated in Cape Town and
became the government printer and a leading newspaper publisher. Although tiny
in stature, he was an influential member of the Cape legislator and its most
effective debater. He married a non-Jew and was baptized. Other members of the
family, all Christians, played a prominent part in South African life, and
included a chief justice and the South African high commissioner in London”.
Saul Solomon’s family:
1st Marriage: Margaret Lee was born on 1 October 1792 in
St. Helena, South Atlantic, and died in June 1815. She was buried on 14 June
1815.
Margaret Lee and Saul Solomon had 7 children: Benjamin Solomon,
Phoebe Elizabeth Solomon, Henry Robert Solomon, Miriam Solomon, John Benjamin
Solomon, Margaret Sarah Solomon, Lee Solomon.
Details of Phoebe, Miriam, Henry &
Lee Solomon below:
Phoebe Elizabeth Solomon b. 20 May 1804 St. Helena. Phoebe married
Captain Thomas Montgomery Hunter of the St. Helena Artillery on 15 October
1823. From the years 1824 to 1834 Phoebe and Thomas produced five children:
Ann, Montgomery, Highland, Orby and Grace Hunter.
Henry Solomon (1806-1847) was the Colonial Surgeon & Health Officer in St Helena. Lee Solomon b. 19 March 1915 St. Helena. Miriam Solomon born 8 July 1808, a Spinster, at the age of 57 is recorded on the 1870 Baptismal record of Ada Annie Solomon born 1865 as Parent. Henry was a witness to that document. It is thought that Miriam was the daughter that secretly brought back her father Saul Solomon to St Helena for burial in 1852.
2nd Marriage: Mary Chamberlain born 1790 in St Helena
and died in June 1823 in St. Helena and was buried on 24 June 1823 in St.
Helena. Mary Chamberlain and Saul Solomon
had 2 children:
Saul Solomon b. 12 Aug 1818, St. Helena.
Nathaniel Lee Solomon b. 5 June 1822 St. Helena.
3rd Marriage: Harriet Bryan was born in 1800 (approx.)
in St. Helena. Harriet Bryan and Saul Solomon
had 2 children:
Mary Chamberlain Solomon (1825-1828).
William Solomon (1827- ? ).
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4. Benjamin Edward Solomon,
son of Nathaniel Solomon and Phoebe De Metz, was born circa 1777 in Margate,
Kent, England. Benjamin was a Merchant in St. Helena, South Atlantic, and
married Johanna Petronella du Plessis on 11 October 1807 in Cape
Town, South Africa. Johanna Petronella du Plessis was born on 8 March 1789 in
Paarl, Cape Of Good Hope, South Africa.
Johanna du Plessis and Benjamin Edward Solomon had the following
children:
Charles Benjamin Solomon (1808-1879), Jonathan Daniel Solomon (1810- ),
Johannes Frederick Joseph Solomon (1812- ), Johanna Catharina Solomon (1815- ),
Edward Adrian Pieter Solomon (1825-1908), Benjamin George Johan Solomon (1828-
), Phoebe Elizabeth Solomon (1830-1916).
5. Joseph Solomon, son of
Nathaniel Solomon and Phoebe De Metz, was born in 1789 in Margate, Kent,
England. Joseph was an Innkeeper in St. Helena, South Atlantic & Foreign
Merchant who married Hannah Moss on 7
July 1814 in St. Helena. (Source = National Archives of South Africa - Cape
Town Archives MOOC, Vol 7/1/254, Ref 132, Year 1858)
Joseph's family went to Cape Town about 1834, leading to the rise
of their son, Saul (1817-92) - the famous "member for Cape Town" and
founder of The Cape Argus - whose memorial is in St. James' Church. Joseph died
in 1861 possibly in Cape Town.
Joseph's Will dated 23 August 1858 shows the sole beneficiary to be
his wife Hannah Solomon or should she predecease, their daughter Isabella
Solomon. Sole executor was his son Saul Solomon.
Hannah Moss was born circa 1793 and died in 1858 in Cape Town, South
Africa. She was buried English Church Graveyard, Somerset Rd, Cape Town.
This graveyard no longer exists but many of the memorial stones were moved to
Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town.
Hannah Moss and Joseph Solomon had 9 children:
Nathaniel Solomon (1815-1815) Baptised 3 June 1815 and buried 4 June
1815, Henry Solomon (1816-1900), Saul Solomon (1817-1892), Richard Prince
Solomon (1818-1854), Benjamin Solomon
(1819- ?), Edward Solomon (1820-1886), Isabella Solomon (1826-1897), Margaret
Solomon (1828 – 1905), Rosa Solomon (born & died in St Helena).
6. Lewis Solomon & later Gideon,
son of Nathaniel Solomon and Phoebe De Metz, was born in 1789 in Canterbury,
Kent. He was a Merchant, Jeweller & Notary Public in St. Helena. Lewis married Julia Magnus on 29 September 1818 in St. Helena. He died on 10 February
1868 in Marylebone, London, England. Lewis left a will dated 1 April 1863 and
added a Codicil dated 13 September 1864. The Will was proved at London on 7
March 1868 in which the Executors named were his sons Henry Hamer and James
Magnus Gideon, his wife's brother Samuel Magnus, his sons in law John William
Bovell and Robert Alexander Loudon.
Julia Magnus was born in 1796 (approx.). She died on 25 November
1847 in London, England and buried Brady Street, Cemetery, London. She and
Lewis Solomon & later Gideon had 11
children all with surname of Gideon.
Note: Conjecture: Why did Lewis change his surname to Gideon -
in St. Helena the Solomon's set up the firm of "Solomon, Moss, Gideon & Co." during the early
history of the Island. Saul Solomon started the first "Press" on the
Island and subsequent other businesses. It is probable that Lewis worked in the
family business either managing or running the business under the name of
"Gideon". At their birth, all his children were given the surname of
Gideon rather than Solomon.
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Second Generation – the
children of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph.
1. Nathaniel Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was
born in 1811 in Sheerness, Kent. Nathaniel married Elizabeth West in 15 April
1838 in Lambeth, London (As per London, England, Marriages and Banns,
1754-1921). Nathaniel became a Tobacconist who died in April to June quarter of
1894 in Lambeth (as per Ancestry.com.). Elizabeth West was born in 1818 in Farnham, Surrey and died in 1869
in London, England. Elizabeth West and
Nathaniel Solomon had nine children.
2. Joseph Solomon, son of
Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was born in 1812.
3. Saul Reginald Solomon,
son of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was born on 21 January 1816 in
Sheerness, Kent, and became a Solicitor. On 5 September 1855 he married Elizabeth Levy in London. Saul
died on 31 March 1898 in Bayswater, Kensington, Middlesex. Elizabeth Levy, was
born 1830 in St. Mary's Newington, Surrey and died on 22 April 1906 in
Maidavale, London. Elizabeth Levy and
Saul Solomon went on to have 12 children
born between 1857 and 1876, - Edward, Maria, Rachel, Joseph, Isabel, Alfred,
Montague, Frederick, Frank Percy, Herbert Lewis, George Goodman and Reginald
Saul Solomon. (See the
Elliott-Saurio Family Tree in Ancestry.com)
4. Rosetta Solomon, daughter of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph,
was born in 1818.
5. Simon Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was born
in 1820.
6. Benjamin Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was
born in 1821.
7. Maria Solomon, daughter of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was
born in 1823.
8. Isabella Solomon, daughter of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph,
was born in 1824.
9. Phoebe Solomon, daughter of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph,
was born in 1826.
10.John Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was born
in 1828.
11.Adelaide Solomon, daughter of Edward
Solomon and Rachel Joseph, was born in 1830.
Second Generation – the
children of Saul Solomon and Margaret Lee.
1. Henry Solomon, son of Saul Solomon and Margaret Lee, was born in
1806. He was a Colonial Surgeon and Health Officer, St. Helena, South Atlantic.
He died in 1847.
2. Phoebe Solomon, daughter of Saul Solomon
and Mary Chamberlain, was born circa 1802. She married T.M.Hunter in 1823 in
St. Helena, South Atlantic. T.M.Hunter was a Captain of St. Helena Artillery.
Second Generation – the
children of Saul Solomon and Mary Chamberlain.
1. Saul Solomon, son of Saul Solomon and Mary Chamberlain, was born
12 August 1818 in St Helena.
2. Nathaniel Lee Solomon, son of Saul Solomon and Mary Chamberlain,
was born 5 June 1822 in St Helena.
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Second Generation – the
children of Saul Solomon and Harriet Bryan.
1. Mary Chamberlain
Solomon, daughter of
Saul Solomon and Harriet Bryan, was born on 8 May 1825 in St. Helena.
She was christened on 15 June 1825 in St. Helena. Aged 3, Mary died on 13
September 1828 in St. Helena and was buried on 14 September 1828 in St. James
Church, Jamestown, St. Helena, South Atlantic.
2. William Solomon, son of Saul Solomon and Harriet Bryan, was born
on 6 December 1827 in St. Helena.
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Second Generation – the
children of Benjamin Edward Solomon & Johanna Petronella du Plessis.
1. Charles Benjamin Solomon,
son of Benjamin Edward Solomon and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on
11 February 1808 at Paarl, Cape Town, South Africa and christened on 28
February. He married Elizabeth Jacoba Luyt
on 9 October 1829 in Cape Town. Elizabeth Jacoba Luyt was born in 1812 and
christened in Cape Town on 8 February 1812. She died on 19 February 1842 at
Cape Town.
Following her death, Charles married Anna Johanna Catharine Wannenburg
in 1842 in South Africa. Anna Johanna
Catharine Wannenburg was born on 10 July 1810 in Cape Town and died on 14
January 1879 in Cape Town. Charles Solomon died on 14 July
1879 in Cape Town, South Africa and was buried Somerset Rd. Cemetery, Cape Town.
2. Jonathan Daniel Solomon, son of Benjamin Edward Solomon and
Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born in 1810 in Cape Town.
3. Johannes Frederick Joseph Solomon, son of Benjamin Edward Solomon
and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on 22 April 1812 in Cape Town.
4. Johanna Catharina Solomon, daughter of Benjamin Edward Solomon
and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on 27 November 1815 in Cape Town.
5. Edward Adrian Pieter Solomon,
son of Benjamin Edward Solomon and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on
17 May 1825 in possibly Cape Town, South Africa. Edward died in 1908.
6. Benjamin George Johan Solomon, son of Benjamin Edward Solomon
and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on 2 March 1828 in Cape Town.
7. Phoebe Elizabeth Solomon, daughter of Benjamin Edward Solomon
and Johanna Petronella du Plessis, was born on 6 November 1830 in Cape Town. Phoebe
married Heinrich Gersbach on 23 June
1851. She died in 1916 in Cape Town, South Africa and was buried 5 April 1916
at Woltemade Cemetery, Maitland, Cape Town.
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Second Generation – the
children of Joseph Solomon and Hannah Moss.
1. Nathaniel Solomon, son of Joseph Solomon and Hannah Moss, was
born in 1815 in Saint Helena, South Atlantic. He was baptised on the 3 June
1815 and died shortly afterwards. Nathaniel was buried on the 4 June 1815 in St
Helena, South Atlantic.
2. Henry Solomon, son of Joseph Solomon and Hannah Moss, was born
in 1816 in Saint Helena. He was a Printer/Stationer & Part Owner of Cape
Argus. Henry married Julia Sophia Middleton
in 1840 probably in Cape Town. Henry died in 1900 in Cape Town.
In 1844 there came to live at the
foot of Queens Road a man who might well deserve to be known as “the Father of Green and Sea Point”.
His name was Henry Solomon, and for 56 years he lived at Sea Point Cottage,
just above the beach, where flats called Albenor now stand. In that same house,
where all his eleven children were born, he died in 1900 after giving nearly
sixty years of devoted and entirely disinterested service to his community.
Henry Solomon was born on the island of St Helena in 1816, the year after
Waterloo.
He would often tell his children how, as a small boy, he was lifted up
by his mother to look on the face of the dead Napoleon as the Emperor lay in
state at Longwood. With one of his brothers, Saul, Henry Solomon was sent
to England for his early education. Both boys developed rheumatic fever, an
illness that left them crippled and - more especially, Saul - dwarfed in
stature, but in other respects it affected them little. In 1831 the Solomon
parents, with their children, left St Helena and came to settle in Cape Town,
where young Henry eventually became an accountant. In 1840 he married Miss
Julia Middleton, of Rondebosch, and four years later they came to live at Sea
Point Cottage, one of the houses built shortly after the break-up of
Alexander's estate in 1818.
Henry Solomon with his brother Saul started printing the “Cape Argus”
in 1858.
Henry appears in Voters list of
Western Cape for 1878 giving his residence as 49 & 50 St. George's Street. Also
owned Sea Point Cottage, Sea Point. Also appears in Voters list of Western Cape
for 1882 giving his residence as 42 St. George's Street, Cape Town.
Julia Sophia Middleton, daughter of Richard Middleton and Elise
[Eliza] Mathilde Viner was born in 28 January 1821 in Marylebone, London, and
was christened in St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa. Julia died
on 18 February 1885 at Sea Point in Cape Town.
Julia Middleton and Henry Solomon had the following children:
Alfred Viner Solomon (circa 1854-1910), Mary Solomon (b.20 July 1848 Sea Point, Cape Town - d. 6 Jan 1935
at Fraserburg, Northern Cape, S.Africa) married Dr. John Henry Brown, Ellen Hannah Solomon (28 Dec 1844 Cape Town d. 22 April 1924 Cape Town), Henry Solomon ( - ), Annie Solomon, Arthur Solomon, Charles Solomon, Eliza Solomon, Harry Solomon, Isabel Solomon, Jane Solomon, Julia
Solomon.
3. Saul Solomon, son of Joseph Solomon and Hannah Moss, was born on
25 May 1817 in Saint Helena. Saul was sent to England in 1822 to be educated
with his elder brother Henry, under the care of a Jewish schoolmaster. After he
ended is formal education in 1831 he was apprenticed to the bookseller and
printer George Greig and eventually became a Partner in the company with his
brother Henry. Not only was he a Publisher, but he became part owner of “Cape
Argus”.
In 1865 Saul was resident in “Clarensville”,
Sea Point, Cape Province.
Saul Solomon married Georgiana Margaret Thomson in 1873. At the
time Saul was age 56 and Georgiana was 29! Saul appeared in the census on 5
April 1891 at 59 Bromham Road, St. Paul, Bedford. On this census it shows: John S. Bloomfield,
age 32, Servant, b. Old Kent Rd. London, Isabel Fraser, age 41, Visitor, b.
Scotland, Bessie Mills, age 25, Servant, Daisy D Solomon, Dtr. age 9, b.
Colonsay, Cambridgeshire, England, Georgina M. Solomon, Wife age 46, b.
Scotland, Saul Solomon, Head, age 73, St. Helena, Atlantic Islands, Saul
Solomon, Son, age 15, b. Colonsay, Cambridgeshire, England, William E.G. Solomon, Son, age 11, b.
Colonsay, Cambridgeshire, England.
Saul Solomon died of Chronic tubular nephritis, on 16 October 1892
in Windsor, Kilcreggan, Dumbarton, Scotland aged 75. The address at the time
was: Windsor, Kilcreggan, Dumbarton.
Death cert obtained from
Scotland's People shows that death was registered by his wife and their usual
residence was given as “Clarensville”, Sea Point, nr. Cape Town, Cape Colony.
SNIPPET FROM BIOGRAPHY OF SAUL SOLOMON (1817-1892):
"Saul Solomon (b. St. Helena May 25, 1817; d. Oct. 16, 1892), the
leader of the Liberal party, has been called the "Cape Disraeli."
He several times declined the premiership and was invited into the first
responsible ministry, formed by Sir John Molteno. Like Disraeli, too, he early
left the ranks of Judaism, but always remained a lover of his people.
He went to Cape Town when a lad, where, with his brother Henry, he
started a printing-office and, later, founded and edited the "Cape
Argus."
Descendants of these two brothers, Justice William Solomon, Sir. Richard
Solomon (attorney-general of the Transvaal), and Sir. E. P. Solomon, are to-day
among the most eminent men in South Africa. The few other St. Helena Jews
who settled there during Napoleon's banishment, the Gideon, the Moss, and the
Isaacs families, were all related to the Solomon's, and, like the members of
the last-named family, most of them drifted from Judaism.
Saul Solomon, with his brother Henry started printing the “Cape Argus”
in 1858.
It may be said with little fear
of contradiction that after John Fairbairn left to take up residence in the
suburbs the most noteworthy person to make his home at Sea Point was Saul
Solomon, who came to live at a house above the beach, well known as “Clarensville”,
not far from where his brother Henry was living at Sea Point Cottage.
How Saul Solomon reached Cape
Town from St Helena in 1831 has already been told; how, too, an early illness
had left him a dwarf in stature. At Cape Town he became a printer and engraver.
He started his own firm, and in course of time secured most of the Government
printing contracts. He became the owner of “The Cape Argus” newspaper. When in
1854 Cape Colony was granted representative government, Saul Solomon was elected Member for Cape Town in the first Cape Parliament. 'For many years he
exercised an authority and influence in the House such as later fell to Jan
Hofmeyr . . . and, as in later years no eminent traveller considered his visit
to the Cape complete until he had been to Groote Schuur or to Camp Street
[where Hofmeyr lived], so travellers would repair to “Clarensville” to hold
converse with the great little man.' The
boy from St Helena had become the leading figure in Cape politics.
Saul Solomon bought “Clarensville”
in 1865 from Mr James King, of Phillips and King, one of the leading firms in
Cape Town at that time. It is not known how, or when, “Clarensville” acquired its name. The house stood in grounds that extended from what is now
Clarens Road almost as far as Cassel Road. From Regent Road the estate
stretched down to greensward at the water's edge, glimpsed through rows of tall
pine trees; there were 60 of them in the grounds of “Clarensville”. No Beach
Road yet disturbed the tranquillity of this corner of Sea Point.
Mrs Solomon had originally come to South Africa as principal of the
Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town. Years later, after her husband had died and
she was living in London, she became
prominently associated with the
Women's Suffrage Movement in Great Britain. Here, at “Clarensville”, she
was hostess at Saul Solomon's famous dinners, to which were invited everyone
who mattered in the world of politics. Here, too, she was hostess in 1879, when
Cetewayo, the defeated King of the Zulus, was permitted to leave his captivity
at the Castle to go to luncheon with the Solomon's at “Clarensville”. Cetewayo
was only one of numerous Africans to be received there, for Saul Solomon was a
fearless 'negrophilist' - to use the contemporary term.
All this sounds as though life at
“Clarensville” was a very serious affair, but this was not the case. There were
always young people about the place, not only Saul Solomon's own children but
nephews and nieces to whom he gave a home at Sea Point. Among those taken in at
“Clarensville” was Dick Solomon, who as a youngster had gone away to sea,
serving at one time in the little mail ship Briton, of the Union Line. From her
storm-swept decks, during that awful gale of 1865, he watched the other mail
ship, Athens, steaming out of Table Bay to meet her doom at Mouille Point.
Colonel R. Stuart Solomon, as he eventually became, was, in later life, closely
associated with the well-known Cape Town person R. M. Ross, in Strand Street. He
then lived at “Camelon House”, a spacious place behind “Clarensville”, where
today, in Regent Road, there stand a nondescript Jewish Assembly Hall and a
cheap conglomeration of shops. From time to time there were also three other
nephews staying at “Clarensville”, sons of the Revd Edward Solomon. All three in later life attained to high
office in the service of their country and were knighted: Sir Richard, Sir
Edward and Sir William."
Georgiana Margaret Thomson was
born on 18 August 1844 in Haymount, Makerstoun, Roxburgh, Scotland.
Georgiana was the daughter of George Thomson (a farmer of 915 acres near
Haymount, Roxburghshire) and Margaret.
Georgiana died on 24 June 1933 at Eastbourne, Sussex, England.
Probate of Wills and Administrations shows the following: Solomon, Georgiana Margaret of Clarensville, 7 Helenslea Avenue, Golders
Green, Middlesex, widow died 24 June 1933 at Esperance, Hartington Road,
Eastbourne. Probate London 19 December to Daisy Dorothea Solomon, spinster. Effects
- £3511 3s. 4d. (today this would be worth 172,792 64pence).
Short biography regarding Georgiana Solomon (nee Thomson):
“Mrs Solomon originally went to South Africa as Principal of the
Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town. Years later, after her husband had died and
she was living in London, she became prominently associated with the Women's
Suffrage Movement in Great Britain. Here, at “Clarensville”, she was hostess at
Saul Solomon's famous dinners, to which were invited everyone who mattered in
the world of politics. Here, too, she was hostess in 1879, when Cetewayo, the
defeated King of the Zulus, was permitted to leave his captivity at the Castle
to go to luncheon with the Solomon's at Clarensville. Cetewayo was only one of
numerous Africans to be received there, for Saul Solomon was a fearless
'negrophilist' - to use the contemporary term.
Georgiana and her daughter Daisy spent time at Holloway Prison in
London at some point between 1905 and 1914 for their active and prominent roll
in the Suffragette movement”.
Olive Schreiner wrote
frequently to Georgiana Solomon: (http://www.oliveschreiner.org)
"Georgiana Solomon was active
in the pro-Boer movement in Britain during the South African War and after
the war she travelled to South Africa where she spent time touring the ‘ruined
areas’ and involving herself in rehabilitation and reconstruction work.
Together with Annie Botha, wife of the Boer general and politician Louis Botha,
she helped establish the SAVF in 1904. After her subsequent return to London
she maintained her interest in South African affairs and was a member of the
Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society. She was an enthusiastic speaker
and letter-writer and was involved in hosting members of various ‘native’ delegations
which visited London between 1913 and 1919, and she acted as an important
networker, particularly in relation to Solomon Plaatje. Most of Schreiner’s
extant letters to Georgiana Solomon take the form of postcards written while
she was living in London between 1914 and 1920, and are centered on activities
and arrangements concerning their common interest in the ‘native question’ and
South African politics. Schreiner wrote to Solomon to obtain information about
Solomon Plaatje’s whereabouts, and also arranged for him to meet with John
Hodgson. She also clearly attended political meetings at Georgiana Solomon’s
home, commenting in a 1919 letter for example, “Your gathering was most
interesting. How well Plaatje and all the delegates spoke!” Despite their shared
interest in race matters, Schreiner and Mrs Solomon clearly disagreed with one
another regarding the First World War, and Schreiner was forced to remind Mrs
Solomon that she was a pacifist, adding in a letter of 1914, “So we’d better
not talk about the war, dear Mrs Solomon. I think when two people have so many
things in common as you and I have, we need never refer to the things about
which we don’t agree. Don't you think so? We can’t all think alike can we?” It
is possible to discern from her letters to others that even on matters relating
to South African politics Schreiner did not always agree with Mrs Solomon’s
views or tactics; in a 1917 letter to Will Schreiner she referred to Mrs
Solomon and John Hodgson as a “distressing pair”.
Georgiana Margaret Thomson and Saul Solomon had the following children:
Saul Solomon (1875-1965) Barrister at Law/Judge, William Ewart Gladstone Solomon
(1880-1965) Portrait /Landscape Artist & Biographer, Daisy Dorothea Solomon (1882- ).
4. Edward Solomon, son of Joseph Solomon and Hannah Moss, was born
in 1820 and died in 1886. He lived at Bedford, Cape Province, South Africa. Edward Solomon married Jessie Matthews.
Biographical Extract from http://1820gw.wikispaces.com
Born on St Helena, Edward, a younger brother of Saul and Henry, studied
for the church and was a follower of the outspoken Dr John Philip of the
London Missionary Society. Edward was
ordained at the age of nineteen. In the same year he married Jessie Mathews of
Aberdeen, Scotland. The couple had a large family of nine children, most of
them born under varied and difficult conditions in the many missionary
locations in the Cape to which Edward was sent. He was rotund in figure and had
a round full bearded face. A great reader, a good talker and an excellent
correspondent. He was always witty and humorous.
Edward eventually retired to
Bedford in the Eastern Province but met his death in mysterious circumstances
at “Clarensville”. He had been looking after his brother Saul’s house and had
taken a walk on the beach, where he was later found drowned and lying in the
rocks at Sea Point. The only explanation was that he had slipped on the rocks
and struck his head before falling into the water.
Jessie Matthews and Edward Solomon had the following children:
Sir Edward Solomon (1845-1914), Sir Richard Stuart Solomon (1850-1913), Sir William Henry Solomon
(1852 -1930), Emilie Jane Solomon (
- ).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Generation – the
children of Henry Solomon & Julia Sophia Middleton.
1. Ellen Hannah Solomon, daughter of Henry Solomon and Julia Sophia
Middleton, was born 28 December 1844 in Cape Town and died there on 22 April
1924. She married James Cameron, a Minister of Religion.
2. Mary Solomon, daughter of Henry Solomon and Julia Sophia
Middleton, was born in 1847 in Cape Town and died there in 1935. Mary married
Dr. John Henry Brown.
Dr. John Henry Brown, son of Rev.
John Croumbie Brown (1808-1895), was born in 1841 in Fraserburg, Northern Cape,
South Africa. He was a Doctor of
Medicine. Graduated 23 Apr 1863. John died in 1929 and was buried in 1929 in
Fraserburg. Fraserburg is situated on a
plateau to the north of the Nuweveld Mountains at a height of 1 260 m above sea
level. The nearest Railway station is Leeu Gamka on the N1 between Cape Town
and Beaufort West.
John Brown and Mary Solomon had the following children:
1. Margaret Brown.
2. Rachel [Ray] Brown.
3. Julia Brown (?-1938).
3. Alfred Viner Solomon, son of Henry Solomon and Julia Sophia Middleton,
was born circa 1854 probably in Cape Town. He was a Clerk in 1878 in his
father's business then an Accountant. Between 1868 and 1871 he attended the
South African College, Cape Town.
South African College - From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia The South African College was an educational
institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of
Cape Town (UCT) and the South African College Schools (SACS).
See the "History of South African
College" Vol 2 by Prof. W. Ritchie.
"History of the South African
College":
The process that would lead to
the formation of the South African College was started in 1791, when the Dutch Commissioner-General,
Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist, asked for money to be set aside to improve the
schools in the Cape. When the British took over the control of the Cape Colony,
under the first governor, Lord Charles Henry Somerset, permission was given for
the money set aside by de Mist to be used to establish the South African College. The founding committee met in the
Groote Kerk to discuss funding and accommodation for the school and on October 1,1829, the inauguration of the
South African College was held and the classes began. The original location of
the school was in the Weeshuis on Long Street and moved to what is now known as
the Egyptian Building (on the Hiddingh Campus of UCT) in the Gardens district
of Cape Town in 1841. It was decided in 1874 that the
younger students should be separated from their older counterparts. The South
African College was separated into the College, which became the University of
Cape Town; and the College Schools.
Alfred died on 8 January 1910 in Cape Town, South Africa. He married
Minnie Pilkington.
Minnie Pilkington and Alfred Viner Solomon had the following children:
1. Alec Viner Pilkington Solomon (1879-1942).
2. Alfred Woodford Solomon, born 30 January 1880.
3. Nellie Maud Solomon, born 26 July 1881.
4. Minnie Winifred Solomon, born 8 January 1884 – 1938.
5. Frank Middleton Solomon, born 1890.
4. Henry Solomon, son of Henry Solomon and Julia Sophia Middleton,
was a Clerk in his father's business. Henry appeared in the 1878 Voters list
for Western Cape giving his residence as 49 and 50 St. George's St., Cape Town
and is listed as a salaried Clerk.
5. Annie Solomon.
6. Arthur Solomon.
7. Charles Solomon.
8. Eliza Solomon.
9. Harry Solomon.
10.Isabel Solomon.
11.Jane Solomon.
12.Julia Solomon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Generation – the
children of Saul Solomon & Georgiana Margaret Thomson.
1. Saul Solomon, son of Saul Solomon and Georgiana Margaret Thomson,
was born in 1875 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Biographical Extract taken from https://1820gw.wikispaces.com
“Admitted to the Bar he practiced in Cape Town and Johannesburg for six
years before changing course and becoming a minister of the Church of England
in a slum parish of London. Unsettled,
distressed and dissatisfied with this experience and with Anglicanism he left
the church, converted to the Roman Catholic church, and returned to his
practice at the Bar in Johannesburg in 1916. He was a brilliant and
thorough advocate specialising in statute and corporate law and his elevation
to the Transvaal Bench in 1928 was universally approved of. However, Saul did
not make the mark on the Bench that he had done at the Bar. Perhaps he missed
the excitement of a good fight, but he found most of his duties as a judge
rather too mundane. There were several stories told about him. One referred to
his habit of nodding his head in following an argument, a mannerism which was mistaken
by some to be indicating assent. In one case Counsel for a Jewish businessman
accused of fraud was extolling the virtuous and blameless life of his client
and Solomon had been nodding throughout. Two friends of the accused were
greatly impressed by the Judge’s acceptance of the qualities of their friend
and by his sympathetic attitude. “Vot a Judge!” said one to the other. In due
course Solomon gave his judgement. He gave the accused a verbal lambasting,
describing him as a rogue and a thief and one who deserved to be severely
punished. Finally he sentenced him to ten years imprisonment. “Vot a poker
player!” said the other friend. In another case Saul Solomon sentenced a farmer
from the Bethal area named Nafte to death for the beating and murder of a
native employee. The sentence caused a furore as at that time the sentence of
death upon a white man for killing a black was unusual. Such was the outcry
that administrative action was taken to commute the death sentence to a
sentence of life imprisonment. Fair minded people, then and now, regarded
Solomon’s sentence as appropriate in the circumstances and he strongly resented
the overturning action taken. In
retirement Saul lived in his house at St James in Cape Town lovingly cared for
by his sister Daisy”.
2. William Ewart Gladstone Solomon, (always referred to as
Gladstone) son of Saul Solomon and Georgiana Margaret Thomson, was born in 1880
in Cape Town, S. Africa and died in 1965. He became a famous visual artist and
writer in South Africa. Gladstone married Gladys
Cowper-Smith in the January to March quarter of 1906 in Tonbridge, Kent,
England, but the couple separated after a few years of marriage.
Biographical Extract taken from http://1820gw.Wikispaces.com
“Gladstone went from the Bedford
Grammar School to the Royal Academy Schools in London. During his long career his paintings, which were in the classical
tradition, were hung in the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon and in many
distinguished exhibitions in London. In WWI Gladstone was enlisted with the
8th Welsh Regiment. As a Captain he saw action at Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia and
in India. After the war he went to India and was Director of the Government
School of Art in Bombay for 15 years, restructuring the curriculum there and
studying Indian art. In 1937 he returned to England and lectured widely on
Indian Art. In 1939 he moved back to South Africa and lived in Johannesburg.
Gladstone’s classical style portraits and his many paintings of nudes were noted
for their superb draughtsmanship and exquisite tonal qualities. Not
surprisingly, his classical style did not find great favour among the art
critics in South Africa who favoured the more modern impressionistic styles of
painting. Not for him the wild locks and bohemian looks of the young artist,
Gladstone always wore a bow-tie and suit under his painter’s smock. In any
event , since he did most of his painting overseas, he was not regarded as a
true South African painter. In advancing age his eyesight deteriorated to the
detriment of his later paintings.
The 1905 Electoral Rolls for
Earls Court, Kensington in London shows that Gladstone was registered as
sharing studios in a house at 5 Pembroke Walk, Earls Court. In 1939 he and
Daisy are registered as living at 7 Helenslea Avenue, Hendon, London. The 1911
census shows Gladstone, age 31, married, an artist living as a Boarder within
the Wolff Household at 44 Belsize Park Gardens, Hampstead, London N.W. It would
appear that he and Gladys had separated by this time (five years after they
married).
He had earlier married a Gwladys
Cowper-Smith in England and had a son, Scott, but it was not a successful
marriage and ended early. In his retirement years Gladstone owned a house in
Muizenberg near his brother Saul and sister Daisy so could enjoy family life
with them at Saul’s St James house until his death at the age of 85.
The 1911 census shows Gwladys had
separated from her husband and was working as an Organizing Secretary for the
National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. She was aged 34 (i.e. born 1877)
and born in Swansea, Glamorgan. She is listed as "Head" of the house
living with her Culverwell cousins”.
Children of Gladstone Solomon and Gwladys Cowper:
1. Scott Gladstone Solomon born in Hampstead on 13 December 1907.
The 1911 census shows that Scott, age 3, was living at Consuelo, 15 Wordsworth
Walk, Hendon, London N.West.
On the 10th May 1938, Scott changed his name by deed pole to
Scott Gladstone Cowper. He died in Birkenhead, Cheshire in the Oct to Dec
quarter of 1999 aged 92. Scott became a
Medical Practitioner and married
Marjorie Grace Boxley in 1947 at Hinckley, Leicestershire. Marjorie was
born in 1914. Scott and Marjorie had a daughter Ann Christine Cowper who was
born in 1948.
3. Daisy Dorothea Solomon, daughter of Saul Solomon and Georgiana
Margaret Thompson, was born in 1882 in Cape Town, South Africa. Daisy spent time in Holloway for the
suffragette cause, continuing her mother’s tradition of political and social
activism. Daisy never married and died in Cape Town in 1976.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third Generation – the children
of Edward Solomon and Jessie Matthews.
1. Sir Edward Philip Solomon was the son of Edward Solomon and
Jessie Matthews was born on 10 August 1845 Philippolis, Free State, South
Africa and died in 1914 at Johannesburg, South Africa. The 1861 census for
Christchurch in Kent shows Edward age 15, a boarder at the Missionary School
there.
Biographical Extract from http://1820gw.wikispaces.com
“Sir Edward Philip Solomon (1845- 1914) was a successful attorney in the early Witwatersrand.
Identifying with the Uitlanders. He was
a member of the Reform Committee sponsoring the Jameson Raid of 1895.
As a consequence of this debacle he was fined and imprisoned by
Kruger’s government for a period in Pretoria. Some years later, after the
Boer War, Edward joined Smuts and Botha in the Transvaal Het Volk party. After
the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 Edward was elected to the
Senate. He suffered ill health in his last years and died in 1914”.
Military Career:
At the age of 32, from 1877 to
1879 Edward served with the Beaufort Rangers Cavalry Volunteers, South Africa
as a 1st Lieutenant.
Sir Edward Solomon died on 20 November 1914
at Johannesburg - his address at the time was given as Rossleigh Park Town,
Johannesburg.
Probate of Wills in London shows the following:
Solomon, Sir Edward Philip of Rossleigh Park Town, Johannesburg,
Transvaal, South Africa, knight, died 20 November 1914. Administration (with
Will limited) London 1 April to Bertram Lowndes, assistant Bank Manager
Attorney of Hug Ross Solomon. Effects £43. 15 shillings in London.
2. Sir Richard Stuart Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Jessie Matthews,
was a Barrister and Politician. He was born on 18 October
1850 in Cape Town and died on 10 November 1913 at 42 Hyde Park Square, London,
England. Richard was educated at South African College & Peterhouse
Cambridge before being called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1879. He was knighted K.C.M.G. in 1901 at the
age of 50 and became the High Commissioner for South Africa.
Biographical Extract from http://1820gw.wikispaces.com
“He was Attorney General for the Cape in 1898, and later legal advisor
to Lord Kitchener during the Boer War. One wonders what advice Solomon gave
Kitchener on the legality (not to say the morality) of the harsh and mismanaged
concentration camp policy that Kitchener imposed on Boer families after 1900.
No-one knows how many Boer women, children and old men died in these neglected
and unsanitary camps (Thomas Packenham in his history says that estimates vary
from 18,000 to 28,000) but the number far exceeded the 7,000 odd Boer men
killed in the field in the entire war. We must assume Solomon went along with
the concentration camp policy. Afrikaner bitterness against the British over
this matter lasted for generations.
Sir Richard Solomon sat alongside General Kitchener and Sir Alfred
Milner at the Vereeniging peace negotiations with the Boer leaders which ended
the war in 1902. He was one of a committee of four (the others being
Milner, Hertzog and Smuts) appointed to draft the detailed terms of the peace
settlement. The peace terms the British offered the defeated Boers were
surprisingly generous, although not to the black Africans who continued to be
excluded from the franchise.
After the war Richard Solomon became the Attorney General
of the now British Transvaal. He was credited by Alfred Milner with
reorganising the Statute Law of the Transvaal and bringing it into line with
British conventions elsewhere. In the years that followed he, like his brother,
joined the Transvaal Het Volk party of the former Boer generals Jan Smuts and
Louis Botha and aspired to lead the party and to be Premier of the Transvaal.
His political skills and instincts, however, were not held in high regard by
either Smuts or Botha. In the event he lost his seat to Sir Percy Fitzpatrick
(author of Jock of the Bushveld) and Botha became Premier of the Transvaal
instead.
In retrospect, all agree that
Solomon, although a brilliant lawyer and administrator, was a poor politician,
not at all of the same calibre as Botha and could never have carried the
Transvaal with him in the creation of the Union in 1910 as Botha did. Sir Richard Solomon ended his career as the
Union of South Africa’s first High Commissioner in London, a position to which
his abilities were well suited”.
In 1881 (possibly in South
Africa) Sir Richard married Mary
Elizabeth Mary Walton, daughter of John Walton (a Wesleyan Minister) and
Emma.
The 1911 census shows: Living at 42 Hyde Park Square Sir Richard,
age 60, b. Cape Town, High Commissioner for South Africa, Elizabeth (his wife)
age 48 b. Nottingham, England, their grandson Richard Desire Girouard age 5 b.
Westminster, 6 Servants and a Nurse.
Richard Stuart Solomon died on 10 November 1913 in London. Wills
& Probate records show: Solomon, Sir
Richard of Grahamstown, Cape Colony and of 42 Hyde Park Square, Middlesex
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., K.C.V.O. died 10 November at 42 Hyde Park Square, London.
Probate 24 January to Elizabeth Mary Solomon widow. Effects £6093 15s. 6d. (value today is
£547,606 and 84 pence).
Lady Elizabeth (Mary) Solomon died aged 78, on 12 January 1942 at
The Cottage Hospital, West Molesey Surrey. Wills & Probate in Ancestry.com shows:
Solomon Lady Elizabeth Mary of Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex, widow, died 12
January 1942 at the Cottage Hospital, West Molesey, Surrey. Probate Llandudno
30 April to Richard Desire Girouard, Captain H.M. Army and Philip Leycester
Hardman, Solicitor. Effect £5765 8s. 9d. (value today is 228,582 and 25 pence).
Sir Richard and Mary Solomon had one child:
Mary Gwendolin Solomon, born Pretoria. Mary was married twice -
first to Col. Sir Edward Percy Cranwill Girouard K.C.M.G., D.S.O on 10 Sepember
1903 in South Africa, and bore him a son Richard Desiré Girouard in 1905 at
Westminster, London. The couple divorced on grounds of Sir Edward's adultery.
Lady Mary Gwendolin (as she was now known) then married Major Robert William Oppenheim
on 13 April 1915 in Egypt. She gave birth to a child, but Mary died on 16 May
from birth complications.
Wills & Probate for Mary show: Oppenheim, Mary Gwendolin of 27
Lower Seymour Street, Middlesex (wife of Robert William Oppenheim) died 16 May
at Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire. Administration London 31 May to the said
Robert William Oppenheim Captain H.M. Army. Effects £351 19s. 6d. (valued today
at £28,476 and 80 pence).
3. Sir William Henry Solomon, son of Edward Solomon and Jessie
MAatthews, was a Judge. He was born in 1852 Bedford, Cape Province and died in
June 1930 in Denbighshire, Wales.
Biographical Extract from http://1820gw.wikispaces.com
“At the age of 35 he became a Judge in the High Court of Griqualand
West. Like most of the Solomon's he was a small man, and he was
affectionately referred to by his colleagues as “Baby”, and in later life he
was called “the little Judge”. After
some ten years in Griqualand West he was transferred to the Supreme Court of
the Transvaal and in 1910 was appointed to the first Appeal Court of the Union
of South Africa. In 1928 he became Chief Justice of South Africa and was also
elected to the Privy Council in the UK to culminate an outstanding career.
William Solomon retired from the Bench in 1930 after a phenomenal forty-three
years as a judge. According to Allan Solomon, he is ranked with Rose-Innes,
Wessels and J.G.Kotze as one of South Africa’s greatest judges.
However, the question must be
asked why Solomon (and his fellow judges) did not rule against the introduction
of The Natives Land Act of 1913. This was the Union’s first major
segregationist piece of legislation and pre-dated formal apartheid by some
thirty five years and must have been controversial at the time. The Act divided
up South Africa on a racial, and not very fair basis, creating reserves for
blacks and prohibiting the sale of white territory to blacks and vice versa. It
was a hugely significant piece of legislation. It underpinned the racial divide
in the country for years and more or less inspired the fully fledged Apartheid
Group Areas Act of 1950. The allegation today is that the South African
judiciary was too compliant in accepting the sovereignty of parliamentary
legislation without fully testing the constitutionality and natural justice of
important laws such as this. The Supreme Court did in fact rule that the
Natives Land Act was invalid in the Cape Province, but only in the Cape
Province. But this was only because, unlike the other provinces, the Cape had a
property-based qualified franchise which pre-dated the Union and which the
Union of South Africa’s constitution had recognised. There was no problem in
the other provinces.
In Solomon’s defence one could
perhaps say that few of the other Commonwealth judiciaries of those times
around the world would have challenged their country’s parliamentary laws. It
was then generally accepted that parliaments made the laws and the courts
applied them. I suspect that the judiciaries in most Western countries today
would adopt a more interventionist stance, especially on social legislation of
so critical a nature”.
From Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900
Name: William Henry Solomon. Born: 1852.
Died: 13 June 1930. College: Peterhouse entered 1872.
More Information: Adm. pens. at
PETERHOUSE, Oct. 11, 1872. [4th] s. of the Rev. Edward, of Bedford, Cape Colony
(and Jessie, dau. of Peter Matthews, of Aberdeen). B. 1852. Schools, Bedford,
Cape Colony, and S. African College, Cape Town. Matric. Michs. 1872; Scholar,
1873; B.A. 1876; M.A. 1880. Hon. Fellow, 1915. Adm. at the Inner Temple, Apr.
19, 1873. Called to the Bar, Nov. 17, 1877. Practised before the High Court of
Griqualand West and the Supreme Court of Cape Colony. Assistant Legal Adviser
to the Government, 1883-7. Puisne Judge, High Court of Griqualand, 1887-1902;
Eastern districts Court of Cape Colony and of the Transvaal Colony, 1902-10.
Judge of Appellate division, Supreme Court of S. Africa, 1910-27. Chief Justice
of the Union of S. Africa, 1927-1929. Acting Governor of S. Africa, 1928.
Member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, 1928. Knighted, 1907;
K.C.M.G.,1913; K.C.G.I., 1914. Died June 13, 1930, at Ruthin, Denbighs. Brother
of the above. (Inns of Court; Foster, Men at the Bar; Walford, County Families;
Who was Who; The Times, June 16, 1930; Cambridge Review, Oct. 18, 1930; T. A.
Walker, 541.)
Sir William Henry Solomon was invested as Knight Commander, Order
of St. Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.) He graduated with a Master of Arts
(M.A.) He was invested as a Knight Commander, order of the Star of India
(K.C.S.I.) He held the office of Chief Justice of South Africa. He was invested
as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.).
William Solomon married Maud Elizabeth Christian on the 31 March 1891
at Port Elizabeth. Maud was the daughter of Henry Bailey Christian and Mary
Anne Smith.
William Solomon’s wife Maud (nee
Christian) died 9 September 1920 possibly in South Africa, and when he retired
he went, a very lonely man, to England. William and Maud died without having
any children (as per Peerage.com). William died at Ruthin Castle in
Wales on 13 June 1930.
Wills & Probate in London show the following: Solomon
K.C.M.G., the right honourable Sir William Henry of Mount Nelson Hotel,
Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa died 13 July 1930 at Ruthin Castle,
Denbighshire. Administration (with Will) (limited) London 5 December to Ralph
Gibson assistant Bank Manager Attorney of Emilie Jane Solomon, spinster. Effects £1227 8s. 4d. in England.
From “The Times”, Tuesday, 17 June 1930, Page 19, Issue 45541, Col
B Category: Deaths Funeral and Memorial Services Sir William Solomon:
The funeral of Sir William Solomon, late Chief Justice of the Union
of South Africa, took place at Brookwood Cemetery yesterday afternoon. The
service was conducted by Archbishop Carter, late Archbishop of Cape Town. Those
present included: Miss Emily Solomon, Lady Solomon, Mr. and Mrs. Webber, Mr.
and Lady Blanche Girouard, Miss Daisy Solomon, Mrs.Philip Christian, Mrs.
Grant, Mrs. Pat Grant, Miss Walton, Mr. and Mrs. Friedlander, Mr. Bernheim, Sir
Lionel and Lady Phillips, Sir Francis Newton, Mrs. Bailie Hamilton, Colonel and
Mrs. Fuge, and Mrs Carter. The Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice, Countess of
Athlone, sent a wreath, and others were received from the Government and people
of the Union of South Africa, the members of the Appeal Court of the Union of
South Africa, and the Mayor and Council of the City of Cape Town.
4. Emilie Jane Solomon was a Spinster in 1930 (as per Wills &
Probate of her brother William).
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Fourth Generation – the
children of Alfred Viner Solomon and Minnie Pilkington.
1. Alec Viner Pilkington Solomon, son of Alfred Viner Solomon and
Minnie Pilkington, was born on 27 January 1879 in Sea Point, Cape Province and
died in 1942 in Cape Town, South Africa. He was an Accountant and Auditor. He
married Blanche Louise Rosamund Buyskes
in 1908 in Cape Town.
Blanche Louise Rosamund Buyskes
was born circa 1887 in South Africa and died on 15 June 1973 in Cape Town,
South Africa aged 86.
Blanche Louise Rosamund Buyskes and Alec Viner Pilkington Solomon had
the following children:
1. Margaret Minnie Solomon (1908-2008). Margaret was born in
October 1908 in South Africa. She died in March 2008 in Cape Town.
2. Joan Solomon was born "abt 1910" in South Africa. She
married Dennis Watson. Joan and Dennis had two children.
3. Avis Solomon was born in South Africa. She married Neville ?Alan
Whiley. She died in Cape Town. Avis had two children.
4. Alec Woodford Solomon (1920?-1985). Alec was born in January
1920 (approx.) in South Africa. He was a Lieutenant, S.A. Navy (WW2) & Accountant/Finance
Administrator - SA Govt. in Cape Town. He was Church of England. Alec married Christine Maxwell Delaney on 8
January 1946 in All Saints Church, Plumstead, Cape Town, South Africa.
Christine (Chris) was born in
Rutherglen, Lanarkshire Scotland in 1922. She was the daughter of Cornelius Maxwell
Delaney and Annie Cruickshanks. Chris died at the home of her daughter in
Stellenbosch on 2 January 2013.
Alex died on 11 October 1985 in
Fishoek, Cape Prov. South Africa and was cremated at Cremation, Fishoek, Cape Prov. South Africa.
Alec and Chris had 3 daughters,
of all whom married and had children of their own.
5. Shirley Viner Solomon was born in Cape Town. She married Stanley Neville [Bunny]
Simpson and had two children, Lesley and Michael. She was an
identical twin to Beth (below).
6. Beth Solomon (identical twin to Shirley - above). Beth was born
in Cape Town. She married Harry Wood and had two children. She died circa 2005
in Cape Town.
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Fourth Generation – the
children of Alfred Viner Solomon & Minnie Pilkington.
1. Alec Viner Solomon, son of Alfred Viner and Minnie Pilkington
was born 1879 and died 1942.
2. Alfred Woodford Solomon, son of Alfred Viner Solomon and Minnie
Pilkington was born 1880.
3. Nellie Maud Solomon, daughter of Alfred Viner Solomon and Minnie
Pilkington was born 1881.
4. Minnie Solomon, daughter of Alfred Viner & Minnie Pilkington
was born 1884 and died 1938.
5. Frank Middleton Solomon, son of Alfred Viner Solomon and Minnie
Pilkington, was born on 4 August 1890. He was christened on 13 November 1890 in
St. Johns Anglican Church, Wynberg. It is possible that Frank was a Building
Developer as he bought a piece of land in 1946 in Main Road Diep River under
the company name of Frank Solomon and Co. (Pty) Ltd. Little else is known about
Frank at this time.
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Fourth Generation – the
children of Mary Solomon and John Henry Brown.
1. Margaret Brown, daughter of Dr. John Henry Brown and Mary Solomon,
married twice, first to Stanley F. Smith. and then L. Marriott-Earle.
2. Rachel [Ray] Brown, daughter of Dr. John Henry Brown and Mary Solomon,
married James Dick and had a daughter Mollie Graham Dick.
3. Julia Brown, daughter of Dr. John Henry Brown and Mary Solomon,
died in 1938. She married Pieter Hugo Naude.
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You may be wondering why my interest in the Solomon family. I suggest you take a look at my "Doris Moss, Napoleon and St Helena" blog. The Moss and Solomon families were related by marriage and were in business together and the time of Napoleon's exile on St Helena.
You may be wondering why my interest in the Solomon family. I suggest you take a look at my "Doris Moss, Napoleon and St Helena" blog. The Moss and Solomon families were related by marriage and were in business together and the time of Napoleon's exile on St Helena.
