Grahamstown, South Africa. James Hoole was one of the founding fathers.
BOUNCING BACK
The extraordinary true story of James and Jane Hoole
James Hoole was born in 1798 into a wealthy family living in the Chester area. But when he was 5 years old, in the year 1803, his family was struck by tragedy. A nursemaid took him and his little sister (who was 3 years old) out for a walk in the countryside near their home. She realized that she had forgotten something in the house, and so she ran back to fetch it, telling the children to wait in the lane until she got back to them. When she returned, she found James weeping bitterly, and the little sister gone. All James would say was that a lady in a shawl had taken her away.
There was a frantic search, but several days had passed when they at last found the little girl, quite naked and battered and bruised, under a hedge. Afterwards it was concluded that the gypsies had taken her, just to steal her clothes and the coral necklace she had around her neck. The parents took her home, where apparently "she cried for three days without stopping and then died." The shock and horror of this episode caused the poor mother to die shortly afterwards, and then the father died of grief too, leaving James an orphan. There were no relatives to take care of him, and so the nursemaid (who no doubt felt that the disaster was all her fault) took him away across the border to her home in Wales, where she raised him as her own son -- in conditions of great poverty and at first with no education at all. But then a local clergyman (presumably on the Welsh side of the border) took him in and taught him how to read and write.
The Georgian Hoole House, built near the site of the original hole Hall. They ancient village of Hoole dates back at least to 1119.
An old photo of Hoole -- which is now a suburb of Chester
Having received a modest education in the household of that kind clergyman (whose name is unknown) James was sent to London as a teenager to see if he could make something of his life. We can but speculate about the psychological damage that might have been done to him by the trauma of his childhood. He was not very ambitious, but he was bright enough, with an honest face, and he obtained a position as a secretary with a blind gentleman named Mr Fitz. The employer was wealthy man, with business interests in London and Paris.
The Fitzes had one natural daughter and an adopted daughter called Jane Cotterell, who was actually their niece. She was, like James, an orphan, but we do not know for certain where she was born or spent her early years. One suggestion is that she was the daughter of a Victualler with premises in St Georges Fields in Southwark called 'Half Way House'. This is mentioned as the house Jane's mother was buried from, and it's marked on maps of the time. She had experienced a very unhappy childhood with parents who were unable to look after a family consisting of one son and “too many daughters". When Jane was ten, her parents had died within a year of one another in a spooky replay of what had happened to James’s parents. In fact her mother had dropped dead (presumably from a heart attack) right before Jane's eyes. Her father married again but he died soon afterwards, possibly in 1801. She later admitted that her overwhelming emotion at the time of loss was not sadness, but relief that she would no longer be beaten. The family was split up, with Jane being adopted by Mr and Mrs Fitz.
When James arrived to take up his position, he and Jane struck up a firm friendship, and eventually they started to fall in love. They were both orphans who had suffered a great deal of trauma in their young lives, and they were about the same age. Jane was not particularly beautiful, but she was bright, intelligent and strong-willed. James was amiable, gentle and kind hearted. He was also a very handsome fellow, and he retained his good looks throughout his life. They were still very young, and Jane's uncle and aunt (as she called them) were concerned when they saw what was happening. They had plans for Jane to marry a young officer, but she was not at all interested in that idea. At last, in the year 1810, in an attempt to force the young people apart, Mr Fitz announced that he would send James off to work in his Paris office, and that the young man would set off for France the very next day.
But Jane and James were made of stern stuff, and they knew their hearts and their rights. They had made plans, well in advance. Early next morning, while Mary the cook was making breakfast, Jane appeared and convinced her to go with James and herself down the road to Kensington Parish Church. This was the church of St Mary Abbot, on Kensington High Street, which was demolished in 1869. Research has revealed that the banns for James and Jane were read out there for the three weeks prior to the wedding date, 25th November 1810. It is something of a mystery that Mr and Mrs Fitz did not get to know of that; we can only assume that they were not regular churchgoers and that they did not know any members of the congregation. We can imagine that the young couple must have been on tenterhooks, for fear of somebody or other saying: "Ah, my dear Mr and Mrs Fitz, we hear that your delightful niece is about to be married!"
Anyway, they were married there without further ado, with Mary as witness. The cook was sworn to secrecy, and Jane determined that she would keep the wedding ring on a silk thread around her neck, under her clothes. Then James was packed off to Paris, to the relief of Mr and Mrs Fitz. Legend has it that he travelled on the same day as the wedding, but somehow or other the marriage was consummated, for on 26th August 1811 (nine months after the wedding) Jane gave birth to her first son, named Abel Worth Hoole, in Margate. One wonders whether the couple had made love on the night before the wedding, or even before that. One also wonders whether that is what precipitated the decision to be wed in secret -- but we will never know the truth on that score. Also, one wonders why the birth happened in Margate...... but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
With James out of the way in France, Mr and Mrs Fitz resumed their attempts to get Jane to marry the chosen army officer, whose name we do not know. Jane, now that she was married, resisted this pressure even more vehemently than before -- and although she loved her blind uncle and her aunt dearly, relations became very strained. The situation grew more and more embarrassing, and at last Jane could stand the deceit no longer. She pulled out the wedding ring on its silk thread and told them the truth. Here uncle and aunt were furious -- far more angry than Jane had expected. James was immediately called back from Paris and sacked from his job, and he was forced to take Jane away and to set up home with her somewhere else in London.
How they survived is not known -- but Jane might have had some money of her own put away, and it may be that her brother Edward (who lived in Hart Street, Bloomsbury Square) helped out in some way. She also had eight sisters, some of whom lived in London, and maybe there was also sympathy and support from them and their husbands. We assume that James might have found other work as a secretary, and we also assume that the couple and their small child did not sink into abject poverty. Did they live in Margate at some stage? It's quite possible. But the only address we have for them is Selby Place, New Road, London. After some years there was a partial reconciliation with Mr and Mrs Fitz, although Jane claimed to the end of her life that they never really forgave her for marrying James. In due course another baby arrived. He was christened James Cotterell Hoole, and he was probably born in London on 18 May 1816.
At some stage during these dark years, James was swept along by the spirit of one of the many religious revivals of the early nineteenth century, and became a Methodist. Jane said she "did hope that he would get over it" -- but he never did, and he remained a staunch Methodist for the rest of his life. Indeed, Jane herself eventually became a Methodist too.
James was always liable to sink into black depression, and he always blamed himself for taking his wife away from what might have been a life of comfort and wealth. Their marriage was a happy one, but that was no great consolation to him. One day, his fortunes were at a very low ebb. We have to assume that he had lost his job, or that the couple had spent all of their savings. At any rate, James was penniless and very miserable indeed. He had no idea how he was going to keep his young family above the bread line. He walked down to London Bridge -- and family legend has it that he was so depressed that he was contemplating suicide by flinging himself into the muddy waters of the Thames. Suddenly his attention was attracted by a strange-looking man with wild eyes who was walking straight towards him. The fellow was deathly pale, and he looked more like a ghost than a man made of flesh and blood. But he was alive all right, for he stopped in front of James, looked him directly in the eye for what seemed like an eternity, and said gravely: "You, sir, are the man who came to me in my dreams."
James was greatly taken aback, but the pale man explained everything. It transpired that he was in the business of making straw bonnets, and that he had invented a shiny glaze which was currently all the rage, so that the business was thriving. He was making a good living, he said, but his health was declining fast and he could not see how he could carry on with running the business single-handed. He said he did not want to sell or give away the secret of his invention, for that was the source of his wealth. He decided that he should find somebody whom he could trust, to join him in the business. But who should that person be, and how might he be found? He had worried about this for days and weeks, but then he dreamed on three successive nights that a man came to him and told him that he could be trusted; the face of the man was that of James Hoole.
James did not know how to respond to this turn of events, but before he could say anything the sick man told him that on the strength of the dream he would take James into his confidence, take him into his business as a partner, and --if all worked out well -- pass the business on to the young man when he died. No investment or other commitment was required on James's part. This sounds like the lead-in to a great mystery solved by Sherlock Holmes, but we assure you that it is true or almost true…….
Anyway, this was manna from Heaven as far as James was concerned, and since he had no other prospects he joined the sick man (we do not know his name) in the business enterprise. He brought his own talents to the business, including youthful enthusiasm and a good knowledge of book-keeping. The partners did very well indeed for a few years, as long as the craze for glazed straw bonnets continued. But then the sick businessman died, leaving his fortune of a few hundred pounds to James. The family was now secure, if not very wealthy. But the economy of the nation was still precarious, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, with ex-soldiers and naval personnel swelling the ranks of the unemployed, and with thousands of retired officers struggling to find positions in business, particularly in London.
Then, in the year 1819, with another baby on the way and with Jane and James facing more financial insecurity, James heard that the Colonial Office was thinking about a settlement programme in South Africa. The Times trumpeted: "Our noble station at the Cape of Good Hope has the finest soil and climate in the world; it is the centre of both hemispheres -- it commands the commerce of the globe -- it produces in unparalleled abundance all the necessities of life." It sounded like paradise. About 90,000 people applied to the Colonial Office for permission to join the emigration, enticed above all else by the offer of free land. Only 4,000 were given permission.
At first James tried to organize a party of his own, but when several families dropped out or were refused permission to travel his plans fell through. But then he saw a notice which announced that Lieutenant John Baillie RN was thinking of assembling a party of emigrants, and that a public meeting would be held at the Crown and Anchor tavern on the Strand, quite close to the place where the Hoole family was then living. James decided to go along. John Baillie (an ex-naval officer who was now a civil servant) spoke rousingly about his plans to gather a party which might emigrate to South Africa under the government scheme. He confirmeed that there would be free passages and also allocations of land for the settlers when they arrived. Each of the signatories to the first agreement was to receive a one-acre plot of land in a planned village and a hundred acres of land capable of being farmed.
James put in his application, together withy about 600 others. To increase his chances of being selected, he recorded that by profession he was a "harness maker" although he had earlier recorded that he was a "straw plat dyer." He had obviously calculated that on the South African frontier there would not be a great demand for straw hats....... and that the Colonial Office would be less than impressed by his skills in the matter of lady's fashion.
At any rate, he was thrilled when Baillie selected him as one of a hundred to join his party of skilled tradesmen and professional men, who were intended to create village centres and develop commercial activities in the new settlement of Albany. James would be in charge of his own group. Although he was young and somewhat diffident, he was obviously identified by Baillie as a trustworthy man with considerable leadership qualities. Other groups were made up of farmers and labourers, and in Baillie's party there were also a number of minor gentry families and their indentured servants. We can only assume that Jane was also swept along on a wave of enthusiasm. It may even be that she was the driving force behind the decision to emigrate -- for the old records suggest that she was very forceful and determined, whereas James was kind, intelligent and affectionate but not particularly decisive or ambitious.
The politicians hoped that the colonists might, by sheer force of numbers, secure the colony of South Africa both from the predations of native tribes and also from the designs of the Dutch and other expansionist European countries. In reality there were huge dangers involved, but the prospective settlers were utterly naive about the dangers they would face in the frontier zone. From the government's point of view, this frontier needed to be settled and defended at a cost which was manageable -- and settlers were cheaper than military garrisons. There had already been some settlement by a few hundred men (including time-expired soldiers and sailors) and others from around Edinburgh, in 1817, but those settlers had caused more trouble than they were worth, dispersing into the fledgeling towns of the colony and refusing to move to the frontier where life was uncomfortable and dangerous.
This time, in 1819, things were more organized. Twenty-six vessels were chartered by the Government. All the settlers were told was that there was a wonderful climate, with limitless opportunities for occupying land of their own (without cost), and a landscape of lush green meadows and parkland. James and Jane had nothing to lose and a lot to gain. They were both orphans, and in spite of a partial reconciliation with Jane's uncle and aunt, and the presence in London of several of Jane's sisters and her brother, there was nothing to hold them back. And they were still young and energetic.
The families belonging to the Baillie party were allocated to the sailing ship Chapman, with 256 men, women and children on board. The Hoole family members said their farewells, and the ship sailed from Gravesend on 3rd December 1819. On 9th December the pilot was dropped off somewhere near Brighton, together with some seasick settlers who had decided that enough was enough.......... and soon the old country was far astern.
We know little of the voyage except that two ships, the Chapman and the Nautilus, were sailing together. On board the Chapman there was considerable friction, not just because of the cramped conditions and illness on board, but also because of Baillie's authoritarian manner, which did not go down well with the gentry families. In addition, there was a greater social mix on this ship than on any of the others, and the gentry were not used to living cheek by jowl with skilled tradesmen, merchants, farmers and labourers. In the middle of January the ship passed through the Cape Verde Islands, and on 17th March it anchored in Table Bay. It was immediately placed under quarantine, because there had been a whooping cough epidemic on board during the voyage which claimed the lives of six small children -- including little Jane Hoole, who was just one year old, on 28th February 1820.
Then the ship moved on to Algoa Bay or Port Elisabeth, arriving there on 9th April. Again the Chapman was ahead of the Nautilus, and on that day James and Jane, and their two surviving children (Abel, aged 8, and James, aged 4) were ferried ashore in open boats and stepped onto the beach as members of the first party of settlers who would face the rigours -- and the endless possibilities -- of their new homeland.
After a period of adjustment in a vast tented village on the shore, the new settlers were organized into wagon trains, and then Bailie's party of 90 families (249 persons in all) set off under the protection of Colonel Cuyler, heading inland towards one of the most remote and dangerous of the designated locations. With three families packed into each wagon, progress was slow, and the journey took six days -- during which the travellers saw not a single human being or sign of habitation.
At last, in the middle of a forbidding wilderness near the mouth of the Great Fish River, the wagon train stopped, and Cuyler announced that they had reached their destination. Without further ado the wagons were emptied of their contents and everything was piled onto the grass. Then the drivers cracked their whips, and they were gone -- leaving the Hooles and their fellow settlers under a fierce sun with only tents for shelter and with limited food supplies to see them through the coming winter months. The men immediately set to work at erecting the tents and collecting fire wood for the fires that would be needed to keep wild animals at bay.
As the reality of the situation hit home on her, Jane Hoole sat down on the grass beside a great pile of dirty washing and wept unconsolably. According to legend, a sturdy Yorkshirewoman took pity on her and put her arm around her shoulder. "You're not fit for this kind of thing, Mrs Hoole," she said. "Here now -- leave the washing to me. I'll be pleased to do it, and if you like we can do a deal, and you can give me some of your tea..........."
In the new settlement that was created over the following months and years (called Cuylerville, near Queenstown) each family was allocated 100 acres of land -- and on that basis they simply had to make the best of the situation in which they found themselves. The initial years were not easy, and we know that the Hoole family home was burnt out on more than one occasion during the rumbling and never-ending Frontier Wars with the Xhosa tribes, bringing James and Jane to the brink of ruin each time. James then seems to have taken up trading among the local tribes, and the family moved south to Grahamstown in 1827, where they would be closer to the core of the Eastern Cape colony and less vulnerable to attack. Abel and James helped in the business, and with a partner they established trading posts somewhere in the district called (at that time) Kaffraria. The posts had to be abandoned at another outbreak of hostilities in 1830, and as if that was not enough to be going on with, James lost another three trading posts in the 1834-35 (Sixth) War, costing him over £1000 in goods and cattle.
James survived for another ten years after that, becoming a pillar of the local community in Grahamstown. He must have been a resilient and determined man, who was knocked over time and again and who nonetheless got back up again each time, dusted himself down and carried on..........
In the end, at the age of 55, he succumbed not to a spear, arrow or bullet, but to an influenza epidemic which was rampant in Grahamstown in the month of December 1845. He died on 16th December, and his wife Jane survived him by more than ten years. According to an obituary in the local newspaper, "......his demise will be greatly deplored by all who knew him. As a man of intelligence, of unimpeachable integrity, as a kind neighbour, an affectionate husband and parent and as an exemplary amongst those who deserve well of their country and whose memory is justly entitled to be honoured in esteem by his compatriots."
Jane Hoole (nee Cotterell) towards the end of her adventurous life.
The next generation
James Cotterell Hoole was the second son of the family. He must have had a tough childhood, coping with all of the deprivations of the early colony as his parents and their neighbours struggled to build a new life for themselves in the wilderness while coping with the hostility of both the environment and the local Xhosa tribes. When James was eleven, life became a little less precarious in Grahamstown, and as a teenager he helped his father with setting up and running various trading posts. In 1834, at the age of 18, he knew at least one local language well enough to act as an interpreter to the military forces operating beyond the Kei River in the Sixth Frontier War. In 1837 he and his older brother Abel started a bakery business in Grahamstown, and for some years they ran a variety of storehouse businesses, also buying and selling cattle and sheep. No doubt the brothers received great help from their father -- and like him they suffered from fires, losses of livestock and occasional outbursts of tribal violence.
In 1838 James married Harriet Maria Rhodes -- the daughter of one of the other 1820 settler families who had come to South Africa from Hull. (And since you ask, yes, the infamous Cecil Rhodes was indeed a member of that family……..). Anyway, seven children were born to this marriage, including Oliver Percival Porter Hoole -- the fifth child -- born in the year 1850. OPP, as he was called, was my Great-Grandfather. Harriet died in 1856 in Grahamstown, and after her death James Cotterell Hoole married twice again, first in 1857 and then again in 1868.
James carried on with his trading businesses after 1840, building various stores and winning contracts for the provision of forage corn to the military. In 1845 he bought a farm called "Begelly" (that’s a good Pembrokeshire name) and at that time he was involved in the local Wesleyan Church and also local politics. In 1846 he was again involved in the conflict between the colonists and the Xhosa tribes, acting as an interpreter once again when British troops were operating in hostile territory during the "War of the Axe".
At various times over the years he was a member of the Albany Divisional Council, Municipal Commissioner, town councillor, member of the Upper House of the Legislative Council and a justice of the peace. In later years, as a successful and relatively wealthy businessman he was a member of the Kowie Harbour Improvement Company. He died in 1878 in Grahamstown, and is buried in the town cemetery in the family vault, alongside his parents, two of his wives and various other family members.
James Cotterell Hoole was perhaps typical of the "next generation" of the 1820 settler families who knew all about deprivation and disaster and who managed to come through it all to establish a strong family -- underpinned by trading or merchant activities. Through his involvement in chapel and civic affairs he also seems to have become quite a pillar of society in the growing community of Grahamstown.
And the next….
My Great-Grandfather Oliver Percival Porter Hoole (1850 - 1929) was born in Grahamstown as the fifth child of James Cotterell Hoole and his first wife Harriet Rhodes. Luckily for him, his life was less turbulent than that of his father or grandfather........... but he still had to live through violent times which included the two Boer Wars. He had twelve children by two wives, although two of his sons died in infancy. He also took into his home the two children of his eldest sister, for reasons that are unclear. So there must have been a very busy family life........
Following his first marriage in 1872 he seems to have moved to Mill River, Avontuur, and in 1879 he bought two pieces of land in Oudtshoorn, together with a house. This was in the "ostrich belt" in the foothills of the Swartberg Mountains and some 400 km west of Grahamstown. He set up a General Dealers Store in the town and also farmed a holding known as "De Rust" -- which was the name later given to the house in Ferryside when Edgar and Johanna Stephens gave up the farm of Coedybrain in favour of Ivor and Esther.
OPP ran the farm at De Rust for maybe 20 years, as a very successful mixed farming enterprise with ostriches, sheep, cattle, goats, pedigree brood mares, fowls and guinea fowls. During the summers family, friends and coloured servants would travel by ox wagon through George and on to the coast, where they would all camp at the seaside and have a wonderful time. The children were all schooled in Oudtshoorn and in George, and Johanna and her cousin Johanna Barry were very close friends who went to school together -- although for a while Grandma Johanna (Hoolie) was sent to school in the Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town.
In 1899 OPP sold De Rust and the family moved to "Fir Glen" near Atherstone, in the Grahamstown District, and it was from here that his eldest daughter Johanna (Hoolie) married the young Welshman named Edgar Stephens on 13 June 1900. This was shortly after the Relief of Mafeking, when there was a general sense that the Boers were on the run and that their territories were about to be brought back under full British control. At that time OPP seems to have been managing a large estate called the Sundays River Estate, and in 1903 he and seven others raised enough capital to purchase the estate outright. It was involved in farming and irrigation projects. He continued as manager, and was able to move into a dwelling called Hillside as well as being given various other privileges. The estate appears to have been quite successful for some years, but gradually the demand for ostrich feathers declined, and cash became very tight, and with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 it was close to collapse. In 1917 it was bought by a new company under the control of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick.
OPP survived for another twelve years, and the family seems to have moved yet again. He died at Oakvilla in Kirkwood (not far from Port Elizabeth) in 1929. He is buried in the local cemetery.
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Sources:
http://www.1820settlers.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Genealogy&file=getperson&personID=I909&tree=1
http://www.1820settlers.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Genealogy&file=getperson&personID=I910&tree=1
May Bell "They came from a Far Land" Maskew Miller, 1963
http://www.geni.com/projects/1820-Settlers-Bailie-s-Party/9924
WE and RJ Hoole "Descendants of James and Jane Hoole -- an 1820 settler family". Privately published, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa, 1993
https://thesouthafricanconnection.weebly.com
About Hoole (J. H. Hanshall in his "The History of the County Palatine of Chester" (1817):
About Hoole (J. H. Hanshall in his "The History of the County Palatine of Chester" (1817):
Hoole is pleasantly situated on a gentle elevation. The Bunburys of Stanney had an estate here before the reign of Henry VI and the seat of their descendants, Hoole Hall, was destroyed during the siege of Chester. In 1757 this property was purchased by the Rev J Baldwin who assumed the name of Rigby. In 1800 it was sold to the Rev Dr Peploe Ward whose son is the present proprietor. There is a handsome brick house with stone facings built by the Rev J Baldwin which was sold together with the land immediately surrounding it to Mrs Fairfax from whom it was purchased by John Oliver Esq. It has recently become the property of Charles Sedgwick Esq. Hoole House built in 1760 is the property of the Rev James Ward who has assumed the name of Hamilton in compliance with the will of his uncle Chas Hamilton Esq. It is now (1817) tenanted by the Lady of Lieut Gen Sir John Delves Broughton Bart sister of Sir John Grey Egerton Bart of Oulton Park. Hoole Lodge is held by lease from the Earl of Shrewsbury by the proprietor of the last mentioned estate. There are several other pleasant houses in the township.
Sir John Delves Broughton was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Broughton, 6th Baronet, by his first wife Mary (née Wicker). He served in the British Army and achieved the rank of General in 1830. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Egerton, in 1792 - other sources have Elizabeth as coming from the Panton's of Plas Gwyn in Anglesey. They had no children and lived apart after about 1814. Broughton died in August 1847, aged 77, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his younger brother, Henry. Lady Broughton died in January 1857.
(It is possible that one of the families mentioned here might have been James's family, but there is no mention here of a tragedy such as that recounted in our family history.......)
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Note: Was James Hoole the real name of our hero? Or was he given this name later on, when he was an orphan and following the appalling tragedy that befell has family? Whatever the truth of the matter, the link with the Chester area seems to be well established.
On the other hand one branch of the family thinks that James was the son of John Hoole (1727-1803), a translator and writer with connections to Haxey in Lincolnshire, who worked for the East India Company and who may have lived for a time in Manchester.
Yet another branch of the family thinks that James was the son of a Soho shoemaker called John Hoole and his wife Jane, who are known to have had several children of whom James might be the youngest. There is a baptism at the Endel Street "lying in" hospital in London at about the right date, but "place of settlement" of the parents is mysteriously shown as Preston in Lancashire..........
As they say in all the best research studies, further work is required.....
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Much of the work in reconstructing this story was done by my relatives in South Africa, by May Bell and Wendy Hoole and Ross Hoole. My sister Heather and cousin Joan Stephens also spent many hours following up leads in the UK, with some success! So this has been a real cooperative effort.....
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