Page 11 - Bulletin 15 2011

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Sadly, in 1838 both of John Findlay’s daughters, Ann, who was childless, and Margaret, died

within a month of each other. In mourning, John Barker bought a house at the top end of
Government Avenue and named it Bertram House after his late wife Ann Bertram Findlay.

The house still stands today as a museum, on UCT’s Hidding Hall campus, and is one of the
th
finest examples of early 19 century English architecture in the city. (Fig. 1.8.)

Captain John was left in desperate straits. He was then 61, his wife had died eleven years

before, both of his daughters had just died, his business had gone bankrupt and his son was

living in Tasmania. In addition to all this, on George Rex’s death in 1839 the brig Knysna was
sold and John was compelled to return to Cape Town.

Fortunately, in 1846, Captain John’s son George returned from Tasmania with a wife, two

daughters and a son whose name was also John, and the old captain enjoyed the company of
his grandchildren for about two years before he returned to Cullen in Scotland where he died

in 1851.

Captain John’s son George set up as a tobacconist in a tall house at 1 Grave Street (now

Parliament Street), and the family lived above the shop. By 1863 he had moved the business

to 4 Shortmarket Street. (Fig. 1.9.)

George’s son John led an interesting life. At the age of twenty he travelled to Wittebergen
near Lady Grey in the Eastern Cape where he had secured a three-year contract with a

storekeeper named Austen. There in 1860 he met and married Kate Schreiner, the daughter of
the German missionaries Gottlob and Rebecca Schreiner. Kate was an older sister of Olive

Schreiner, who would later become famous as an authoress, and of William Schreiner who

was to be Premier of the Cape during the Anglo-Boer War. William’s son, Advocate Bill
Schreiner, was an avid rugby player and fisherman and lived at Eastcliffe, 16 Main Road St.

James for many years before his death in 1957. (Figs. 1.10 & 1.11.) So, ultimately this rather
long story has come back to this part of the world. Many of John and Kate’s descendants

thrived, including a leader of the Pretoria bar, George Schreiner Findlay, and the well-known
ornithological artist Dick Findlay.