Page 6 - Bulletin 5 2001

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Henry was hauled up before the magistrate in Simon’s Town on many occasions for selling

liquor illegally and several times landed up in the cells overnight.

Simon was the businessman of the operation but Henry was the very popular host. He died in
1857 and the Inn was taken over by the Rathfelders from that other famous hostelry in Diep

River. It kept the name of ‘Farmer Peck’s Inn’ until it was bought by a Kimberley Syndicate in
1897, renovated and renamed the ‘Grand Hotel’. (Fig. 1.2.)

Harry Grey

The next extraordinary character was Harry Grey. He was the son of a clergyman and nephew of
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the 11 Earl of Stanford. While at Oxford his conduct was so disgraceful that his father
dispatched him to Cape Town, where his brother-in-law was headmaster of the Diocesan

College, in the hope that that gentleman would be able to keep an eye on him. However, Harry
did not mend his ways, continued to drink and womanise excessively, and became a virtual

‘bergie’.

One day Martha Solomon, a coloured washerwoman, was washing clothes on the bank of the

Diep River when she saw a well-dressed English gentleman lying in the bushes. He was
obviously in a high fever so she took him back to her house in Wynberg and nursed him back to

health.

When he recovered he asked Martha to work for him and his sickly wife, Annie, in Muizenberg.
She was ensconced in a small cottage behind his house on the Main Road and became his

mistress. By the time Annie died in 1874 Martha had already born a son, John. He was followed

by a daughter, Mary, and in 1877 Henry married Martha. It was soon after their marriage that
Harry inherited the title and a considerable fortune. But, instead of returning to occupy his seat in

the House of Lords and the family estate, he remained in Muizenberg and bought several

properties in Martha’s name, including a plot in Gosport Road, Wynberg.

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