Mathew Road

“In short, my ancestor Thomas James was the second son of the Earl Of Landaff (Cardiff) alas, so wasn’t in line for the title. So he set sail for a British colony, to seek his fame and fortune and arrived in Cape Town in 1818, two years before the British sent boat loads of hapless pommies to PE, to settle on farms given to them, but really to form a buffer zone between the marauding hordes coming south and the British in The Cape.

I have gone to the Cathedral in Landaff and it’s quite awesome to see tombs of your ancestors buried there with effigies carved in stone on top in their likeness. I have a lot of info that might be better and more comprehensive, but I’ll have to scratch around and get that to you in the next instalment!

Thomas James, bought a portion of a farm stretching from the Simon’s Town Road (Main Rd at Arderne Gardens) as it was known then, down to about where Harfield Station is. He built his home thereabouts, and named it after his brother-in-law, Harfield. My dad remembered the cottage, but sadly it’s gone now.

I discovered another branch of the family living in Kenilworth completely by chance. A couple of about my vintage, who named their son Thomas James, not having the slightest clue that was the name of the original settler,  SPOOKY!”