by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(21 October 1829 – 16 July 1899) William, the third child, is described as “essentially the mother’s boy”: being the eldest at home after his two brothers left for Scotland and Maria was sent to boarding school, it fell on him to help Mama Maria in the house.[1]...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(19 June 1831 – 5 December 1912) As the third child of Andrew and Maria Murray, Maria Jnr was the first daughter in the family. For her basic education, she was first sent to Mrs Wentworth’s school and at the age of twelve, to the boarding school of Mrs Pears in...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(5 March 1809 – August 1889) Maria Susanna Magdalena (Maria/Mama) Murray (Stegman) was born in the Cape into a family of business people. Her father, a trader and producer of furniture, was well known and respected Capetonian. When Maria, at the age of sixteen, said...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(15 September 1826 – 27 December 1882) John, the firstborn, seemed to have been quiet, serious and studious even as a little boy – characteristics which were to be his ‘trademark’ until his death. Prof Marais, his one-time student and then colleague at the Theological...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(26 April 1836 – 3 Jan 1904) Jemima (Mima) was the 7th child and second daughter of Andrew and Maria. As the second daughter, it was expected of her to be her mother’s assistant and helper, something she was exquisitely equipped for given her amiable nature, loving...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(1843 – 24 September 1914) Born in 1843, James was named after a dear family friend, Barend Jacobus Burger, who was to be his godfather. At the age of seven, he had an attack of rheumatic fever, leaving his heart affected. Thus, he remained under his mother’s watchful...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(24 December 1839 – 14 June 1927) Isabella, the seventh child of Andrew and Maria Murray of Graaff Reinet, was “a beautiful girl, tall and slim, with blue eyes, dark wavy hair and a particularly good skin”.[1] She was an exquisite needlewoman, a voracious reader with...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(22 September 1949 –20 Dec 1937) Helen, less robust than her other brothers and sisters and of a timid disposition, preferred reading to tree climbing. Therefore, at the age of fourteen, she was sent to Cape Town where she lived with her brother Andrew and his wife...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(7 Aug 1845 –18 May 1921) George was the youngest son in the family of Andrew and Maria Murray, described by his on sister as robust, lively, and full of fun. His mother (Maria) writes of him: “He is really the life of the house; though Papa has sometimes to check...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(10 July 1835 – 2 January 1905)[1] Emma Murray was born into the Rutherfoord family on 10 April 1833. Her early life was spent at a fairly secluded property in Sea Point where she was raised to be an intellectual. Education was made available to her in...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(20 Nov 1855 – 5 Nov 1917) Eliza was the youngest of the large Graaff Reinet Murray-family. Born twenty-nine years after the eldest John, most of her older brothers and sisters were already settled in homes their own. When the two youngest brothers, James and George,...
by Kruger van Deventer | Mar 27, 2019 | Biography
(26 Feb 1838 – 23 Sept 1904) Charles was born on 26 February 1838 in the old parsonage, where, as a little boy at the age of four, his life was nearly ended prematurely. Unseen, he fell in a dam in the back of the parsonage. Fortunately, the nurse saw his petticoats...
