Posted on October 27, 2010
A good earlier rapport between King Shaka and Henry Fynn was replaced by a jittery relationship between the settlers and the Zulu kingdom when King Dingane ascended the throne. In 1836, Captain Alexander Harvey Biggar and his son, George Biggar, arrived in Durban. In the same year his daughter, Ann Harold Biggar, who was married to Robert Dunn, also arrived in Durban and purchased the farm Seaview between the Umbilo and Umlatazana Rivers near present day Rossburgh. They had a son, John Dunn, who later became intimately involved with the Zulu Royal house.
Alexander Biggar established a fort (Victoria) at the Point in anticipation of an attack by the Zulus from the north, but these fears were allayed when Dingane sent a letter declaring that he had no intentions of killing any white man. Boer trekkers led by Piet Retief entered the Zulu Kingdom in 1837 and were cordially received by the motley band of English traders who numbered about 50. Retief requested assistance in travelling to meet Dingane. Thomas Halstead and George Biggar accompanied them on their journey, showing the way. George then branched off to Estcourt (Weenen) to trade with the trekkers camped there waiting for the return of Piet Retief. After meeting with the Zulu monarch, Retief and his group were killed and orders were given to the Zulu troops to attack the rest of Boers at Weenen. On the Zulu impi arriving at the camp, George Biggar went out to meet them and was not attacked as he was recognised by the Zulus, having made trading expeditions to Dingane. The Boers took exception to this and questioned why George remained unmolested by the rampaging Zulus. George Biggar was then shot through the arm and head by the Boers on the suspicion that he was a Zulu agent.
When Dick King arrived at Weenen to alert the Boers of the death of Retief and to ensure that George was safe as Alexander Biggar was concerned about his son's safety, he was a day late and found George dead already. Retaliatory raids were organised against Dingane by the settlers on the assumption that Zulus had killed George. Robert and Alexander Biggar died in the ensuing battles, the former in April and the latter in December 1838. So in one year all the males of the Biggar family had perished and history records no further heirs of the Biggar family.
This fact was recently repeated when my daughter had to do a family history project by her history teacher. When my grandfather, Vincent Sales Biggar, mentioned to me in 1985 that we are related to Alexander Biggar, I decided to research our family history.
My grandfather was born in 1908 at Marianhill Monastery and schooled at St Francis College , he did mention that he met John Dube and other leading African luminaries there. His father Vincent George Biggar was employed by the monastery and died there in 1912.
I have searched the government archives in Pietermaritzburg and have come up with three persons with the Biggar surname born betwee 1835 and 1839 in Durban. They are George, James and Sophia Biggar. George remained in Durban, James settled with the King family in Ixopo and Sophia moved to Waschbank in Dundee, specifically the Biggarsberg area.
Further research revealed the death of Annie Biggar, buried on 29 July 1866. Charles Biggar was buried on the 24 September 1866 aged 28 years old in Isipingo and had lived on Dick King's Estate. This record is available in the Anglican Church archives in Pietermaritzburg. It has been confirmed by long time researcher of settler history Shelagh O'Byrne Spencer that Charles Biggar's death was reported in the Natal Witness and the Natal Mercury as an accident at one of Dick King's sugar mills at Isipingo. 80-year-old Sylvia Biggar of Ixopo related the same story to me orally, on the 24 September 2010, exactly 146 years after the accident.
Family legend suggests that Dick King took in the three youngsters, George, Charles and James, whilst Sophia was taken in by the Voortrekkers and moved to northern Natal as the Voortrekkers had conflict with the English in 1842.As these children were of mixed descent they were most probably treated more leniently than the local Africans. Sophia was given land in Waschbank, in an area called Biggarsberg close to Carel Landsman who had appointed Alexander Biggar as the magistrate of Port Natal in 1837. Sophia married William Africa in 1866 (second marriage) whose family claims he had come with the Voortrekkers as a slave from the Cape in 1837. William and Sophia were prominent Kholwa. James Stuart Archives records an interview with William Africa.
Sophia Biggar married a Mr Mthembu (first marriage) in 1860 and had two children, Sara and David. The death notice in her estate papers records her death in 1901, aged 60. Sophia's father was a European, Johannes Biggar, and her mother a Mkhize. She was born in Durban. Recorded history shows that there was no Afrikaner with the surname Biggar but Alexander Biggar's son-in-law was Johannes De Smidt, and either he or Robert used that name as an alias.
George Biggar married Maria Toohey who was a daughter of Daniel Charles Toohey, one of the early settlers and landowners. The earliest record I have of his first child from Maria Toohey is Charles Daniel Toohey born 1869. His second child is from his second wife, Elizebeth De Lange, whom he married on 9 June 1874 in Stanger after the death of his first wife. His age recorded on his marriage certificate proved that he was born in 1837-1838.
His son, Joseph Ulric, born 1881, was baptised in 1888 at Marianhill Trappist Monastery. He had daughters, Appolina, Elisabeth and other sons, Vincent George and Mathias; and grandsons, Lawrence, Vincent Sales . These records of their births are kept at the Marianhill monastery, built in 1882. This family was active in working with Trappists in setting up mission stations in Natal.
James Biggar was born in the Isipingo area and so was his son John Biggar in 1860. The estate records of John Biggar from 1936, held in the Pietermaritzburg Archives, reveal this. The records show incontrovertibly that Dick King adopted the Biggar children that were orphaned by the early Anglo-Zulu wars. They show that these children lived, worked and died on his farm in Isipingo. Further research reveals that the other settlers like Daniel Charles Toohey and Henry Ogle also adopted some of the other settlers' children, making them part of their households.
I was born Troy Dean Biggar in 1966 Durban. I am the great-great-grandson of George Biggar, born in 1837-1838, the great-grandson of Vincent George and the grandson of Vincent Sales Biggar and the son of Margaret Biggar. I became a Meyers when my mother married Joseph Meyers.
Troy Meyers is a small-scale entrepreneur and hopes to resume his studies in law and history soon. He has two daughters aged 19 and 10.