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Jim B. Taylor
James Benjamin Taylor (December 1860 – 25 December 1944) was a South African Randlord. He followed a typical route to great wealth – diamonds in Kimberley, gold in Barberton and Pilgrim's Rest, and ending up on the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. His ability to speak Afrikaans was instrumental in his rise, and he became a confidant of President Paul Kruger of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. He acted as intermediary between the Government and the mining industry, and was privy to many of the political machinations leading to the Jameson Raid and the Anglo-Boer War. Life He was born the fifth of 8 children of Isaac Rowland Taylor (6 November 1826 Holborn – 22 August 1888 Kimberley) and Jane Dorothea Hellet (7 May 1827 – 27 November 1876). His first formal education was at Dalton School in Cape Town; he was present when in 1867 Prince Alfred, son of Queen Victoria, called at the Cape aboard the screw frigate on his voyage around the world. Taylor's father and brother mov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randlord
Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control of the diamond mining industry at Kimberley, Northern Cape. They set up an infrastructure of financing and industrial consolidation which they then applied to exploit the discoveries of gold from 1886 in Transvaal at Witwatersrand — the "Rand". Once based in the Transvaal, many set up residence in the mansions of Parktown. Many of the Randlords received baronetcies in recognition of their contributions. Notable Randlords * Sir George Albu, 1st Bt (1857–1935)' * Leopold Albu (1861–1938) * Sir Abe Bailey, 1st Bt (1864–1940) * Barney Barnato (1852–1897) *Alfred Beit (1853–1906) * Sir Otto Beit, 1st Bt (1865–1930) *Hermann Ludwig Eckstein (1847–1893) * Sir George Herbert Farrar (1859–1915) *Adolf Goerz (1857–1900) *John Hays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barney Barnato
Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897), born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I. He is perhaps best remembered as being a rival of Cecil Rhodes. Early life Barney Barnato claimed that he had the same birthday as Cecil Rhodes (5 July 1853). Most biographies give his date of birth as 5 July 1852. However, his birth certificate (supported by census data) shows he was born Barnet Isaacs in Aldgate, London on 21 February 1851, the son of Isaac and Leah Isaacs. He was educated by Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School. He had a hard life, and is reputed to have begged pass-outs (re-entry tickets) from theatre-leavers at the Garrick Theatre in Leman Street, to sell them on to others for a halfpenny. For a while he became a prizefighter and music-hall turn.Stephen Inwood (2005). ''City of cities: The birth of modern London''. London: Pan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tutor or family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old). The custom—which flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s and was associated with a standard itinerary—served as an educational rite of passage. Though it was primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of other Protestant Northern European nations, and, from the second half of the 18th century, by some South and North Americans. By the mid-18th century, the Grand Tour had become a regular feature of aristocratic education in Central Europe as well, although it was restricted to the higher nobility. The tradition declined in Europe as enthusiasm fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Wernher
Sir Julius Charles Wernher, 1st Baronet (9 April 1850 – 21 May 1912) was a German-born Randlord and art collector who became part of the English establishment. Life history Born in Darmstadt, Hesse, Wernher was the son of Elisabeth (Weidenbusch) and Friedrich Augustus Wernher, a railway engineer of Protestant stock. He was educated at Frankfurt-am-Main, where he entered a merchant bank. In 1871, having served in the Franco-German War, he moved to London at the age of 21. His talent for business was spotted by a diamond dealer named Jules Porgès of London and Paris, who sent Wernher in 1873 as his agent to the diamond mines of Kimberley, South Africa to buy and export diamonds. Wernher bought up mining interests and by 1875 was a member of the Kimberley mining board. In that same year, Porgès and Alfred Beit joined him in Kimberley, and Porgès formed the ''Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap.'' Porgès returned to London after having made Wernher and Beit partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean administrative region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes. The city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. In 2022 the island has population of 124,851 people. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens. Rhodes has several nicknames, such as "Island of the Sun" due to its patron sun god Helios, "The Pearl Island", and "The Island of the Knights", named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who ruled the island from 1310 to 1522. Historically, Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Porgès
Jules Porgès (25 May 1839 – 20 September 1921) was a Paris-based financier who played a central role in the rise of the Randlords who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa. He was born Yehuda Porges in Vienna and raised in Prague, where his father was a jeweller. He settled in Paris in the early 1860s and established himself as a diamond trader, through his company Jules Porgès & Cie. He recognized early the significance of the diamond finds in South Africa and, in 1873, sent two of his younger staff, Alfred Beit and Julius Wernher, to South Africa as his firm's representatives. He arrived in Kimberley himself in 1876 and continued their work in consolidating claims, financing deals and marketing stones, so that his firm Compagnie Française de Diamant du Cap de Bonne Espérance gained a significant portion of the Kimberley mine. He saw the benefit of Cecil Rhodes's attempt to consolidate the disparate mining holdings, and sold the Compagnie Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rustenburg
Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2017, the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached ZAR 63.8 billion, accounting for 21.1% of the GDP of the North West Province, and 1.28% of the GDP of South Africa. Rustenburg was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, being in close proximity to Phokeng, the capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where the Royal Bafokeng Stadium is located. The England national football team also used this as their base camp for the tournament. History Mfecane Before European settlers arrived, the area had been settled by agrarian Setswana-speaking tribes Rustenburg's population is primarily Tswana people. Partially belonging to the Royal Bafokeng Nation, extensive landowners earning royalties from mining operations. The Royal Baf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Transvaal
Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a range of hills in Trinidad Schools * Northern Collegiate Institute and Vocational School (NCIVS), a school in Sarnia, Canada * Northern Secondary School, Toronto, Canada * Northern Secondary School (Sturgeon Falls), Ontario, Canada * Northern University (other), various institutions * Northern Guilford High School, a public high school in Greensboro, North Carolina Companies * Arriva Rail North, a former train operating company in northern England * Northern Bank, commercial bank in Northern Ireland * Northern Foods, based in Leeds, England * Northern Pictures, an Australian-based television production company * Northern Rail, a former train operating company in northern England * Northern Railway of Canada, a defunct railway in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griquatown
Griekwastad is a country town in South Africa. It is sometimes still called Griquatown (the meaning of the town's name in Afrikaans), a name which is now considered historical. The town is in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa by road west from the city of Kimberley. It was the first town to be established in the country north of the Orange River. History In 1801 William Anderson and Cornelius Kramer, of the London Missionary Society, established a station among the Griqua at ''Leeuwenkuil''. The site proved too arid for cultivation. In about 1805 they moved the station to another spring further up the valley and called it ''Klaarwater''. Their second choice was little better than their first, and for many years a lack of water prevented any further development. The name of the settlement was changed later to Griquatown or ''Griekwastad'' in Afrikaans. They lived among a mixed nomadic community of the Chaguriqua tribe and "bastaards" (people of mixed origin) from Pike ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griqua People
The Griquas (; af, Griekwa, often confused with ''!Orana'', which is written as ''Korana'' or ''Koranna'') are a subgroup of heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons license. Under apartheid, they were given a special racial classification under the broader category of "Coloured". Similar to the Trekboers (another Afrikaans-speaking group of the time), they originally populated the frontiers of the nascent Cape Colony (founded in 1652). The men of their semi-nomadic society formed commando units of mounted gunmen. Like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, in the 19th century establishing several states in what are now South Africa and Namibia. Griqua was the name given to a mixed-race culture in the Cape Colony of South Africa, around the 17th and 18th Century (Taylor, 2020). They were also known as Hotten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuruman
Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water produces an unexpected swathe of green amidst the barren plains and is known as the Oasis of the Kalahari. It was at first a mission station of the London Missionary Society founded by Robert Moffat in 1821. It was also the place where David Livingstone arrived for his first position as a missionary in 1841. The Kuruman River, which is dry except for flash floods after heavy rain, is named after the town. Origins Kuruman is regarded as the “Oasis of the Kalahari”. It is set out on the Ghaap Plateau and receives its water source from a spring called “The Eye” which rises in a cave in the semidesert thornveld area in the Kalahari region. Kuruman is the main town in the area and the spring gives about 20 to 30 million litres of wat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
