BLANCHE HARRISON:

Blanche HARRISON (née BISHOP) was born on 24th November 1879 at Umgeni, Durban and was the daughter of Charles Robert BISHOP. On 26th July 1905, Blanche married Robert Jarrold HARRISON.

CHARLES ROBERT BISHOP:

Charles Robert BISHOP was the son of Samuel Webb BISHOP. On 25 April 1872 Charles Robert BISHOP (B: 1848; D: 10-1-1930), married Elizabeth DUNN, a shopkeeper in Umgeni and who was the daughter of Richard DUNN from Grantham, Lincolnshire. Besides being a sugar planter, Charles BISHOP was also Field Cornet for Ward I, Inanda Division 1871-1880 Victoria County and was Deputy Mayor of Durban during the years 1910-1913.

SAMUEL WEBB BISHOP:

Samuel Webb BISHOP (B: 1818, Somerset, England; D: 4-8-1897, Umgeni) married Sarah BISHOP (née GRACE) (B: 1815; D: 31-5-1910) at Basingstoke, Hampshire. Samuel W BISHOP was a carpenter and sugar planter who came from Crewtherne, Somerset. Samuel worked in the Royal Navy on HMS Illustrious from 1841-1845. He then worked for three and a half years as a pattern maker in HM Dockyard in Portsmouth. Samuel and Sarah had one son, Charles who was born in England. On 27th May 1850 Samuel, Sarah and their son Charles sailed to Natal on the ship Herald. Samuel and Sarah then had four daughters who were born in South Africa.

Samuel BISHOP worked in Pietermaritzburg as a carpenter in 1852. By August 1854, he was the owner of 18 Burger Street, Pietermaritzburg. He then moved to Uys Doorns (now Thornybush) in 1855. In 1856 he purchased 110 acres on the Umgeni river near Durban from E. Morewood and started to plant sugar. From that day to 1917 the Bishop family produced sugar on that site. This land was at the crossing known as Morewood’s Drift; it later became known as Middle Drift and then Bishop’s Drift. In 1857, Samuel purchased a Punt from Z. Starkey and became ferryman at the Drift - at first without government salary. This drift was known as Bishop's Drift and he operated the punt from 1859 until Queen’s Bridge was built in1864. When bridge was washed away, Samuel Bishop opened an inn to accommodate travellers at Umgeni.

In 1858, Samuel BISHOP started crushing sugar cane with an ox-powered mill, the rollers made by him out of wood. Samuel BISHOP was known to sugar men of his time as the man who made, from the mast of a ship wrecked near Durban, the rollers for the first sugar mill in Natal on Morewood’s experimental farm Compensation, near Umhlali (1). In 1863 the mill was running on steam and he had a distillery as a sideline. Samuel died in 1897 and the family continued to run the mill until 1910 when it was leased. In 1917 the mill was flooded and never started up again.

                        [Much of the information about CR Bishop and his family was taken from: British Settlers in Natal, 1824-1857. A Biographical Register, Vol 2. Natal. University of Natal, 1983.]

 

1.         The Natal Mercury Aug 23, 1962