CAPE TOWN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

175 Years at St. Paul’s Church, Rondebosch

A record 17 visitors joined a good turnout of members for the talk on St Paul’s Church, Rondebosch, by Derek Pratt at our April meeting.
Derek is the rector of the church and also a founding member of our Society. The topic was 175 Years at St Paul’s Church, Worship, Baptizing, Marrying and Burying.
His talk combined the history of the church itself and some case studies of research that he has done about people who were members of the church.
The ground was originally allocated for a church in 1832 and consecrated for the purpose by Bishop David Wilson of Calcutta as he passed the Cape on his way to Australia.. The Cape Colony at that time fell into his see. The original church was built in 1834 and was a very modest little building. It was enlarged in 1857 and again in 1884.
Derek showed a number of pictures of the church in its various stages, sketched by Thomas Bowler and other artists.
Alongside the church is the old churchyard and he is researching some of the families buried there. Among them are the Dale family (Dale College in King Williamstown), Bell (surveyor general after whom Bellville is named), A daughter of Thomas Baines, Catherine Woodhouse, wife of a Governor of the Cape.
There was a little school right in the graveyard, in which were taught 100 to 150 children. It was finally shut in 1951 as a health hazard.