A newspaper account 2nd January 1882 of the founding of Galveston includes some remarks about Richard Payne Jones. He was alleged to have travelled in India, the Cape and to have been the librarian at Longwood House at the time of Napoleon's death and to have even taken a lock of his hair which he had presented to a Galvestonian. I have no evidence for this hearsay. RPJ may have been in India, was certainly in the Cape but there is no evidence he was at St Helena except perhaps for a stopover en route to the Cape. Joseph William RUBIDGE, half brother of Robert Henry painted a picture of the corpse of Napoleon in 1821 and may or may not have taken a lock of hair but it is hard to believe that RPJ was the librarian at Longwood on St Helena. He may have borrowed some of William's experiences as a reinvention of himself in Galveston. Richard was in the Cape at least by 1823 for he and his Dutch wife Cornelia KUYS wrote a will which was confirmed by another will in 1835. Cornelia had been the wife of Samuel LEESON, a surgeon, whom she had married in 1815. Samuel died aged 40 in 1821 and she must have married Richard Payne JONES shortly thereafter as they made a joint will in 1823. Richard would have been about 27 at the time of his marriage. Cornelia's mother was born in 1759 and married in 1778 at 19 so it likely that Cornelia was somewhat older than Richard by some 14 years. Cornelia had been left 100,000 gulden by her mother Geertruida APPELDOORN who had married Philippus KUYSin 1778. This legacy was included in the joint will of 1823 and again in 1835 when Cornelia was ill. The will was in Hoog Hollands but has been transcribed into English. | In the event, Richard survived his wife on her death in about 1835 and inherited the money. Using 2.5 Dutch gulden to 1 Cape Rixdaalder and 5 Cape Rixdaalders to £1 sterling, the value of this inheritance was about £8,000 at the time. http://users.erols.com/kurrency/za.htm Thus sum would be worth £635,599.38 using the retail price index. http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php It is more than tempting to speculate that the six farms bought by Richard Payne Jones in the Graaff Reinet district were purchased with this money and there was probably enough left over to enable him to go into partnership in Texas with Charles Frankland. The farms, in Graaff Reinet, Eastern Cape bought in 1839 for £1,500 from Mr Willem Smit were: Bloemhof with Middelwater 5500 morgen Platrug ( now Wellwood) 6500 morgen Dasjesfontein ( now The Glen) 6300 morgen Joostehoek ( now Rockwood) 2800 morgen Groothoek ( now Woodcliffe) 2400 morgen Patrysfontein 3300 morgen. In the 1829 Cape Almanac, Richard is described as a commissariat agent of Garden Bloemhof, and in 1838 Richard Payne Jones is listed living in Garden Bloemhof, Constitution Hill, Cape Town. This had been the home of Cornelia KUYS. Richard does not appear in the 1841 almanac so presumably left for Texas shortly after 1838. Why did Richard leave the Cape? Could it be that while in Cape Town Charles FRANKLAND had proposed setting up in business together?What else was going on in the Cape in 1838? Although slaves were freed in the Cape in 1834 their true emancipation took place in December 1838. Did this legislation have something to do with his move to Texas which was not subject to British rule and where slavery had not yet been abolished? So, while the Voortrekkers trekked north, Richard sailed over the seas and far away to Texas where he imported slaves from the Caribbean into Texas, was censured in Parliament for this activity as a partner in an English firm when slavery had been abolished in England but not yet in Texas. His will of 1853 shows a demented mind. He thought his sister Eleanor Frankland was dead when she was alive and he refers to people who have done him wrong. His inventory shows he owned numerous slaves at his death. |
