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From: "Becky Horne" <>
Subject: [ZA] Putting the fun back in Genealogy - BIDDULPH
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 18:19:16 +0200


<<BADEN-POWELL was the founder of the Scouting movement
in South Africa. I have been given these informative pamphlets
that pertain to early settlers in South Africa by a member of the
Scouting movement in the Port Elizabeth district.

Brownies, Cubs, Girl Guides and Scouts all work for badges
and one of their projects was to identify early pioneers who
disembarked on the shores of South Africa. Some of the surnames
are even lucky to have a Family Crest, thanks to the imagination
and creative flair of the child concerned. Sadly, there
are no names to identify the researcher. >>


a. Simon BIDDULPH, 50, of Tamworth with his wife, Ann 48, and family,
Louisa, 24, John, 22, James, 20, William, 14 and Frances, 12. The two
elder sons being over 18 were classified separately as Settlers and
they were all in BAILIE's party on the vessel Chapman.

b1. John Burnet BIDDULPH, 22, Lt. R.N. was an explorer in Bechuanaland
and reached the Molopo River in 1826 and after 1828 pioneered as far
as the Umzimvubu River in Natal. He married Wilhelmina Theodora
Elizabeth WALSTRAND (d. Bathurst) and had a son (c.1.) John Edward b.
at Bathurst 15 November, 1829 who later married Fanny TUNBRIDGE at
Sundays River, Port Elizabeth. Lt. John Burnet BIDDULPH died on
Monday, 3 Mar 1837 at Graaff-Reinet, aged 40, leaving a wife and five
small children, (Grahamstown Journal 13 Apr 1837).

c1. James Henry BIDDULPH rendered distinguished service in the Sixth
Frontier War, 1835.
c3. T.J. BIDDULPH rendered valuable service in the Frontier War of
1846. He was a magistrate at the Kat River and at Winburg, O.F.S.

In 1844 celebrations were held in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and
Bathurst to commemorate the completion of 24 years since the landing
of the settlers. At the open-air luncheon arranged at Bathurst on the
site where Captain TRAPPES had his marquee for the distribution of
rations to the Settlers, W. BIDDULPH was one of the principal
speakers.

Miss Ina BIDDULPH, now aged 84, of No. 21, Miles Street, Port Alfred
who supplied the foregoing information, writes that her youngest
brother's two sons were in the R.A.F. and were both killed, one over
London and the other over France, and that there are no BIDDULPHs left
here to carry on the name.

The BIDDULPH family trace their ancestry back for twenty-two
generations to Richard the Forester, one of the tenants of Capite
mentioned in the Doomsday Book 1086. His daughter m. Ormus De GUIDON
from whom direct descent was traced to the Settler Simon BIDDULPH.

An extract from a letter from Capt. T.J. BIDDULPH to his niece, Anna
RANCLOUD, Edward John BIDDULPH's first cousin, reads as follows:-
"BIDDULPH means wolf-slayer. The BIDDULPH crest is a wolf; some have
it sitting and others springing. Motto: Submimiora petamus - let us
aim at loftier things.

In Sampson ERDESWICK's History of Staffordshire, the BIDDULPHS are said
to have owned eight manors, while the estate of BIDDULPH was divided
into divers hamlets - Nether Biddulph, Middle Biddulph, Over Biddulph
and Kneperley. In the Peerage, the BIDDULPHs were represented by Lord
CAMOYS whose ancestor married an heiress of BIDDULPH, the family name
being STONER of Stoner in the county of Oxford. Lord DORMER and Lord
PETRE both married into the BIDDULPH family. They were Catholics, and
suffered for their support of the Stuart cause. The above were
referred to as the "loyal Biddulphs" who stuck to the land and to the
King and the Constitution and were created Baronets by Charles II for
their loyalty to his crown and for their suffering in the Civil Wars.

>From merchant branch of the BIDDULPHs are descended the Biddulphs of
Chirk Castle, Ledbury, in Herefordshire, and Burton Park in Sussex.

The head of the family is now represented by Sir Theophilis BIDDULPH
of Birdingbury, Warwickshire, whose ancestors possessed
estates at Biddulph in northern Staffordshire where there are still
the remains of Biddulph Castle which stood out a siege by Cromwell.
"We are closely related to these, my father in 1819 being first cousin
to the then Sir Theophilis BIDDULPH of Birdingbury, their fathers
being brothers", says Miss Ina BIDDULPH.

Best wishes
Becky
Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Researching: HENWICK; HILL; HORN(E); MEREDITH; DEYZEL; LARSEN; WILSON;
LYNAR; HENNING; STERLEY; THECK; BEST; BRAUN, GREENER; GLANVILLE


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