Melmoth was born in 1832 in the Cape Colony, he was one of 4 sons of Dr. Robert Farqauhar Osborn and Dorothea Aling.
At the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Robert Farquhar Osborn earned his medical degree after submitting a thesis on the eye there in 1819. In the same year, Edinburgh published his thesis, Tentamen inaugurale quaedam de sede visus complectens. In addition, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh granted him admission as a surgeon in August 1827. He was originally from the West Indian island of Antigua. After moving to the Cape Colony, he petitioned for a license to practice medicine in 1828. He made his home in Paarl, where the locals welcomed his appointment as a doctor, and he wed Dorothea Aling (born 1797) on May 18, 1829. He was survived by his second wife, Helen. W. de Waal.
Robert published a booklet, “The Mode in which light affects the eye” in Cape Town around 1834.
It seems Roberts’s great-grandson, Robert Farquhar became an author, writing novels such as Valiant Harvest and Umdoni Park amongst others.
Melmoth married Martina Schrikker in Greytown, Natal in 1856 and had 8 children, of which 7 reached adulthood. His eldest daughter Elizabeth Jessie Osborn would marry George Ernest Hitchcock, a distant cousin of mine.
For the Zulus who did not wish to be subject to either Cetshwayo or Zibhebhu, the British government declared the areas of territory between the Thukela and Mhlathuzi rivers to be a reserve.
The establishment of this reserve made the British presence in Zululand more substantial. Melmoth Osborn was designated as the British Resident in Zululand in 1880 and was located in Nhlazatshe. He was appointed commissioner at Eshowe in the Reserve Territory in 1883. In 1887, he was appointed chief magistrate of Zululand. After Melmoth persuades Cetshwayo to move to Eshowe, the King dies a couple of months later most likely of a heart attack. However, there were rumors of assassinations as the result of poisoning. Some of the King’s followers believed it may be Zibhebhu, and others believed it may have been Melmoth. These rumors were most likely encouraged by Zibhebhu. Melmoth would create a local native “police force” to assist the Eshowe British Column. They would engage in numerous skirmishes with uSuthu and Zibhebhe.
Melmoth town (named after Osborn) established after the annexation of Zululand by the British Empire in 1887 was known for its mini gold rush and soon prospered due to its fertile land and agricultural activities. Numerous wattle plantations were set up, and a wattle bark factory was built in 1926.
“On 11 November 1893 the resident
commissioner of Zululand, Melmoth Osborn, laid the foundation-stone for a DRC church building in Melmoth. On
15 June 1894 a crowd of about 400 Dutch people witnessed
the ceremony during which this building was consecrated.
On the same day the foundation charter of the Melmoth
DRC congregation was signed. The first DRC church council
which was elected included RJ. Ortlepp and D.C. Uys
(elders) andJJ. van Rooyen,J.P. Koekemoer, H.A. Liversage
and D.C. Uys (jr) (deacons). At first the congregation was
served by a visiting minister and it was only in 1919, after
a period of 25 years, that the first resident minister, CJ.
Brink, was appointed.”
Exert taken from the “first 10 years of Melmoth” by A de V. Minnaar.
*** The Liversage family were one of the founding families of Melmoth, I have a write up on them that I will expand further when covering the families of Melmoth.
I am looking to add more meat to the bones of this, I am heading to the archives in Pietermaritzburg, and the Natal History soceity. Unfortunately there are limited resources regarding Sir Melmoth online.
Please view his family tree below.