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South African Historical Journal Volume 25, 1991 - Issue 1
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ARTICLES/ARTIKELS

‘The Oldest Charitable Society in South Africa’: One Hundred Years and More of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society at the Cape of Good Hope

EDNA BRADLOW Cape Town
Pages 77-104 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • Scott , A. F. ‘On Seeing and Not Seeing; A Case of Historical Invisibility’, Journal of American History 71, 1 (June 1984), 10
  • Prochaska , F. 1988 . The Voluntary Impulse: Philanthropy in Modem Britain 7 London
  • Ibid., introduction, 89
  • Ibid, mi.
  • Ibid, 6
  • Summers , A. 1979 . “ ‘A Home from Home-Women's Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century’ ” . In Fit Work for Women Edited by: Burman , S. Canberra in, ed.
  • Hall , C. ‘The Early Formation of Victorian Domestic Ideology’, in Burman . Fit Work , 28 quoting Hannah More
  • Boylan , A. M. ‘Women in Groups: An Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations’ . Journal of American History , 71 3 (Dec. 1984), 503
  • Hall, ‘Early Formation’, 28
  • Prochaska , F. 1980 . Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century England 225 Oxford
  • Ibid, 32
  • Scott, ‘On Seeing’, 9
  • Summers, ‘A Home from Home’, 39
  • Bradlow , E. “ Women at the Cape in the Mid-19th Century ” . South African Historical Journal, 19 (Nov. 1987), 71–2
  • Third Annual Report of the Committee of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1825 (hereafter 3rd AR 1825, etc.), p. 3
  • No form of permanent government aid was given until the 1920s
  • Judges , S. “ Poverty, Living Conditions and Social Relations: Aspects of Life in Cape Town in the 1830s ” . (MA thesis. University of Cape Town, 1977), 57ff.;M. Naude, “The Role of the Free Dispensary in Public Health Care in Cape Town 1860–1910’ (BA Hons thesis, University of Cape Town, 1987)
  • Edwards , I. 1942 . Towards Emancipation: A Study in South African Slavery 159 Cardiff
  • Edwards, Towards Emancipation, 157–58;G. Ashworth, comp., The Life and Fortunes of John Pocock of Cape Town 1814–1876 (Cape Town, 1974), 23. Its members included other Congregationalists
  • Bradlow , E. ‘The Children's Friend Society at the Cape of Good Hope’ . Victorian Studies , 27 2 (Winter 1984). The society's basically good intentions were distorted in their implementation. The Commission included Revd J. Philip, John Fairbairn, H.E. Rutherfoord, Dr. S. Bailey, J. Rose Innes, Revd J. Beck, E.’ Christian, and J. Murray
  • South African Directory and Almanac (1834), 181. This publication, it should be noted, changed its title several times
  • Women and Philanthropy, 24
  • Dictionary of South African Biography, vol. 1 (Pretoria, 1968), 613
  • Cape Archives (CA), A1733 (55), Cape Town and Suburban Ladies Benevolent Society, ‘Some Facts concerning the Cape Town and Suburban Ladies’ Benevolent Society 1822–1922’, (n.d., probably 1937–38) (hereafter ‘Some Facts’)
  • Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, 101
  • Third revised edition (Oxford, 1956)
  • CA, A.1733(55), ‘Ladies Benevolent Society’, (n.d., probably 1922) (hereafter LBS), 1922
  • Scott, ‘On Seeing’, 10
  • 2nd AR (1824), p. 3
  • By the end of the nineteenth century it comprised a patroness, president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and committee of well over 20
  • 47th AR (1868), p. 3
  • Cape Argus, 17 Sep. 1868;it was described as the only charitable organization ‘having a broad and catholic basis’
  • 47th AR (1868), p. 12
  • South African Almanac (1833), 144: ‘perhaps no committee of equal size can boast ol possessing more active and solid Benevolence than that which is reflected so brightly from the Ladies of Cape Town’
  • 3rd AR, (1825)
  • CA, A.1733(55), LBS, 1922
  • See South African Almanack and Directory (1830–1838);2nd AR (1824);3rd AR (1825);8th AR (1830)
  • Cape of Good Hope Almanac (1842);Ashworth, John Pocock 59
  • Cape of Good Hope Almanac (1858), G. Morgan (Presbyterian), Parisius (Lutheran);but Mrs W. Thompson, wife of the Union Chapel minister, was also a committee member
  • CA, A.1733(55), ‘Some Facts’
  • Scott, ‘On Seeing’
  • 8th AR (1830), p. 3;Cape Argus 28 Nov. 1861: many immigrants arrived ‘without the slightest means of support’
  • Dutch Reformed Church Archives (hereafter DRC Arch), V.3, 1/1, LBS 1, Records of the Proceedings of the committee of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society at the Cape of Good Hope; V.3, 1/1, Minutes 4 Nov. 1857, 6 Apr. 1859;Cape Argus 22 Sep. 1868
  • CA A.1733(55), ‘Some Facts’
  • C. Hall, ‘Early Formation’, 28–9
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 67
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Records of the Proceedings of the committee of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society at the Cape of Good Hope representing their School of Industry 1824–1829 (hereafter School), 16 Aug. 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 18 Oct. 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 1 July 1824;2nd AR 1824. The Commission's work included the distribution of Bibles which took precedence over its educational function: (L.H. Badenhorst, DieAandeel van die Kerk in die Opvoeding Spesiaal in the Kaapprovinsie (Amsterdam, 1955), 37
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, School, 21 June 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 19 July 1824, ‘fortnightly’
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 29 Jan. 1828, 11 Feb. 1828
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 16 Aug. 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 21 June 1824
  • 2nd AR (1824), p. 4
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 26 July 1824
  • 2nd AR (1824), p. 4
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, School, 2 Aug. 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 20 Sep. 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 18 Dec. 1824
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 53
  • South African Commercial Advertiser, 30 Jan. 1830, refers to Lady Cole's School of Industry, where one day a week was spent by the girls ‘mending their clothes in school, and [they] will be instructed how to do so properly’
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 13 June 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 20 Mar. 1825, 13 June 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 26 July 1824
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 26 July 1824, 1 Aug. 1825, 10 July 1826, 8 Jan. 1827, 11 Apr. 1828, 9 June 1828, Aug. 1828
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 1 Aug. 1825. Up to 15 could be admitted at any one time
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 19 Jul. 1824, 7 Feb. 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 10 Nov. 1827
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 20 Sep. 1824;3rd AR, 1825, p. 4
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 7 Feb. 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 19 June 1826, 26 June 1826
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 4 Feb. 1829
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 8 Oct. 1826, 10 Nov. 1827, 10 Dec. 1827
  • DRC Arch, V.3, lfl, School, 18 Dec. 1824, 13 June 1825, 23 June 1825, 11 July 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, School, 13 June 1825
  • DRC Arch, V.3, 1/1, School, Sep. 1828
  • Slaves, freed slaves and some poor whites would all have been Dutch speakers
  • 47th AR (1868)
  • Warren , D. ‘Merchants, Commissioners and Wardmasters: Municipal Politics in Cape Town 1840–54’ (MA thesis, University of Cape Town, 1986), 27ff. 47th AR (1868), p. 9. 1845 was a ‘year of unusual distress’
  • 2nd AR (1824);3rd AR (1825);8th AR (1830);42nd AR (1863). Over the years these subscription lists included the names of government officials such as C. Bird and J.W. Stoll; Judges G. Kekewich, E.B. Watermeyer, and H. Cloete; Advocate F.S. Watermeyer; Drs. S. Bailey, C.L. Liesching, J. Abercrombie, J.R. Hutchinson, and D. O'Flinn; and leading businessmen such as J.B. Ebden, A. Chiappini, S. Solomon, R. Stuttaford, W. Bridekirk and E.R. Syfret;48th AR (1869) lists 216 subscribers
  • 42nd AR (1863), R. Hart, Pringle, Bowker etc.-all well-known names in the Eastern Cape
  • 8th AR (1830), for example provided the names of subscribers who had donated more than the Society's four rixdollars subscription. Of the eight thus listed, four were leading Cape Evangelicals
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 40;DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 Apr. 1873, a Mrs Atkinson donated £100, which she wanted to be noted in the annual report to encourage other donors
  • 2nd AR (1824), pp. 6–7
  • 3rd AR (1825), p. 3
  • CA, A 1733(3), 6th AR, Wynberg branch (1869), p. 5
  • CA, A 1733(55), ‘Some Facts’
  • 3rd AR (1825), p. 8. The latter were English officials serving in India who frequently spent their leave at the Cape
  • Ashworth, John Pocock, 34
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Outgoing letters, 5 Feb. 1869;48th AR (1869)
  • Cape Argus, 28 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 7 Sep. 1870
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 4 Oct. 1865, 2 June 1869, 4 May 1870, 7 Dec. 1870, 5 June 1872, 2 June 1869;South African Advertiser and Mail 27 Nov. 1861. The £200 left by H. Lynar (DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 3 Sep. 1873) was unusually large
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 22 Nov. 1865
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1A, Minutes, 3 Oct. 1866;3 May 1871, a ‘Promenade concert’ raised £10;10 Apr. 1872, an unspecified ‘entertainment’ raised £26
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 5 May 1869
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 24 Mar. 1862, 29 Mar. 1862
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 1 Jun. 1864
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 5 July 1870, Evangelical Alliance in Caledon Square Chapel
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 June 1869, 9 June 1869;48th AR (1869). Full ownership was incorrectly attributed to Mosenthals, who were probably part owners. They did, however, display the ‘Star’ on behalf of the Port Elizabeth LBS just prior to the Cape Town exhibition. The subsequent display, on behalf of the LBS, Cape Town, of another diamond, ‘Star of Beaufort’, was less successful, probably because the diamond was less famous
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 10 Apr. 1872
  • 2nd AR (1824);3rd AR (1825). The Cape used Dutch currency until June 1825 when the rixdollar was given a sterling rating of 1/6: (E.H.D. Arndt, Banking and Currency Development in South Africa 1652–1927 (Cape Town, 1928), 47
  • Cape of Good Hope Annual Register (1837), p. 48;Cape of Good Hope Annual Register (1855), p. 154. £99 was spent in 1854
  • Cape Argus, 26 Nov. 1861, 28 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 8 Nov. 1861;South African Advertiser and Mail 27 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 3 Dec. 1862
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 7 Sep. 1863. In December 1863 there was £40 left to carry on relief work, with subscriptions only due the following February
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 Dec. 1863
  • 47th AR (1868), p. 14. The campaign was referred to as a general ‘canvass’, indicating it was aimed at individuals who had probably never before been subscribers
  • Cape Argus, 16 Sep. 1871, existing ‘distress’ among the poor was exacerbated by a measles epidemic; DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Outgoing letters, 4 Aug. 1871;Minutes, 2 Aug. 1871, 13 Sep. 1871, 4 Oct. 1871, 6 Dec. 1871. £298 2s 6d was raised
  • 1887 . CA, A 1733(55), ‘Some Facts’, quoting AR with its reference to the ‘extravagance of the upper classes’ with which was associated a reluctance to support the Society
  • CA, A 1733(55), ‘Some Facts’. See E.B. van Heyningen, ‘Public Health and Society in Cape Town 1880–1910’, (PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989), 427ff. for the increasing number of philanthropic institutions
  • Van Heyningen, ‘Public Health’, 414ff
  • 85th AR (1906–1907);89th AR (1910–1911)
  • 86th AR (1909–1910)
  • 90th AR (1911–1912)
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 68
  • Ibid, 43
  • Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, 110–11
  • See A. Summers, ‘A Home from Home’, 33. Her subsequent proposition that one aspect of such visiting was to ‘bridge…the social and political gulfs between them’ is not in any way borne out by the Ladies’ Benevolent Society's records
  • Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, 110–11
  • 3rd AR (1825), p. 3
  • Cape of Good Hope Almanac and Annual Register (1843), p. 281
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 Dec. 1868, 3 Feb. 1869. Several of those approached declined, and existing members retired, mainly because they had moved, but occasionally for a ‘multiplicity of Home duties’. On the whole, however, members served for many years
  • CA, A1733(3), 6th AR, Wynberg branch, (1869). By 1870 Port Elizabeth had a Ladies’ Benevolent Society which sent its reports to the Cape Town Society: DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 7 Sep. 1870, 4 Sep. 1872
  • South African Advertiser and Mail, 27 Nov. 1861
  • CA, A1733(55), ‘Some Facts’
  • The question of talcing funds from the circus performance, for example, was discussed at two special meetings
  • 47th AR (1868)
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 1 Dec. 1869
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 Dec. 1863, the visitors sometimes also subsidized existing church aid; see also Cape Argus 28 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 4 Feb. 1863,4 Mar. 1863,1 Apr. 1863,3 May 1871,6 Aug. 1873 etc
  • E.g. DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 Dec. 1857: Rachel, blind and too old to work. For a discussion on the type of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ poverty encountered by the Society, see S. Judges, ‘Poverty, Living Conditions and Social Relations’, passim.
  • 42nd AR (1863), p. 10
  • 2nd AR (1824), pp. 7, 9;3rd AR (1825), p. 5
  • Judges, ‘Poverty, Living Conditions’, 51 for extent of drunkenness
  • 42nd AR (1863), p. 15
  • See for example, DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 1 Feb. 1871, 5 July 1871,10 May 1872,3 July 1872
  • Prior to 1863, colour was never mentioned except 42nd AR (1863), p. 2, Rondebosch branch report of previous year
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 7 Jun. 1865
  • DRC Arch, V.3, lfl, Minutes, 4 Apr. 1866
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 4 Nov. 1868
  • 6th AR, Wynberg branch (1869)
  • CA, A 1733(55), LBS 1922
  • CA, A 1733(55), LBS 1922
  • 85th AR (1906–1907);86th AR (1907–1908)
  • 87th AR (1910–1911)
  • 112th AR (1933–1934);CA, A 1733(55), ‘Some Facts’
  • 2nd AR (1824), p. 9
  • Summers, ‘A Home from Home’, 35
  • Ibid, 35
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 48;Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy 126;DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes 2 Oct. 1872
  • Cape Argus, 16 Sep. 1871;CA, A 1733(55), LBS 1922
  • 42nd AR (1862), p.6. The greatest care was taken to prevent abuse of the system
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 5 June 1861, 27 Nov. 1861; ‘baize and bafta’ used at the ceremonial foundation stone laying at the Sailors Home by Prince Alfred were given to the poor in winter, Minutes, 7 Sep. 1863: ‘many respectable families’ accepted secondhand clothing
  • 14th AR (1835)
  • CA, A 1733(55), LBS 1922, 100th AR (1921–1922)
  • Van Heyningen, ‘Public Health’, 230
  • Mrs. J. Abercrombie, snr, and S. Bailey, resident medical officer at the Somerset Hospital were active in this
  • Ashworth, John Pocock, 62. In the 1850s free out-patient care was provided at the Old Somerset Hospital;SA. Advertiser and Mail 27 Nov. 1861, Cape Argus 28 Nov. 1861: for years Pocock's pharmacy also provided free medicines
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Outgoing letters, Secretary, LBS to Colonial Secretary, 16 June 1869,11 Aug. 1869, 10 Mar. 1871
  • 42nd AR (1863)
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes 4 May 1859
  • 8th AR (1830), p. 3
  • 42nd AR (1863), p. 15
  • Cape Argus, 28 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 3 May 1865, 4 Oct. 1865
  • One should comment on the kindness of the poor towards each other, but such aid was pitifully inadequate, e.g. DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 6 Sep. 1865, Doortje, bedridden cared for by a poor woman with a large family;7 Feb. 1866, Dinah Jamay, living rent free with a young man she had brought up;6 Feb. 1867, a poor woman nursing a four-day old baby whose mother had died in childbirth
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 7 Aug. 1872, it was agreed that a portion of the Society's funds be deposited in the Cape of Good Hope Savings Bank, which accepted small sums for investment, and whose interest rates were higher than the other banks
  • S.A. Advertiser and Mail, 27 Nov. 1861
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, 3 Dec. 1862
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 4 Oct. 1865
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 1 Nov. 1865, Judge Watermeyer was in the chair
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 2 June 1863;22 Nov. 1865, the LBS agreed to the request of a male deputation to run a soup kitchen provided the expenses did not fall upon the Society. An initial sum of £20 was sent by the male organizers and that was the end of the project
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Outgoing letters 6 Aug. 1868, 2 Sep. 1868, to the editors of the Cape Argus and the Standard and Mail Subsequently, 4 Aug. 1871, several leading newspapers, both English and Dutch (Cape Argus, Standard and Mail, Penny Post, Volksblad, Volksvriend) were approached to publicize the Society in order to raise funds
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes 2 Sep. 1868. It is possible that the Catholics did not want to be too closely associated with a Protestant-dominated organization (vide DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes, 3 Feb. 1869, removal of a Catholic recipient from a district, apparently because the visitor was a Protestant). On the other hand, Minutes, 2 Dec. 1863, St. Stephen's Church (a Protestant congregation) also removed its adherents from LBS aid
  • Cape Argus, 22 Sep. 1868
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 1 Sep. 1869, it moved to the Long St. Mission Chapel where there was more space
  • 47th AR (1868)
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Minutes, 25 Sep. 1868
  • 47th AR (1868), pp. 6–7
  • Cape Argus, 17 Sep. 1868. He was referring to finding employment, or effecting sanitary and other ‘improvements’; 47th AR (1868). Fuller also recommended that sewing be distributed in cases of destitution, and paid for, so as to avoid any hint of charity, which as we know, was regarded by middle-class Victorians as being potentially harmful to the poor
  • DRC Arch, V.3.1A, Minutes 21 Oct. 1868
  • 47th AR (1868), p. 74
  • 47th AR (1868), p. 73, their italics
  • DRC Arch, V.3,1/1, Outgoing letters, secretary, LBS to H. Solomon and E. Moore, 12 July 1869
  • Van Heyningen, ‘Public Health’, 430–1, quoting Cape Argus, 1 Nov. 1905. The socialists had their own societies which, however, never really got off the ground (personal information to the present writer from Elizabeth van Heyningen)
  • Summers, ‘A Home from Home’, 58
  • Prochaska, Voluntary Impulse, 48
  • LBS, 1922, p. 1

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