Page 319 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Walter’s letter (15 February 1938) to his sons is again a useful start to a focus on South Africa. David Hartley Soothill (1833-1900) was one of the three sons of Thomas and Ellen Soothill. Thomas has been mentioned above as a pioneer coming to the United States in the early 1860s, while leaving his wife back in England in an institution. Walter describes David as “a drunkard at 21 years of age”. David married Jane Garth on 17 April 1854. Walter says that Jane also became a drunkard. However, they had two children – William (1864-1920) and Sam Greenwood (1876-?). Walter provides a poignant account:
“William after several rejections due to ill-nourishment, joined the army to escape from the wretched home, became a sergeant and army schoolmaster, and on retirement went to South Africa accompanied by his wife and brother, and later to New Zealand. Both William and his brother died of tuberculosis in New Zealand (or S. Africa). They are believed to have been married but if there were any family they and the widows have been lost sight of”.
It is not clear from this account when William and Sam actually went to South Africa. Sam is about 11 years younger than William and so perhaps William and his wife were helping Sam to escape his “wretched home”. William was born on 23 August 1864 in Halifax. In the 1881 census for England and Wales, William is shown as living as a boarder in 25 Hartley Street, Halifax, perhaps to escape his parents’ “wretched home”. At that time, aged 16, his occupation was a dyer’s apprentice. I believe he married Mary Elizabeth (née Hirst), but I do not know the date. Mary was born about 1883 in Ravensthorpe, Yorkshire in England and, if I have identified the relationship correctly, Mary would have been nearly twenty years younger than William. Assuming that she married at around 20 years of age and that William (retiring from the army at around 40 years) and Mary came out to South Africa soon after their marriage, they would have arrived in South Africa in the early 1900s with Sam in his mid- to late 20s. These are assumed to be the pioneers for the Soothill arrival in South Africa. However, at the moment there is no evidence that either William or Sam had any children in South Africa.
Again as a footnote, there seems to be a recent challenge to this account. In searching the National Archives of South Africa [Database: Cape Town
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