The oldest son, another William (b.1840), emigrated to South Africa in 1862 age of 22. The family in Essex was very large as when he departed, his mother Mary Ann was still pregnant with the last child, James Rudd Lucas, born later on in 1862. William travelled to South Africa on an assisted passage on the ship Adelaide, leaving Southampton March 1, 1862 and arriving at Port Elizabeth three months later on June 7, 1862. [1]
According to the Lucas Book he settled at Rustenberg in the Transvaal, and married Maria Johanna de Beer in 1872, ten years after he arrived, and "became a Burgher of that State".[2]His first child, William Reginald Hall Lucas, was born the next year on July 10, 1873. Then many more children follow, eight girls, and two more boys, the last one born in 1892.
I've only done a little searching for this family. I searched the online index to the Death Notices, which is great. It gives the name of the deceased as well as their spouses name, and in the case of the women gives their maiden name. In this way I almost immediately found William Lucas and Maria Johanna de Beer. He died in 1895, and she lived until 1932. The death was registered in the Natal District. I sent a message to the South Africa list, almost immediately a volunteer offered to look them up for me, so I'll see if anything comes of that.
Feb 27, 2003. Yippee! I heard back from the researcher and she has emailed me copies of the certificates.
The first one is the Death Notice for William, who died in 1895. [Have to figure out how to do the thumbnail images!]. Then we have his widow, Maria Johanna, who died in 1932. She died without enough assets to attract tax, so there goes the diamond connection!
The other very real possibility is that the Lucas Book is wrong and that it is a completely different fellow here. The one fact against it is that a couple of his children have family names, as in William Reginald Hall Lucas (mothers maiden name), and Joseph Laurance Rudd Lucas (grandmother's maiden name). But working against this is the fact that neither of these boys lived to maturity (apparently) so it is more difficult to trace them. They are not in the Death Notices as they were not old enough to have a will or an estate when they died.
Another possibility is that the information in the Lucas Book is a mixture of two families.
Ayres was very involved in the social and cultural life of Potchefstroom. At one point in time, he even operated a brewery for a couple of years making Ayres XX Pale Ale. Many people spoke highly of this beer and it is rumoured that a Capt. William Cloudsley Lucas of the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry which was stationed at Rustenberg wrote to Ayres saying that the beer had cured him of “…nightly sweatings, terrible affections in the lumbar regions, and a chronic costiveness that had lasted eighteen years.”Note that the spelling of Cloudsley is a little different, and not time period is given, but it places William in Rustenberg, as given in the Lucas Book. [February 2006. The site is no longer on the internet and searching for info on William Cloudsley Lucas or the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry is a bit hopeless.]
And this one shows the present day divisions. Note that Natal is now called KwaZuluNatal. This is the area that the Beall boys (William's three nephews) came to around the turn of the century. They lived (and were buried) north of Durban in a small town near the Tugela River.
Haven't followed up on trying to determine if William left England to join the army and spent a few years in it before emigrating to South Africa.
The next child, Maria Aveline, b.1875, married Frederick Samuel Park, and lived until 1952. The next two daughters, Constance and Ellen, born in 1876 and 1877 both died before they were a year old. Then we have Mary Ann Emily Coral, born in 1879. She does not appear in the Death Notices index, so she must have lived past about 1900, but not long enough to have a will or an estate. Then comes Ella Winifred, b.1881, who married Robertus Adolph Bernard Mussman, and lived until 1961.
A boy was born next, in 1883, Joseph Lawrence Rudd Lucas, but he died in 1900 at the age of 7. Avis Irene was born in 1884, and she married Charles George French, and died in 1964. The next boy was Charles Henry Gustavus, born in 1886. Here we have the first criminal in the family, as he was charged with something in 1927. He did marry though, and lived until 1954.
The last two children were girls, Johanna Frances in 1889, who married twice, and died in 1943.
Millicent Louise, born in 10 Sept 1892, appears in the IGI as Louise Millicent Lucas, born 10 Sept 1891. The entry in the IGI has been made by an individual and no sources are given, however as all the husbands details are given, I'd guess it would likely be mostly correct. The big find was the name of the place she was born, Potchefstroom, Transvaal. This is a large town these days, and about 80 km from Rustenberg. Next is to try and get some more birth records from that place at the right time period. She was married in 1913 to Walter Ernest Dickens. He was also a first generation South African, his father coming from Northampton. She does not appear in the Death Notices index. [Check this again]
This is a link to the family group sheet.
A good primer on South African genealogy.
