Frederick Thomas Green
Encyclopedia
Frederick Thomas Green (April 4, 1829 – May 5, 1876) was an explorer, hunter and trader in what is now Namibia
and Botswana
. From 1850 to 1853 he was in the Lake Ngami
area, travelling hunting and trading with his older brother Charles. After 1854 he was mainly based in Damaraland
in what is now Namibia.
, Quebec
, the son of William John Green and his wife Margaret Gray (daughter of John Gray
, the founder of the Bank of Montreal
).
William John Green, also known as William Goodall Green, worked in the commissariat department of the British Army, and was transferred to Halifax
, Nova Scotia
in the 1840s, where his wife died. He then moved with his younger children to the Cape Colony
in about 1846, and was stationed at Grahamstown
.
was at Bloemfontein
, in the Orange River Sovereignty
in the commissariat
department, and later succeeded Major Warden as British Resident until the Sovereignty was abandoned in 1854. Fred and Charles Green were also in Bloemfontein at this time, but set out on an expedition to Shoshong
when Charles was aged 24 and Fred 21. On that trip they met David Livingstone
, and were at Livingstone's place at Kolobeng on 1850-07-30.
In 1851 the Green brothers went on another trip to Lake Ngami
, this time accompanied by two army officers, Edward Shelley and Gervase Bushe. Bushe and Shelley had visited Bechuanaland the previous year, but had got lost, and were arrested by the Transvaal
authorities, who were apparently trying to stop others from visiting Lake Ngami
. On the 1851 trip they were more successful. They met David Livingstone
and William Oswell at the Botletle River on 1851-09-11, where Livingstone helped them to repair a wagon wheel. Fred Green may have gone on ahead of the others, and travelled as far as Ghanzi
, near the present border with Namibia.
By early March 1852 Fred Green was back in the Orange River Sovereignty, which seems to have become the base for him and his brother Charles on their annual expeditions. On their 1852 trip to Lake Ngami Charles and Fred Green visited the Bakwena chief Setshele I
at Kolobeng, and left 50 cattle with him for their return journey, as they were planning to travel in country infested by tsetse fly
. At some point in their journey they fell in with Samuel Edwards (son of a missionary), J.H. Wilson (Setshele's son-in-law), and Donald Campbell, with whom they explored the north shore of Lake Ngami. They travelled about 120 miles west of the lake when they reached elephant country, but it was also fly country, and they lost 34 horses and 50 head of cattle.
On their return to Kolobeng they discovered that Boers had raided Kolobeng and made off with the cattle they had left with Setshele, and had taken some 200 women and nearly 1000 children into slavery. Livingstone likewise returned to discover that his home had been plundered by the Boer raiders. Charles and Fred Green returned to Bloemfontein in January 1853 accompanied by Edwards (who acted as Setchele's interpreter) to lay a complaint with the British authorities there (in the person of their brother Henry Green
, the British Resident). After deciding that a trip to Cape Town would not accomplish much, Charles Green held a collection for Setshele, and apparently took him home again, though some sources say that Setchele actually got as far as Cape Town before returning. Henry Green was warned in a letter by Sir George Cathcart
, governor of the Cape Colony, not to listen to his brothers and espouse Setshele's cause.
Fred Green, then 23, remained in Bloemfontein, staying at Tempe with Andrew Hudson Bain, a Scots farmer who had hunted in the interior in his youth. Fred spent most of his time playing billiards
and hunting with army officers. Some time in the winter of 1853 Fred Green returned to the Lake Ngami area, travelling far to the east, and then in 1854 he travelled west through Damaraland
to Walvis Bay
, from where he went to Cape Town, presumably by sea. At the same time the Orange River Sovereignty came to an end with the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854-02-23, and in March the British garrison and civil establishment left, and the Orange Free State
republic came into being. It seems likely that Fred Green thought that in view of the changed political situation the prospects for trade in the east were poor, and so turned his face westwards.
In Cape Town
Fred Green met Charles John Andersson
, the Swede, and entered into partnership with him, and his next trip to Lake Ngami was sponsored by Andersson.
He next married Kate Stewardson, and they had seven children, most of whom died in infancy, except for:
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
. From 1850 to 1853 he was in the Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River an affluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi...
area, travelling hunting and trading with his older brother Charles. After 1854 he was mainly based in Damaraland
Damaraland
Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south....
in what is now Namibia.
Biography
Frederick Thomas Green was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, the son of William John Green and his wife Margaret Gray (daughter of John Gray
John Gray (banker)
John Gray , a Canadian banker, JP and militia officer, was the founder and first president of the Bank of Montreal.-References:...
, the founder of the Bank of Montreal
Bank of Montreal
The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...
).
William John Green, also known as William Goodall Green, worked in the commissariat department of the British Army, and was transferred to Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
in the 1840s, where his wife died. He then moved with his younger children to the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
in about 1846, and was stationed at Grahamstown
Grahamstown
Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...
.
Lake Ngami
Fred Green's older brother Henry GreenHenry Green (British Resident)
Henry Green was British Resident of the Orange River Sovereignty, a civil servant and a diamond miner in Griqualand West....
was at Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
, in the Orange River Sovereignty
Orange River Sovereignty
The Orange River Sovereignty was a short-lived political entity between the Orange and Vaal rivers in southern Africa. In 1854, it became the Orange Free State, and is now the Free State province of South Africa.-History:...
in the commissariat
Commissariat
A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the...
department, and later succeeded Major Warden as British Resident until the Sovereignty was abandoned in 1854. Fred and Charles Green were also in Bloemfontein at this time, but set out on an expedition to Shoshong
Shoshong
Shoshong is a town in Botswana, formerly the chief settlement of the eastern Bamangwato.-Physical location:Shoshong is located at latitude -22.95, longitude +26.48, in the Central District, about N.N.E. of Mafeking and N. of Shoshong Road Station on the Cape Town-Bulawayo railway. It is 40 km...
when Charles was aged 24 and Fred 21. On that trip they met David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
, and were at Livingstone's place at Kolobeng on 1850-07-30.
In 1851 the Green brothers went on another trip to Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River an affluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi...
, this time accompanied by two army officers, Edward Shelley and Gervase Bushe. Bushe and Shelley had visited Bechuanaland the previous year, but had got lost, and were arrested by the Transvaal
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
authorities, who were apparently trying to stop others from visiting Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River an affluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi...
. On the 1851 trip they were more successful. They met David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
and William Oswell at the Botletle River on 1851-09-11, where Livingstone helped them to repair a wagon wheel. Fred Green may have gone on ahead of the others, and travelled as far as Ghanzi
Ghanzi
Ghanzi is a town in the western part of the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. At the time of the 2001 census, there were 9,934 people living in the town with another 861 nearby. It is the administrative center of Ghanzi District and is known as the "Capital of the Kalahari"...
, near the present border with Namibia.
By early March 1852 Fred Green was back in the Orange River Sovereignty, which seems to have become the base for him and his brother Charles on their annual expeditions. On their 1852 trip to Lake Ngami Charles and Fred Green visited the Bakwena chief Setshele I
Setshele I
Setshele I a Motswasele "Rra Mokonopi", ruler of the baKwena people of Botswana 1831-1892 , also known as Sechele.-See also:* Rulers of baKwêna...
at Kolobeng, and left 50 cattle with him for their return journey, as they were planning to travel in country infested by tsetse fly
Tsetse fly
Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...
. At some point in their journey they fell in with Samuel Edwards (son of a missionary), J.H. Wilson (Setshele's son-in-law), and Donald Campbell, with whom they explored the north shore of Lake Ngami. They travelled about 120 miles west of the lake when they reached elephant country, but it was also fly country, and they lost 34 horses and 50 head of cattle.
On their return to Kolobeng they discovered that Boers had raided Kolobeng and made off with the cattle they had left with Setshele, and had taken some 200 women and nearly 1000 children into slavery. Livingstone likewise returned to discover that his home had been plundered by the Boer raiders. Charles and Fred Green returned to Bloemfontein in January 1853 accompanied by Edwards (who acted as Setchele's interpreter) to lay a complaint with the British authorities there (in the person of their brother Henry Green
Henry Green (British Resident)
Henry Green was British Resident of the Orange River Sovereignty, a civil servant and a diamond miner in Griqualand West....
, the British Resident). After deciding that a trip to Cape Town would not accomplish much, Charles Green held a collection for Setshele, and apparently took him home again, though some sources say that Setchele actually got as far as Cape Town before returning. Henry Green was warned in a letter by Sir George Cathcart
George Cathcart
General The Honourable Sir George Cathcart GCB was a British general and diplomat.-Military career:He was born in Renfrewshire, son of William Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart. After receiving his education at Eton and in Edinburgh, he was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1810...
, governor of the Cape Colony, not to listen to his brothers and espouse Setshele's cause.
Fred Green, then 23, remained in Bloemfontein, staying at Tempe with Andrew Hudson Bain, a Scots farmer who had hunted in the interior in his youth. Fred spent most of his time playing billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
and hunting with army officers. Some time in the winter of 1853 Fred Green returned to the Lake Ngami area, travelling far to the east, and then in 1854 he travelled west through Damaraland
Damaraland
Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south....
to Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay , is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies...
, from where he went to Cape Town, presumably by sea. At the same time the Orange River Sovereignty came to an end with the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854-02-23, and in March the British garrison and civil establishment left, and the Orange Free State
Orange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
republic came into being. It seems likely that Fred Green thought that in view of the changed political situation the prospects for trade in the east were poor, and so turned his face westwards.
In Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
Fred Green met Charles John Andersson
Charles John Andersson
- References :* at Internet Archive...
, the Swede, and entered into partnership with him, and his next trip to Lake Ngami was sponsored by Andersson.
Marriage and children
Fred Green first married Betsey Kaipukire ua Kandendu and they had a daughter- Ada Maria Green (1864-08-24 – 1926-05-24)
He next married Kate Stewardson, and they had seven children, most of whom died in infancy, except for:
- Mary Elizabeth Green (1865-11-04 – 1952-04-18)
- Frederick Vincent Greene (1868-11-21 – 1949-11-26)
- Alice Isabella Green (1871-08-16 – c1945)