The origins of many Bluff suburbs and names are etched in the annals of time and Mc Naught and Co. are proud to be linked to this history.
Suburbs like Fynnland, Kingsrest and Grosvenor call back early settlers and events needed remembering. Here are some of them:
✅ Fynnland – named after Henry Francis Fynn, an early settler and trader who established his home on the eastern part of the Bluff.
He was born in London, one of the English settlers who came to the then Port Natal from the Cape Colony in 1823 and was among the first Europeans to make contact with Shaka Zulu. Fynn, Coenraad De Buys, John Dunn and Nathaniel Isaacs were among the most famous of South Africa’s so-called White Chiefs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Francis_Fynn
✅ Kingsrest, Lt.King Park and Lt.King Crescent – James Saunders King was another English settler and naval officer who was intent on establishing trade with the Zulus through the Port of Natal when his ship the ‘Mary’ ran aground on the sand bar at the entrance to the Port and he settled here, becoming a firm favourite of the Zulu Chief Shaka. King contracted dysentry and died in Sept 1828 and was buried in Lt.King Park on the Bluff where a memorial was later erected.
https://grahamlesliemccallum.wordpress.com/tag/james-saunders-king/
✅ Grosvenor – the East Indiaman ship the ‘Grosvenor’ was wrecked on the 4th August 1782 and gives its name to this Bluff suburb. Of the 132 crew and 18 passengers (12 adults and 6 children) 123 survived the wreck but only 18 reached Cape Town the remainder not making the arduous trip back. Both Grosvenor Boys and Girls High Schools on the Bluff carry the name of the lost ship and this suburb.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_Grosvenor
Although original settlers were principally English, the Bluff later became popular with the Afrikaner population and is presently a mixture of all races, language groups and religions.
Mc Naught and Co. Attorneys have a fond connection with the Bluff, as founder Dave Mc Naught served as City Councillor of the Fynnland ward from 1988 through the change of government to the 1996 elections when the ward boundaries were enlarged to include previously excluded areas and races. He also served as Deputy Mayor of Durban 1994/1995 and established the first law firm to decentralise to and establish on the Bluff in 1985. He also established a Bluff Local History Museum which was later forced to close when the Provincial Museums’ Department failed to give recognition to the Bluff’s attempt to cement and commemorate their past.
# this is part 2 of our history and origins series compiled by Mc Naught and Co.
# more about our Bluff names series will follow.
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