Correspondence of Cecil John Rhodes (1)

Title

Correspondence of Cecil John Rhodes (1)

Shelfmark

MSS. Afr. s. 228

Summary

Letters and telegrams received, arranged by the original subject headings as follows

Administrators [Rhodesia], 1897-1902

Cape Colony, 1890-1900

Charter (Matabeleland & Mashonaland), 1889-1896 - Charter referring to the British South Africa Company

Charter (Home Board), 1897-1902

Charter (Cape), 1898-1901

Cold storage, 1899-1902 - relating to Rhodes's attempts to break Combrinck and Co's meat monopoly by erecting a cold store at Cape Town, importing meat from Australia, etc.

De Beers, 1890-1902

Farms, 1897-1901

Finance, 1888-1899

Goldfields, 1890-1902

Hawkesley, 1897-1908 - B.F. Hawkesley was solicitor to Rhodes and to the British South Africa Company

Immigration, 1902 - relating to a scheme for the northwards immigration of women sponsored by Lady Hely-Hutchinson and the South African Immigration Association

Inyanga, 1896-1901 - relating to Inyanga farms, Rhodesia

McDonald, 1897-1902 - J.G. McDonald handled Rhodes's farming and other interests in the territory of the Ndebele, managed De Beer's Rhodesian farms, and was employed by Goldfields and by the Consolidated Exploration and Development Co.

Michell, 1897-1902 - Sir Lewis Michell was Rhodes's friend and banker

Miscellaneous, 1890-1902

Ngami trek, 1897-1902 - relating to an attempt by Rhodes to settle Boers in the Ghanzi and Lake Ngami areas of the Bechuanaland protectorate, 1898

Northern Rhodesia, 1897-1901

Rhodesian goldreefs, 1898-1902

Rhodesian railways, 1897-1901

Syfret, 1897-1902 - Syfret handled various businesses for Rhodes, including fruit farms, cold storage, the dynamite and brick-making subsidiaries, the Rhodesian enterprises managed by McDonald, the Groote Schuur and Muizenberg properties and other Cape investments

Transcontinental telegraph, 1897-1902

Transvaal, 1900-1902

Wernher, Beit & Co, 1890-1901 - a Kimberley diamond mining firm; Alfred Beit was also a life governor in De Beers and had connections with the Jameson raid

Delagoa Bay, 1892-1895 - relating to the attempted purchase of Delagoa Bay (in present Mozambique) from the Portuguese

Papers saved from the Groote Schuur fire, 1875-1896

Personal, mainly political and business, 1888-1902

Personal (General biographical material), 1884-1902

Associated place

Zimbabwe -- History -- 1890-1965

Mozambique -- History -- 19th century

Botswana -- History

Zambia -- History -- 1890-1924

South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909

Great Britain -- Colonies -- Africa, Southern

Date

1875-1908

Language

English

Physical extent

28 Volumes

Custodial history

The papers comprising collections MSS. Afr. s. 227 and 228 were previously known as the British South Africa Company Papers because they were housed in the Company's archives before being given to the Rhodes Trustees. They comprise the major part of Rhodes's working papers and also some personal material. Other papers belonging to the Company were sent to Rhodesia, therefore escaping the air-raid which damaged its premises in 1941.

The papers were catalogued after Rhodes's death by one of his secretaries, who inherited an existing filing system from his Principal Secretary. The ensuing catalogue of out-letters and telegrams (MSS. Afr. s. 227) was bound with a catalogue of in-letters, telegrams and related papers (MSS. Afr. s. 228). However, despite the provision of a small index, this handwritten list was complicated by the sometimes arbitrary arrangement, numbering and foliation of the papers themselves and by subsequent efforts to improve the arrangement by transferring certain items from one subject heading to another before binding. Other papers were removed during research into Rhodes by L.L. Milner and located among papers transferred to the library by his widow (MSS. Afr. s. 229/V), while some were removed, possibly for exhibition purposes, and bound in error among MSS. Afr. t. 5.

Subject

19th century

Afrikaners -- Botswana

Telegraph -- Africa

Afrikaners -- South Africa

Agriculture -- Africa, Southern

Gold mines and mining -- Africa, Southern

Railways -- Zimbabwe

Meat industry and trade -- Africa, Southern

20th century

Emigration and immigration -- Africa, Southern