Thomas Charles John Bain

29 September 1830 – 29 September 1893 · Bain line

Connection to the Koup

Took part in something recorded here: The Swartberg Pass opens (1888-01-10).

Names

Baptismal name

Thomas Charles John

Given

Thomas Charles John

Surname

Bain

The formal baptismal name and the name a person was actually called are both kept, and neither is derived from the other. Spelling drift between records is evidence, not noise.

A life in the record

1. 29 September 1830 born Born
2. 10 January 1888 event The Swartberg Pass opens
   Built 1881-1888 under Thomas Bain, largely with convict labour; about 150 convicts died. Bain was made the colony's geological surveyor the same year.
3. 1891 event Thomas Bain publishes "The Nuggets of the Gouph and the Prince Albert Gold Fields"
   31 pages, JC Juta and Company. With Henry Oakley he put the gold-bearing reef at about 18 square miles - against the 8,100 square miles he had projected to the press.
4. 29 September 1893 died Died

Stories

• subject The Prince Albert gold rush
• mentioned Almero Hitge and the teachers over the Swartberg

What we don't know

• Neither parent is recorded, so this person is not attached to the tree above them.
• No dated record ties this person to a specific piece of ground.

A sourced gap beats an unsourced fill. These are the open questions on this person, stated rather than papered over.

Sources

1. History of Prince Albert Karoo South Africa
2. Rose Willis & Doreen Atkinson, "Zeekoegat: Explorations in the Koup Karoo" (2022) Karoo Development Foundation38pp cameo

Research notes

These are working notes, not finished prose: they carry the reasoning, the corrections and the things still marked to verify. They are kept here so the page itself can read as what is known.