Joan Collett, A Time to Plant: Biography of James Lydford Collett, 1800 - 1875. Sine locum: Philip Collett, c. 2020.
2nd edition.
Hard cover, 268 pages, illustrated.
Fine condition.
Foreword by Guy Butler:
'This is a remarkable biography of a remarkable British settler, James Lydford Collett.
'I first heard of him as a legendary ancestor from his granddaughter, Annie Letitia. She had married James Butler, my grandfather in 1881. She told me good stories about James Lydford. She also pointed out that he had a much more legible handwriting than my own and referred me to a large leather-bound ledger which lay about our house in Cradock. It was only one of four such volumes which made up his diary kept virtually without break for almost 40 years from 1835 to 1875. These contained laconic, down-to-earth records of farming operations, occasionally interrupted by unusual events like the outbreak of a frontier war or a serious family illness. My aunt Mary felt it wrong that the precious volumes had been scattered among various descendants, and persuaded my father, Ernest, to gather and deposit them in the Albany Museum, Grahamstown.
'Before Collett became the progressive, methodical farmer of the diaries, he had made a career as a trader across the Fish and Kei Rivers all the way to Natal. One of the main contributions of this book is the light it throws upon his early manhood, between his arrival as a member of General Campbell's party in 1821, and the start of the diary in 1835. New, fascinating information has been gleaned in the Cape Archives from his numerous memorials to various officials.
'Collett was also a public-spirited man, who wrote letters to the press, and sat briefly in the first Cape parliament. He also hero-worshipped his friend Robert Godlonton to whom he wrote many letters. In these he poured out his feelings with a freedom which he seldom indulges elsewhere.
'Joan Collett has used all these primary materials with care and discrimination, elucidating and amplifying where necessary by reference to secondary sources. The result is the fullest and most informative biography of an 1820 settler known to me.
'Her written account is reinforced and enlivened by an exceptionally generous use of visual materials: seven maps, not less than twelve dozen illustrations including many by contemporaries such as Bell and Baines, and more than twenty apt drawings by one of James Lydford's descendants, John Collett, who is also responsible for the cover painting.
'Since 1945 Godfrey and Joan Colette have lived on the farm Katkop, near Fish River Station in the Cradock district, the heart of the Collett country. She has espoused the fortunes of the entire clan, so much so, that her interest in its founder has extended to his numerous descendants. The 200-page saga of Jamess life is followed by 40 pages of family photographs and genealogical tables of his descendants complete to 1990.
'A Time to Plant is the scholarly product of a discriminating intelligence. It is also an impressive labour of love.
'Guy Butler
'Grahamstown, May 1990.'
British Settlers of 1820.
