Rupert Ford Marais
The Marais family in South Africa dates back to the arrival of Charles Marais, a French Huguenot immigrant, in 1688. Rupert was born on a farm known as Nektar, near Stellenbosch. He was a 6th-generation descendant of Charles Marais. Authors Eugene Marais (cousin) and Joy Packer, (niece - her mother was Rupert's sister Ellen) were members of this branch of the extended Marais family. Melt Marais, former commander of the Pretoria garrison during the Boer war was also a cousin.
His father - Petrus Jacobus Marais, was a colourful character known as Lang Piet, on account of his being known as the tallest man in Pretoria. He was worth nine million pounds, from gold prospecting in the Transvaal. Rupert was born in Pretoria, where his father owned the first double-story building in town, known as Nigel House. His gold fortune was due to finding gold on his farm, which later became the town of Nigel. Lang Piet later returned to the Cape, where he lived at Wheatfields in Mowbray.
The story of Rupert Marais, the swimmer, remains untold. The Marais family name - Rupert, his brother George, and a P. Marais - appears in the newspaper reports of swimming in the Cape between 1898-1902. Rupert won the 220-yard Western Province Championship in January 1899. The Team Race, where he swum for the Leander SC, and where a P. Marais was listed as a reserve. It is unclear how the Marais children returned to the Cape, and became involved with the Leander Swimming CLub.
His brother Charles Marais also played water polo for Western Province, winning the Currie Cup in 1901.
Rupert was born in 1880 and died on 1 August 1924, in Pretoria. He married Stella Felicia Emmett in St Peter's Church in Vryheid, Natal, on 5 October 1905. Stella passed away in Pretoria on 11 November 196. Her sister Venetia married Charles Marais, another brother of Rupert Marais, in Vryheid on 5 October 1893. She also lived in Pretoria until she passed in 1954.
In June 1901, he passed the Law Certificate Examination at the University of Cape Town, and by 1902 he was practising as an attorney in Pretoria. Rupert Marais was joined by Norman Price (later to become Judge N. C. B. Price) and Charles William Clark, and the firm became known as Marais Price and Clark. Both Rupert and Norman Price were on the Board of Directors of the Standard Motor Company of Africa, where Rupert was also the Chairman.
In the year 1882 a farmer Petrus Johannes Marais (nicknamed Oom Lang Piet) who owned the farm Varkensfontein in the Heidelberg district made an agreement with a prospector named Johnstone allowing him to prospect for gold on the farm Varkensfontein.
Mr. Johnstone' s prospecting operations continued for a considerable time shrouded in secrecy.
Then one day a stranger turned up at Oom Lang Piet's home and made an offer to buy the farm.
At the time of the offer Oom Lang Piet was by chance busy reading "The Fortunes of Nigel" by Sir Walter Scott, a story about a young man who was the victim of a dishonest intrigue but eventually achieved his goal in life
The stranger's visit immediately aroused Mr. Marais's suspicions to the extent that he decided to visit his farm himself.
https://www.nigel.co.za/history.htm
In 1882 a farmer Petrus Johannes Marais (nicknamed Oom Lang Piet who owned the farm Varkensfontein in the Heidelberg district) made an agreement with a prospector named Johnstone, allowing him to prospect for gold on the farm Varkensfontein.
Johnstone’ s prospecting operations continued for a considerable time shrouded in secrecy until a stranger turned up at Oom Lang Piet’s home and made an offer to buy the farm. At the time, Marais was reading “The Fortunes of Nigel” by Sir Walter Scott (a story about a young man who was the victim of a dishonest intrigue but eventually achieved his goal in life).
The stranger’s visit immediately aroused Marais’s suspicions to the extent that he decided to visit his farm himself. Once at the farm, he found that his suspicions were well founded.
With the experiences of the character in the novel in mind, he determined not to allow himself to be cheated by cunning fortune seekers and at once set about to establish his own company. In July 1888 (two years after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand) Marais achieved his goal.
Marais attributed his luck to the novel he had been reading and therefore, called his company Nigel (after the character in the novel) and in this way, the town of Nigel came into being. In 1888 the state president Paul Kruger declared Nigel as a public digging under notice 331 and since then the history and development of Nigel are inseparable from those of the gold mines.
Once at the farm he found that his suspicions were well founded.
With the experiences of Nigel, the character in the novel in mind, he determined not to allow himself to be cheated by cunning fortune seekers and at once set about to establish his own company.
In July 1888, two years after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, he achieved his goal.
Marais attributed his luck to the novel he had been reading and, therefore, called his company Nigel. In this way, the town of Nigel came into being.
https://www.bronberger.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6732:Ons%20vat%20die%20Marais%20spoor%20van%20Jan%20die%20Gewer%20tot%20by%20Lang%20Piet%20en%20veldkornet%20Melt&catid=50:toeka-se-dae&Itemid=76
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