Johan Gottlieb Kolbe
HE HAD EIGHT SONS, AND THIS ARCHIVE KNEW OF ONE. His son’s obituary in the Grahamstown Journal of 19 December 1844 calls George Augustus “THE LAST REMAINING OF EIGHT SONS OF JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE, LONDON”. SEVEN BROTHERS, ALL DEAD BEFORE DECEMBER 1844, none of them named anywhere in this archive — and dead men do not appear in a census, which is why the 1841 Conduit Street household holds three women and no sons. THE OBITUARY ALSO PUTS HIM AT BRUNSWICK SQUARE, in Bloomsbury, where the census and the death put him at CONDUIT STREET in Mayfair, a mile and a half away. Both can be true twenty years apart, and this archive has already moved this man once — off the family tree’s Lamb’s Conduit Street — so it records a second address rather than making a second correction. “ESQ.”, not “tailor”. AND HE IS IN THE LONDON GAZETTE, nine years before he died: issue 19424, page 1702, 29 September 1836, dissolving the copartnership of “JOHN GOTTLOB KOLBE and DAVID FLETCHER, of Conduit-Street, Bond-Street, in the County of Middlesex, TAILORS”. That is his trade, his street and a business partner, in print, from a free source — and it pushes him back to Conduit Street in 1836. AND THE DEATH IS NOW A GRO REFERENCE: FreeBMD gives one Kolbe death in all of England and Wales for 1845–46 — “Deaths Dec 1845, KOLBE, JOHN GOTTLOB, ST GEO HAN SQ, VOL 1, PAGE 35”. The district matches the census; the name form JOHN GOTTLOB matches his son's 1803 baptism; and the certificate, not yet ordered, would name the informant. FOUND IN THE 1841 CENSUS, which settles two things this archive had argued from other documents. He is at CONDUIT STREET, St George Hanover Square, sub-district MAY FAIR, aged 76 — four years before he died at number 34, and independent of the death record that corrected the family tree's Lamb's Conduit Street. And his birth county is entered as “FOREIGN”, which is the first document in this archive to say in its own words that he was not English. HO107, piece 734, book 1, folio 11, page 15, SCHEDULE 38. Three women share that schedule: Marianne, 35, Charlotte, 30, and Amelia A., 25. Tailor. Died at 34 Conduit Street, Mayfair — not Lamb's Conduit Street; the tree's photograph is of the wrong building. 16 SEPTEMBER 2026 — THE ADDRESS ARGUMENT IS OVER, AND HE HAD TWO WIVES. The WESTMINSTER RATE BOOKS index him ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE TIMES between 1800 and 1831, under TWENTY-FOUR SPELLINGS of his forename — Gothel, Gotleb, Gotleib, Gotlieb, Gotliel, Gotlob, Gotlobe, Goltief, Gottieb, Gottiel, Gottlieb, Gottlob, Gutlieb, Kottieb, Gilliet and once “Jos Gottiel”. In 1800 he is at BROAD STREET NORTH, St James Piccadilly, folio 41 — which independently corroborates the printed 1799 list of 234 master tailors, “Kolbe, John, 18 Broad-street, Soho”. From 1811 to 1831 he is at CHURCH STREET SOUTH, ST ANNE’S SOHO, year after year, and the 1829 land tax return says the same. BRUNSWICK SQUARE APPEARS IN NO RATE BOOK, NO LAND TAX RETURN, NO CENSUS AND NO BURIAL REGISTER — those are Westminster sources and Bloomsbury would not be in them, so they cannot disprove it, but Soho 1800–1831, St George Hanover Square in 1841 and a death there in 1845 leaves no window for it. AND THE BURIAL IS NOW A REGISTER ENTRY RATHER THAN A TREE CLAIM: Westminster Burials, City of Westminster Archives Centre — DIED 18 NOVEMBER 1845, BURIED 26 NOVEMBER 1845 AT ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, page 7, year of birth given as 1764. The date matches the tree’s “26 November 1845, entry 55, grave 7” to the day and the “7” matches; the church does not. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — HE WRITES, AND HE SIGNS HIMSELF. MSB 751 at the National Library of South Africa is a letter of FOUR SIDES headed “LONDON AUGUST 23. 1830”, opening “DEAR GEORGE” and signed “YOUR AFFECTIONATE FATHER, J G KOLBE”. IT IS THE FIRST DOCUMENT IN THIS ARCHIVE HE WROTE HIMSELF — everything else is somebody writing about him. IT DOES NOT CARRY A STREET ADDRESS: the heading is “London” and nothing finer, so it does NOT settle Brunswick Square against Conduit Street, which is what this archive most hoped for. WHAT IT DOES CARRY: his son’s acceptance by the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY in the father’s own words, DR PHILIP carrying an earlier letter to the Cape, MR MILES of the Society calling at the house, HENRY dying of DROPSY and “resigned to the Catastrophe”, MILNE AND ELIZABETH — “Betsey” — removed to EDINBURGH, CHARLOTTE sending an Evangelical Magazine, a SUIT OF BLACK CLOTHES sent out for a newly accepted missionary, the death of George IV and the French revolution of July 1830 as fresh news, and a request that his son fact-check a baboon story in a magazine. AND THE LINE THAT COUNTS MOST: “KIND LOVE FROM YOUR SISTERS & BROTHER” — SISTERS PLURAL, BROTHER SINGULAR. Of the eight sons, two were alive in August 1830. 20 SEPTEMBER, READ AGAIN FROM THE FILE INSTEAD OF FROM A MAIL PREVIEW, AND IT CARRIES MORE. DR PHILIP IS NOT JUST THE COURIER — “Dr Philip was exceedingly glad to hear of you being accepted by the L.M.S. as you may well imagine, HE HAS PROMISED TO WRITE TO YOU A LETTER BY THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY”. HE SENDS A BOX: a suit of black clothes for George, and a jacket and waistcoat FOR JOHN with a further jacket, “tell him his old father has sent it him, & to make haste to fill them out”. A YEAR OF NEWSPAPERS, one number lost by Henry. AND THE HOUSE HAS FRIENDS WITH NAMES, the first in this archive who simply knew them: MR & MRS STANHOPE, MR AND MRS WARNER, and MRS FIELD AND HER DAUGHTERS — “the eldest, Miss Mary, that was, HAS MARRIED A MR BELLEW, A SURGEON”. TWO OF HIS FOUR PAGES GO ON A STORY FROM THE MIRROR about a Scottish colonist near the Xhosa whose wife was carried off by orang-outangs and recovered after two years as their queen — AND HE DOES NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT: “here we look upon the Story as a fictious & romance… I should be glad to hear from you, WHETHER THAT REPORT MAY BE FOUNDED IN TRUTH, OR FALSEHOOD.” A tailor of seventy, reading a cheap weekly, writing to the one man he knew who was actually there to ask whether it was true. 21 SEPTEMBER 2026 — AND THE STORY IS FOUND, AND HE WAS RIGHT. It is “A SINGULAR LETTER FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA, COMMUNICATED BY MR. HOGG, THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD”, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, VOLUME XIV (1829), pages 313–318 — FICTION BY JAMES HOGG, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, printed as though it were a settler’s letter home. Every detail he recalled is in it: the chief KAROO offering oxen and “a choice virgin to boot” for the settler’s wife, “he foretold I should repent it”, CAPTAIN JOHNSTONE, the wife “carried across the river by a band of pongos, (ourang-outangs)”, and her discovery as their QUEEN. AND THE DETAIL HE GOT WRONG IS WHY FIVE SEARCHES FOR IT FAILED: he thought the colonist was called “either Williams, or Williamson”, and the narrator is anonymous — IT IS HIS SON WHO IS CALLED WILLIAM. HIS FIRST WIFE MARY DIED 2 AUGUST 1814 AGED 46 and his SECOND, ALSO MARY, DIED 15 AUGUST 1824 AGED 36, both buried in the German Lutheran Church register, TNA RG 4/4631 — which is why one Mary could never be made to fit a run of baptisms from 1792 to 1819. AND THE LONDON GAZETTE HOLDS FIVE NOTICES, NOT THE ONE THIS ARCHIVE HAD. 12 MAY 1824 — the partnership of JOHN GOTLOB KOLBE AND JOHN HENRY KOLBE, of CHURCH-STREET, SOHO, TAILORS, dissolved. 30 SEPTEMBER 1836 — Kolbe and DAVID FLETCHER of Conduit-Street dissolved. 21 MARCH 1845 — “JOHN GOTLIEB KOLBE AND RICHARD DAVIES, OF CONDUIT-STREET, BOND-STREET, TAILORS, HAS BEEN DISSOLVED BY MUTUAL CONSENT”, EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED and still calling himself a tailor, which is what the obituary’s “Esq. of Brunswick-square” has to be set against. 1824 WAS THE YEAR IT ALL WENT: the partnership dissolved in May, his second wife dead in August, and his son in the insolvent debtors’ lists in October and November. 16 SEPTEMBER, LATER — AND THE 1799 TAILORS’ LIST HAS A TWIN. In APRIL AND MAY 1834 the London press printed the roll of “considerably more than THREE HUNDRED of the Master Tailors of the metropolis” who met at Willis’s Rooms, St James’s-street, to resist THE GRAND NATIONAL CONSOLIDATED TRADES’ UNION, and the entry reads “KOLBE AND FLETCHER, CONDUIT-STREET” — Morning Post 30 April, Globe 30 April and 10 May, Old England 4 May, Morning Herald 10 May, London Courier 10 May, True Sun 10 May, Public Ledger 12 May. SEVEN NEWSPAPERS, ONE LINE. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — AND A HISTORIAN CALLED HIM AN APOTHECARY. The DSAB draft entry on his son opens “die seun van J.G.Kolbe, ’n DUITSE APTEKER wat in Londen woonagtig was”. THE GERMAN IS RIGHT AND THE LONDON IS RIGHT AND THE TRADE IS HIS SON’S — George Augustus sailed in 1820 as an apothecary, and the apothecary has been handed back up to the father. IT IS THE ONLY THING IN THAT ENTRY THIS ARCHIVE CAN SHOW TO BE WRONG, and it can only show it because it read the rate books. IT CLOSES THE GAP: the rate books had him in Soho to 1831 and the Gazette at Conduit Street by 1836; HE WAS AT CONDUIT STREET, WITH FLETCHER, BY 29 APRIL 1834. AND IT RHYMES WITH THE FIRST LIST THIRTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER — in December 1799 one of 234 masters over the Combination Acts, a young man at 18 Broad-street; in April 1834 a firm with a partner and a Bond Street address, seventy years old, on the masters’ side of the same argument.
The record
| Name | Johan Gottlieb Kolbe |
| Also written | John Gottlob · “JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE”, in his son’s 1844 obituary · and twenty-four spellings in the Westminster rate books |
| Born | c. 1764 |
| Died | 18 Nov 1845, London |
| Line | Kolbe |
| Confidence | Documented |
| From a tree | not documented The 1844 obituary’s “Brunswick-square”. No Westminster rate book, land tax return, census or burial register places him there, and Bloomsbury’s own sources have not been searched. — the rest of this record rests on documents this archive has read, and that part does not. |
What the archive holds
HE HAD EIGHT SONS, AND THIS ARCHIVE KNEW OF ONE. His son’s obituary in the Grahamstown Journal of 19 December 1844 calls George Augustus “THE LAST REMAINING OF EIGHT SONS OF JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE, LONDON”. SEVEN BROTHERS, ALL DEAD BEFORE DECEMBER 1844, none of them named anywhere in this archive — and dead men do not appear in a census, which is why the 1841 Conduit Street household holds three women and no sons. THE OBITUARY ALSO PUTS HIM AT BRUNSWICK SQUARE, in Bloomsbury, where the census and the death put him at CONDUIT STREET in Mayfair, a mile and a half away. Both can be true twenty years apart, and this archive has already moved this man once — off the family tree’s Lamb’s Conduit Street — so it records a second address rather than making a second correction. “ESQ.”, not “tailor”. AND HE IS IN THE LONDON GAZETTE, nine years before he died: issue 19424, page 1702, 29 September 1836, dissolving the copartnership of “JOHN GOTTLOB KOLBE and DAVID FLETCHER, of Conduit-Street, Bond-Street, in the County of Middlesex, TAILORS”. That is his trade, his street and a business partner, in print, from a free source — and it pushes him back to Conduit Street in 1836. AND THE DEATH IS NOW A GRO REFERENCE: FreeBMD gives one Kolbe death in all of England and Wales for 1845–46 — “Deaths Dec 1845, KOLBE, JOHN GOTTLOB, ST GEO HAN SQ, VOL 1, PAGE 35”. The district matches the census; the name form JOHN GOTTLOB matches his son's 1803 baptism; and the certificate, not yet ordered, would name the informant. FOUND IN THE 1841 CENSUS, which settles two things this archive had argued from other documents. He is at CONDUIT STREET, St George Hanover Square, sub-district MAY FAIR, aged 76 — four years before he died at number 34, and independent of the death record that corrected the family tree's Lamb's Conduit Street. And his birth county is entered as “FOREIGN”, which is the first document in this archive to say in its own words that he was not English. HO107, piece 734, book 1, folio 11, page 15, SCHEDULE 38. Three women share that schedule: Marianne, 35, Charlotte, 30, and Amelia A., 25. Tailor. Died at 34 Conduit Street, Mayfair — not Lamb's Conduit Street; the tree's photograph is of the wrong building. 16 SEPTEMBER 2026 — THE ADDRESS ARGUMENT IS OVER, AND HE HAD TWO WIVES. The WESTMINSTER RATE BOOKS index him ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE TIMES between 1800 and 1831, under TWENTY-FOUR SPELLINGS of his forename — Gothel, Gotleb, Gotleib, Gotlieb, Gotliel, Gotlob, Gotlobe, Goltief, Gottieb, Gottiel, Gottlieb, Gottlob, Gutlieb, Kottieb, Gilliet and once “Jos Gottiel”. In 1800 he is at BROAD STREET NORTH, St James Piccadilly, folio 41 — which independently corroborates the printed 1799 list of 234 master tailors, “Kolbe, John, 18 Broad-street, Soho”. From 1811 to 1831 he is at CHURCH STREET SOUTH, ST ANNE’S SOHO, year after year, and the 1829 land tax return says the same. BRUNSWICK SQUARE APPEARS IN NO RATE BOOK, NO LAND TAX RETURN, NO CENSUS AND NO BURIAL REGISTER — those are Westminster sources and Bloomsbury would not be in them, so they cannot disprove it, but Soho 1800–1831, St George Hanover Square in 1841 and a death there in 1845 leaves no window for it. AND THE BURIAL IS NOW A REGISTER ENTRY RATHER THAN A TREE CLAIM: Westminster Burials, City of Westminster Archives Centre — DIED 18 NOVEMBER 1845, BURIED 26 NOVEMBER 1845 AT ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, page 7, year of birth given as 1764. The date matches the tree’s “26 November 1845, entry 55, grave 7” to the day and the “7” matches; the church does not. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — HE WRITES, AND HE SIGNS HIMSELF. MSB 751 at the National Library of South Africa is a letter of FOUR SIDES headed “LONDON AUGUST 23. 1830”, opening “DEAR GEORGE” and signed “YOUR AFFECTIONATE FATHER, J G KOLBE”. IT IS THE FIRST DOCUMENT IN THIS ARCHIVE HE WROTE HIMSELF — everything else is somebody writing about him. IT DOES NOT CARRY A STREET ADDRESS: the heading is “London” and nothing finer, so it does NOT settle Brunswick Square against Conduit Street, which is what this archive most hoped for. WHAT IT DOES CARRY: his son’s acceptance by the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY in the father’s own words, DR PHILIP carrying an earlier letter to the Cape, MR MILES of the Society calling at the house, HENRY dying of DROPSY and “resigned to the Catastrophe”, MILNE AND ELIZABETH — “Betsey” — removed to EDINBURGH, CHARLOTTE sending an Evangelical Magazine, a SUIT OF BLACK CLOTHES sent out for a newly accepted missionary, the death of George IV and the French revolution of July 1830 as fresh news, and a request that his son fact-check a baboon story in a magazine. AND THE LINE THAT COUNTS MOST: “KIND LOVE FROM YOUR SISTERS & BROTHER” — SISTERS PLURAL, BROTHER SINGULAR. Of the eight sons, two were alive in August 1830. 20 SEPTEMBER, READ AGAIN FROM THE FILE INSTEAD OF FROM A MAIL PREVIEW, AND IT CARRIES MORE. DR PHILIP IS NOT JUST THE COURIER — “Dr Philip was exceedingly glad to hear of you being accepted by the L.M.S. as you may well imagine, HE HAS PROMISED TO WRITE TO YOU A LETTER BY THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY”. HE SENDS A BOX: a suit of black clothes for George, and a jacket and waistcoat FOR JOHN with a further jacket, “tell him his old father has sent it him, & to make haste to fill them out”. A YEAR OF NEWSPAPERS, one number lost by Henry. AND THE HOUSE HAS FRIENDS WITH NAMES, the first in this archive who simply knew them: MR & MRS STANHOPE, MR AND MRS WARNER, and MRS FIELD AND HER DAUGHTERS — “the eldest, Miss Mary, that was, HAS MARRIED A MR BELLEW, A SURGEON”. TWO OF HIS FOUR PAGES GO ON A STORY FROM THE MIRROR about a Scottish colonist near the Xhosa whose wife was carried off by orang-outangs and recovered after two years as their queen — AND HE DOES NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT: “here we look upon the Story as a fictious & romance… I should be glad to hear from you, WHETHER THAT REPORT MAY BE FOUNDED IN TRUTH, OR FALSEHOOD.” A tailor of seventy, reading a cheap weekly, writing to the one man he knew who was actually there to ask whether it was true. 21 SEPTEMBER 2026 — AND THE STORY IS FOUND, AND HE WAS RIGHT. It is “A SINGULAR LETTER FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA, COMMUNICATED BY MR. HOGG, THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD”, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, VOLUME XIV (1829), pages 313–318 — FICTION BY JAMES HOGG, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, printed as though it were a settler’s letter home. Every detail he recalled is in it: the chief KAROO offering oxen and “a choice virgin to boot” for the settler’s wife, “he foretold I should repent it”, CAPTAIN JOHNSTONE, the wife “carried across the river by a band of pongos, (ourang-outangs)”, and her discovery as their QUEEN. AND THE DETAIL HE GOT WRONG IS WHY FIVE SEARCHES FOR IT FAILED: he thought the colonist was called “either Williams, or Williamson”, and the narrator is anonymous — IT IS HIS SON WHO IS CALLED WILLIAM. HIS FIRST WIFE MARY DIED 2 AUGUST 1814 AGED 46 and his SECOND, ALSO MARY, DIED 15 AUGUST 1824 AGED 36, both buried in the German Lutheran Church register, TNA RG 4/4631 — which is why one Mary could never be made to fit a run of baptisms from 1792 to 1819. AND THE LONDON GAZETTE HOLDS FIVE NOTICES, NOT THE ONE THIS ARCHIVE HAD. 12 MAY 1824 — the partnership of JOHN GOTLOB KOLBE AND JOHN HENRY KOLBE, of CHURCH-STREET, SOHO, TAILORS, dissolved. 30 SEPTEMBER 1836 — Kolbe and DAVID FLETCHER of Conduit-Street dissolved. 21 MARCH 1845 — “JOHN GOTLIEB KOLBE AND RICHARD DAVIES, OF CONDUIT-STREET, BOND-STREET, TAILORS, HAS BEEN DISSOLVED BY MUTUAL CONSENT”, EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED and still calling himself a tailor, which is what the obituary’s “Esq. of Brunswick-square” has to be set against. 1824 WAS THE YEAR IT ALL WENT: the partnership dissolved in May, his second wife dead in August, and his son in the insolvent debtors’ lists in October and November. 16 SEPTEMBER, LATER — AND THE 1799 TAILORS’ LIST HAS A TWIN. In APRIL AND MAY 1834 the London press printed the roll of “considerably more than THREE HUNDRED of the Master Tailors of the metropolis” who met at Willis’s Rooms, St James’s-street, to resist THE GRAND NATIONAL CONSOLIDATED TRADES’ UNION, and the entry reads “KOLBE AND FLETCHER, CONDUIT-STREET” — Morning Post 30 April, Globe 30 April and 10 May, Old England 4 May, Morning Herald 10 May, London Courier 10 May, True Sun 10 May, Public Ledger 12 May. SEVEN NEWSPAPERS, ONE LINE. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — AND A HISTORIAN CALLED HIM AN APOTHECARY. The DSAB draft entry on his son opens “die seun van J.G.Kolbe, ’n DUITSE APTEKER wat in Londen woonagtig was”. THE GERMAN IS RIGHT AND THE LONDON IS RIGHT AND THE TRADE IS HIS SON’S — George Augustus sailed in 1820 as an apothecary, and the apothecary has been handed back up to the father. IT IS THE ONLY THING IN THAT ENTRY THIS ARCHIVE CAN SHOW TO BE WRONG, and it can only show it because it read the rate books. IT CLOSES THE GAP: the rate books had him in Soho to 1831 and the Gazette at Conduit Street by 1836; HE WAS AT CONDUIT STREET, WITH FLETCHER, BY 29 APRIL 1834. AND IT RHYMES WITH THE FIRST LIST THIRTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER — in December 1799 one of 234 masters over the Combination Acts, a young man at 18 Broad-street; in April 1834 a firm with a partner and a Bond Street address, seventy years old, on the masters’ side of the same argument.
Where the archive puts Johan
Each carries the document that puts them there. The atlas →
- 16 Sep 2026 — Johan Gottlieb Kolbe was buried at the German church of the Savoy, entry 55, grave 7
Taken from a family tree and repeated here. The Westminster Burials register, held by the City of Westminster Archives Centre, has him DIED 18 NOVEMBER 1845 AND BURIED 26 NOVEMBER 1845 AT ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, page 7. The date matches to the day and the seven matches; the church does not. The register also gives a death date and a birth year of 1764, neither of which this archive had. Where it stands → - 16 Sep 2026 — Johan Gottlieb Kolbe had one wife, called Mary
He had two, and both were called Mary — which is why one of them could never be made to fit a run of baptisms from 1792 to 1819. The first died 2 August 1814 aged 46; the second died 15 August 1824 aged 36. Both are in the German Lutheran Church register, TNA RG 4/4631. Where it stands →
The Booyzen Archive
…What this archive has established The letter was changed on purpose Booyzen , not Booysen. The family says the spelling was changed during the Anglo-Boer War, to avoid being taken for men who fought on the British side — and the surname statistics agree with the family. The name → The Kolbes end in London, not the Cape Johan Gottlieb Kolbe died at 34 Conduit Street on 18 November 1845 and was buried at the German Savoy Church eight days later, aged 81. The line runs out of the Cape and into a German congregation in Mayfair.…
Disputed
…The tree has Margaretha Wilhelmina Elizabeth Mary, born Graaff-Reinet. Serious Her mother’s 1867 death notice lists her as “Margaret Wilhelmina, married to J. Barry”, which supports the tree against the 1915 guess. The informant in 1915 did not know his own grandparents’ names, so his accuracy on his mother’s is not to be relied on. → Johan Gottlieb Kolbe — place of burial The tree records “St John the Baptist, Leamington, Warwickshire.” Resolved WRONG. The register reads “St John Baptist, in the GERMAN SAVOY CHURCH, in the County of Middlesex” — the German Lutheran chapel in the Strand, a hundred miles from Warwickshire, and the same congregation that holds five of his children and his wife. Someone matched the dedication to the wrong church.…
The documents
…Movable property: No . Immovable: No . Estate: Nil . No will. She died in her son's house at Manorowen. Set that beside her mother Margaret Downing , who in 1867 left a house in Burgersdorp and a farm in the division of Albert; beside her grandfather Johan Gottlieb Kolbe , whose 1842 will disposed of a partnership in a Bond Street tailoring firm; and beside her husband John Barry , whose estate in 1903 exceeded £300. The Kolbe money did not last three generations. This notice also supplies a third date for John Barry's death — "August 1904" — against the 3 August 1903 of his own 1915 death notice and the 25 August 1903 in the tree.…
…The cousin marriage → 1803 · The London end of the line, closed A baptism register index from St Anne's, Soho — birth date at the left, day of baptism at the right. A note on the same page records that the register holds "410 Baptisms for the Year 1802." Under FEBRUARY 1803 , the second entry: "1802 Dec: 7 — George Augustus Kolbe of John Gottlob & Mary — 2" Born 7 December 1802 . Baptised 2 February 1803 . Son of John Gottlob and Mary . An English parish register and a Karoo gravestone, written ninety years and six thousand miles apart, give the same birth date to the day: 7 December 1802 . Documented And the parentage is no longer taken on the tree's word.…
The plates
…Mother: Unknown. " Read it on The documents → Unie van Zuid-Afrika — Sterfkennis for Anna Johanna Maria Barry, née Schoeman , died 24 February 1923 at Evaton, district Potchefstroom . Read it on The documents → Under FEBRUARY 1803 , the second entry: "1802 Dec: 7 — George Augustus Kolbe of John Gottlob & Mary — 2" Read it on The documents → The full opening, December 1802 to May 1803. Westminster parish records, FindMyPast reference GBPRS_WSMTN_005109304_00342 . Read it on The documents → "29. Anna Johanna Maria, geb. 3 Oct. 1906 — Petrus Jacobus Pretorius, Margaretha Wilhelmina Elizabeth Berry } ouders." The birth year is written identically to the 1906 in the line above it.…
Households
…bapt. 12 Mar 1809 Johan Christiaan Pietersen b. bapt. 28 Apr 1810 unnamed and Louisa Elizabeth Diesel 2 a record read here Married out of community of property to Evelyn Wilfred Diesel and dead fourteen years before her father. Her two children took her tenth share between them. The distribution account Gwendoline Diesel Aubrey Diesel Johan Gottlieb Kolbe 2 head born c. 1764 – 18 Nov 1845 a record read here A tailor of Conduit Street, Mayfair. Four independent documents call him John Gottlob; the family tree calls him Johan Gottlieb, and this archive follows the documents.…
The Kolbes
…A. Kolbe Collection, Special Collections.…
…He was not. But the family does have a documented settler, on the other side of that marriage, and his record is unusually complete. Born 7 December 1802, Westminster St Anne, London Christened 2 February 1803, St Anne's, Soho — the register names his parents John Gottlob & Mary , and gives his birth as 7 Dec 1802 , matching the Burgersdorp gravestone to the day. The register → Married 20 January 1819, St Leonard's, Shoreditch — Margaret Georgina Elizabeth Downing , on a sworn oath that both were "of the age of Twenty-one Years and upwards" . He was sixteen; she was fifteen.…
The Marriages
…4 Jul 1819, ST ANNE’S SOHO — Johan Casimir Kolbe 1844 or 1845 — three sources give three years 11 Mar 1906, Smithfield, Orange River Colony Johan Gottlieb Kolbe c. 1764 18 Nov 1845, London Johan Hendrik Cassimir Kolbe 1863, Orange Free State 14 Sep 1923, Bloemfontein — aged 60 John Gerson Eliezar Kolbe 7 Jul 1822, Uitenhage 3 Apr 1868, the farm Leeuwberg — aged 45 John Gottlob Kolbe — — John Henry Kolbe bapt.…
The People
…1844 or 1845, and the font would say which. THE BAPTISM IS NOT IN THE CAPE DUTCH REFORMED INDEX: fifteen records answer Casimir in that whole collection and not one is a baptism of his. The Documents The Kolbes The Register What Was Searched Johan Gottlieb Kolbe also written John Gottlob · “JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE”, in his son’s 1844 obituary · and twenty-four spellings in the Westminster rate books Documented c. 1764 18 Nov 1845, London HE HAD EIGHT SONS, AND THIS ARCHIVE KNEW OF ONE. His son’s obituary in the Grahamstown Journal of 19 December 1844 calls George Augustus “THE LAST REMAINING OF EIGHT SONS OF JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ.…
…The children The burials Charlotte Kolbe Documented 1811 1867, Lambeth — probably Aged 30 in the Conduit Street household at the 1841 census. FROM THE CENSUS. 17 SEPTEMBER 2026 — SHE IS NOT IN THE 1851 CENSUS AND SHE PROBABLY DID NOT DIE BEFORE IT. There are only FOUR KOLBE DEATHS IN ALL ENGLAND AND WALES BETWEEN 1837 AND 1867 — John Gottlob 1845, George 1848, Elizabeth 1852 and CHARLOTTE KOLBE AT LAMBETH IN 1867. The single Kolbe in the entire 1851 census is also at Lambeth. If the 1867 death is hers she outlived her father by twenty-two years and was simply not caught by the 1851 enumerator under this surname. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — SHE IS NO LONGER AN INFERENCE.…
Charlotte Kolbe
…FROM THE CENSUS. 17 SEPTEMBER 2026 — SHE IS NOT IN THE 1851 CENSUS AND SHE PROBABLY DID NOT DIE BEFORE IT. There are only FOUR KOLBE DEATHS IN ALL ENGLAND AND WALES BETWEEN 1837 AND 1867 — John Gottlob 1845, George 1848, Elizabeth 1852 and CHARLOTTE KOLBE AT LAMBETH IN 1867. The single Kolbe in the entire 1851 census is also at Lambeth. If the 1867 death is hers she outlived her father by twenty-two years and was simply not caught by the 1851 enumerator under this surname. 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — SHE IS NO LONGER AN INFERENCE.…
George Augustus Kolbe
…A SECOND KOLBE IN THE SAME BOOK IS NOT HIM: the index carries Kolbe, J. at p. 130, a lessee of a farm owed Rds1480 under a settlement of Sir Harry Smith's, printed in Dutch there and in English at p. 268. Nothing is claimed about him , and he is written down so that the next reader does not fold two initials into one man. Parent Johan Gottlieb Kolbe c. 1764 – 18 Nov 1845 record George Augustus Kolbe 7 Dec 1802 – 1 Dec 1844 Kolbe married Margaret Downing 23 Feb 1803 – 25 Nov 1867 record 10 children with Margaret Margaretha Wilhelmina Elizabeth Mary Kolbe 1826 – 2 Aug 1912 direct line Mary Elizabeth Kolbe d. bef.…
…3 are inferred from one. 1 comes from the family tree and is unverified. The Kolbes → A tailor of Conduit Street, Mayfair. Four independent documents call him John Gottlob; the family tree calls him Johan Gottlieb, and this archive follows the documents. Married 1819 — both were sixteen, and the Nautilus passenger roll of 1820 overstates both their ages by four years. The Kolbes → Every record naming George Augustus Kolbe → The marriage record Married Margaret Downing · 1819 · London a record read here Both were sixteen.…
Johan Gottlieb Kolbe
…His son’s obituary in the Grahamstown Journal of 19 December 1844 calls George Augustus “THE LAST REMAINING OF EIGHT SONS OF JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE, LONDON”.…
…A tailor of Conduit Street, Mayfair. Four independent documents call him John Gottlob; the family tree calls him Johan Gottlieb, and this archive follows the documents. The Kolbes → Every record naming Johan Gottlieb Kolbe → The record Name Johan Gottlieb Kolbe Also written John Gottlob · “JOHN GODLOFF KOLBE ESQ. OF BRUNSWICK-SQUARE”, in his son’s 1844 obituary · and twenty-four spellings in the Westminster rate books Born c.…
John Gottlob Kolbe
…This note said only “Of the London Kolbes” until 11 October 2026, under a heading that promises what the archive holds. Parent Johan Gottlieb Kolbe c. 1764 – 18 Nov 1845 record John Gottlob Kolbe Kolbe Sibling George Augustus Kolbe 7 Dec 1802 – 1 Dec 1844 the direct line, argued on the line from a record this archive has read inferred, not stated from the family tree, unverified All 3 relationships shown are written in a record this archive has read. The Kolbes → A tailor of Conduit Street, Mayfair.…
…FOUR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTS call him John Gottlob where the family tree calls him Johan Gottlieb, and this archive follows the documents: his WILL of 1842, a Prerogative Court of Canterbury register copy; his death in 1845; the marriage at ST LEONARD’S, SHOREDITCH on 20 January 1819 where his son swore a false age; and his own letter of 23 August 1830 to that son at the Cape.…
The Register
…uth Africa, Civil Marriage Records, 1801-1974 Johan Casimir Kolbe Birth 1934 · with: Maria Monica Van Der Walt record ↗ South Africa, Civil Marriage Records, 1801-1974 Johan Casimir Kolbe reconstructed 1844 or 1845 — three sources give three years · 11 Mar 1906, Smithfield, Orange River Colony no public link reconstructed by this archive Johan Gottlieb Kolbe reconstructed c. 1764 · 18 Nov 1845, London no public link reconstructed by this archive Johan Hendrik Casimir Kolbe Birth 1863 · with: Gertruida Jacomina Louw record ↗ South Africa, Civil Marriage Records, 1801-1974 Johan Hendrik Cassimir Kolbe reconstructed 1863, Orange Free State · 14 Sep 1923, Bloemfontein — aged 60 no public link reconstructed by this archive Johannas Kolbe Burial 27 Jan 191…
Sources
…A. Kolbe Collection , Special Collections, Cape Town. Four pages from the London tailor to his son at the Cape.…
The Timeline
…Jun 1840 — “Names of the Parents of the Deceased. Not Known.” 16 Jun 1843 — Johanna Booyzen dies at 28 Roze Street, Cape Town 3 Apr 1843 — John Gerson Eliezar Kolbe marries Anna Jacoba van der Merwe 1 Dec 1844 — George Augustus Kolbe dies at “Wurtemburg”, Colesberg 15 May 1844 — Johanna Catharina Booysen born at Brak Rivier 26 Nov 1845 — Johan Gottlieb Kolbe buried at the German Savoy Church 23 Feb 1846 — John Augustus Barry I marries Margaretha Wilhelmina Elizabeth Mary Kolbe at Colesberg 8 Mar 1846 — George Augustus Kolbe baptised at Colesberg, the first of the twelve this archive can name 12 Mar 1848 — Willem Johannes Kolbe baptised at Fauresmith, entry 18 20 Aug 1848 — George Mountjoy, saddle maker, marries Maria Sophia Botha 9 Oct 1849 — Jan Hen…
…Petrus Jacobus Booysen Graaff-Reinet 1790s 1 1792 The name BOOIJZEN too KAB MOOC 13/1/33: 5, the liquidation account of Susanna Booijzen. 1800s 3 7 Dec 1802 Life George Augustus Kolbe born in London Baptised at St Anne's, Soho, 2 February 1803, son of John Gottlob and Mary. George Augustus Kolbe Soho, London 12 Dec 1806 Document David Schalk Booijzen born, and Anna Maria van der Merwe stops being a rumour Baptised 4 January 1807. Father PIETER JACOBUS BOOIJZEN, mother ANNA MARIA VAN DER MERWE — the only document in this archive that puts Anna Maria in the family at all.…
Our line, drawn
…1785 – bef. 1825 Petrus Jacobus Booysen 1812 – 1884 James Montjoy's parents James Montjoy c.1782 – 1827 Anna Catharina Sleer 1787 – 1885 Johanna C. Mountjoy 1819 – 1863 Willem Hermanus Booyzen 1851 – 1905 John Barry, died 1853 — no birth, no arrival, no burial John Barry — – 1853 John Augustus Barry I 1819 – 1903 Johan Gottlieb Kolbe 1765 – 1845 George Augustus Kolbe 1802 – 1844 John Paul Downing — – — Margaret Downing 23 Feb 1803 – 25 Nov 1867 Margaretha W. E. M. Kolbe 1826 – 1912 Catherine M. S. “Kathleen” Barry 1859 – 1940 George Downing M. Booyzen 1901 – 1947 Petrus Jacobus Pretorius 1878 – 1941 Hendrik Nicholaas Barry 1857 – 1931 Ruben Schoeman — – — Magdalena Johanna Botha — – — Anna Johanna M.…
Others on the Kolbe side
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A dossier is every mention of a person anywhere in this archive, gathered automatically after the site is built and linked back to the page it appears on. Identity here is by NAME, not by resolved individual — where two people share a name they share this page, and the archive says so rather than guessing. Nothing on a dossier page is new evidence; it is the same evidence, brought together.