John Jarvis Bisset, his daughter Amy Morgan Bisset Master, and his second wife, Frances Hannah Bridge Bisset, are buried together in the western section of Folkestone Old Cemetery.
One of the youngest onboard the “Belle Alliance” heading to South Africa, in 1820, was John Jarvis Bisset, who was born on Jersey a year before. His family were members of a group known as “Willson’s party”, intending to settle in the Eastern Cape. They sailed from The Downs anchorage off Deal in February for the Cape of Good Hope.
His parents, Alexander Bisset, 32, and Alicia Smith, 28, both had Naval backgrounds; he’d been Flag Lieutenant to Nelson and other admirals, and she was the daughter of Admiral Edward Tyrell Smith. The family settled in the Eastern Cape near the Kowie River, bordering the Transkei / Xhosa lands. John Jarvis grew up near Bathurst.
The hilly frontier lands of the Eastern Cape appear sparsely populated at that time. Settlers from Europe had farming homesteads. African villages were nearby, with cattle land intermingling. 1818 saw disputes along the Keiskama river, sparking the 5th Xhosa War. Over the following years ex-soldiers were promised farms in this frontier land while African herders were moving south, raising tensions again.
Aged 16 in 1835, John J. Bisset was commissioned as an Ensign into the Cape Mounted Riflemen. This was during the 6th Xhosa War, when British forces and Khoikhoi tribesmengained territory from the Xhosa. Soon after he was Field Adjutant to a division suppressing a rebellion of Boer / Dutch settlers in the Cape.
The Cape Frontier War / 7th Xhosa War followed in 1846, with the Xhosa ceding territory at its finish. John J. Bisset was twice wounded, serving as Deputy Assistant Quarter-Master General. He became Brigade Major in 1847, commanding his regiment.
In December 1848, at Grahamstown / Makhanda, John married Charlotte Elizabeth Morgan, who’d been born in the Eastern Cape. He was 28 and Charlotte 25. We are told of six children, with the second, daughter Amy Morgan, born in 1854. At least one son died in infancy.
Those years had been troubled, with the 8th Xhosa War threatening the European settlers from 1850. The colonial troops had been reduced in number, while the attackers had many muskets and some modern firearms. A long costly conflict resulted.
Paramount Chief Sandile of the Nqgika Xhosa had ambushed Colonel Mackinnon’s 650 men in the Boomah Pass on 24th December 1850. John J. Bisset was severely wounded here. Frontier strongpoints were burnt or lost, as the Xhosa and Khoikhoi peoples, with renegade Native Police, pushed south. When British troops were reinforced, Paramount Chief Maqoma conducted guerrilla warfare in the Amatola Mountains and along Fish River Valley, attacking, then melting away. In 1853 British forces invaded the Transkei region and the fighting ceased.
John continued with the Cape Mounted Rifles, then gained staff appointments. In 1861 he was posted to Canada, commanding a Brigade of Imperial troops. (The Halifax Herald of Nova Scotia carried an obituary to him in 1894.)
1865 was a sad time for him, as his wife Charlotte died on 13th August, while they were in London. We guess that his wife and children had accompanied him on postings around the Empire. Daughter Amy would have been aged 11 at this time and son Cecil about 7.
At the end of August 1865, he was appointed Acting Governor to the new province of Natal in South Africa, holding the post until 1867.
It was back to Europe in 1869, when he was Commandant to the British Garrison of Gibraltar, relinquishing that post in 1873. His son Cecil and Amy were lodging with a cousin, Mrs Balasa, in Cheltenham in 1871.
1877, saw him promoted to Lieutenant-General, gaining the honours of C.B. and K.C.M.G. He was also made a Colonel of the Durham Light Infantry. John is on the retired list in1881.
He married, Frances Hannah Bridge, daughter of Thomas Bridge Esq., on the 6th March 1888 at Reigate church. Her family seems to have known Amy Bisset and her husband Charles Master. Sadly, Lady Frances Bisset died on 29th August 1890, aged 71. Their home was 123 Sandgate Road, Folkestone. John lived on at that address, sometimes called Shakespeare Lodge. He also maintained an address at the Hanover Square Club in London. His often dangerous and well-travelled life ended on 25th May 1894, aged 75. His probate of £3,194 4s 1d was dealt with by W. P. Norton, solicitor, and Charles Hoskin Master esquire, his son-in-law.
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In 1950, Amy Morgan Bisset Master was at Bycliffe, on Sandgate’s Riviera, where she died, aged 95. She and her husband, Charles Hoskins Master, had lived for many years at Shakespeare House in Sandgate, with their five children, when they weren’t at the family’s home of Barrow Green Court, near Oxted.
Amy was born in ‘The Cape’ on 18th March 1854, where her father’s family had arrived in 1820 as settlers to South Africa. She first shows up on an English census in 1871 as a scholar aged 17, in Cheltenham, staying with Mrs Balasa, a clergyman’s widow. A younger brother, Cecil, aged 11, also born in South Africa, is with her. Most likely until then, Amy and her siblings had followed their father as his Army career progressed across the Empire. Her mother died, when Amy was 11, and the family were in London in 1865.
Amy made a ‘good marriage’ in 1877, to Charles Hoskins Master, who was born in Kent at Bilting House, Godmersham. He was Chairman of the Friary Brewery in Guildford and had other business positions. He’d attended Eton, then Clare College, Cambridge, before being accepted as a barrister by the Inner Temple, although he never followed that career. They had a daughter and four sons who served in the Army and Navy during and after the Great War.
Amy’s husband died early in 1935, so she spent 15 years as a widow. He is buried with relations near the family home of Barrow Green House in Oxted. They had given land for public parks in Oxted and Guildford. Nearer his and Amy’s home, they gave an organ to Sandgate Church.
Research by RJM of Friends of Folkestone Cemetery.
