Captain Disney Roebuck

[Ladkyis]

I have just discovered, through the delights of the British Newspaper Archive, that my great grandmother went to Cape Town in December 1876 with Captain Disney Roebuck's company. From what I have learnt just through googling the name Captain Roebuck took Shakespeare to the Cape and then travelled around for hundreds of miles by ox cart. I knew I admired my great grandmother but now I know I love her!
She even summoned him to court because he didn't give her all her money. She must have been one heck of a woman.
If anyone is looking for missing actors then I think the diamond fields and the gold fields in South Africa might be the place to look and the shipping records might just have the correct names on them too - or in my case not likely.

[anamarja]

Also, a search of Trove, the National Library of Australia's digitised newspapers site, may yield results in searching for various performers. Captain Roebuck is mentioned frequently.

[Ladkyis]

Oh! thank you for that. I simply hadn't thought of Australia, still dancing down the hallway in excitement over South Africa I suppose. I shall take a look

[anamarja]

During the roaring days of the gold rushes and after, some amazing performers came to Australia - including the amazing Lola Montez!!

[anamarja]

As an addition to the above, the 'Divine Sarah Bernhardt' was also enticed to the Antipodes in 1891.