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Birth |
1 May 1916 |
Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
Death |
24 Oct 2001 |
Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. |
Burial |
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Spouse |
Peter Kenneth Enslin | F4912 |
Marriage |
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Notes |
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MY MOTHER ELIZA CONSTANCE JENNINGS
My mother was the only child of John Thomas Jennings, second marriage to Eliza Dogherty (neè Futter) The pair had met in the cemetary whilst visiting the graves of their recently deceased spouses. He was the father of six children now left mother-less and she had never had a child of her own but with her first husband had adopted a child she had found while doing charity work amongst the poor in Grahamstown. This child, rescued from poverty - stricken circumstances, was then given a good home and raised as Florence Dogherty. She was a redhead and must have been 4, 6 or 8 years old when adopted. It would seem that with the birth of ELIZA CONSTANCE (my mother) to Eliza and John Jennings, a certain jealousy ensued between the half sisters, because at the death of J.T.J's wife. A quarrel broke out between these two over certain jewelry left in the effects of my Grandfather. Grandmother "Connie" as she was called, thought it quite her entitlement as the only blood child of "Aunt Dolly" (as she was known by the rest of J.T.'s extensive brood) yet it appears that these treasures had been personal gifts to her by the husband of Eliza's first marriage to "Mr. Dogherty" (as he was always referred to by the children brought into the marriage by the widowed John Thomas Jennings.
Florence claimed that she alone was the legal child of Dogherty and Eliza in the first marriage so the jewels were rightfully hers! For some twelve years or more the two half sisters were not on speaking terms! They later became reconciled and lived, within their married lives, close together with their families in the area of Kingswood College and Sugarloaf in Grahamstown.
Florence had married Percy Hubbard, a Cabinet Maker with his own private practice and they had three sons, Sinclair, Dennison and Clyde, who were all older than the two daughters born to "Connie" and James William Charles Farley. These girls were named Audrey, Molly and Rita Gladys. Audrey was always called "Molly" and she was two and a half years older that Rita (the writer of this account) The "Hubbard Boys" were all very attractive and gentlepeople and was much loved by their cousins.
I was too young to understand much of the growing up of J.T.'s children of his first marriage to a Miss Berry. It must have been quite an undertaking for "Aunt Doll" (my Grandmother) to fit the bill as mother to such a brood! Six semi-grown motherless boys and girls, to become step-mother to an adopted daughter now having lost her adoptive father and a new-born child - one Eliza Constance Jennings the one and only baby of her own that Eliza had ever had!
According to the very close and warm relationship I had with both my Jennings Grandparents it is inconceivable to me that J.T. and Eliza were not very well united. They were most adorable in the eyes of the progeny of all J.T.'s children.
Yet Hilda Dale has revealed to me only in recent years that "Aunt Doll" was regarded by her Mother (Molly Dale) and her sisters (Clarise, Rhoda and Beatrix) as having been very strict and formidable! Was she perhaps more natural and certainly most lovable to her own daughter and only blood child "Connie?" Certainly my closeness and profound love of both J.T. and Eliza coloured the whole of my childhood. My very identity seems entirely bound up with them.
Information supplied by her daughter
Mrs. Rita Strey (Born Jennings) 14 Kloof Gardens, 36 Abelia Road, KLOOF. 3610 Tel. No. 031 764 4790
[1]
Married:
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Their last known residential address was 12 Louw Street, Kroonstad. [1]
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Many Thanks, Paul
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