The Flemings of Port Elizabeth: Biographies of William Fleming Senior and Junior

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

These biographies have been created by ChatGPT. I included photographs from my collection to provide some colour and interest. The reason why I selected this father and son combination as my first blog created by AI was to assist me in disentangling the lives of two men with the same name. Fortunately for biographers, even though William Junior’s son was also christened William, he was not prominent in Port Elizabeth affairs and exited the scene by relocating to Cape Town. Secondly, William Junior married my second great aunt, Adelaide, who was Rev Francis McCleland’s daughter.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The First Generation of McClelands in PE

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 2 Comments

Much is known about the 1820 Settler, the Reverend Francis McCleland, merely because he was the first Colonial Chaplain at St Mary’s Church in Port Elizabeth and probably more so due to his house, Number 7 Castle Hill, which is now a museum. But how did his offspring fare in this new land especially given that there were no school facilities initially?

Main picture: Number 7 Castle Hill, the house in which they were brought up

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