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merchant and partner in the shipping agency Anderson and Murison. Educated at Bishops, in
England, and in France, he joined his father’s firm after travelling to the Kimberley diamond

fields with his friend Abe Bailey. After his father’s retirement Thomas carried on the

partnership with Murison’s son. (Fig. 3.31.)

His first wife was Amy Baker and shortly after the birth of their only child William, she died
– a fate all too common among women at this time. In 1878, aged 34, he married 23 year old

Maria Molteno. (Fig. 3.32.) Correspondence from the UCT archives shows that there were
some who found this cause for comment:

Maria is married -- to Tom Anderson. Willie (who is six years old) felt uncomfortable about

calling her Maria, but also she is not of course his mother. And many of the Molteno family
train out to Stellenbosch to see her during her honeymoon! Maria tells Nancy Bingle

(17.11.1879) that ‘no one has made any objections [to her marrying Tom Anderson] which I

think is a very rare thing.’ Mr and Mrs Bingle send her a splendid Bible as a wedding
present. The engagement is very short -- only a few weeks. But John Molteno could scarcely

object now since he had just rushed into his 3rd marriage three years before. She was just 23
years old. They settle initially in a house in Claremont near her old home. But JCM builds a

new house on the Claremont House estate called Barkly House and despite Mr Anderson not
wanting to live there, they in fact do so for many years.

The couple had three children Ernest, Harold and Evangeline (Effie). By 1902 their mother
Maria was in poor health and in November of that year the Wynberg Times reported that the

couple had moved to their Kalk Bay house and ‘the many friends of Mrs. Anderson, who has
been in delicate health for some time, will sincerely wish that the change may restore her

health’. Sadly it was not to be and Maria died aged only 46 at their home Quarterdeck on 17
February 1903.

In 1891 Anderson, along with many others, found himself in serious financial difficulties,
brought about by the liquidation of the Cape of Good Hope Bank. He signed a Deed of

Hypothecation (a form of financial bond) on 11 April 1891 in favour of the liquidators of The