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THE HARE FAMILIES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO

CAPE TOWN AND KALK BAY
FIVE GENERATIONS OF ENTREPRENEURS IN THE CAPE: 1820–2010

Derek Stuart-Findlay

The Origins of the Hare Family

The ancestors of the Hares in Britain were said to be members of the Gaelic clan O hIr, living

in the NE of Ireland as descendants of Ir, a legendary ancestor. Some 2000 years ago a few

members of the clan paddled in coracles across the narrowest part of the Irish Sea to Scotland.
Later, family members raided England with the Picts and Scots and settled in Cumberland after

the Romans had left Britain in 410 AD. In England the name was corrupted to ‘Hare’.

One branch of the family settled in Yorkshire and became the Earls of Harewood at Harewood

Castle. A descendant of this branch, Captain Joseph Hare, served in the military at the Cape

during the Napoleonic Wars. He married Sally Bird and the couple had 14 children. After he
left the army Joseph was attached to the Department of Customs as the official wine-taster,

certifying Cape wines for export. He bought the farm Oude Wijnbergh on the slopes of
Wynberg Hill and his family lived on the estate for almost 40 years, while one of the

descendants farmed at Klapmuts. Hawthornden in Herschel Walk, home of the Labia family,
was built on the foundations of the Oude Wijnbergh homestead.

Our focus of interest, the Hare family of Woodstock, Mowbray and Kalk Bay, is said to be

descended from one of two brothers living in Norfolk, the sons of a local squire, Thomas Hare.
In 1580 Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe in his ship the

Golden Hind, had created great excitement in England after returning to London laden with
spoils from his raid on the Spanish Colonies in the Caribbean. Inspired by Drake, in 1587, with

England and Spain at war, a Suffolk squire Thomas Cavendish raised the funds to build another

ship, Desire, for a similar raid. One of his shareholders and a fellow combatant was Thomas
Hare, who accompanied Cavendish as captain of a second ship, Content. Cavendish and his

small fleet captured a treasure ship Santa Ana laden with gold, silver, pearls and silk, and sailed
back to England across the Pacific Ocean. On his return Cavendish learnt that the Spanish

Armada had been defeated and for his exploits he was knighted by Elizabeth I. Unfortunately,