S.E. Hudson

(17*-18*) Civil servant, playwright, painter and diarist. Born Samuel Eusebius Hudson as the eldest son of Samuel and Lidia Hudson, at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England on the 10th January 1764.

Accompanied Sir Andrew and Lady Anne Barnard to Cape Town in 1797, as agent and personal attendant to Barnard. He remained in Barnard’s employ until 1798, when he became first clerk in the Department of Customs, Cape Town (1798-1800). He continued to reside at the Cape after it had been handed over to the Batavian Republic in 1803. As they were without official employment he and his brother, Thomas Hudson, opened a boarding establishment but, during the Napoleonic wars, when Hudson visited England, he was so impressed by the work of Sam Hollyer, a Coventry art publisher who was to become his son-in-law, that he resolved to devote the rest of his life to art. An adventurous voyage on the Cape Paquette brought him back to South Africa in August 1814 after extensive repairs to the ship at La Coruna.

Inveterate diarist, has been called the Samuel Pepys of Cape Town.

Wrote a scenario for a comic opera, lampooning the officials at the Cape at odds with Sir George Yonge, entitled He Who'd Be A Governor Also known as The New Opera. (Published 1861?*)

Also a signee of the original proposal for a Private Theatre in Cape Town and later a member of the managing Commission for the African Theatre in Cape Town. Appointed by Sir George Yonge when granting the land for the proposed theatre.

Died at Cape Town on the 2nd September 1828,

Sources

Bosman, 1928: p63;

Gosher, 198*;

http://ancestry24.com/samuel-hudson/

Hudson, S.E. The Diary of Samuel Eusebius Hudson. Chief Clerk in the Customs, Cape Town 1798-1800. SA Library.

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