SOLOMON

SOLOMON, family of English origin which won distinction in St. Helena and South Africa. The founder was NATHANIEL SOLOMON (1735–1800), a merchant with interests in the East India trade, who married Phoebe Mitz (or De Mitz) of Leiden in 1774, when she was 14 years old. She was widowed at 40, had 21 children, and lived to a great age. The eldest son, SAUL SOLOMON (I; 1775–1850), left for India at the age of 20, but, on becoming dangerously ill, was put ashore at St. Helena. On his recovery he started trading with passing ships and in time acquired almost a monopoly in the provisioning of ships and the wholesale trade. His brothers JOSEPH and BENJAMIN joined him and by 1815 he had become a wealthy man, noted for his hospitality. He became sheriff of St. Helena and was appointed consul for the Netherlands and France. He kept in touch with the earliest Cape Town congregation. His brother Benjamin (1786–1877) settled in Cape Town where for many years he was usher of the court. SAUL SOLOMON (II; d. 1892), their nephew, was educated in Cape Town. Apprenticed to a bookseller and printer, he eventually became a partner and finally took over the business with his brothers. They printed the Government Gazette and in 1863 became proprietors of the newspaper, The Cape Argus, which remained a leading daily and was the start of the largest chain of newspapers in South Africa. On the grant of parliamentary government to the Cape in 1854, Saul Solomon was elected a member of the Assembly. He played a leading part in securing responsible government for the Colony in 1872, but because of a physical   infirmity declined office. He was a powerful debater, brilliant in repartee, liberal in outlook, and a spokesman for the African population. Like other of the Solomons who settled at the Cape, he became a Christian and married a Christian, but retained an interest in Jews and Jewry. Of his sons SAUL SOLOMON (III; 1875–1960) became a judge of the Transvaal Supreme Court, and WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE SOLOMON (1880–1966), a painter, was principal of the Government Art School in Bombay. EDWARD SOLOMON, son of Joseph Solomon and nephew of the first Saul, became a Congregational minister. His three sons were all knighted: SIR EDWARD PHILIP SOLOMON (1845–1914), minister of public works in the Transvaal under General Botha; SIR RICHARD SOLOMON (1850–1913), first high commissioner of the Union of South Africa in London (1910–13); and SIR WILLIAM HENRY SOLOMON (1852–1930), chief justice of the Union (1927–29). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Abrahams, Birth of a Community (1955), index. (Lewis Sowden)