iad* Ji loHl ■ sr-— .-.I SHI-. Hli «3» •m tWi KSi ■# Sun V \ ± Sir Liege Hulett Links with the Founder, 1971: The Headmaster (great-grandson) and Mr. K. Balcomb (great-greatnephew), Craig Hulett, Robin Hopkins, Ross Hulett (great-great-grandsons). It was a chance advertisement in the "Dover Times" that brought the founder of Kearsney College to Natal in 1857. APPRENTICE James Liege Hulett came to the new colony at the age of nineteen as an apprentice to William Burgess, a Verulam pharmacist. He bought a piece of land nearby and soon became a full-time farmer. By 1859 he was able to bringhis parents andhis sisters toNatal to join him. EARMING. His original venture, however, proved unsuccessful and by 1861 he was managing a cotton farm at Compensation. Soon afterwards the cotton scheme failed and he took over the farm he had managed. Later he was able to buy the land north of the Umvoti whichhe called Kearsney Estate, after the old Abbey near his home inEngland. TRADING. Here he set himself up as a trader and experimented with a variety of crops. By the 1880's he had gone over to tea planting and Kearsney tea was being marketed in 1888. It was in tea that he made his first fortune. SUGAR. Soon afterwards he became convinced of the future of sugar. He began growing sugar in 1891 and established J. Hulett and Sons in 1892. In 1897 Zululand was incorporated into Natal and by the end of the century the railway extended beyond Stanger. The future of the new industry was assured. PUBLIC LIEE. By this time he was a prominent figure in public life. In 1883 he had been elected to the Natal Legislative Council. From 1898 to 1902 he was speaker in the House of Assembly. In 1910 he became a member of the Union Senate. He was knighted in 1902 as a member of the Natal deputation to the Coronation of Edward VII. KEARSNEY COLLEGE. Kearsney House had been built on the estate in the 1880's and was the headquarters of Hulett and Sons until 1903. In 1921 he gave the house to theMethodist Church for the establishment of a school for boys. That he should have been the founder of a Methodist school in Natal is not altogether surprising. His great-grandfather had been a personal friend of John Wesley and an early Methodist minister. Both his father and his grandfather had run a 'school for young gentlemen' in Gillingham, Kent. Sir Liege died in 1928 and was buried beside the chapel at 'old' Kearsney on the North Coast. In 1971 there are still Huletts in the school. 23 KEARSNEY'S FOUNDER A The Hulett Crest.
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