G1. John Stumbles - England - was the father of:
G2. Abraham Stumbles b. 1768 d. 1824 md. Elizabeth (Betty) Sully and their children were:
G3.
G3 (iv) Abraham and. Mary (nee Washington) Stumbles:
Col. James Washington had a sugar plantation on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. He had to have a militia, one white man over every ten slaves, to keep down insurrections. Col. Washington was reputed to be some cousin of President George Washington. James Washington had a daughter Mary Blackmore Washington and her mother had been a Miss Blackmore. The Blackmores were apparently a well connected family and one of her ancestors was knighted.
Abraham is reputed to have owned or operated a ship and collected merchandise in many different parts of the world. While on a call at St. Kitts in the West Indies, he met and married Mary Blackmore Washington in about 1820. After their marriage, they went to live in Plymouth, Devon, England. Later Mary, who had owned slaves of her own on the plantation in Nevis, freed them of her own accord before the emancipation of slaves was introduced. Sometime in 1832, Abraham and Mary emigrated to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island where he had an art school and did painting and sculpturing and made wax fruit and flowers while his wife ran a school for young ladies. They later returned to Plymouth, England.
Abraham and Mary Stumbles had the following children:
G4.
G4. (iv) Robert and Hannah (nee Barrett) Stumbles:
Robert W. Stumbles ran a school of his own at Lambourne, Berkshire, England and in 1860 he and Hannah and 4 children left for the Cape Colony and first went to Heald Town where Robert was ordained as a minister of the Anglican church. About 1864, after the 5th child was born, the family went to Southwell, where the Rev. Stumbles was appointed as resident minster and taught at the school. He and Hannah later left for Peddie where Hannah died and is buried. Shortly after her death the Rev. Stumbles moved (1883) to St. Luke's Mission in East London, Cape where he eventually died on 7th July 1898 at the age of 72.
Robert and Hannah Stumbles had the following children;
G5.
In 1860 Robert and Hannah and the above children went to the Cape Colony and subsequently the following children were born:
G5. (iv) Robert and Anna (nee Watermeyer) Stumbles:
Robert came to the Cape Colony with his parents when he was not yet 1 year old. In due course, he joined the staff of a bank rising to the position of Chief Accountant at the age of 28, and afterwards becoming manager of various branches in the Eastern Cape - a position he held for some 14 years. At the end of his banking career, he came with his family to settle in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He practised for some years as an Accountant and Broker in Bulawayo, finally moving to Salisbury (now Harare).
Anna Watermeyer was the second daughter of George and Christina (nee Rubidge) Watermeyer. She was a niece of Mr Justice E.S. Watermeyer and grand-daughter of Charles Rubidge of Wellwood, Graaf-Reinet. The Watermeyers were originally from Hamburg, Germany and they emigrated to South Africa in 1770. Anna's mother was a Rubidge from the family which came to South Africa in 1821 and settled in the Graaf-Reinet area. Captain Rubidge RN, who had fought at the battle of Trafalgar, was the first of the family to come out and he started Wellwood Farm.
Anna was a well known local pianist and enjoyed painting and writing. Indeed, a novel written by her "The White Ants" was published a few years after the family moved to Rhodesia.
Robert and Anna (nee Watermeyer) Stumbles had the following children:
G6.
G6. (iii) The Hon. Albert Rubidge Washington and Mary (Molly) Dallas (nee Atherstone) Stumbles:
Rubidge, as he was known, arrived in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia with his parents in August of 1913. He became admitted to practise law on 26th March 1926. As an attorney, notary and conveyancer he started his own law practice in Salisbury in 1930. He was the longest serving practising attorney in Salisbury at the time of his death in 1978 and in 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe one of his grandsons (Rodney John Stumbles) joined his father (Robert Atherstone Stumbles) as a third generation partner in the law firm that Rubidge started.
He entered the Southern Rhodesian Parliament as a member for Avondale constituency in 1946. In 1954, he was elected Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees which offices he held until his appoinment as a Cabinet Minister. He held the following portfolios: 1954 Minster of Justice and Internal Affairs; 1957 Minister of Local Government and Minister of Native Education; 1958 Minister of Roads, Irrigation and Lands. (On 13th May 1958 he was advised that "Her Majesty the Queen had been pleased to approve of the rentenion by you of the title of 'Honourable'. A notification to this effect will be published in the London Gazette and the Southern Rhodesian Government Gazettes.") The Hon. A.R.W. Stumbles went on to become in 1962 Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs; Minister of Law and Order and Minister of Roads. In 1964 he resigned his seat as Member of Parliament for Avondale when he was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembley, an office he held until he resigned at the end of December 1972.
In 1951 he was a member of the Southern Rhodesia delegation to the Victoria Falls Conference on Federation; in 1960 he attended the Federal Review Conference at Lancaster House, London as a member of the Southern Rhodesia delegation and in 1961 was a member of the Southern Rhodesia Constitutional Conference. He represented his country at Madrid as Minister of Roads and Road Traffic at the Fourth World Meeting of the International Road Federation in 1962. In 1965 as Speaker, representing the Rhodesian Parliament, he attended the celebrations in London marking the Seventh Centenary of Simon de Montfort's Parliament. In 1972 he was elected President of the National Historical Association and President and later Life President of the Rhodesia Amateur Athletic and Cycling Union. He was Chairman of the Heritage of Rhodesia; President of the Salisbury Rotary Club 1953-1954; Chairman of the Salisbury Ratepayers Association; Chairman of the Salisbury District Careers Committee; President and Life Vice-President of Avondale Sports Club; Vice-President of the Law Society of Southern Rhodesia but could not take office as President as he became a Cabinet Minister.
Molly (nee Atherstone) Stumbles was the daughter of William John and Annie Liddle (nee Dallas) Atherstone. William John was the second son of Mr Walter Atherstone and the grandson of Dr. J. Atherstone who settled in the Cape with the 1820 settlers. William John came with his newly wed wife to Southern Rhodesia in 1898 by stage coach. In 1903 William John Atherstone became Southern Rhodesia's Surveyor-General and later in 1923 he was Director of Lands as well. Annie Liddle Dallas was the daughter of James Dallas from East London.
Throughout her marriage, Molly Stumbles was a very close supporter of, participant with and partner to Rubidge in everything he did. In many ways, she was the wind beneath his wings and after his death she became the catalyst around whom her family could gather as she grew to be the matriarch of her wider Rhodesian family.
The church service for the late Hon. A.R.W. (Rubidge) Stumbles took place at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Avondale, Salisbury, Rhodesia on Friday 4th August, 1978, attended by the President of Rhodesia, the Chief Justice and many dignitaries, relatives and friends from all over the country. The service for the late Molly Stumbles took place at the same church, in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 25th July 1995. It was overflowing, standing room only, with friends and relatives paying their last respects as an extraordinary era came to a close.
Rubidge and Molly Stumbles had the following children:
G7