J. D. Kestell

John Daniel Kestell (15 February 1854 – 9 February 1941) was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, Bible translator, writer and cultural leader. As a writer, he sometimes used the pseudonyms Afrikanus Jr. and Leinad. The latter was his middle name spelled backwards.

Early life and origins

John Daniel Kestell was the fifth of six children. His parents were the Englishman Charles Kestell (born 9 August 1818 in Wales) and the Afrikaner Dorothea Louisa Weyer (26 March 1820 – 2 September 1858), who were married on 31 October 1845 by Daniel Lindley at Pietermaritzburg.On his father's side, he was a direct descendant of a British Settler family who had initially settled in the Albany district and later moved to Grahamstown.

In 1845, John's father came to Natal on the ship Rosebud and settled in Pietermaritzburg, where he joined the Dutch Reformed Church as a strong believer and served as a deacon and elder. His mother died in 1858 when John was four years old. His father's second marriage was on 24 August 1859 to Johanna Susanne van den Berg. John began school with Miss Osborne of St. Andrew's Church and later at the government school in the Voortrekkerkerkie, where W. Nisbett was headmaster. As a child he met many Voortrekkers, including Sarel Cilliers, J.N. Boshoff, Erasmus Smit, Daniel Bezuidenhout and Marthinus Oosthuijse. On 31 March 1869, his father removed him from the government school and placed him in the school of Mr. Muirhead where he received his first lessons in Greek.

He left school in 1870 and began working for P. Maré on 6 October 1870. At this time diamonds were discovered in Griqualand West and on 17 May 1871 he and his father set out for the diamond claims at New Rush, where they earned enough to live on and save a little. They sold the claim a year and a half later and returned to Pietermaritzburg in January 1873.