In 1882, a farmer Petrus Johannes Marais of the farm
Varkensfontein in the Heidelberg district made an agreement with a prospector
named Johnstone allowing him to prospect for gold on the farm his.
Johnstone’s prospecting operations continued for a
considerable time shrouded in secrecy. Then one day a stranger called on farmer
Marais and made him an offer to buy the farm.
Fortunately, farmer Marais was at that time reading “The
Fortunes of Nigel" by Sir Walter Scott, a story about a young man, Nigel
Olifaunt, also known as Lord Glenvarloch who was the victim of a dishonest
intrigue but eventually achieved his goal in life. This Nigel Olifaunt travels
to London in order to ask the King to repay his father's loan. Nigel wishes to
use the money to pay off a mortgage on his estate—but the Duke of Buckingham
and Prince Charles already have their eyes on it. The lord is drawn into the
chaotic life of the court, and when he becomes an enemy of the profligate Lord
Dalgarno, he finds himself in grave danger.
The stranger's visit immediately aroused farmer Marais's
suspicions to the extent that he decided to visit his farm himself. Once at the
farm he found that his suspicions were well founded. With the experiences of
Nigel, the character in the novel in mind, he determined not to allow himself
to be cheated by cunning fortune seekers and at once set about to establish his
own company. In July 1888, two years after the discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand, he achieved his goal. His company was registered as the Nigel
Gold Mining Company. The town, which grew around the mine, still bears the name
derived from Scott's book.
In 1888, the State President Paul Kruger declared Nigel as a
public digging under notice no. 331 and since then the history and development
of Nigel are inseparable from those of the gold mines. The town was little more
than a mining camp until 1923, when the control of the town was passed into the
hands of a Dorpvillage. The first meeting of this council was held on 2 January
1923.
The town is on the edge of the area known as the East Rand,
the industrial engine room of Johannesburg.
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