Esther's mother, Rebecca, died at the age of 19 in 1835. She married Jacob Trollip in 1833 when she was 17 and when he was 25. It appears she had her first and only child shortly after as Esther was about 18 months old when her mother died during the attack. This was during the Sixth Kaffir War which took place in 1835.
"Jacop Trollip, a mason, was working with James Lydford Collett [his brother-in-law] on the farm and when James and his wife Rhoda were away one day natives [probably Xhosa] attacked the house and came at Jacob with assegais [spears]. His wife, Rebecca, intervened and was fatally injured, and their 18 month old baby daughter, Esther, was slightly wounded in the hip. James and Rhoda reared this child as one of the family."
Footprints in the Karoo, Joan Southey, page 132-133.
Notes:
Rebecca's father, Robert Rogers, was killed only 5 months previous to her death, in Dec 1834, at Tyumie (sic) Mission.
James Lydford Collett was married to Rhoda Ann Trollip, Jacob's older sister. There is a book about their life, "A Time to Plant: Biography of James Lydford Collett, Settler" by Joan Collett, published in 1990.
