Henry Brown Marshall came to South Africa in 1878 and started a transport business from Durban to the Highveld. In 1886 he acquired part of the farm Turffontein and established Marshalltown. He bought 713 acres of the Farm Cyferfontein for his family home in 1893, which became Melrose Township, and planted many fine oak trees. Marshall and his wife, Anna Rissik and eight children lived here for only four years. Penalised for participation in the Jameson Raid, he returned to Scotland in 1897.