Captain Thomas Henry Duthie emigrated to the Cape in 1826. In 1830 he visited Knysna, where he was the guest of George Rex, whose daughter Caroline he subsequently married in Cape Town in 1833. He retired to Knysna the following year, where he devoted his time to the development of his estate on the Knysna Lagoon, and to the construction of Belvidere House. The 1904 census indicated that Belvidere had a population of 100.