Rangton was a skilled carpenter who eventually bought his own freedom in 1712 and practised as a successful artisan until his death in 1720. Shell speculates that it was Rangton who would have made the original majestic door of the farmhouse at Elsenburg farm which Simon van der Stel had granted Elsevier in Stellenbosch. This was the very door which was bought by Rhodes, a known collector of architectural artefacts, a hundred years later.
