Continued, Please click here to read Part One.

This article is largely extracted from the text of the late Tessa King’s address to the West Rand GSSA in 2005. The link to the full original article is in the endnotes of this post. I have added pictorial content to this post and will continue to add as I go about here in Bathurst. If readers have a particular request for a visual, I will try my utmost to get a photo of the location/building/grave.

The Party Types

The proprietary or sole-proprietary parties consisted of a party leader, usually a man of with some capital and indentured servants or labourers that were tied by contract to work for that particular leader for a number of years. This ranged from three to ten years for an annual salary and at the end of their tenure they would be given a piece of land of their own. This was the type of party the British Government had envisaged but these only formed a small part of the Settler parties who eventually sailed for the Cape Colony.

The majority of parties were what was known as joint stock or co-operative parties. These were loose-knit voluntary organisations in which the leadership was purely nominal and each man contributed his own £10 deposit and were organised on a basis of mutual assistance, shared labour and a jointly-owned stock of tools and implements. The heads of these parties would receive title to the party’s grant of land but it was agreed that as soon as possible this would be divided and shared amongst the members of the party. People were recruited by way of tavern meetings and advertisements and often consisted of families with many children. Many of the smaller parties, who were rejected, joined other parties and so began the formation of these large joint-stock parties. The three largest parties were those led by John Bailie, Hezekiah Sephton and Thomas Willson. In many instances the people of the party didn’t even know anything about their leader! Those members paying their own deposits would receive their own grant of 100 acres of land in the location allocated to their leader. Some of the leaders were a little unscrupulous and Thomas Willson charged his people an extra £5 each, which was later to cause a lot of unpleasantness. The Government was not dealing with the man in the street, but did everything through these party leaders. Some of the joint-stock parties were formed in a spirit of community, like the largest self-styled Methodist Party, which settled at Salem and sailed in two divisions under Hezekiah Sephton and Richard Gush.

The third group were the Independent parties, which actually fell outside of the parameters of the scheme but were included as part of the 1820 Settlers. These were the three parties led by Major-General Charles Campbell, Lieut Richard Daniell and George Wilkinson. They paid their own way without assistance from the Government in return for their land allocations. Richard Daniell was responsible for the establishment of Sidbury.

As it turned out only four of the sixty-one parties consisted of the poor where the Parishes had raised the money and assisted with the deposits, the Nottingham party being a case in point. Parishes were not allowed to use money from the ‘poor relief’ to pay the deposits for their members. So the Duke of Newcastle had lobbied wealthy patrons and got sponsorship for the poor of the Parish of Nottinghamshire and so enabled them to emigrate.

Parties ranged in size from 10 to 102 families and selection often depended on whom you knew rather than what you knew. Influential sponsors, patrons, and parish ministers wrote letters of recommendation for many of the parties. Applicants were not always truthful and fudged their information in an endeavour to be accepted. Many who had never farmed were listed as agriculturists or husbandmen, ages were decreased so that they appeared to be stronger and healthier, children who could get away with looking as though they were under 18 or under 14 were suddenly younger, single woman became ‘married’ to single men because it meant they didn’t have to pay their own deposit but could be classed as a family. Some couples suddenly acquired children from the larger families and this has all contributed to the frustrations and dilemmas that we as genealogists experience when trying to trace our Settler heritage. Often we find graves stating an age of an ancestor showing him/her to be quite a bit older than the comparable age they were when they emigrated. I have one in the family whose age jumped up and down over the years and at times has left me wondering whether there were actually two people with the same name, but nothing can be proved. Benjamin Wright was entered as 22 on the first sailing list but was 17 on the final sailing list, thus saving his family the £5 deposit!

Those first lists were changed numerous times as the euphoria of the initial application began to wane and the enormity of what lay before them actually began to take shape in their minds. Some became afraid as they listened to the stories and rumours in the press and so decided to stay with what was familiar instead of venturing into the unknown. Others had to pull out at the last minute because their spouse had died or was ill, although there are several cases where this happened and the remaining spouse continued on to Albany. Parties kept changing too as applications were turned down and these same folk attached themselves to other parties. Some tried to keep the Colonial Department informed of their changes, but others were not so conscientious or the lists have been lost. The various lists that did survive are on film at the Cape Archives and the actual lists are kept at Kew Gardens in the National Archives. If one does a comparison between the initial list for a party and the list that was later compiled by the Transport Agent, they are often two entirely different lists with perhaps only the leader remaining as the head of the party.

Another factor responsible for these last minute changes was that the 29^th September was Michaelmas Day and was traditionally the day when contracts for the next year were signed within the various parishes, ensuring that you had employment and a roof over your head. When the Government had not finalised their selections by this time, many elected to stay with what they knew rather than take a chance and find they were not selected and now had neither job nor a home in which to live.

While these lists were being finalised, the Government was busy making the arrangements to use ships from the Navy to transport all these emigrants. Some were troop ships that had to be refurbished in order to make them more comfortable and suitable for transporting civilian folk. The Weymouth is one such ship, which was actually docked next to a ‘hulk’ while work was being carried out on it. In fact as settlers began to arrive in Deptford they were accommodated on the hulk until the Weymouth was ready for boarding. Navy Transport Agents were appointed to oversee the boarding of the ships and to check that only those whose names appeared on the final list were allowed to embark. This policy was strictly adhered to and often resulted in folk travelling under assumed names just to get to the Colony. At some stage the Colonial Government realised that there were these last minute changes taking place and the policy was amended, but too late for some of the parties who had already sailed. This theory has been proven by documentation of early Colonial life in Albany where people whose names were on the lists did not in fact sail, and others who arrived and lived in Albany were not listed on any of the lists that have survived. John Ayliff who was to become a well-known preacher in the area sailed with Thomas Willson’s party but his name is not on any of the lists. He may have been the 13-year son listed as that of Matthew and Jane Dold whose initial application had been unsuccessful and they had subsequently joined Willson’s party.

People like E Morse-Jones, H E Hockley, and later M D Nash, have all written wonderful books where they have done comparisons of the various lists from the first list for a party to the final list written up by the Navy Transport Agents. Unfortunately many of these lists have been lost. The Weymouth was one of the ships where, because it was a Navy ship, an accurate log was kept by the Captain and is filed at Kew Gardens.

The Ships and their Parties

The ships had to sail down the Thames and wait for the prevailing winds to be right before they could sail out into the open sea. Some of the ships that were trapped in ice on the Thames had to wait until February for the ice to thaw before they could sail. So one can just imagine how long the journey must have been for them, having embarked in December and only actually leaving England in February and arriving in the Cape in June or July 1820. Because the ice was thick they were allowed on and off the ships and this again led to people dropping out and others replacing them under assumed names. The arrangement was that ships would sail in pairs with one Navy Transport Agent doing the honours for both ships in terms of embarkation and disembarkation. Even though the ships left in pairs, because of weather conditions, they did not always arrive together. A case in point was the Northampton, which left Gravesend on the 13^th December 1819 arriving in Table Bay on the 30^th April 1820. The Portsmouth left after them on the 1^st January but arrived 15 days earlier on the 15^th April 1820 and only a day behind the Nautilus.

The first ship to sail on the 3^rd December 1819 from Gravesend was the Chapman with the parties of John Bailie and John Carlisle on board. Bailie’s party finally consisted of 68 families because some of his party had changed allegiance and gone off with other parties, so Carlisle’s small proprietary party of 11 single men was accommodated on the Chapman. Bailie’s party had a high proportion of skilled tradesmen and professional men and was also almost certainly the wealthiest of the joint parties with four men owning indentured servants. The Nautilus followed close on the heels of the Chapman and included the parties of John Mandy, Lt Charles Crause, Thomas Owen, Thomas Rowles and George Scott. Crause’s party was a small joint-stock party made up of 12 men, who were tradesmen for the most part. After being settled on his location between the Kap and Wellington Rivers he separated from his party and first Thomas Philipps took over the leadership then James Moorcroft. The parties of Mandy, Owen and Rowles each comprised 11 men. Rowles abandoned his location in 1821 and disappeared off to the Cape and possibly back to England, and Francis Blackbeard then took charge of his party. Scott had paid for his own men and subsequently died of a liver complaint in 1822. These two ships arrived in Algoa Bay on the 10^th and 14^th April 1820.

On board the Northampton were the parties of William Clark, Charles Dalgairns, Thomas Mahony, Major George Pigot and William Smith. William Clark was a surgeon and had arranged to take out a group of 11 young men from the Refuge for the Destitute in Hoxton, London. John Brown and John Stubbs, joint leaders of a proprietary party joined forces with Clark after their applications were refused. Clark’s party eventually comprised nine independent settlers, mostly married men who paid their own deposits. Dalgairns paid for 11 men in a proprietary party and they were located on the Blaauwkrantz River. He left his location in 1823 and moved to Somerset. Thomas Mahony was an architect and builder and his party of 16 were probably the most ill behaved causing many a disturbance on board ship.

Major George Pigot was a wealthy gentleman farmer who thought he was coming out to be the landed gentry of the day and was going to have a magnificent mansion in which to keep his refined family. He even brought out his daughter’s piano. We have his daughter Sophia Pigot to thank for telling us through her journals about much of the comings and goings during the journey as well as early life in the Eastern Cape. William Smith’s party of 11 were supposed to board the Nautilus but arrived late and so embarked aboard the Northampton. His location was on the road to Trompetters Drift and named Stoney Vale.

The Ocean sailed next from Portsmouth with Edward Damant’s party of 25 men who were all mainly from Norfolk. His brother John who accompanied them had already lived in the Cape and was married to Maria Korsten, daughter of a wealthy landowner in the Cape. Also with them was his sister who was married to Dr John Atherstone a surgeon. John Henry Dixon’s party of 11 was a joint-stock party made up of London tradesmen, all married with families. William Howard, who led a party of 15 and was settled at Salem Hills, was a schoolmaster whose literary style and calligraphy was put to good use in the Colony. In fact he is often a witness at the weddings conducted in the Anglican Church in Grahamstown and was responsible for transcribing many entries in the register. Nathaneal Morgan paid for 12 men in a joint-stock party and was also situated on the Blaauwkrantz River where they named their location Beauty Vale. One of his descendants, John Morgan, is here with us today.

On the 7^th January 1820 the Weymouth, which was one of the largest ships, sailed with 450 Settlers in 11 different parties from Portsmouth. Their journey is well documented in the ‘Log of the HMS Weymouth’ and has kindly been transcribed by Sue Mackay and can be found on the Internet. Parties included those of Alexander Biggar, a Capt of the 85^th Regiment who had been found guilty of embezzling £1300 from War Office Funds and been discharged after repaying the money. He paid deposits for 13 men and their families who were all indentured to him for three years and would receive 20 acres of land which they would be free to cultivate on Saturdays and Sundays and at the end of three years they would receive title to it. Although his party members signed an Article of Agreement, by July 1820 everyone except George Pollard had deserted him or applied to be released from their contract.

Miles Bowker was a gentleman farmer from Wiltshire and had a proprietary party including eight indentured men, all single men except one. He paid deposits for 9 men and his 17-year-old son made up the 10^th able-bodied man in the party. Duncan Campbell’s party was also made up of 10 men. William Cock’s joint stock-party comprised 40 men (including 11 servants) who formed themselves into a ‘Society of Free Settlers’ with a President, Secretary and Treasurer – William Cock being President. This party agreed to put themselves under military discipline and planned to erect a place of worship where Church of England prayers and lessons could be read. They were settled at Green Fountain where one of the first churches was built.

Edward Ford’s party was also a joint-stock party consisting of labourers from Wiltshire and joined by Robert Miles a weaver from Erlestoke. The book ‘Story of a Frontier Family’ documents their life in Albany. This was one of the parties, which arrived early, having sold all they possessed, to find they could not board the Weymouth. They were given temporary accommodation on the three-decker hulk that served as her tender, by a sympathetic Colonial Department. James Jennings, a member of the party, fell ill and died before they sailed leaving his wife and 3-year-old son to sail with the party. She subsequently married Joseph King a member of Bradshaw’s party after his wife Ann had died in about 1823. Ford’s party was moved twice before they set up home on the banks of the Lynedoch River.

The party belonging to Charles Hyman was also a joint-stock party made up mostly of folk from Wiltshire. From the names on the first list, it was only Hyman himself and John Wheeler who actually sailed for the Cape. It seems his party and that of Samuel James absorbed the remains of several parties that had formed and disintegrated and well known Settler names like Trollip, Weakley, Farley and Debnam were members of this party. My husband’s 1820 Settler ancestor, John Henry King was a member of Hyman’s party. This party was one of the few parties that remained together for the first three years ‘having encouraged and cultivated a spirit of unamity (sic) amongst each other’, but were also the hardest hit by the droughts and crop failures and living in abject poverty by 1823.

Samuel James, also from Wiltshire lead a joint-stock party which had been helped financially by the Parish and eventually amalgamated with the remainder of a group from Frome, consisting of the families of Randall, Bartlett, Hayward and Usher. Sadly shortly before they sailed his wife died after giving birth to twins one of whom died at the same time. The other baby died just a week later at sea. What a sad and stressful voyage he must have had! The log of the Weymouth shows that many children under the age of 2 died during the voyage – between the 5^th and 25^th February, 9 children were buried at sea. Philip Hobbs lost two children, one of whom had been born at sea and James Usher had a daughter born on the 10^th March and whom they named Eliza Weymouth Usher in honour of the ship.

Also on board the Weymouth were the parties of William Menezes, which included amongst others the families of Amos, Bowles, Eastland, Green and Hayward. This party was settled at Rietfontein and later moved to join the party of John Parkin on the Kariega River. John Parkin and Benjamin Osler each had a small joint-stock party where deposits were paid for 11 families.

The Kennersley Castle which included the parties of Samuel Bradshaw, James Henry Greathead, William Holder, Thomas Philipps and George Southey was next to sail on the 10^th January from Bristol. The Cam parish authorities had recommended Bradshaw’s joint-stock party and deposits were paid for 14 families, which included well-known 1820 families such as Brent, Wiggill and many of the King families including Philip King and his son Richard who is better known to us as the famous Dick King. Greathead’s party was a small proprietary party from Worcestershire. William Holder had recruited his joint-stock party mainly from Bristol and consisted of small tradesmen. Names such as Shepstone, Tainton, Powell and Kidwell were amongst the settlers who accompanied him with only William Holder and William Roberts being remnants of the initial list.

Thomas Philipps was a fairly wealthy gentleman banker from Pembrokeshire, Wales and apart from his family there were no young children in his party. He paid for his 20 indentured men including 3 maidservants. Robert Currie, a surgeon, joined the party and paid for himself as an independent settler. The semi-proprietary party belonging to George Southey included 6 indentured servants and 4 free settlers who were parish assisted, namely Thomas Glass, James Thomas (part of his deposit was paid by Southey), Thomas Style and William Berry. George Southey went on to become quite [in]famous for killing the Xhosa Chief Hintsa.

Interestingly the Weymouth had a rather dramatic encounter during the journey with a Spanish Galleon ship hoping to capture what they thought was another pirate ship. The English of course also wanted to take possession of the pirate ship so some shooting took place and must have scared the poor settlers out of their wits before the Spanish ship eventually sailed away.

On the 13^th January the John leaves from Liverpool along with the Stentor. On board the John are the parties of Richard Hayhurst, Samuel Liversage, Charles Mouncey, John Stanley and Jonathan Wainwright. Hayhurst was also a leader who charged an extra £1 as applicants registered and despite this upsetting the people he managed to put together a joint stock-party of 34 men and their families mostly from Liverpool. Rev William Boardman was originally a member of Hayhurst’s party but when it became evident that this party would not reach the requirement of 100 families, he left and joined the party of Thomas Willson. Their first location was Trappes Valley next to Bathurst. Families such as the Cawood’s who were woollen manufacturers, Bradley, Bold, Gradwell, Foxcroft, Hartley, Kelbrick and Murray were some who accompanied him.

Liversage’s joint stock-party consisted of artisans and labourers mainly from the Parish of Burslem as well as quite a number of children. Thomas Manley was originally entered on the lists as having a wife and seven children under the age of 14 and on the final list he is shown as sailing with only three children, the others apparently having died prior to sailing. I sometimes cannot comprehend what it must have felt like to lose four children in such a small space of time. Families such as those of William Ford, Richard Forrester, William Mountfort, Thomas Payne and Daniel Venables were included in this party. Charles Mouncey’s party was a mixed party in that he paid for his own family and 5 servants and sailed along with 6 ‘free settlers’. They were mainly from Sheffield in Yorkshire. By 1824 conditions had deteriorated to such an extent that 5 men had returned to England and 4 others were making plans to leave. Stanley’s party of 11 men were a highly dissatisfied and violent bunch who caused the authorities many headaches and eventually were granted permission to bring along firearms and ammunition. Perhaps they should have given more thought to their journey instead of worrying about firearms as they omitted to include bedding with their provisions! Many of the party were sleeping on the bare boards of the John in freezing weather conditions and the Navy eventually had to issue the party with bedding.

Jonathan Wainwright was a 48-year-old cloth manufacturer of Leeds, Yorkshire and his party, which included his own family, was also a mixed party along with the families of Charles Cockcroft, Francis Bentley and single men like Joseph and William Stirk, William Hartley and George Duffield.

Valentine and Charles Griffith from Wales who sailed on the Stentor had a proprietary party which included 19 indentured servants as well as their three unmarried sisters. Neave’s party was also a proprietary party from Liverpool. Land claims that were investigated in 1824 showed that the party of James Richardson appeared to have included 7 servants but it is not clear how this party of 11 were financed. Families such as those of George and William Clayton, Charles and William Denton and Richard Hulley were part of this party.

Leaving from Cork on the 12^th February 1820 was the East Indian carrying the party of William Parker who was one of the leaders who gave, and continued to give the authorities, a hard time. He was a merchant from Cork in Ireland and a virulent anti-Papist who somehow managed to have some very good connections and so was granted permission to proceed to the Cape despite his many and often totally ridiculous demands which were not met. He promised to take out 500 ‘starving Irish’ but in November two thirds of his list now included people gathered together in London and only about one third were the poor Irish. As a result this party had to board at Gravesend and then sail for Cork to fetch the rest of the party causing numerous delays. The journey was filled with quarrels and discontent and he then refused the grant of land given them at Clanwilliam and demanded they be settled at Saldanha Bay. This was refused and because of his lack of leadership the party was split into subdivisions under new leaders. The Irish were given the option of moving to Albany, which some of them did, and others were given permission to seek work in Cape Town. In 1822 Parker was given a free passage back to Britain where he continued his attack on the Cape Government resulting in Colonel Bird eventually being dismissed.

Thomas Butler’s Irish proprietary party was recruited in Wicklow and 12 men and their families set sail on the Fanny on the same day as the East Indian left from Cork. They were settled at Clanwilliam in order to keep the Irish separate from the rest of the settlers, but eventually Butler and nine of his men moved to Albany and were located on the Assegai Bush River. [His descendant, Guy Butler, would play an invaluable role in the development of a South African dramatic arts society and national theatre.]

Embarking at Gravesend and also leaving on the 12^th February after a one month wait for the ice to thaw, was the La Belle Alliance carrying the party of the infamous Thomas Willson who had charged his men an additional £5 deposit which he claimed was to be used to assist them once they were in the Cape. This was however not the truth and the settlers soon became disenchanted with their leader whose group was one of the biggest joint-stock parties. His proposals to the party were ridiculous and his demands to be treated in a similar way to that of ‘Lord of the Manor’ were met with disapproval and discontent. Because the party consisted of 102 families they were entitled to the services of a clergyman and Rev William Boardman joined them after leaving Bailie’s party. On arrival at Algoa Bay the free settlers in the party sent a petition to Sir Rufane Donkin who intervened on their behalf and, thinking that unity had been restored, settled them on the Bush River. However, the peace, if you could call it that, was short lived and Willson abandoned his settlers as they reached the location and returned to Cape Town. Rev William Boardman then took up the reins as head of the party.

George Dyson, Christopher Thornhill and William Wait embarked on the Zoroaster in December 1819 at Deptford. Unfortunately they were trapped in the ice on the Thames and only set sail on the 12^th February 1820. George Dyason was the nominal leader of a party of six equal partners consisting of himself and his three brothers, Isaac, Robert and Joseph and Samuel Bennett and Hougham Hudson with 14 indentured labourers. Most of the men were recruited in Kent and Isaac Dyason Jnr called it ‘the Isle of Thanet party’. Thornhill was from Durham and initially entered into a partnership with William Wait and Arthur Barker who recruited labourers in Buckinghamshire. This was a short-lived partnership as Wait had creditor problems and Thornhill refused to place himself under Wait’s leadership. After the Colonial Department was called in to settle the fight the party split and Thornhill became head of his own party of 16 men. Wait was left with 26 men including Barker and his steward Henry Ulyate and their nine labourers. Since the ship was only chartered to sail as far as Simon’s Bay, the settlers had to be transhipped via the Albury for the rest of the voyage to Algoa Bay. Thornhill and his party were located between the Kowie and Rufane Rivers and named it Thornhill. Barker applied to separate from Wait, and his party were granted land on the Kariega River, which they named Waterford. Wait’s location was on the Bushman’s River and by October 1820 his servants had been released from their agreements because he treated them so poorly. My ancestor, Edward Hunt Dell was a member of Thornhill’s party and many years later the family owned Barville Park, which had been allocated to Major Campbell. Upon his death his widow was given a small portion of the original settlement and George Wood bought some of the land. He subsequently sold it to the Dell family whose descendants are today still the owners. To find this early link between my maternal and paternal ancestors was quite exciting especially as neither family even realised that there had been contact between the two families in those early settler days. Barville Park was used extensively during the Frontier Wars as it had a huge fortress built on it, to which families often fled in times of conflict, and also acted as a church and a school at times.

Another party leaving from Liverpool was that of Dr Thomas Calton aboard the Albury who sailed on the 13^th February. He was a surgeon from Nottingham and the Duke of Newcastle and several subscribers sponsored his party. Nottingham as mentioned was one of the areas worst hit by the Industrial Revolution. Although the lists for this party were only sent in very late they were accepted because of the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle. On arrival in Albany the settlers named their location Clumber after his seat in Nottingham. Members of the party signed an Article of Agreement binding them to Dr Calton and in return were to be given 20 acres of land as well as the use of the commonage. This party changed continually and many were refused permission to board and urgent intervention had to be sought through the Colonial Department to allow all the changes. His people were quite unruly and obviously being frame knit workers, had very little chance of ever becoming successful farmers. The stress of the journey must have been too much for Thomas Calton, for he died on the beach at Algoa Bay on the 8^th July while they were waiting to be transported to their location on the Torrens River. Thomas Draper is elected as the new leader. This party of 60 included the families of John Bradfield, George Dennison, Thomas Hartley, William Pike, George Palmer, Thomas Nelson, Thomas Timm and Thomas Tarr to mention just a few. Several families still live in that area today.

The Sir George Osborn sailed on the 16^th March 1820 and arrived in Algoa Bay early in July 1820. On board were the three parties of Edward Gardner, Daniel Mills and Edward Ford Turvey. Gardner’s joint-stock party was mainly from Birmingham and the only party with 9 deposits being paid. Through a misunderstanding the party arrived in London ready to embark when they were in fact supposed to sail from Liverpool. They were eventually given permission to board the Sir George Osborn only to have the ship ripped from it’s moorings in a fierce gale which required extensive repairs to be made to the ship causing further delays. Their settlement was named New Birmingham and was located in the Kariega River valley. The small party led by Daniel Mills comprised of 10 men but did not stay together for very long. Charles Hills was in fact the only member of the party to remain on location. Edward Ford Turvey had been granted permission to take out a party after initially being part of the Mahony party. He was fortunate to have influential friends whose patronage helped secure his application and deposits were paid for 14 men. Most of the party consisted of his own family. This party list was probably one of the most confusing since his brother-in-law Peter Clarke Daniel sailed with his wife and children and his mistress and her children but some of the children were listed as those of his wife and some were listed as children of his brother Sampson O’Malia Daniel. Peter became the temporary leader when Turvey was inadvertently left in Simon’s Bay! This group settled on the road to Trompetter’s Drift Post.

The Aurora and Brilliant were two of the ships that had to wait for the Thames to thaw before they could finally sail from Gravesend on the 15^th February 1820 arriving at Algoa Bay on the 15^th May. The Aurora carried the main division of the very large joint-stock party led by Hezekiah Sephton while Richard Gush led the rest of Sephton’s party on the Brilliant. This party were all Wesleyan’s united by their faith and consisted mainly of small tradesmen. Originally this group was under the leadership of Edward Wynne but when his wife died in October the leadership was eventually transferred to a reluctant Sephton. Deposits were paid for 101 men and their families with 66 families sailing on the Aurora and 35 on the Brilliant. A surgeon accompanied each party and as their minister they had recruited Rev William Shaw a young Wesleyan minister. These parties were also settled twice and their final destination was named Salem. This group formed a tight knit community whose affairs were conducted in an orderly and spiritual manner. As mentioned another of my ancestors was George Wood a 14-year-old boy who was apprenticed to Richard Smith. However, he ran away as they reached the location and was taken in by William Thackwray whose son John became his close friend. Eventually through trading and buying property The Honourable George Wood became a very wealthy man and an influential politician of those times. On his death he left an estate valued at over £264,000!

On board the Brilliant were the two Scottish parties led by James Thomas Erith and Thomas Pringle. Erith’s party was a proprietary one and in fact he had applied in January 1819 to immigrate to the Cape with a party, but had withdrawn because of problems with his partner. After settling near Bathurst this party was moved to a location near the source of the Kaffir Kraal River. His men did not remain long and successfully applied to have their agreements cancelled because of his poor treatment of them. By 1823 this location was all but abandoned. Thomas Pringle led a joint-stock party that included people with a little capital and some agricultural knowledge. He was a cripple who was a poet and journalist and hoped to find employment in the Cape and was recommended by Sir Walter Scott. They settled on the Baviaans River about 30 miles from the village of Cradock, and named their location Glen Lynden. Thomas Pringle subsequently left for Cape Town in 1822 and his brother William took over the leadership of the party.

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This post has been edited from the text in Source: https://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/index.php/home/76-articles/2-the-story-of-the-1820-settlers.pdf

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