Grahamstown Journal 1870 - 2 - April to June
Monday 4 April 1870
DIED on the Farm Bushman’s River, district of Somerset East, on Thursday 31st March 1870, Elizabeth, the beloved wife of Frederick Joseph GOWAR Sen (born WHEELER), after a brief illness, aged 48 years, leaving a husband, five children and two grandchildren, and a numerous circle of friends, to mourn her irreparable loss. Deceased was a daughter of a British Settler of 1820.
In the midst of life we are in death.
Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.
DIED at Cradock on the 30th March 1870, of bronchitis, Ethelwyn Marianne, beloved daughter of Robert John and Jane TAYLOR, aged six months and sixteen days.
Friday 8 April 1870
BIRTH at Alice, Victoria East, on the 1st instant, Mrs. A. DEVELING of a son.
Monday 11 April 1870
DIED at Assegai River, April 8th 1870, of Diphtheria, Bennetta Ann Ladlow PENNY, eldest and beloved daughter of William and Ann PENNY; aged 7 years 8 months and 5 days. The parents of the above tender their sincere and heartfelt thanks to Mr. and Mrs. S. HANCOCK, and other kind friends, for their very great kindness during this and a former recent heavy bereavement.
DIED at the residence of her son, the Rev N.H. SMIT, Beaufort-street, Grahamstown, on Sunday 10th April 1870, Francina Caroline, relict of the late Mr. M.J. SMIT, aged 81 years and 9 months. Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.
Tuesday 19 April 1870
MARRIED on the 18th April at the Cathedral, Grahamstown, by the Very Rev the Dean, James PETERS Esq MD, Surgeon in the Royal Navy, of King Williamstown, British Kaffraria, to Alexina, daughter of Montague ARMSTRONG Esq.
MARRIED at Grahamstown April 18th, by the Rev J.M. Cotterill, Richard Aldworth STRETCH Esq, youngest son of R.A. STRETCH Esq, of Oudshorn, to Gesina Johanna BOLLEURS, youngest daughter of J. BOLLEURS Esq of Pearston.
DIED at Salem April 16 1870, of diphtheria, Susannah Eliza, only and beloved daughter of William and Ann PENNY, aged four years, nine months and one day.
DIED at Salem April 12th 1870, of bronchitis, James Paris, second son of James P and Margaret A FISHER, aged five years and eight months. The parents of the deceased tender their sincere and heartfelt thanks to their kind friends for their great attention in their sad bereavement.
Friday 22 April 1870
BIRTH on the 9th April at Smithfield, Orange Free State, the wife of Mr. Nathaniel HARVEY of a son.
Monday 25 April 1870
DIED at Birchwood Park on the 18th April 1870, Mr. William ROE, aged 76 years, 7 months and 18 days.
DIED in Grahamstown on Sunday 24th inst, Susannah Elizabeth, the beloved and eldest daughter of Charles and Ellen PENNY, of Wolf’s Crag, Southwell, aged 28 years.
The funeral will move from the residence of the father, Wolf’s Crag, at two o’clock on Tuesday the 26th inst. Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.
Friday 29 April 1870
DIED at Salem, of Diphtheria, on the 24th April, Margaret A.S. FISHER, aged 3 years and 8 months.
Monday 2 May 1870
BIRTH at Prince Alfred’s Hotel, Kowie East, on the 24th instant, the wife of Captain SCHOE (Little Meek) of a son.
Friday 6 May 1870
DIED at Salem, of diphtheria, May 1st 1870, Philip P. FISHER, infant son of James and Margaret FISHER; aged 13 months and 10 days.
Monday 9 May 1870
DIED at the Wesleyan Mission House, King Williamstown, on the 4th inst, Annie Henrietta, the beloved daughter of the Rev John and Mary Ann WILSON, aged 9 years and 2 months.
Monday 16 May 1870
DIED in the Tambookie Location, near Glen Grey, on the 18th April 1870, Richard HUDSON Sen, aged 64 years and 11 months. Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.
THE JUBILEE BALL
The Ball in connection with the Jubilee festivities will take place in the Albany Hall on Tuesday evening next, the 24th May (Queen’s Birthday).
Admittance by ticket.
Gentlemen 10s, to have the privilege of bringing two Ladies.
Tickets may be obtained of the members of the Ball Sub-Committee, as under, and at the Albany Hall on Tuesday until 5pm.
Messrs C.H. HUNTLEY C.C. and R.M.
W. OGILVIE
C.H. MAYNARD
Stephen MANDY
R. TILLARD
J. WELCHMAN
T.C. HAYTON
John WALKER & E.P. SHINGLER (Hon. Secretaries)
Grahamstown, May 11th 1870
JUBILEE NOTICE
The Jubilee Committee hereby give notice that all the Stock and Produce contributed to the Jubilee Fund will be disposed of after the usual Market on Tuesday morning next, the 24th May.
Gentlemen who may have collected Stock or Produce in aid of the Jubilee Fund will greatly oblige by forwarding the contribution to the Treasurer, the Honourable Samuel CAWOOD, on or before Monday next, 23rd May; or, if preferable, dispose of them at the same date in their own divisions and remit the proceeds as early as possible.
John WALKER
E.P. SHINGLER
Honorary Secretaries
Grahamstown, May 16 1870
JUBILEE NOTICE
The Jubilee Committee invite the attendance of all the Children of Grahamstown (European and Native) to meet at the Drosdy, at half past nine o’clock on Monday morning next, 23rd May, to take part in the Procession, and afterwards to share in the Plum Cakes provided by the Committee.
John WALKER
E.P. SHINGLER
Hon. Secretaries
BRITISH SETTLERS’ JUBILEE
Mr. J.S. GARDNER has been duly authorised to receive Contributions in aid of the Jubilee Funds.
John WALKER
E.P. SHINGLER
Honorary Secretaries
Friday 20 May 1870
BIRTH at Peddie on Friday the 13th May, Mrs. Holt OKES of a daughter.
DIED this morning, May 20th, at Fort England, James GODDARD, aged 89 years. Deceased was a native of Berkshire, and one of the Settlers of 1820, located in Major PIGOTT’s Party. He was a man beloved by his family, respected by the Clergy and neighbours, and valued by those who less intimately knew him.
The Funeral is fixed at two o’clock on Sunday, at the Cemetery Chapel, and all parties who are desirous to attend will accept this means of invitation.
Monday 23 May 1870
MARRIED at Commemoration Chapel, on May 19th, by the Rev W. Sargeant, Benjamin D’Urban GODLONTON, son of the Hon’ble Robert GODLONTON MLC, to Flora Adelaide GLANVILLE, eldest daughter of T.B. GLANVILLE Esq, Grahamstown. No cards.
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT OF ALBANY
By R. GODLONTON
The settlement of Albany, by the British Settlers of 1820, forms, as is now admitted, an important epoch in the history of the Cape Colony. And yet, strange to say, there are many who are unable to point to its actual origin, or to trace its progress. The Jubilee, now in course of celebration, is commemorative of the arrival of the Settlers fifty years ago; but this, pregnant as the fact is, does not shew the origin of, or account distinctly for, the movement. To arrive at this, we must go as far back as 1817-1819, when Lord C.H. SOMERSET – then Governor of the Colony – made the tour of the Eastern Districts. At that time the Eastern Frontier, from the Fish River to the district town of Graaff-Reinet, might be regarded as entirely depopulated. Until then that country had been sparsely occupied. A few of the more adventurous Dutch farmers, gradually moving forward, had imperfectly established themselves in positions regarded by them as best suited to their circumstances and to the objects they had in view. These had, however, been ruthlessly driven out by bands of marauding natives, and they had fled either to Uitenhage on the West, or to Graaff-Reinet on the north, their nearest rallying points. The whole of the country comprised between these two places had been utterly devastated. Every farm house had been fired, and every homestead and cultivated field laid waste. During the government of Sir John CRADOCK very energetic endeavours had been made to arrest this state of things, His Excellency announcing, in a proclamation of the 8th October 1811:
“Whereas it has been represented to me by the Landdrosts of Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage, that notwithstanding the repeated promises of several of the petty Kafir chiefs wandering in the Zuurveldt to return to their own country over the Great Fish River, they still continue to annoy the inhabitants of those remote districts, and to plunder the farmers to a very great extent, and that they have in several recent instances murdered His Majesty’s subjects whom they fell in with. Now, in order to put a stop to these calamities, I have authorised the Landdrosts of Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage to assemble a commando for the purpose of driving these marauders out of these districts; and I have also thought proper to send a military force under Lieut. Col. GRAHAM to support them, having appointed that officer commissioner for all civil and military affairs.”
It is a matter of historical record that the gallant officer employed on this occasion, executed the duty so entrusted to him with promptitude and efficiency. The wide, spreading mimosa under which he pitched his tent, and which gave name to the locality, stood for many subsequent years on a spot which is now the centre of the High-street of the “Settlers’ City”. Many still living will remember it there, and also that it was uprooted during a furious storm of wind and rain which swept over the country in [1837].
The administration of Sir John CRADOCK is also memorable by the death of the elder STOCKENSTROM, then Landdrost of Graaff-Reinet. This officer was treacherously slain by the Kafirs, on the Zuurberg, while endeavouring to induce them to cross the border without the employment of military force. The full details of this treacherous act are graphically given in the Narrative of Thomas PRINGLE. This tragic occurrence exhibits a fair trait of Kafir character, as well as shews the difficulties which the early Settlers, the Pioneers of the Colony, had at that period to contend with. It is true that the commando of Col. GRAHAM had executed the duty entrusted to it, that of forcing the natives into the adjacent fastnesses, but the difficulty which then presented itself was to keep them there, and so to cover the border as to render future occupancy safe to the colonial farmer. That the Government flattered itself by the belief that the object was attained, is pretty evident from the tenor of a proclamation promulgated at this period. “Whereas” says the Governor, “the Eastern Frontier of this Settlement has been entirely cleared from the hordes of Kafirs who have for so many years maltreated the inhabitants of those distant districts. And whereas it is now incumbent upon me to take such measures as shall provide for the future security of the Frontier, and effectually prevent a recurrence of those calamities which have rendered desert the most fertile part of her [sic] Majesty’s Settlement, I therefore direct the orders that exist for preventing all intercourse with the Kafir people, be strictly enforced.”
It is quite evident from this proclamation, and from other public notifications of the day, that the great aim of the Government was to create a territorial vacuum, an endeavour which has often been since made, but which never has, and never is likely to be successful in this country.
Sir John CRADOCK was succeeded in the Government of the Colony by Lord Charles SOMERSET, who seems to have assumed his office with every disposition to carry out the policy of his predecessor. Desirous, however, of seeing for himself, it was not long after his arrival in the colony ere he made a visit to the Eastern Frontier, - along which were spread a slender chain of military posts, extending from near the mouth of the Fish River to Graaff Reinet. With the features of the Zuurveldt, now the district of Albany, his Lordship seems to have been very favourably impressed, as immediately on his return to the Cape a Government notice was issued, inviting parties to establish themselves in that quarter. His Excellency had been struck by its pleasing features, its park-like appearance, and its apparent fertility. His public notice is couched in the most glowing terms, as were also his despatches of that period to the Home Government.
These despatches reached England at an eventful period in her history. Only a few years antecedent to that date an exhausting war had been brought to a close, during which so enormous had been the expenditure - including extravagant subsidies to Foreign States, that a public debt had been incurred to the startling amount of [£300,000.000]. The natural result of this was a fearful collapse, and especially among the artizans and other working hands in the Parent Country. The same feeling, though not, perhaps, the same amount of distress, was present in all the other States of Europe, and especially those which had been the battlefields of contending armies. Revolutionary doctrines were boldly enunciated while disaffection to constituted authority was deep and widespread throughout Europe. The British Sovereign was hopelessly insane, the Prince Regent was deplorably unpopular, and party spirit in Parliament, and among British Statesmen, was [unscrupulous] and bitter. The starving masses were clamourous for bread, agrarian outrages were of daily occurrence, and life and property were felt to be in imminent jeopardy. It was at this period of public danger and alarm that the despatches of the Governor of the Cape, relative to the depopulated country along this border, reached the Colonial Minister, and the idea was at once suggested that here was presented a safety-valve by which a good deal of the public effervescence might be let off. Like drowning men, the Ministers of that day caught at anything, however [......], which appeared to offer the smallest chance of buoying them up or assisting them to drift into smoother water. The result of this was a resolution on the part of the Home Government to throw open the door to emigration to this country, and to hold out the most tempting inducements to parties to avail themselves of it.
In pursuance of this object, Lord BEXLEY, then as Mr. VINSITTART [recte VANSITTART], Chancellor of the Exchequer, submitted to the House of Commons a proposal for filling up this country. “The Cape,” said the Right Hon. Chancellor, addressing the House of Commons, “is suited to most of the productions both of temperate and warm climates, to the olive, the mulberry, and the vine, as well as to most sorts of culmiferous and leguminous plants; and the persons emigrating to the settlement would soon find themselves comfortable.” The speaker concluded with a motion for a grant of £50,000 in aid of the proposed scheme. Had the Right Hon. Chancellor being [sic] more ingenuous he would have admitted that the emigrants were designed to form a living rampart against the incursions of the native hordes which were pressing on that part of the Colonial frontier on which it was proposed they should be placed. It is true, as observed, that Military posts had been established along that line, but these, few and far between, were utterly inadequate to keep the stealthy, fleet-footed Kafir from entering the Colony and harrying the few farmers who had been bold and adventurous enough to move into that vacant country in quest of new “pasture” for their flocks and herds.
All this, however, and much more, was studiously kept out of sight in the Government proposal, the very novelty of which attracted so much attention, that the Colonial office was literally besieged by applications. A writer of authority, referring to the subject, remarks: “The eagerness and anxiety of individuals to be allowed by the Colonial Secretary of State to emigrate to the [sands] of South Africa, the new “Land of Promise”, were unbounded. It was hardly, if at all, exceeded by the followers of Sir Walter RALEIGH in search of El Dorado, or of CORTES or PIZARRO, in their avidity to possess themselves of the gold of Mexico and Peru.”
Still, amidst all this confusion and obscurity, there was a glimmer of light which betokened eventually a better order of things, and which served to reveal in the palpable obscure, that the most effective remedy for native aggression was to raise them in their moral habits; to bring the force of Christian principle to act upon their barbarous customs; to spread religious truth among them; and by these means convert them from a nation of marauders to peaceable and useful neighbours. Governor Lord C.H. SOMERSET must have the credit of making the first official move in this direction. I refer to the appointment of the Revs. Messrs, BROWNLEE and THOMPSON, as Government agents, This appointment was made more than half a century ago, and it is matter for sincere congratulation that both these honoured men are still spared to us, their whole lives having been devoted to the spread of religious truth in this country, and in zealous endeavours to improve the condition of the natives. The views of the Government will be best understood by a reference to the Instructions under which these venerable men entered upon their duties. “Independent,” say these Instructions, “of the gratification a liberal and feeling mind must experience from having it in its power to aid in spreading the arts of civilised society among hordes still in a state of the grossest barbarism, his Excellency is convinced that he shall best consult the immediate interests of the Settlements committed to his charge, and put more easily a stop to those inhuman massacres and ruinous plunderings which take place on our borders by complying with the wish of the Kafir Chief to have a zealous and enlightened instructor sent to him. His Excellency’s chief object, next to that of religious instruction, is that you should constantly impress upon the Chiefs his friendly feeling in their regard; that you should explain to them his wish that the border now fixed for the two nations should not be violated by either; that on his part he is prepared to punish any colonist who shall commit the most trifling offence against the Kafir people, and that it is but just in return that the Kafir chiefs should on their part seek out and punish those who commit depredations and murder in our territory.”
This move on the part of the Colonial Government was well supplemented by subsequent occurrences, though apparently quite unconnected with them. Reference is here made to the arrival in the country of the two SHAWs. These two eminent men, though destined to occupy spheres of labour very widely apart, one on the Western side of the Colony, the other on its Eastern border, were of kindred spirit, each possessing that burning zeal for the spread of the Gospel, and that heroic temperament which led them to regard danger and difficulty with calmness, and that enabled them eventually to surmount every difficulty by which their path was encumbered. The Rev Barnabus SHAW arrived at the Cape in 1816, at which period intolerance in respect to religious teaching was openly avowed by the Cape Government. Accordingly, when Mr. B. SHAW applied for permission to preach in Cape-town, he was prohibited from doing so, and it was only after many vexatious difficulties that he so far succeeded as to be [enabled] to open his [commission] as a Christian [teacher] in the suburban village of Wynberg.
It was four years subsequently to this that the Rev. W. SHAW arrived in the Colony on the same errand of mercy, and, it must be added, he was received by the authorities in a somewhat similar spirit. “All I can promise you,” said the official to whom he addressed himself, “is toleration in the exercise of your ministerial intentions.” To those who have known Mr. SHAW it need scarcely be said this very cool reception was but little regarded by him. He had come hither as the accredited minister of a large party of British Settlers, and as such was duly recognised by the Imperial Government. But, besides this, he had accepted that appointment with the consent and under the auspices of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, which saw in this movement a providential opening for the establishment of Christian Missions in this country. And it is impossible perhaps to conceive of a more fitting instrument for this great work than was to be found in the person of Mr. SHAW. The field of labour on which he had entered was vast, and he stood alone; he had entered the moral wilderness, as it were, single-handed, and to the mere worldly wise the task was an utterly hopeless one. Mr. SHAW, however, thought otherwise, and that he judged aright is fully borne out by the result of his labours. Forty years subsequently, he himself writes: - “Instead of a solitary missionary at Salem, as in 1820, there are now thirty-six missionaries, with ninety-nine paid agents, as catechists and schoolmasters. The unpaid agents, as local preachers, Sunday school teachers &c have increased from about twenty to six hundred and eighty-eight. At first we worshipped in the open air, or within rude and temporary structures; there are now seventy-four substantial chapels, while the number of preaching places, not being chapels, has increased from ten to one hundred and eighty-three.” But besides the labours of Mr. SHAW, the Independents, the Baptists, and last, though not least, the established Church of England, have all made great and substantial progress, and hence, looking at the past half century, we may turn hopefully to the future for the removal of those difficulties which still remain to be overcome.
But turning from the religious to the secular side of the question, we find the same strongly marked indication of progress. In 1820, when the British Settlers first landed on the shores of Algoa Bay, there was literally no trade whatever. It was nothing more than a fishing village, with a small military fort crowning the height, and a few rudely-built scattered cottages either occupied by the military or by small traders, chiefly dependent on them. What is now the site of Port Elizabeth, the “Liverpool of the Cape”, was shut in by lofty sand dunes, covered with brushwood, all of which have disappeared with advancing civilisation. The sea view of Port Elizabeth, even at the present day, is by no means prepossessing, but at the period of the arrival of the British Settlers it was much more depressing. But they had cast themselves on Fortune’s wave – “The world before them, Providence their guide,” – and they braced themselves to meet the result with manly resolution, either to do or die.
In due course they reached their destined location, and then soon began to realise their true position, and to perceive the actual motives of the Government in placing them there. It would be a long – though not uninteresting or uninstructive story, to tell of the destruction their locations [sic]; of the loss of friends and neighbours by the treacherous Kafir; of their sufferings by Providential visitations, in the shape of locusts, blight, murrain, flood, and drought. All these, and many more, were sturdily braved by the first comers, though not without many of their number sinking under the overweighted burden. But few are left to tell of them, but when they do so it is in the language of hope as to the future. For, looking back on the path they have had to travel, they perceive, despite of every drawback, that encouraging progress has been made, and they see nothing to deter them from still going forward. Take as encouragement the following statement:-
In 1821 the total exports from Port Elizabeth amounted only to £1,500
In 1867 they were 1,791,[105]
In 1821 the imports were so inconsiderable that no return of them is extant.
In 1822 they amounted to £13,881
In 1867 they had reached to £1,262,874
That is rather more than 91 times in value was imported into the Eastern Province in 1867 than was imported in 1822. And be it remarked that not only did their exports cover this amount, but it left an actual surplus of no less than [£108,512].
[Transcriber’s note: The print is rather blurry so the figures are difficult to read. If the 1867 import and export figures are correct, the difference would be £528,231]
In making this reference to the trade of the Eastern Province, it would be a sad omission not to dwell for a moment on the rise and progress of our Wool trade. Among the first arrivals in 1820, there were a few of the emigrants who brought with them small flocks of fine woolled sheep. But no exportation of wool to the English market is recorded till 1853, for which year the total export is returned at 79,816 lbs. In 1866 it had reached the large figure of 33,205,679, that is, it had increased nearly four hundred fold in 31 years. At the present day the export of wool is little short of forty million lbs.
These figures will suffice as indications of the progress of the Eastern Province in agriculture and commerce. But besides what is here shewn, it must be remarked that of late the most praiseworthy efforts have been put forth to raise new articles of export, Cotton, silk, coffee and linseed being the most important. Each of these gives promise of great success, especially the former, an opinion being freely hazarded that eventually it will rival Wool, both in quantity and value.
It is very satisfactory to remark that the intellectual advancement of the Province has gone side by side with its commercial and agricultural progress. In 1820, the only Printing Press brought to the Cape by the British Settlers was intercepted at Capetown, by the Government of that day, under the impression that it would be a dangerous engine in the hands of a people who had just left a country where the liberty of the Press was regarded as an inherent right. Fifteen years afterwards that same press came again into the possession of one of its original proprietors, and from it was issued the first number of the Journal, a paper that has survived in all its vigour to the present day. And not only has it maintained its own position, but it has been instrumental in establishing a newspaper press in almost every division of the Province. And it is but just to say that the papers in general circulation are distinguished by an independence of expression [and by a breadth of view] which cannot be too highly commended or too greatly valued. But while the Press is, and ever should be, the great educator of the community, there are other and very potent agencies at work in promotion of the same object. “The schoolmaster is abroad”, and his self-denying labours are exercising a mighty influence upon all classes. The fifty years’ labour and experience of the British Settlers of 1820 have not been altogether in vain. Their descendants stand upon vantage ground, and it may be confidently predicted that the next half-century, when the Fathers of the Settlement shall have passed away, will see the Eastern Province take rank amongst the most flourishing portions of the British realm.
[Transcriber's note: Page 2 this issue contains a very lengthy poem written by Alexander WILMOT to mark the Golden Jubilee of the 1820 settlers. The text is not easy to read and I do not propose to transcribe it, but I have discovered an MP3 file of the poem being read aloud here.]
A BRIEF HISTORIC SKETCH OF THE ALBANY SETTLERS OF 1820
By the Rev. W. SARGEANT
The following brief historic sketch of “the Albany settlers of 1820” was prepared as a Jubilee discourse, with the intention of delivering it in Commemoration Chapel, Sunday, May the 22nd; but in the course of composition it assumed such a form as to throw over it an air of secularity which scarcely appeared to harmonise with the sanctity of the day and the sacredness of the place, so that at the “eleventh hour” it was set aside as unsuitable for the occasion. It is now submitted for publication in the Journal, trusting that, during the Jubilee week, it may prove interesting to some of the juvenile readers of that paper, who, like the writer, may be “sons of the British Settlers of 1820”. It will not at all encroach upon the province of the Rev. H.H. DUGMORE’s lecture, as that will have a wider and loftier range, and occupy a position peculiar to itself. We have in this sketch designedly avoided any direct reference to the religious history of the settlement, as we wish to reserve it for its more appropriate place at the celebration of our Missionary Jubilee in July next, when we hope to furnish “A brief sketch of the rise and progress of Mission, in South Eastern Africa.” The prefatory remarks are omitted for the sake of brevity. This will account for apparent abruptness in the opening of the narrative.
The circumstances which, in the providence of God, led to this emigration, are well known to most of your readers, as they have often been delineated in the annals of the Cape Colony. On the termination of the Continental war in 1815, Great Britain disbanded vast numbers of her military and naval armaments. This had the effect of restoring to other European countries a great portion of that trade and commerce which England had for a time exclusively monopolised. The consequence was, large numbers of British workmen were thrown out of employ, and almost unexampled distress spread throughout the United Kingdom, which continued with little mitigation till the beginning of 1819.* This was followed by political agitation demanding Parliamentary Reform. During the session of the Imperial Parliament of the same year, a proposal was made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. VANSITTART, to relieve the pressure of England’s commercial difficulty by establishing an English settlement in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The proposal met with the approbation of the House of Commons, and they cordially voted the sum of £50,000 to carry the project into effect. The Government proffer was eagerly embraced by the distressed tradesmen and artisans. Applications came pouring in from every direction, till the number of applicants far exceeded the expected one of the Parliament. A limited number only was accepted, amounting to between 4,000 and 5,000.] The unsuccessful candidates are said to have reached the almost incredible number of [93,000].
The original Settlers differed widely, in more respects than one. As to nation, they were principally English, a few Irish, a few Scotch, and a modicum of Welsh. As to social status there were among them members of almost every gradation in the social scale. “Well educated gentlemen, and half pay officers, highly respectable manufacturers, and tradespeople, skilful mechanics, and artisans, with a large body of labourers, and operatives of every class of industry.” † As to Religion there were English Episcopalians, Scotch Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Irish Roman Catholics. As to moral character, of course there were some of evil principles and bad character, who clandestinely insinuated themselves under false colours; but as a class, they were men characterised by high moral principle and unblemished character. They were neither banished as felons, nor expatriated as ticket-of-leave men, nor had they to fly their own country to escape the penalty of violated law – nor did they, as a community, disgrace their character in the land of their adoption by the perpetration of deeds of flagrant immorality. The original Settlers gave very little work to the Magistrates and Judges of the land. Whilst, we their descendants, may not boast of an aristocratic parentage, we may at least glory in our Fathers having bequeathed to us the inheritance of a sound Christian morality. We may not [detain] you by any attempt at delineating the breaking loose from home ties, the dissolving of home associations which cost them many a pang, suffused many an eye with tears, and agitated many a bosom with strange emotions of alternative hope and fear. We must also pass over the circumstances of the embarkation, with many, long, and final farewells to loved ones, “sorrowing most of all that they would see their face no more.” The poet PRINGLE of African celebrity, and himself an emigrant, has described to the life the sentiments and emotions which must have filled every breast as they receded from the shores of Old England, and caught the last glimpse of their Fatherland. The lines have often been quoted before, but we need offer no apology in referring to them again on the present occasion.
“Home of our hearts! Our father’s home!
Land of the brave and free,
The keel is flashing through the foam
That bears us far from thee.
We seek a wild and distant shore
Beyond the Atlantic main;
We leave thee, to return no more,
Nor view thy cliffs again!”
The voyage itself was one of more than average comfort and expedition in that age of sailing vessels. There was but little sickness, but few deaths, no shipwrecks, and, as far as recorded, no very remarkable nautical adventures. He, “who holds the winds in His fists, and the waters in the hollow of His hands,” gave the winds and waves charge concerning them, “until they reached their desired haven.” The first two of the twenty-six vessels, viz: the Chapman and the Nautilus, left Gravesend Dec. 3rd, 1819; reached Table Bay March 17, 1820 and anchored in Algoa Bay April the 9th. The Aurora, in which most of the Salem party are particularly interested, did not set sail till Feb. 6th, 1820. She was detained below Gravesend for nine days waiting for favourable weather; finally weighed anchor Feb. 15; reached Table Bay May 1st; and anchored safely in Algoa Bay May the 15th – fifty years precisely on Sunday, the 15th inst.
It is often the case that “distance lends enchantment to the view.” It is pre-eminently so in persons immigrating into foreign countries. Generally profoundly ignorant of its physical geography, its climate, its zoology, its botany, its people, its resources, &c, they draw upon their fertile imaginations, and picture to themselves a terrestrial paradise, where they may expatiate amidst Elysian fields, and pluck ambrosial fruit. Hence they often become thoroughly utopian in their ideas, and their anticipations, “like the baseless fabric of a vision,” are never realized. It was so with “the Pilgrim Fathers of 1820.” Arriving at Algoa Bay, their first impressions were likely to be unfavourable, the country at that port representing the appearance of a low flat coast, faced with bare sandbanks, and with sterile hills rising above them. No lofty mountains, no majestic rivers, no expansive and placid lakes, no green meadows, no natural parks, no widespread forests, no beautiful landscapes – nothing, in short, to give grandeur or beauty to the scene. Everything was cheerless, uninviting, forbidding, repulsive, the opposite to what their romantic imagination had painted. Was this the land of promise? Was it for this they had torn themselves from friends, expatriated themselves from home, and bid a final farewell to the shores of dear Old England? Alas! they had exchanged a paradise for a wilderness. Their hearts sank within them; disappointment sat personified upon every countenance; and if they had had the “opportunity of returning to the country whence they came out,” I am not sure that they would have had the faith of Abraham to enable them to resist the temptation.
There was, however, nothing for it but to face their difficulties, and this they knew how to do with an invincible courage, when circumstances imperatively demanded it. Having effected their landing, and pitched their tents on Afric’s shores, “strangers in a strange land,” they patiently, or impatiently, waited for the means of transit to their respective locations. After some delay, at length these arrived, in the form of a long train of lumbering wagons, drawn by huge teams of oxen, and driven by burly Dutchmen, with their unwieldy whips. The whole presented a novel scene to the newly-arrived Settlers. Their curiosity was elicited, their gloomy reverie was dissipated in the bustle and excitement of packing their effects and preparing to proceed to their destination. After the necessary preliminaries, they start over “break-neck” roads, over stones and ruts, up hill and down dale, over bridgeless rivers and almost impassable kloofs. After some detentions, much inconvenience, and many droll adventures, but without any serious accidents to “life or limb”, they reach their respective locations in Lower Albany, extending from the Assegai River to the Great Fish River Mouth, each party raising its Ebenezer, and saying, “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.” But they now only began to encounter their real difficulties. On their arrival they had no kind friends to welcome them; no comfortable inns to receive them; no description of house to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather; and it was a season very similar to the one we are now experiencing – rainy, cold, and stormy. They were put down and left by their Dutch drivers, strangers in an African wilderness, literally “without house or home.” Some were disposed for a time to sit down upon their luggage and indulge in a reverie, or to philosophise upon their novel circumstances; but they were soon aroused from all such sentimental speculations by the realisation of their true and matter-of-fact [position]. After pitching their tents, the first thing to be done was to erect houses for themselves and families. The silence of the wilderness was soon broken, and the wild beasts of the forests were alarmed out of their lairs, by the sound of the hatchet, the saw, the adze, and the hammer. Poles and wattles were cut down out of the neighbouring thicket and conveyed to the respective homesteads, and grotesque cottages, or huge huts of “wattle-and-daub,” were seen to spring up as by magic, and small villages dotted the country in almost every direction. Some, to save trouble and expense, cleared and covered over interstices between perpendicular rocks, and thus obtained very cheap but [novel] and rather frigid habitations among [“the munitions of rocks”]. Other architectural wiseacres excavated the walls of rivers, covering over the top with “reeds and rushes.” Here they thought themselves snugly housed till “the rains descended, and the floods came,” denuding every apartment of its furniture, and the affrighted inmates but scarcely escaped with their lives, laden yet with a rich harvest of experience for the future. It was not till a subsequent period of the settlement that more substantial edifices of brick and stone were erected, such as now compose and adorn the city, the towns, and villages of the Eastern Province of the Colony.
Being housed in their rude domiciles, the next thing was to devise means for the support of themselves and families. The scanty supplies brought with them from Home were soon exhausted, and after the lapse of two or three years the Government aid was also discontinued, and ere long the Settlers were called to endure great and manifold privations. A series of disasters followed in quick succession. First, there came the repeated failures of the wheat crops by the rust, which reduced some almost to destitution and despair. This was followed by a terrible flood in October, 1823, accompanied with almost a tornado of wind, which blew down a number of houses. The rivers rose to a prodigious and almost unprecedented height, and swept away numbers of standing crops. Great distress ensued. Many were reduced to privation and want. Gaunt famine stared them in the face. The Government once more came forward and afforded prompt but inadequate relief. This was supplemented by the philanthropic efforts of Doctor PHILLIPS and H.E. RUTHERFORD Esq., the latter undertaking the onerous office of Secretary to a Relief Committee in Capetown – which nobly exerted itself in raising funds for this benevolent object. Additional aid was also procured from India for the same purpose. Relief Boards, composed of Ministers of Religion and other gentlemen, were formed on the Frontier, and distribution was made to the most needy. And it is recorded in General SOMERSET’s Speech at the dinner of the half-Jubilee in 1845 that 1,800 families who were reduced to destitution, were relieved by clothing and provisions: and that 9,000 individuals obtained assistance from the Government during that trying crisis of their Colonial history. During many years of the settlement the Settlers had to subsist on the very coarsest of fare – pumpkins, mealies, and rice, with milk and a small quantity of meat, constituted their staple diet. Wheaten bread was seldom to be got: rye bread was often substituted for it. Groceries were scarcely to be had, or were beyond the capacity of the Settler’s purse. The Kafir tea was often used instead of caper or souchong: burnt barley was often substituted for coffee, and honey for sugar. Another formidable difficulty soon presented itself. The wardrobes brought from England, in a few years became very low indeed; very few articles of clothing were to be procured in the colony, and those for most part at such exorbitant prices as to place them beyond the pecuniary reach of most. Old threadbare habiliments had to be patched and washed till very little of the original could be recognised. You might have seen our fathers and brothers attired in sheepskin trousers and jacket, with a broad brimmed hat, manufactured out of the palmiet, or wild date leaf, which abounds in Lower Albany, and with veldschoens on their feet. Our mothers and sisters habited “in coarse cotton stuffs” and sometimes in “well dressed sheepskins, formed into a skirt or frock, with hats or bonnets made also from the same material as worn by the men,” And as the Rev. W. SHAW humourously remarks, “It is a pity all this occurred before the days of photography, or many highly respectable families in Albany, and other parts of the Cape Colony, might possess some portraits of their fathers and mothers, the ‘founders’ of the Albany Settlement, exhibiting very grotesque costumes of a highly historic character.” These were the days of “homespun.” And Christian congregations, even on the Sabbath, exhibited an appearance which would have strangely and fantastically contrasted with the fashionable appearance of the modern congregations. Ministers did not then often require to urge the [Apostolic] exhortation "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of putting on of apparel" Yes, the privations of those days were great. - such as those who have come subsequently to the colony can form no adequate conception of. Yet, amidst all they were called to endure, a kind Providence furnished them with a wonderful amount of physical health. Medicine was very little in requisition. Chemist’s shops there were none, and three medical men, who had come out in the Chapman and Nautilus, were obliged to seek for employment elsewhere. But these early difficulties at which we have briefly glanced, culminated in a new crisis, and formed a new epoch in the history of the Settlement, from which we may date the period of a remarkable development. Providence has a wonderful way of working out His own purposes in the destiny of nations, communities, families, and individuals, appointing to them their inheritance “and fixing before the bounds of their habitation.” And although, like Jacob, in the limitation of our vision, and in the weakness of our faith, we may often be disposed despondingly to exclaim, “All these things are against me;” yet we are led in the end of the Divine operation to see that they were among the “all things which work together for good to them that love God.” No doubt, the Settlers of 1820 would have become wholly localised, and have been confined within the circumscribed boundaries of Lower Albany, there dragging out a wretched existence, had it not been for that series of painful dispensations which overtook them at this period of their history, whereby they were scattered and distributed over the colony, forming towns and villages, and farming establishments and trading stations in different localities. We may characterise this as the time of their “dispersion” or “migration”. Most of those who understood the mechanical arts found employment in Grahamstown, and laid the foundation of its future commerce, as the city of the Eastern Province; or, if you like, “the City of the Settlers.” Others travelled as far as Algoa Bay, Uitenhage, Graaff-Reinet, Somerset, and other towns and villages in the Eastern districts of the colony. Others, not acquainted with the mechanical arts, obtained goods and became a kind of [itinerating] merchants, or South African pedlars, hawking articles of merchandise among the Dutch farmers, carrying them first upon their own shoulders, then upon a horse, and ultimately on a wagon drawn by eight or ten oxen. Others got their living by transport riding, conveying goods from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown.
* CHASE’s History of the Cape Colony
† The Rev. W. SHAW’s Mission
THE SURVIVING SETTLERS
The following list of surviving settlers is believed to be correct:
R. GODLONTON
T. STRINGFELLOW
J.C. CHASE
G. RYE
W. BEAR
H. GRAY
J. WRIGHT
T. PIKE
G. SANSOM
B. KEETON
W. HARTLEY
E. BRADFIELD
-- HODGKINSON
E. TIMM
G. BROWN
Rev. SHEPSTONE
P. HOBBS
-- EVERY
J. COLLETT
G. PENNEY
H. FULLER
W. COCK
J. THOMAS
J. MILDENHALL
A. GILFILLAN
W. STREAK
J. DICKS
R. RALPH
J. RALPH
R. MILES
W. TROLLIP
J. TROLLIP
W. COMLEY
J. HISCOCK
C. PENNEY
J. EVANS
H. SPARKS
J. DICKS
J. CARNEY
T. PAGE
T. FRANCIS
-- COLLINS
-- MUNDELL
-- GIFFORD
E. FORBES
T. BAKER
W. PRICKETT
-- BUTLER
C. COCKCROFT
J. MOORCROFT
J. PHILLIPS
W. INGRAM
-- LEACH
W. DENTON
R. HULLEY
J. [illegible]
S. [illegible]
J. MACKIE
J. STIRK
C. HOBSON
D, HOBSON
W. CHADWICK
G. WAINWRIGHT
E. DRIVER
[illegible]
W. CAWOOD
B. HALL
H. DIXON
G. BELFIELD
M. [WELDON]
F. [W....N]
S. FREEMANTLE
-- [HAYHURST]
-- RICKETS
C. KIDD
W. MUIR
[illegible]
--TALBOT
W.M. MAYNARD
J. MAYNARD
R WEBB
J. GOLDSWAIN
-- DENHAM
T. BERRY
M. BERRY
Wednesday 25 May 1870
BIRTH at West-hill, Grahamstown, May 16th, Mrs. John ANDREWS of a son.
DIED at Grahamstown on the morning of the 25th May, Philip Henry, son of John and Harriett GRAINGER, after a brief illness of heart disease. Friends will please accept this notice.
Monday 30 May 1870
DIED May 21st 1870, at O’Grady’s Hotel, Carlisle Bridge, from the effects of an accident received on the road, William Carey HOBSON Senr, of Ebenezer, Graaff-Reinet; aged 65 years.
Friday 10 June 1870
BIRTH at Grahamstown on the 10th instant, the wife of Mr. H. CURRIE of a daughter.
MARRIED at Port Alfred on the 26th May, by the Rev Mr Laing, Cornelius COCK, second son of William COCK Esq, to Edith JAFFRAY, second daughter of the late Wm. JAFFRAY Esq.
DIED at the Ramakaban River, Central Africa, on the 21st February 1870, of fever, Mr. Joseph FRANCIS (formerly of Grahamstown) in the 51st year of his age.
Monday 13 June 1870
MARRIED at Reibeek on the 7th June by the Reverend the Dean of Grahamstown, at the residence of the bride’s father, William Bruce, eldest son of W.M. EDYE Esq, late Resident Magistrate and Civil Commissioner of Peddie, to Mahala Elizabeth Couch, second daughter of James PRAED Esq of Reibeek.
MARRIED on Monday 13th June, at West-hill Chapel, Grahamstown, by the Rev R. Lamplough, George William IMPEY to Lydia Roberts WOOD, youngest daughter of the Hon’ble Geo. WOOD. No cards,
DIED June 12th 1870, at the residence of Mr. John GARDNER, Charles PENNY Sen of Salem, one of the Settlers of 1820, aged 83 years and 9 months.
Funeral procession to start from the residence of J.P. FISHER of Salem at 12 o’clock on Wednesday the 15th. Friends are respectfully invited to the Funeral.
Friday 17 June 1870
DIED on the 12th June at his residence in Cradock, Mr. Edmund BRADFIELD, in his 74th year. Deceased was one of the Settlers of 1820. Friends at a distance will please accept this notice.
DIED at Smithfield, Orange River, Free State, on Tuesday the 7th June 1870, Frances Mary Teresa, infant daughter of William and Margaret BRADSHAW; aged 2 months and 7 days.
DIED at Grahamstown on Thursday the 16th June 1870, Harriet GRAINGER, the beloved wife of Jno. GRAINGER, in the 46th year of her age.
Monday 20 June 1870
DIED at her residence in Market-square on Sunday night, 19th inst, Margaret Anne, relict of the late Mr. Percival FRAYME. The Funeral will take place tomorrow morning, to move from the residence at 8am.
Friday 24 June 1870
DIED at Oatlands on the 22nd June, of bronchitis, David CAWOOD, aged 6 years and 4 months, second and beloved son of David CAWOOD and Emma Frances GRADWELL.
Monday 27 June 1870
DIED on the 24th inst of Whooping Cough, Bertha Stacey RUSHBY, youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. R.E. RUSHBY, aged 3 years 6 months and 11 days.
DIED on Sunday the 19th instant, at Cradock, Thomas Herbert Grey, only son of T. and S.A. HANN. Friends please accept this notice.
Wednesday 29 June 1870
DIED on the 28th instant, at his residence, Prince Alfred-street, Mr. William COMLEY, aged 76 years and 7 months. Deceased was one of the British Settlers of 1870.
DIED at the Farm “Slaai Kraal”, on the 28th June, Henry GRAY, aged 90 years 4 months and 22 days. Deceased was one of the British Settlers of 1820.
The Funeral will take place tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at half past 2; to move from No.4 Lawrence-street. Friends are respectfully requested to attend.
A. WILL, Undertaker.
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