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GSSA
The 1820 Settler Correspondence
 as preserved in the National Archives, Kew
 and edited by Sue Mackay

Correspondence 1821 to 1837.

Here only letters by known settlers or their families, or letters of great relevance to the 1820 settlers, have been transcribed, whereas ALL the 1819 correspondence was transcribed (see CO48/41 through CO48/46) whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape.

Unless otherwise stated letters were written to either the Secretary of State for the Colonies or his deputy.The original correspondence is filed in order of receipt. Here it has been placed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the writer, with letters by the same writer in chronological order, for ease of reading. Original spelling has been maintained. Reference numbers, where given, refer to printed page numbers stamped on the letters and will enable visitors to the National Archives to locate the letter more easily.

BAILIE, Anne (mother of John BAILIE), 1824

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew, CO48/67, 11

7 Upper Berkeley St

Portman Square

May 6th 1824

The Memorial of Mr.John BAILIE of the Hope near Bathurst in South Africa, humbly presented by his mother Anne BAILIE

Sheweth

That you Memorialist is one of the first settlers who, confiding in the encouraging hopes held out to him, went out to Algoa Bay, having given up a good situation in the year 1819: and proceeded thither accompanied by his wife and family which consists of five children.

That your Memorialist has used every means in his power to cultivate and improve the ground of his location without success, from the greatest scarcity of water nothing will thrive even in a garden, unless near a river, and that his farm is situated ten miles from any river, every attempt at agriculture has therefore proved totally abortive.

The intention of making this an agricultural district having completely failed, it can only be a grazing one, and it remains yet to be seen whether it can be, from its rivers, a commercial one. Your Memorialist is anxious to use his humble endeavours to that end, and is therefore desirous of obtaining an Erf of Land at the Kowie River and an extension of his private grant of land from 1000 morgen, which it is now, to 2000, as there is plenty of vacant land that he can point out. Or your Memorialist would rather prefer the grant of such land as has been vacated by his party, as he is given to understand that Government is going to resume all the vacated land on this location. To your Memorialist it would be an object, to Government it can be none. Your Memorialist has not yet received his title to his present grant, so that he may say even that it is not secured to him, it was granted by Sir Rufane DONKIN. In the hope that his requests will be under all the circumstances of his case deemed reasonable your Memorialist shall ever pray.

Anne BAILIE

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