Skip to main content
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.

CARLISLE, William, 1829

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew, CO48/133, 49

Graham's Town

January 11th 1829

Sir

As civil Chaplain of Graham's Town in His Majesty's Colony of the Cape of Good Hope I beg leave to address you on the subject of my salary & to submit to you a respectful request that it may be paid me from the date of my embarkation in London.

The Government of this Colony have not thought proper in the absence of an order or the sanction of a recommendation from Mr. HUSKISSON, your predecessor in office, to allow it me further than from the date of my landing at Cape Town. The acting Secretary, however, at the same time advising me to make application to the Colonial Department at home. The grounds upon which I have ventured pursuant to this advice to make such application [obscured] that the whole of my passage from England was not paid by His Majesty's Government, that I was therefore during the time which elapsed [since] such passage spending my own money in His Majesty's service – I beg leave to mention as a precedent the cases of the judges, each of whom has been allowed his salary from the date of his embarkation on preferring a claim founded upon similar grounds – viz. that he was from that time a civil servant in His Majesty's service.

I beg also to state that I relinquished a professional employment in England nearly equal in pecuniary point of view in value to the one in which I am now engaged, the emoluments of which I was deprived of from the date of my embarkation & also during the time occupied in preparing for important service in so distant a place of His Majesty's dominions – I may perhaps also be allowed to state that very heavy expenses were incurred in preparations necessarily incidental to my present situation, that additional heavy expenses were incurred during our unavoidable delay at Cape Town, to the payment of which my salary during that time was totally inadequate – I beg in these respects to represent to you the hardship of my case & to express a hope that upon such considerations you will be pleased to allow me my salary for the time of nearly 3 months from the 24th of April 1828 to the 12th of July, which elapsed during my voyage to Africa.

I have the honour to be, Sir

Your most obedient servant

William CARLISLE

  • Hits: 6200