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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.

EVANS, Charles 1835

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew, C)48/164, 96

London

24th July 1835

   Having been driven from my house in Albany, Cape of Good Hope, with great risk of life & loss of property by Caffers, I returned to this Country about two months since after an absence of fifteen years, during which time I had attained to a station of comfort & independence.
   This calamity has obliged me to mortgage a small freehold property which I possess in this Country – I left my son fighting against our savage, treacherous enemy with other gallant lads in that Colony – I am now desirous of returning to my former home in Africa and venture to solicit from Your Lordship a passage out in some transport or King's Ship with my Wife, in which priviledge I feel assured will if possible be granted me – Many hundreds of my countrymen less fortunate than myself have been reduced from independence to absolute want & misery & unless something like reparation is made to them the whole district will be thrown back for 50 years & England will lose a good & increasing Custom for her manufacturers.
   The missionaries have done much mischief as I believe, with little good – instead of making Christians of the heathens I do not believe they have made one.
   The Hottentots are good subjects to the King & generally much attached to the English, of which it is not a slight proof that if any of them come before a jury they invariably reject the Dutchmen as their judges prefer the English Colonists.
   I was offered an introduction from Sir Harford JONES-BRYDGES in whose neighbourhood my freehold lies, or I could have had one from mercantile acquaintances.
I am respectfully Your Lordship's most obed't serv't
Chas. EVANS
At Mr. B.D. MEREDITH's, opposite WhiteChappel Church
London

[Note scrawled across corner by clerk]
25 July. Regret the losses wch he has sustained – [commiserations?] with those Resident in the Eastern District of the Cape but cannot comply with his request nor recommend .. till some official account shall be rec'd from the Governor of the state of the Colony...

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