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

pre 1820 Settler Correspondence before emigration

ALL the 1819 correspondence from CO48/41 through CO48/46 has been transcribed whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape. Those written by people who did become settlers, as listed in "The Settler Handbook" by M.D. Nash (Chameleon Press 1987), are labelled 1820 Settler and the names of actual settlers in the text appear in red.

JENKINS, T.F.

National Archives, Kew CO48/44, 28

Opposite the Horns

Grange Road

Bermondsey

London

July 25th 1819

My Lord,

I hope your Lordship's goodness will be pleased to excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing you, but having lately observed an advertisement in the papers that Government is about to encourage an emigration to the Cape of Good Hope, I beg leave to acquaint your Lordship that I carried on an extensive cooperage in Plymouth and having been unfortunate in my speculations from the change of times that I am now reduced to the situation of a journeyman cooper in the London Docks, where the work is now become so slack that of late upon the average I have not been employed more than two days of a week, which is a very small income to support a wife and seven children. I shall therefore feel very much obliged if your Lordship will be pleased to inform me the particulars respecting the emigration to the Cape and where I am to apply to get a passage for myself and family, as being thoroughly acquainted with every branch of the coopering business and having also been used to husbandry I have every reason to hope, as work is so scarce in England, that I should be able to support my family with more comfort at the Cape than I can do here. I therefore hope that your Lordship will be pleased to take my case into favourable consideration and any favour conferred on me by procuring me and my family a passage to the Cape of Good Hope will be gratefully acknowledged by, my Lord

Your Lordship's very humble servant

T.F. JENKINS

  • Hits: 5900