Wesleyville Methodist Mission Church, Peddie District, Eastern Cape
Established in 1823 among the amaGqunukhwebe it was the first Wesleyan mission established by Rev. Shaw at a time when elephants still abounded in the Fish River bush. Chief Kama of the amaGqunukhwebe became the first chief to embrace Christianity.
There is nothing much to be seen except for a plaque on a rocky ridge above the Twecu Stream, a tributary of the Chalumna River, marking the spot where the mission church once stood. There is also a marble scroll below the ridge erected in 1923 on the grave of Ellen Hey, the daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Shaw who died there in 1826.
Destroyed in both the sixth and seventh Frontier Wars it was again partly rebuilt In 1847 on another site on the ridge 300 yards away. Within the walls of the old church, a British officer had been buried but was later reinterred within the walls of the Anglican church in KWT at his mother’s request.
The following information was found on the website sahistory.org.za regarding Wesleyville.
WESLEYVILLE, East London, Cape: LMS 1823; WMS 1825. Established by the Rev William Shaw, it was burnt down during the 1835 war but was reoccupied at the end of hostilities. Andrew Geddes Bain visited it in April 1829 and wrote the following report:
"This morning we waited on the Revd Mr Shaw, Missionary at this station. We were astonished to see the improvements he had made there in the short span of 3 years. He has built a very excellent house & a chapel which is also made use of as a school. There is a store kept by a Mr Walker & a good house for the school master besides a great many small houses for the (Xhosa), all the latter being built on one plan & laid out in streets at right angles".
In March 1839 it was visited by James Backhouse who reported that:
"The Wesleyville station was despoiled during the late war, and its inhabitants were scattered. Some of them afterwards settled at the Beeka and at Newton Dale, two stations nearer to the Colony; others went to other places, and but few returned hither. The houses of the missionary and artisan were now in a dilapidated state; the end of the former had fallen in during the late rain. A chapel newly built of stone was just roofed. A son of John Ayliff, the missionary, kept a store at this station, in a little wattle-and-dab hut. Stores, if conducted by conscientious persons, are often useful in such situations; they are an encouragement to trading, which has a civilizing tendency; but they are hurtful where persons are allowed to contract debts, as is the case at some of the (Khoikhoi) Stations. The trade with the Xhosa) is conducted by barter.
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