Settlers Lives 1820

Settlers Lives

On 12 July 1819, the British government voted £ 50,000 for a scheme that would take as many people as possible to South Africa. The first of 21 ships set sail at the end of that year.

Some 4 000 men, women and children, divided into 60 'parties', left for what was then the great unknown.
This was possibly as daunting & exciting as going to Mars would be in 21st century.
The years that followed their arrival were difficult, to put it kindly, were unbelievably hard.

These valiant folk had learnt the hard way that they had exchanged the mild, predictable climate of England for a hot wild land with locusts and fierce wild animals, where a few good seasons would be followed by a pitiless drought.

The magnificence and beauty of the land must have been lost on them as they toiled.

There was considerable ridicule for the scheme in the newspapers of the time

Howard's Party - No 21 on the Colonial Department list, was led by William Howard of Blucher Street, Chesham, Buckinghamshire . It included John and Sarah Cadle and their 4 children and was intended that a joint stock party of fifteen men and their families from Buckinghamshire formed Howard's party, but by the time they left the original party had shrunk in numbers and had to be supplemented by four members of a London party whose application had previously been turned down.
John Cadle & His wife & 4 children were one family accepted.

They embarked at Deptford in the "Ocean" a regular transport ship, sailing from Portsmouth on New Year's Day 1820, and arriving in Table Bay on 29 March and Algoa Bay on 15 April. They intended to settle on the Blaauwkrantz River at Salem Hills. In cramped quarters on a foul smelling ship they sailed in very rough seas, a journey that in itself must have been a terrible start to their adventure.

After several months tossed on the ocean it must have been with great relief that the Settlers landed on the exotic shores of Algoa Bay. There they were given a few days respite in a temporary camp. They were then instructed to move, by ox-wagon and at their own expense, to allotted 'farms' in the district of Albany,or the Zuurveld ('sour veld'), bounded by the Bushman and Great Fish rivers in the eastern Cape, which includes Grahamstown .

Five 'frontier wars' with the Xhosa had largely emptied the whole area of white farmers. The Governor the Colony Lord Charles Somerset idea was that a collection of European settlers along the border would remove the need for the military to maintain the frontier.

On arrival the settlers and their chattels were dumped on the bare veldt with a tent, loaned by the government. This was to be their first home and once they had established their base in a belt along the Great Fish River they were told to plant wheat. They started ploughing and sowing immediately. This planting was a political contrivance intended to put an end to the Xhosa raiding. It was a scheme which failed. Vegetable gardens soon flourished however the more important wheat crops failed, miserably, four times in succession.

The Settlers, most of whom were not of farming stock but rather they were artisans and craftsmen, had been given a very romantic and unrealistic description of the life they would have on the Frontier.

After the repeated failure of their crops some of the Settlers began moving into the towns, where they reverted to their familiar former trades. After an initial opposition to this exodus from the land, the authorities granted the Settlers building plots around Grahamstown.

They brought many skills to a community that was to benefit of them. Beautifully restored groups of these cottages can still be seen around Artificer's Square in New and MacDonald Streets, and many of the shops remain a reminder of those early days of trading. Thus Grahamstown changed from a military settlement into a thriving market town.

The 1820 Settlers endured three years of blighted harvests, the wheat got rust, the maize got caterpillars, the cabbages got infested with lice; the beans and other vegetables were scorched to ruin by hot winds. The result was that the Settlers were in a dreadful state. Their clothes and their spirits were in tatters. Thousands were destitute and were forced to use rice bags or animal skins to replace their threadbare clothing. They were reduced to dull eyed numb brained beggary, scrabbling to find sufficient to eat.
The Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, the hard-living, hard-hunting squire with an overbearing disposition and little tact, had made many enemies however he did have a distinct sense of responsibility towards the country which he has been sent to govern. He was called home in 1826 to answer the charges against him many enemies, and was blamed for the dire state of the finances of the Cape. His deputy Sir Rufane Donkin replaced him and was a great support & help to the Settlers but when Lord Somerset returned to the Colony he quickly undid much of the good done by his deputy.
Somerset ignored the plight of the Settlers, making no effort to help them although they complained and complained. Finally, they circumvented Somerset and secretly sent word to London. A Commission of Enquiry was formed to investigate the complaints of the Settlers, which included non- repayment to their deposit money. Governor Lord Charles Somerset meanwhile made a list of ‘obnoxious individuals’ including the Albany Radicals. A resolution to their problems seemed insight but then dissenter struck for the Settlers in the Albany region.

Grahamstown -

Grahamstown was founded in 1812 by Lt. Colonel John Graham as the military headquarters for a system of forts along the Fish River, the boundary of the Cape Colony. Its position between the Cape Colony and the north meant that Grahamstown was ideally situated for agriculture and as a centre of communications.

In 1814 Lord Charles Somerset governor of the Colony decided that a collection of European settlers along the border would remove the need for the military to maintain the frontier. Unemployment in Britain was becoming a problem, with soldiers demobilised after the Napoleonic Wars swelling the numbers and the mechanisation of industrial revolution at its height. Lord Somerset's frontier scheme seemed an ideal solution to both the problems existing in Britain and the Cape Colony. The Colonial Office of the British government implemented the assisted emigration scheme to the Cape Colony, South Africa and the settlers came.

The Settlers quite quickly discovered that the 100-acre land allotment for each family was completely insufficient for successful farming. With the repeated failure of their crops they began to drift into the town and Grahamstown began to grow and thrive changing from a military settlement into a thriving market town

The heritage the Settlers of 1820 left goes far beyond the merely physical. They bequeathed a particular brand of courage and fortitude, an unshakeable faith, a sense of fair play and a tradition of learning. Perhaps the greatest single achievement was the introduction of the concept of a free press.

Nelson Mandela's speech in 1996 on the occasion of the unveiling of the new 1820 Settlers Memorial in Grahamstown is telling. He acknowledged that the emigrants had been used as political chess pieces "....Pawns in a larger game" the 1820 Settlers came to the part of Africa at the behest of an imperial power seeking to use its own unemployed and poor in a bid to advance conquest and imperial ambitions.

The 20th Century

Transcribed by Becky Horne, Port Elizabeth, South Africa from scrapbooks at the Port Elizabeth library containing miscellaneous newspaper cuttings pertaining to the 1820 Settlers.

The opening of the 1820 Settler Monument in Grahamstown is particularly significant to some of Port Elizabeth's senior citizens - the monument has been erected in memory of their grandparents.

One of the oldest grandchildren of 1820 settlers still living is Mr. Walter Ernest WARNER, 103, of Sunridge Park, Port Elizabeth, whose life has brought him a wealth of memories. His grandfather was Joseph WARNER, and his father Ebenezer WARNER. Formerly a Transkei attorney, he used to travel on horseback to visit clients and attend court cases, until he became the second man in the Transkei to own a motorcar. He remembers being locked up in a Butterworth jail with women and children, as protection during a Kaffir War.

OX WAGON

Another settler grandchild is 92 year old Mrs. Alice Charlotte Ann BILLETT, who lives in Walmer, with her daughter, Mrs. E.PAPE. Her grandparents were 1820 Settlers, Francis WHITTAL, her grandfather came to South Africa on the Chapman, the first settler ship to drop anchor in Algoa Bay on April 9, 1820. One of his 18 children, Charles John WHITTAL, married Sarah Ann RANDALL and they had 10 children, of which Mrs. BILLETT is the third and only surviving member.

She was born at Cuylerville and remembers the 14-day trek by ox wagon her family undertook when they went to farm in the Cathcart district. "Strong black coffee and dry bread is what we ate", she said. In 1971, Mrs. BILLETT made another journey - this time by plane to Durban, and now, in the same pioneering spirit, she is hoping to go to Grahamstown to see the 1820 Settler Monument, which she regards as "a wonderful achievement"

Another settler granddaughter living in Port Elizabeth is Mrs. Elizabeth Daisy McCLELAND aged 91. No. 7 Castle Hill, the oldest dwelling house still standing in Port Elizabeth, was the home of the Rev. Francis McCLELAND, an 1820 Settler. He was the grandfather of Mrs. McCLELAND's late husband, Harry William McCLELAND.

In 1905, Mrs. McCLELAND was living in the Gamtoos Valley, where her husband was farming, when a number of Scottish engineers were sent to build the Gamtoos railway bridge. The men longed for bread, which was not available, and Mrs. McCLELAND began a career in catering. A Dutch oven was made by digging a hole in a clay bank, and she baked 20 loaves a day for the men.

Mr. William HARDEN, an 1820 Settler who also arrived in South Africa on the sailing ship Chapman, was killed by natives in 1842 according to a family tree carefully kept by his grandson, Mr. Percival Reginald HOLMES, 69, of Newton Park.

Of MORTIMER and LARTER descent, Mrs. Stella PROSSER is also an 1820 Settler grandchild. Now in her eighties, Mrs. PROSSER lives in Port Elizabeth and has in her flat beautiful handmade furniture passed down from generation to generation.

Like any Genealogical site this always a Work in Progress

I am ALWAYS interested to hear from family members and interested parties - wooltucker(at)gmail.com

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