Steerage Passengers to Natal, Dudbrook 1862 continued

By 1862 the Dudbrook was not a new ship: she had been built in Dundee, Scotland, in 1848. Barque-rigged (i.e. she was three-masted, with foremast and mainmast square-rigged and mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged), she was137.1 ft long, 25.7 ft beam and her holds were 20.1 ft deep. In November 1852 she carried 228 male convicts from Plymouth bound for the Swan River Colony, Western Australia. That voyage took 77 days. A decade later the wooden vessel was sheathed in felt and yellow metal and considered sound enough to sail for Natal. W Deacon was Master and Owner.

A typical barque

At 572 tons the Dudbrook was larger than most of the Byrne settler ships of the 1850s. Nevertheless, the cramped conditions in steerage must have been a severe trial for the families on board. There were numerous children, many very young, e.g. the Russell family travelling with nine, the Frosts with six and the Hulmes with five. By comparison, the Kings were a small family unit of three adults and a baby. During the voyage there were two births and one death of an infant.

Arrival of Dudbrook reported in
 the Natal Witness 27 June 1862

Local newspapers tended to omit steerage passengers’ names, though the list of cabin or private passengers would appear in the shipping columns. The Natal Witness of 27 June 1862 announces the arrival of the barque Dudbrook and gives the private passengers’ names, remarking that there were also 146 Government immigrants in the steerage.

Steerage passengers are usually those whom family historians find deeply interesting. In Natal it may be possible to find the list of Government immigrants recorded in the original immigration register and this is the case with the Dudbrook arrival in June 1862. Conversely, there are occasions when the original register bypasses the cabin passengers in favour of the assisted immigrants – which may mean an ancestor well-heeled enough to pay for his passage out remaining invisible.

Below is a transcript of the Dudbrook’s steerage passenger list (not alphabetical); the figure after the name is the age of the immigrant. Bear in mind that transcripts may contain errors, often due to illegible handwriting of names in the original. The sureties (colonists already resident in Natal) are of as much interest as the immigrants, showing how informative passenger lists can be as a source:

John Gavin, shown as ‘engineer, Durban’ stood surety to David Crabb, a shoemaker, and possibly also to Benjamin Lawrence, blacksmith, and Robert Smith. (Gavin sponsored a number of immigrants to Natal, not all related to him.) Alexander Bookless, a plumber, was a relative of his surety, Robert Bookless (or Booklass), ‘smith at Durban’, who had arrived on the Ina. Thomas Amos's surety was John Byers Amos, watchmaker of Pietermaritzburg. William Pinkerton Knox, ‘carpenter at Durban’, stood surety to John Mitchell. A note in the register re Henry Phelps tells us he was a farmer at Mooi River, and across this is scrawled ‘dead’. The Swan family's surety was David Webster, sugar planter at Hill Head estate, who died in an accident at the Verulam mill shortly before the arrival of the Dudbrook, and that of the Rapsons, Josiah Rapson, ‘builder, Durban’. Samuel Marriott, bricklayer of Claremont, is listed as surety to the Westons. 

Steerage Passengers on Dudbrook:

AMOS, Thomas 21

BOOKLESS, Alexander 23

BURN, Daniel 34

Mary A 34

Daniel 2

William inft

CRABB, David 24

LAWRENCE, Benjamin 21

SMITH, Robert 22

DAVIDSON, William 19

WILL, Alexander 22

KING, George 25

Mary 26

Lucretia inft

William 47

LOUNSLEY, Thomas 24

MITCHELL, John 35

Christina 36

Elizabeth 10

Henry 8

MASON, Joseph 24

PORTER, Hugh 22

REID, Betty 21

PORRITT, Isabella 22

RAPSON, Joseph 29

Mary 27

Joseph 7

Thomas 3

SWAN, James 35

Robina 31

Helen 12 

Jessie C 10

James 8

Catharine 6

Mary 4

Robert 1

WESTON, Henry 45

Mrs 33

William 9

Sarah 8

WHATMORN, William 64  (elsewhere transcribed as WHATMOM)

Mary 45

Mary A 

Emma 19

Elizabeth 4

WILSON, John 21

GUEST, Henry 24                   (elsewhere transcribed as GUEET)

CONNELL, James 24

COOPER, Thomas 25

DAVOREN, Peter 26                  

DUGGAN, Charles 30

EARL, John C 21

CURTIN, Michael 22

FROST, William 43

Elizabeth 38

Martha 18

Emily 14

Mary L 12

Elizabeth A 8

Agnes 6

William 1

GUMBY, Edward 29

Isabel 31

Emily A 8

Annie L 2

HIPSLEY, George 22

HULME, William 38

Mary A 35

Charles 14

Sarah A 12

Andrew 8

William 6

Samuel 4

JONES, William 22

Rose 26

KENNARD, Vincent 21

Mary 23

LANGRIDGE, John 52

Ann 49

Samuel 15

Josh T 13

Emma 12

LINNANE, John 24     

LUCAS, Richard K 27

Maria 28

Lucy 2

Caroline 1

MAKER or MAHER, John 36  

Hannah 30

Bridget 10

John 4

James inft

MCKEORON, Isaac 27

Isabella 21

Edward inft

MCCABE, Josh 24

MORECOMBE, Richard 31

Annie 25

MORGAN, Charles 31

Mary J 29

Charles 3

Robert H inft

PHELPS, Jane 21

PREIST, Edward 26   

RIPLEY, James 20

George 23

RITCHIE, David 21

RITSON, Thomas 25

Margaret 27

Jane 4

John H 3

Thomas 1

ROBINSON, George 24

RUSSELL, Benjamin 23

Mary A 21

Benjamin 45

Sarah 44

Thomas 19

James 17

Elizabeth 14

Sarah 12

Simeon 9

Margaret 7

Emmeline 4

RYAN, Thomas 25

John 18

SANDERSON, John 44

Elizabeth 42

SIMPSON, John 27

Jane 28

William 4

Jane 2

TAYLOR, John 19

TODD, William 22

TURRELL, Alfred 20

WICKES, Joseph 42

WILKINSON, John 23

AVERY, Joseph J 21

PHELPS, Henry 40

Ann 48

Fanny 15

Catharine 12

SMITH, William 21

PHIPPS, John 21

BRADSHAW, Richard 28

Rachel 23 

Epilogue: My great great grandparents George and Mary Ann King settled in Pietermaritzburg. They had eight children:  Lucretia born 14 July 1861 (before they left England); Frederick William b 5 May 1864, Alice Mary King (my great grandmother, who married James Dudley Swires) b 16 June 1866; Edwin George King, b 3 March 1869; Hubert Richard King b 29 October 1871 (who may have died young as another Hubert made his appearance a few years later); Elizabeth Charlotte King (who married Ernest A Rhodes) b 21 April 1873; Hubert William King b 6 August, 1875; and Albert Richard King b 4 April, 1880 (who married Elizabeth Rose Leeding and died in 1944) .Mary Ann was 46 when she had her last baby – she had been bearing children for nineteen years. 

George King died on 5 May 1899 and Mary Ann in 1911; both lie buried in the Commercial Road Cemetery, Pietermaritzburg.