Passengers to Natal: Justina 1850

Justina arrived at Natal 11 November 1850, a barque commanded by Captain Brown 

Not one of Byrne's ships, the Justina carried the second party of immigrants under a copy-cat scheme privately arranged by George P Murdoch (who worked for Byrne's solicitors) and Capt. Richard W Pelly. Edmund Morewood was agent in Natal. The first group of settlers sent out by Murdoch had arrived earlier in the Ballangeich.

Passengers included the Reynolds family, later important Natal sugar planters, the Chadwicks, the Vinsons, the Griffiths family and the Buchanans.

In the original Natal Witness extract note mention of the Byrne vessels Emily, Devonian and Bernard.

SHIPPING AND COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE

LIST OF PASSENGERS
Per Ship Justina, Brown, master, from London.

Isabella Wilson 

George D Atwood 
Denham Denny Boulty 
Thomas Reynolds 
Ellen Reynolds 
Thomas S Reynolds 
Lewis Reynolds 
John Henderson 
Mary A Henderson 
Henry Vinson 
Mary E Vinson 
Henry Vinson 
TMK Chadwick 
Ann Maria Chadwick 
Alice MMP Chadwick 
Edward Chadwick 
John CC Chadwick 
Mary Chadwick 
Jane Lloyd 
Margaret Shaw 
Ebenezer Buchanan 
Jane Buchanan 
Jane C Buchanan 
James Buchanan 
Ebenezer Buchanan 
David Buchanan 
William Buchanan 
John Buchanan 
Seymons Deighton 
Thomas Burman 
Abraham Wagner 
John Fordham 
Harriet Fordham 
Rachael Bradley 
Elizabeth Nadauld 
Maria Cridge 
William Beckwith 
Frederick Clayton 
Elizabeth J Clayton 
Frederick Clayton 
Ann Baker 
John Roger Griffiths 
Elizabeth Griffiths 
EA Griffiths 
Thomas Milne 
Robert Forsyth 
Mary Ann Forsyth 
John Forsyth 
George Robinson 
Sarah Ann Forsyth 
Henry Baker 
Edith Baker 
Rachel Baker 
Emily Emma Baker 
Thomas Parker 
Frederick L Edwards 
Thomas Pinkney 
Sarah Rudder 
Sarah Rudder 
Elizabeth Rudder 
William Rudder 
Henry Brenton 
Susanna Brenton 
Charles Brenton 
James John Murdock 
Margaret Ryan 
Caroline Ryan 
Thomas Wykes 
Hall 
Merren Hall 
Thomas William Hall 
Amelia Hall 
Eleanor Hall 
Merren Hall 
Charlotte Hall 
Thomas Howse 
Elizabeth Howse 
Louisa Howse 
AJ Yardley 
William Kerslake 
Robert Fatham (Tatham) 
William Fenaby 
William Mould 
Sarah Mould 
Alfred Mould 
Margaret S Turner 
John William Harris 
Thomas Fielder 
Edward Taylor 
Frederick Barber 
John Henderson 
James Kent 
James Whenstone 
William Smith 
Alfred Foden 
Cuthbert Cook 
Edward T Durham 
Ann Durham 
Elizabeth Jane Durham 
ER Durham 
TH Kock 
Aran Bryand, Surgeon. 
E MOREWOOD, Agent.

ARRIVED
Nov 11 - Justina, Barque, Captain J Brown from London with emigrants.
Nov 5 - The Mountain Maid and Devonian crossed the bar.
Nov 7 - Emily back to her anchorage.
Nov 7 - Sarah Bell out to Emily for baggage.

INSIDE
Devonian, Brig, Capt Stamper, bound to Mauritius;
Tuscan, Barque, Capt Tillman, to Mauritius;
Wanderer, Brig, Capt Metcalf, to Mauritius;
Mountain Maid, Brig, to Table Bay;
Gem, Schr. Capt W Glendining, to Table Bay;
Choice, Barque, Capt Robertson, to Mauritius.

OUTSIDE
Emily, Barque, Capt Wilson, to Bombay:
Sarah Bell, Capt Williams, taking in Emily's cargo;
Phoenix, Steamer, Capt Harrington, to Algoa Bay;
Justina, Barque, Capt Brown, port of destination unknown.

VESSELS EXPECTED
From London
Bernard and Conservative

Sugar and Natal: the Pioneers - Jeffels

MICHAEL JEFFELS

Jeffels arrived in Natal on the Sovereign in March 1850 with his wife Mary and children. His allotment of about 112 acres on the cotton lands, assigned to him under Byrne's scheme, was relinquished in favour of a property on Dick King's farm on the Isipingo Flat, near the confluence of the Umbogintwini. Jeffels purchased plant cane from Morewood in 1852 and by 1853 the Feildens rode out to visit the Jeffels family, reporting that 'the sugarcane of three or four months growth was very fine'. In 1853 and 1854 Jeffels imported two sets of sugar mill machinery from England, the first recorded importation into Natal of such machinery.

As early as 1854, Jeffels saw the need for central milling if sugar was to be produced economically in Natal, and he was instrumental in organizing a meeting at Messrs Evans and Churchill's store, to find ways of building and maintaining a central mill at Isipingo to meet the needs of the growing number of small planters.

In 1856, The Natal Mercury remarked that 'Mr Jeffels is the type of a class that form the pioneers and harbingers of all successful colonization ...'

In a letter to the same newspaper in October 1858, Jeffels claimed that he had imported the first sugar-mill and plant into Natal, had brought the first sugar of quantity into Durban, and introduced the first steam sugar-mill into the Colony.

A parcel of Jeffels's sugar won a prize at an exhibition in Cape Town and was purchased by the French consul, who sent it on to the Paris Exhibition. Jeffels was at that time well ahead of other Natal sugar planters. He was also a public-spirited citizen, nominated as a Durban Councillor and as Justice of the Peace. He died in 1862; his will is held at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository. By the 1870s his estate was managed by WF Jeffels, possibly Michael's brother.

Jeffels's Albion Estate was sold in 1899, eventually becoming part of Prospecton Sugar Estate.

For more on the Isipingo sugar planters see article in Natalia by Duncan Du Bois:
http://natalia.org.za/Files/42/Natalia%2042%20Article%20Article%20Du%20Bois%20pp%2019-32.pdf