Passages to Natal 1865: Government-aided scheme

PUBLIC AID TO IMMIGRANTS:

Free Passages are not granted in England to Natal. People resident here can, however, nominate their relations or friends for assisted passages in the Emigration Commissioners' ships, on giving to the Colonial Government a guarantee for the repayment of the passage monies, at the rate of £10 per statute adult, within 12 months after the landing of the immigrants. Married persons, with the members of their families over 12 years of age, are required to repay the advance at the rate of £10 per annum. Any excess of passage-money beyond the £10 is made good out of colonial funds.

When the Emigration Commissioners have colonial funds in their hands for the purpose, they can likewise grant assisted passages to eligible candidates, provided such candidates can pay to the Commissioners, before embarkation, towards their passage, for each adult person of the age of 12 years and upwards - 2 children between the ages of 1 and 12 counting as an adult - £3 pounds 6s and 8d, with £1 for bedding and mess utensils on the voyage. The immigrant must however enter into a bond to repay to the Colonial Government £6 13s and 4d for each such adult, at a rate of £10 per annum in the case of a family. In the case of a single individual, the amount is to be repaid within 12 months after arrival.

This scheme has not latterly been promoted to any particular extent; although now that the tide of emigration from Great Britain is about turning from America in consequence of the long-continued war, and directing itself into other channels, we think that it may be again advanced with benefit to the colony. English people in general, if not the Scotch and Irish, have become convinced that there is no safety for life and property in the North American states; Canada has never been a resort for any large numbers of the poorer emigrating class; and the southern colonies are gradually becoming better known than formerly, and more highly appreciated.

[from The Natal Almanac & Yearly Directory 1865]

Rennie's Aberdeen Line brought
 many colonists to Natal.

Steerage Passengers to Natal: the Dudbrook 1862

There’s nothing particularly unusual about the barque Dudbrook which sailed to Natal in mid-1862. However, she holds a special place in my affection because two of my ancestors were on that voyage from England as assisted emigrants travelling steerage or, as it later became known, third-class. This was generally the case with people coming out to Natal – and elsewhere in South Africa – under the auspices of a Government scheme.

The Kings were representative of the type of emigrants leaving Britain for a new start in the Colony. Mary Ann King, my great great grandmother, was born in 1834 in Maidenhead, Kent. She married George King, born around the same year. They were not related to each other, despite sharing the same surname. In the 19^thc there were hundreds of Kings in Kent and environs. Mary Ann King’s family can be traced back to the mid-18^thc within a comparatively small area of one county. Her father William King was an agricultural labourer born at Marden, Kent, in 1805 and her mother Ann nee Homesby, born in Capel, 1802. By 1851 the family were living at Lone Barn, Nettlestead, Kent. Mary Ann’s brothers were both labourers. In that era, there was little chance of a man breaking the chain that bound him, and generations before him, to the soil and toil. The colonies offered a more hopeful prospect.

When George and Mary Ann King took ship on the Dudbrook George was 25 and his wife 26. Their infant daughter Lucretia born in 1861 was with them and they were accompanied by a William King, aged 47. Next to the King family’s entry in the original register, under the column headed ‘Sureties’, is ‘R King, laborer [sic] PMBurg’ indicating that this person had nominated the Kings to come to Natal on assisted passage and that he guaranteed repayment of the passage monies within twelve months of their arrival.

Mary Ann had an elder brother and a younger brother named respectively William and Richard. We don’t know how old the R. King was who stood surety to the new arrivals. William’s age would have been about 31 – not 47 as stated in the register. However, inaccuracies abound in passenger lists and his given age may simply be an error - unless he lied about it. As no other clue to the identity of these two men presents itself, it seems likely that they were Mary Ann’s brothers. Richard had evidently emigrated first and then sent for his brother, sister and brother-in-law to join him – a typical pattern in colonial Natal.

Steerage was the area on a ship allocated to the passengers paying the cheapest fare. It was also referred to as between-decks (or ’tween-decks) i.e. the deck below the main deck of a sailing ship. There wasn’t a great deal of head room. Eating and sleeping usually took place in the same area. Sanitary and washing arrangements were primitive and privacy minimal. 

A meal in steerage: note bunks at sides.

Female emigrants between decks

Although the above illustrations are earlier in date conditions hadn't changed much by the 1860s.

Newspaper passenger lists in family history: the Maritzburg, Natal 1863

The Natal Mercury of 7 July 1863 announced the arrival at Durban, two days earlier, of the barque Maritzburg, 536 tons, commanded by W L Eastham. She had left London on 4 April. Apart from various paying travellers (including seven members of the Pepworth family) and a general cargo, this ship carried 'Government Passengers' i.e. people emigrating to Natal under the assisted passage scheme. Sometimes such 'steerage' lists are not included in the press report, and may be found in a separate column of the same edition - or, if you're unlucky, not at all. 

This particular passenger list obligingly gives most, though not all, first names.

Having established the date of a ship's arrival it's usually worthwhile searching back a few weeks to find mention of her under 'Vessels Expected' in the shipping column. In the case of the Maritzburg, a reference in the 3 July edition reports that she had 'left the Downs' on 31 March. The same report gives her captain's surname as 'Earthian' but Eastham as shown in the arrival entry sounds much more likely - a good example of how names supplied by captain, Port Captain, or ship agent, could be misinterpreted in the press. 

Searching forward for more on the Maritzburg, in the Mercury of 10 July we find a brief paragraph in the shape of a testimonial to Captain Eastham and his Officers, 'signed by 67 passengers':  

So, three reports for the price of one, all within the same month and offering the family historian a bit more than the bare bones of a name on a passenger list.

Note: The Maritzburg was one of J T Rennie's Direct line of clippers, i.e. sailing from the Thames direct to Natal, the first of which to arrive at Durban was L'Imperatrice Eugenie, closely followed by the Prince Alfred, the Tugela, the Natal and Natal Star, the Umgeni, the Quathlamba and others.

Read more about 'The Colonial Clippers' in Basil Lubbock's book of that title.

19th c immigration to South Africa: a chronology

1795-1803 First British Occupation of the Cape

1814 Cape formally ceded to Britain

1817 Benjamin Moodie’s private scheme: 200 Artisans from Scotland to the Cape

1818 Henry Nourse’s private scheme brought his employees from Ireland to the Cape

1820 Government scheme brought 4 000 British Settlers to Albany, Cape; now known as The 1820 Settlers

1823 John Ingram’s scheme: contract labourers from Ireland to the Cape in the Barossa

1830s and 1840s Small parties brought by agents such as JS Christopher from Britain to the Cape.

1844 Government sponsored immigration: children and single Irish women from Britain to the Cape

1848 Jonas Bergtheil’s private scheme to bring German settlers to Natal: known as the Bergtheil Settlers or the Cotton Germans

1849 Emigration Philanthropic Society of England sponsored 20 women from British workhouses to the Cape.

1849 William Garrod and Dr Charles Johnston brought out British emigrants on the John Gibson to settle on Natal north coast at Tongaat

1849-1851 Natal Emigration and Colonization Company i.e. the Byrne scheme, brought 2 200 British Settlers; now known as the Byrne Settlers

1849-1851 W J Iron’s Christian Emigration & Colonization Society brought out 400 Wesleyan Methodists from Britain to settle at Verulam, Natal. Irons’s scheme piggy-backed on Byrne’s scheme, the Wesleyans making the voyage in Byrne’s ships.

1849-51 Immigrants from the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate in Hampshire travelled to Natal on Byrne’s ship the Lady Bruce; another piggy-back scheme.

1856 Alexander McCorkindale brought 80 British immigrants to Natal

1856 German settlers to Kaffraria, Cape

1857 Irish women immigrants and some artisan families on the Lady Kennaway to Kaffraria

1857-62 Assisted immigration provided by Natal Government: 1 342 British immigrants in 5 years

1858 New Gelderland settlers brought from Holland to Natal by T C Colenbrander

1857-67 Government aided immigration: the largest Cape scheme, 12 000 Settlers from Britain (including 74 immigrants from Germany)

1880 Willowfountain (Wilgefontein) settlers from Britain to Natal

1882 Norwegian immigrants to Natal: now known as the Marburg settlers

Note: use the search facility on this blog to find further detail and useful links relating to the above phases of immigration to South Africa in the 19th c.

The Last of England

by Ford Madox Brown

Ford Madox Brown's famous painting The Last of England encapsulates in a romantic, personal and unparalleled way, the story of emigration from Britain. The artist shows the moment of departure, with the white cliffs of Dover receding ever further in the background, and in the foreground a young couple huddled close together in the prow of the boat taking them away from everything they knew as home, towards the sailing ship which will transport them across the ocean into an uncertain future in a strange land. Beneath the woman's cloak, a small child is almost hidden from view and the parents' faces show their sadness and courage while they resolutely face their destiny, never looking back.  It's said that Brown intended to depict two friends who were leaving for Australia, but his picture transcends such details and gives us the archetypal 19th century British emigrant family.