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.

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.

Later Cape immigration sources

Registers of arrivals and departures of ships at Table Bay and Simon’s Bay 1822-1917, as well as arrivals and departures at Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth) 1846-1901, are held at Cape Archives Repository under the Archives of the Secretary, Cape Town Chamber of Commerce (CC). The lists giving the name of the captain and sometimes the names of first class passengers. (Most family historians are usually more interested in who was in steerage.)

Letters of Naturalization 1826-1902 and Applications for Letters of Naturalization 1865-1911 are in the Archives of the Colonial Office (CO) at Cape Archives Repository and can be an alternative to passenger lists. The Archives of the Secretary for Public Works (PWD) include Applications for Aided Immigration 1875-1889, Indexes of Applications 1878-1881 and Registers of Applications 1882-1902. These are all potential avenues for family history research.

If a PIO file for your ancestor should emerge on NAAIRS, this indicates documents in the Archives of the Principal Immigration Officer, Cape Town, covering 1904-1967, and they are informative. Passengers entering a South African port had to complete a declaration form giving name, age, birthplace, nationality, occupation, marital status, names of spouse and children, age and birthplace of spouse, reason for entering the country, port of embarkation and name of ship.

Colonial Office Emigration Correspondence 1817-1896 (not only South Africa-related) is held at The National Archives, Kew, in CO 384.

For Cape passenger lists see:
www.sagenealogy.co.za/