Military arrivals in South Africa

Not everyone who sailed to South Africa from overseas was an emigrant: their reasons often had more to do with their occupation or life circumstances. Ancestors in the military had no choice as to where they would be expected to serve.

Throughout the era of British government in South Africa there was movement of troops into and out of the country. Some regiments spent years garrisoning forts or fighting in colonial wars such as the Cape Frontier Wars, the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, and the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Many had seen action in other parts of the Empire: India, Afghanistan etc.

Some elected to say in the colonies after being discharged from the army, or went back to their home country to collect their families and return to South Africa; others married South African women and settled permanently. For these ancestors a search for deceased estate files may be the sensible approach.

Tracing military arrivals by ship is almost impossible. Passenger lists may sometimes identify officers, but the rank-and-file are seldom named, e.g. ‘12 men 45th Regiment’ arrived at Port Natal on the Flora from Table Bay in December 1846, and that’s probably all we’ll ever know about them. Each one may be somebody’s ancestor. If the Regiment is known, military records would be the starting point.

There are occasional exceptions: men recruited in England to join the Natal Mounted Police (later called the Natal Police) came to South Africa on ships such as the Kinfauns Castle in 1880. They are individually named in lists held in the European Immigration Department records (EI) at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository. These records are not online though selected examples may appear on this blog.

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/

More on Natal Immigration

1879 was the year of the Anglo-Zulu War, and the Natal Land and Immigration Board reported a downturn in the number of incoming immigrants 'owing to the disturbed state ' of the Colony. Later in the year arrivals increased to a monthly average of 31 souls, the total for the year being 287. Additionally, applications had been received for 340 more persons, of whom 72 had arrived up to mid-February 1880.

J E Methley was sent to England to select about 40 families for agricultural settlement in 1880; this group became known as the Willowfountain (or Wilgefontein) settlers. Further information is held in the European Immigration Department records at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository.

Walter Peace took over as Natal immigration agent based in London and during 1880, according to the Natal Mercury, brought out 200 immigrants. The newspaper commented that in May 1880 the URMS African had arrived at Port Natal (Durban) from England carrying 60 immigrants - 20 men, 10 women and some children. 'The men are carpenters, blacksmiths, farm labourers, engineers, gardeners and joiners, and the women housekeepers and domestic servants. We have to thank Mr Walter Peace ... for such a large and respectable class of immigrants as landed at the Point yesterday. Mr Reid of the Immigration Depot ... boarded the African for the purpose of looking after those who were arriving here under the Immigration Act' and the immigrants were safely landed at the wharf.

'Some friends of the immigrants were present, but there were some who found themselves on a foreign land without those who required their services being there to receive them.' (The immigrants had already been engaged by prospective employers in Natal.) Accommodation in tents was available for the reception of such settlers, but 'in no instance was a poor stranger allowed to enter the tents; those who had found friends kindly looked after their less fortunate fellow passengers, and in a short time they were all distributed throughout the town in boarding-houses.'

By 1887 more than half the white population of Natal, then totalling about 36 000 and predominantly English-speaking, were living in the two largest towns, Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

For passenger arrivals at Natal between 1845 to about 1910, original registers are held in the Archives of the European Immigration Department (EI) at Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository.

There is a surname index to the registers (not online): a local Natal researcher could check this index, going to the original volumes if an entry is found and providing digital copies or a transcript. Alternatively, access the LDS Family Search site at www.familysearch.org/ and, under the Family History Library Catalogue section, see the list of available films on Natal immigration; films can be ordered at a Family History Centre near you.

UPDATE: www.eggsa.org/arrivals/eGGSA%20Passenger%20Project.html  Access to learn more about the eGGSA Passenger List Project now. (2012)

The original Natal passenger registers are a valuable source, but the lists are not all-inclusive at any period. Generally, with the approach of the 20th c factors such as increased volume of shipping, inconsistent record-keeping or lack of preservation of records, may militate against finding certain arrivals.

Passenger lists - even in the original registers - often contain inaccuracies; spellings of surnames vary, handwriting may be difficult to read etc. Newspaper shipping columns may offer passenger lists which do not tally with the Port Captain's lists.

Natal immigration in the 1860s

After the Byrne settler era, the discovery of gold in Australia lured some Natal immigrants away between 1852 and 1854. A few found pastures no greener there, and returned to Natal. As happened in the Cape, colonists invited family members to follow in their footsteps and government subsidies were an added incentive to do so. This system of aided immigration to Natal was developed further by settler agent Dr R J Mann in the 1860s, who also published a Guide to the Colony of Natal.

Passages were not free, but were inexpensive. Respectable settlers appreciated that they were not accepting charity and could repay the government loan when they prospered. Nevertheless, results were disappointing – in five years only 1 342 immigrants arrived in what was becoming known as the Cinderella Colony.

In the Natal Almanac edition of 1865 details are given of Public Aid to Immigrants in 1865, stating that passage monies could be repaid at the rate of 10 pounds per statute adult, within a year after landing. Assisted immigrants to Natal received grants of 50 acres of land, and conveyance was offered to their allotted property – this was vital as the lands were at a distance from the port.

The voyage from England took about 65 days by sailing ship and 40 days by steamship. Private individuals who were well-heeled enough to travel first class to Natal paid 35 guineas for a berth on a sailing ship, and 52 pounds 10 shillings on a mail-steamer. Note the difference between these sums and the 10 pound passage of the aided immigrant scheme.

My great grandfather Gadsden sailed from England to Natal on the barque Priscilla, in 1863. At 253 tons the ship was far smaller than most of the Byrne settler ships. Priscilla carried a general cargo and seven cabin passengers. There is no surviving list showing steerage passengers on this particular voyage but in September 1860 Priscilla had arrived at Natal with 105 people in steerage; it must have been an uncomfortable and cramped experience, even though the ship was described in contemporary advertisements as a ‘fast-sailing clipper barque’. The term clipper indicated forward-raking bows and aft-raking masts, these attributes lending speed and giving the ship fine lines.

Assisted immigration at the Cape

In the 1830s and 1840s economic recession at the Cape limited government-aided immigration. Individual passengers continued to sail to the Cape, paying their own passages, and private agents in England such as J S Christopher brought out some settler parties though not in great numbers.

There was a shortage of labour in the Cape Colony and a possible solution lay in government-sponsored immigration; this was discussed in 1844. Some child immigrants and female groups arrived, including single Irish women. Thus in 1849 the Emigration Philanthropic Society of England sent out 20 women from workhouses and through the Association of Female Emigration a group of 46 Irish women emigrated to the Cape in 1851. In November 1857 the ship Lady Kennaway landed 157 Irish women at East London; also on board were a number of artisans and their families.

The labour problem continued and eventually led to the passing of an Act of Parliament in 1857, to set aside funds for recruiting immigrants, with an agent in Britain to coordinate arrangements. Immigration Boards were established in the Cape and colonists were encouraged to make application to bring family members to join them in South Africa.

As a result, over 12 000 settlers arrived in the largest government-aided immigration scheme instituted at the Cape.

For immigrant ancestors who came to the Cape during this era, the best published source is Esme Bull’s Aided Immigration from Britain to South Africa 1857-1867. Conditions on board settler ships, provisioning, as well as health hazards encountered, make illuminating reading. Primary sources used include the Archives of the Immigration Board, Cape Town (IBC) and Archives of the Secretary, Immigration Board, Port Elizabeth (PIB), both held at Cape Town Archives Repository. Some passenger lists appeared in the Cape Government Gazette and newspapers.

Of 32 ships chartered between 1857 and 1862 the smallest was Aurifera and The Illustrated London News carried a report on her:

‘… the emigrants for Table Bay were embarked at Southampton on board the ship Aurifera, 235 tons, comprising 161 British and Irish emigrants, agricultural labourers, domestic servants and various trades; also 74 Germans – the latter chiefly vine-dressers and wine-makers, selected by Mr. Field, the Cape Emigration Commissioner.’

Did your ancestor emigrate to Natal?

In Natal, organized immigration from overseas began at the end of the 1840s. While the 1820 Settlers were coping with the change in their circumstances on the Cape frontier, Natal, on the south-eastern coast of South Africa, was in its infancy as a settler destination. A small settlement of hunters and traders had been founded there in 1824, mainly to establish trade with the Zulu.

It wasn’t until 1828 that an overland route was opened up to Natal,and another twenty years would pass before Natal acquired colonial status. Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with the Cape’s British government – especially regarding the abolition of slavery – led to an exodus of the Dutch community from that Colony: we know it now as the Great Trek of the mid-1830s. Some trekkers crossed the Drakensberg and established themselves in Natal, declaring their own Republic of Natalia in 1838. Conflict with the British at Port Natal followed in 1842, the Dutch moved on and Natal was annexed by Britain.

The white population of Natal had diminished after the trekkers’ departure, and immigration was the obvious solution. This coincided with a dramatic economic downturn in Britain – the ‘hungry forties’. Going to a new colony offered at least the hope of survival and perhaps even an opportunity to prosper.

As a result of the marketing efforts of Irish entrepreneur, Joseph Byrne, approximately 2200 British settlers headed for Natal between 1849 and 1851. Though Byrne’s Natal Emigration and Colonization Company ended in his own financial ruin, the concept provided an impetus for further private schemes to bring settlers to Natal.

Fortunately for family historians with Natal settler ancestry, this era is well-documented: more about sources in future posts.

See: Emigration from Britain to Natal updated at molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/emigration-from-britain-to-natal.html

More on 1820 Settlers to SA

The Settler Handbook by M D Nash is an in-depth study of the 1820 Settlers, compiled mainly from documents in the Cape Town Archives Repository and TNA, Kew. The lists of parties, ships and individual names contained in this book, as well as the author’s recent addenda and corrigenda to the work, can be viewed at
www.genealogyworld.net/nash/index.html

Included in the 1820 scheme were Irish emigrants from Cork, Wicklow and Armagh. Passenger lists are included in Nash’s book. John Ingram, a merchant who brought a group from Cork in February 1820, returned to Ireland in 1823 to recruit contract labourers who sailed to the Cape by the ship Barossa. This passenger list is given in Esme Bull’s book Aided Immigration from Britain to South Africa 1857-1867; there’s a surname index at www.genealogyworld.net/immigration/index.html

In 1826 a Select Committee of the House of Commons came into being: its aim was to investigate the concept of bulk emigration, in the light of experience gained during the 1820 Settler chapter. Ten years later, the Colonial Land and Emigration Board was established and its Commissioners would regulate British emigration policies for the next five decades.

Further links of interest:

www.genealogyworld.net/settlers/tessa.htm
A good overview of the topic

www.1820settlers.com
Paul Tanner-Tremaine’s comprehensive site includes settler family trees

1820 Settlers to the Cape

These emigrants were to be settled at Albany, previously known as the Zuurveld. Described by Lord Charles Somerset as a ‘verdant carpet’ with fertile soil suitable for cultivation, cattle and pasture, 90 000 would-be settlers are said to have made application for their place in this paradise. The statistic is probably exaggerated but does indicate both the overwhelming response and the poor economic conditions in Britain at the time.

The actual number of people to take part in the scheme was eventually about 4000, divided between 60 parties and arriving on 21 ships between 6 April and the end of June 1820. Bitter disappointment followed: crops failed and the frontier remained turbulent. Some settlers managed to adjust to their new environment, but others left their allotments to seek employment in the towns. Whatever their trials, the immigrants' legacy to the Colony was deep and enduring.

If your ancestor was among the 1820 Settlers there is a considerable amount of published literature as well as information easily accessible online. It may therefore be unnecessary – or impractical, especially for family historians at a distance from SA repositories – to have recourse to original records, though these do exist. At Cape Town Archives Repository are Permissions Granted to British Settlers 1820-1824 (CO 6056 vol 2) and a list of immigrants in the year 1820 (CO 6137-6138); also Letters Received from immigrants 1820-1825 (CO 136,158,178,201,223,249).

Correspondence from leaders of the settler parties and others tell of setbacks which began even before embarkation. It was a major undertaking for any family to face a long voyage, in many cases with infant children, and the daunting prospect of a strange destination far from everything they knew. No wonder some of them were indecisive, getting cold feet before their departure, or experiencing unforeseen personal problems which prevented them from embarking as planned. One of my Gadsdens (spelled Gadsdon in this instance) appears on a published roll of the 1820 Settlers but as far as I can discover he never actually left England.



Footnote: there's some confusion as to the use of the terms 'emigrant' and 'immigrant'. One way to remember the distinction is to think of an emigrant as a person exiting from a country while an immigrant is an in-migrant, coming into a country. Each emigrant leaving his home country becomes an immigrant when he lands at his destination.

British immigrants to the Cape early 19th c

When the British established a firm grip on the Cape in 1814, the next step was to populate the territory and to bring in workers whose skills would be useful in the Colony.

In 1817 200 Scottish artisans – coopers, carpenters, masons, smiths, tanners – were brought to the Cape by Benjamin Moodie of Orkney. This venture was not an unqualified success, a number of the immigrants finding complaint with Moodie’s terms of employment absconded and lived as outlaws. Some married Dutch girls and made their permanent home at the Cape. References to Moodie’s indentured workers occur in Philip’s volume discussed earlier (British Residents at the Cape 1795-1819).

Other private schemes emerged at this period. Henry Nourse, a London merchant who had settled at the Cape, brought out a small group of Irish people as his employees in 1818, and suggested that a government scheme would be beneficial.

The authorities had already come to that conclusion: by 1819 the troubled eastern frontier was a headache, while in Britain there was unemployment and discontent. Sponsored emigration would relieve the burden at home, offering the hope of a brighter future to many and would be an inexpensive means of defending the frontier districts by installing a buffer strip of unsuspecting colonists.

This was the underlying purpose which led to the arrival of the 1820 Settlers, the first major organized scheme to colonise British territory in South Africa.

For much more on the 1820 Settlers go to http://www.1820settlers.com/

Organized emigration schemes and early arrivals

Organized schemes of emigration from the British Isles to South Africa would include the 1820 Settlers to the Cape; the Byrne settlers and other minor groups to Natal and the government-aided immigration which brought approximately 12000 British settlers to the Cape between 1857 -1867. The good news is that all of these schemes are well-chronicled.

Although emigration from Britain reached its peak in the 19th c, there had been some arrivals during the First British Occupation of the Cape (1795-1803) – troops to defend the frontier and government officials to do the paper-work, as well as missionaries endeavouring to save the souls of the indigenous population. The military and the missionaries were not immigrants and many had only a brief sojourn in South Africa.

The temporary military regime of the First British Occupation gave way to the short-lived Batavian Republic in 1803, followed in 1806 by the Second British Occupation. This time the British were there to stay and in 1814 the Cape was formally ceded to Britain. In 1820 about a thousand families were sent out to settle, precariously, on the eastern frontier of the Colony.

For ancestors who were among the British at the Cape from 1806-1844, the ‘Permissions to Remain’ or ‘Permissions to Leave’ provide an alternative to immigration records. Any individual wishing to stay in the Cape Colony had to obtain permission to do so. Usually, two other solid citizens would be named as securities, and the Governor would issue a permit to remain if the applicant undertook to behave in an orderly manner. Similarly, if an individual wished to leave the Colony, application had to be made, and permission would not be granted unless all debts and taxes owing had been paid by the applicant.

The registers of these permits are held at Cape Archives Repository as part of the Colonial Secretary’s records (CO). While not all-inclusive, the names supplied amount to a roll of British inhabitants: indications are given as to place of origin, occupation, and date of arrival in or departure from the Colony.

British Residents at the Cape 1795-1819 by Peter Philip gives details of 4 800 persons referred to in the Permissions as well as other Cape sources such as directories and newspapers. Included is a list of British regiments serving at the Cape from 1795-1819 and British ships of war at the Cape during the same period, with names of their commanders.

Usage of the term ‘English’ could also refer to people of Scottish, Welsh or Irish origin. Many Irishmen served in the British Army in South Africa, some choosing to remain permanently after taking their discharge.

Other data held at the Cape Town Archives Repository for the period of the First British Occupation include Ship Arrivals 1795-1800, Reports on Strangers, and Letters of Permission 1795-1801 (BO).