Skip to main content
GSSA
The 1820 Settler Correspondence
 as preserved in the National Archives, Kew
 and edited by Sue Mackay

Correspondence 1821 to 1837.

Here only letters by known settlers or their families, or letters of great relevance to the 1820 settlers, have been transcribed, whereas ALL the 1819 correspondence was transcribed (see CO48/41 through CO48/46) whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape.

Unless otherwise stated letters were written to either the Secretary of State for the Colonies or his deputy.The original correspondence is filed in order of receipt. Here it has been placed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the writer, with letters by the same writer in chronological order, for ease of reading. Original spelling has been maintained. Reference numbers, where given, refer to printed page numbers stamped on the letters and will enable visitors to the National Archives to locate the letter more easily.

BOLD, John, 1824

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew, CO48/67, 4

No.19 Gerrard Street

Liverpool

July 6th 1824

My Lord,

I humbly beg you will permit your humble servant to lay before you the following statement of fact, and when you see the sequal I hope you will not deem it insulting. I am my Lord one of those unfortunate persons who left his native soil to seek as he fondly flattered himself a more genial one and in hopes that he might bring up the younger part of his family with credit by embracing the offer of our kind Government in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The disasters incident to that ungenerous clime are before you and the public at large, which I need not enumerate – suffice it to My Lord I have lost my all – and my health. I took out £200 in Property 300 [worth?] of books & all are gone, my bed from under me and am now rijuced [*reduced] to poverty and affliction. I suffered the loss of 70 sheep by wild beasts, £100 to build my house and cultivate my ground but of no avail. I need not to enumerate I am affraid to intrude – I have only had one moiety of the deposit of £40 – a little help my Lord to go into a small way of business, the [profits] were only 15/- per week would render life near at [more?] comfortable. I have had 12 children and 10 are now in being - as a destitute and Brittish subject I humbly solicit your kind interference. I could lay before you and the Brittish Senate sufferings all most [inparraleld?] but I will not intrude on your more valuable time. I humbly solicit you will feel for me and am my Lord

Your most humble most devoted servant

Who shall for ever pray

John BOLD from Rich'd HAYHURST Party

  • Hits: 5818