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THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash
CALTON'S PARTY No. 54 on the Colonial Department list, led by Thomas Calton, a surgeon of North Collingham, Nottinghamshire. The party was sponsored by a committee of subscribers headed by the Duke of Newcastle, and organised on joint-stock principles. Thomas Webster, a natural son of Thomas Calton, was the only man who paid his own deposit. Nottingham was an area hard-hit by unemloyment and unrest during the summer of 1819, and under the chairmanship of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, the Lord Lieutenant of the county, a public subscription was raised to assist the unemployed to emigrate to the Cape under the government scheme. Contributors to the emigration fund included the Duke of Portland and other noblemen with seats in Nottinghamshire. The actual selection of the emigrants and the administration of the fund were carried out by the Clerk of the Peace for Nottinghamshire, ES Godfrey, assisted by the Rev JT Becher of Southwell, who was actively interested in poor relief. The lists of proposed emigrants from Nottingham were only sent to the Colonial Department in late October and November, and the final selection of parties had already been made; however, the distinguished patronage of the Nottingham party ensured its acceptance in spite of the lateness of the application. Deposits were paid for 60 men and their families under the leadership of Thomas Calton, a surgeon who had been appointed as supervisor by the subscribers' committee. Articles of Agreement, closely based on those of Bailie's party, bound the settlers to mutual help. Each man would be given his own 20-acre allotment as well as use of the commage, but when title to the land was eventually granted it was not be vested in the settlers themselves but in Godfrey and Becher as representatives of the subscribers' committee. Although the organisers insisted on individual references from the parish authorities, the composition of the party changed continually 'from unfitness in some and unwillingness in others' and in December, when preparations were being made to leave Nottingham, Godfrey was 'still apprehensive of many desertions from the list'. The party travelled from Nottingham to Liverpool by road, the women and children by coach and the men on foot, marching for three days alongside the convoy of baggage wagons. The equipment provided by the subscribers' fund included agricultural implements, carpenters' and blacksmiths' tools and supplies, clothes, Bibles and writing materials and wooden chests for the emigrants' personal belongings. A number of people were at first refused permission to board the Albury because their names did not tally with those in the list held by the Agent of Transports, but an urgent appeal to the Colonial Department resulted in an official instruction to the Navy Board to embark any substitutes presented by Calton, so long as the total numbers did not exceed those of the original list. Several would-be emigrants had followed the party from Nottingham in the hope of last minute vacancies, and in fact cancellations and substitutions occurred almost until the time of sailing. The embarkation proved so troublesome and his people at first so unruly that Calton complained, 'Were it not for some that I can trust I believe I would run away'. Because of delays with the delivery of the baggage, some of the emigrants had to sleep on bare boards. Calton had to buy vegetables, candles and tin chamber pots, as the emigrants had spent what money they had. One woman of doubtful character was turned away by the Albury's Captain 'for fear she would ruin all the sailors'. Calton predicted that the framework knitters in the party, 'better talkers than workers', had little chance of becoming successful settlers. The Albury's departure was delayed by bad weather but she finally sailed from Liverpool on 13 February 1820, arriving in Simon's Bay on 1 May and in Algoa Bay on 15 May. The deaths are known to have occurred at sea of two infants, John Cross and Susannah Hartley, and of an adult settler, John Sykes, whose widow was disembarked at Simon's Bay to await an opportunity to return to England. The birth of a daughter, Elizabeth , to the wife of George Sansom has been traced by E Morse Jones. Dr Calton died unexpectedly on 8 July while the party was encamped at Algoa Bay awaiting transport to its location, and Thomas Draper was elected supervisor in his place. The party was located on the Torrens River, and the location was named Clumber after the seat of the Duke of Newcastle. LIST OF CALTON'S PARTY
ALLISON, Francis 40. Labourer. w Elizabeth 30. c William 11, Mary 9, Elizabeth 6, Samuel 4, Ann 2.
Main sources for party list
The names of William Pike's youngest children are given variously in the party lists as Elisa or Elizabeth and Robert or Mary; family records show that they were Elijah (6) and Rosa (4).
Further reading
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