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THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash
CLARK'S PARTY No. 6 on the Colonial Department list, led by William Clark, a surgeon of 19 Nelson Street, Commercial Road, London. After entering his name on the list of Bailie's party, he approached the Colonial Department for an official appointment as surgeon in the new settlement at the Cape, and when that was refused he applied for permission to take out a joint-stock party of 33 men and their families (none of whose names appeared in the final sailing list). Clark then arranged to include under his direction a group of young men from the Refuge for the Destitute in Hoxton, London, which supplied their outfits and paid their deposits. The party was accepted on the recommendation of the Governor of the Refuge for the Destitute, Robert Crosby, and deposits were paid for 31 men. John Brown, who described himself as 'fisherman and trader', and John Stubbs, an 'agriculturist' of 48 Kenton Street, Bloomsbury, London, joint leaders of a proprietary party, joined forces with Clark after their own application had been refused and many of Clark's people had dropped out. Clark's party as it was finally constituted comprised William Clark as the nominal head; nine independent settlers, mostly married men with families (Harvey, Haugh, Honey, John and Henry Marshall, Taylor, Wentworth, Richard and John White), who had paid their own deposits; 11 men and a boy in service to Clark, some or all of them sponsored by the Refuge for the Indigent; and Brown and Stubbs with eight men and an orphan lad under indenture. Four other men who had engaged to emigrate with Brown and Stubbs eventually joined the party led by Charles Dalgairns which sailed in the same ship. As far as is known, the whole party was recruited in London. Clark's party embarked at Deptford in the regular freight ship Northampton, which sailed from Gravesend on 13 December 1819, arriving in Table Bay on 26 March 1820 and Algoa Bay on 30 April. The two divisions of the party separated after landing: Clark's division was located at the source of Botha's River, and named the location Collingham; Brown and Stubbs were located at the Clay Pits, north-east of the Kap River. LIST OF CLARK'S DIVISION
BOX, John 29.
LIST OF BROWN'S AND STUBBS' DIVISION
BLAKEMORE, George 33. Farmer. w Sarah 34. c Mary Ann 9, Elizabeth 5, Harriet 1.
*FOSS, Thomas.
Main sources for party list
A young woman who was entered in the sailing list as John Brown's sister, Charlotte Brown, is believed to have been Charlotte Whitfield, who settled near Brown at the Clay Pits and bore him five children between 1822 and 1829. The names of the nine independent settlers of Clark's division are confirmed in Special Commissioner Hayward's notes, but the list of Brown's and Stubbs' settlers is known to be inaccurate and incomplete. Major George Pigot complained to the Colonial Department that the naval authorites at Deptford would not allow any person whose name was not on the official list to board the Northampton and he obtained the Department's sanction to admit substitutes in place of last minute withdrawals from his party. Brown and Stubbs were less influential than Pigot and desperate to emigrate, and substitutes in their party appear to have travelled under the name of the people they replaced, rather than risk rejection by bringing the changes to the notice of the authorities. No mention has been traced in colonial records of David Davis snr and jnr, Harrison and Saunders, other than their names in the sailing list, and it is possible that they did not emigrate. *It is known from Thomas Stubbs' reminiscences that his father's party included three men, Tom Foss, Robert Reynolds and Daniel Wood, a butcher; an orphan lad of about 15, Tom West; and an 18-year-old maidservant, whose names do not appear on any list and who must be presumed to have joined the party as replacements for late withdrawals.
Further reading
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