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THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash
THE SETTLER PARTIES

GRIFFITH'S PARTY

No. 28 on the Colonial Department list, led by Valentine and Charles Griffith of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, North Wales. This was a proprietary party consisting of the three Griffith brothers, two of them Lieutenants of Royal Marines on half-pay and the third a surgeon, and 19 indentured servants, mostly young unmarried men. The Griffith brothers were accompanied by their three unmarried sisters. Deposits were paid for 22 men.

The Griffiths' application to emigrate was forwarded to the Colonial Department by GA Evans, a Justice of the Peace for Montgomeryshire, who recommended them as members of a large and respectable family whose father, also an officer of Marines, had died a year earlier leaving them unprovided for.

The party was initially recruited in Wales but frequent changes were made to the list of names. Five men withdrew and were replaced after arrival at Liverpool, the port of embarkation, early in December 1819. Valentine Griffith ascribed this to the delay before the party was able to board the Stentor where she lay in Liverpool docks, 'in consequence of the regulations of the Port not permitting Fire or Lights, and the ship's Deck being damp for them to sleep upon'.

The Stentor finally sailed on 13 January 1820, arriving in Table Bay on 19 April, where her charter expired and all her passengers were disembarked. The colonial authorities intended to settle the Griffiths' party, together with those of Joseph Neave and Thomas White from the Stentor and Duncan Campbell's party from the Weymouth, on the Zonder End River about 70 miles from Cape Town. However, the heads of parties were unwilling to accept the land that was offered them and the settlers were returned to Cape Town. The Griffiths also refused the offer of a location in Albany, and instead arranged to remain in the western Cape, renting the Oude Post Farm in the Groene Kloof district.

Valentine Griffith left the colony for Tasmania in 1823.

LIST OF GRIFFITH'S PARTY

BROWN, David 22. Labourer.
DIGGERY, Richard 28. Blacksmith.
DOE, Richard 28. Carpenter. w Mary 24. c Ann 3.
FORREST, Ellice 22. Mason.
GARDNER, John 22. Carpenter
GRIFFITH, Charles 31. Lieut, Royal Marines (half-pay).
GRIFFITH, Cornelia 22 (sister of Valentine Griffith).
GRIFFITH, Eliza 19 (sister of Valentine Griffith).
GRIFFITH, John 24. Surgeon.
GRIFFITH, Mary 25. (sister of Valentine Griffith).
GRIFFITH, Valentine 29. Lieut, Royal Marines (half-pay).
HAIRBOTTLE, Richard 32. Gardener. w Jane 28. c Richard 8, Ann 1, William.
JONES, Jenkin 26. Tailor.
JONES, John 19. Labourer.
JONES, John 20. Labourer.
LLOYD, John 18. Labourer.
MORRIS, William 30. Labourer. w Catherine 31. c Ann 3, William.
MORTON, William 24. Blacksmith. w Mary 19. c Henry.
NOBLE, Mark 23. Bricklayer.
POWELL, Benjamin 25. Bailiff. w Elizabeth 26. c Elizabeth 5, John 3.
POWELL, William 22. Labourer.
THOMPSON, David 26. Baker.
WILLIAMS, John 32. Wheelwright. c John 5.
WILLIAMS, John 33. Labourer. w Sarah 26. c Thomas 14.
WRIGHT, Daniel 28. Labourer.

Main source for party list
Return of settlers under Valentine and Charles Griffith (Cape Archives CO 6138/1,83). This list was compiled before the party left England and it is not known whether it includes the final alterations made shortly before sailing. No Agent of Transports' Return, showing the state of the party as it reached the Cape, has been traced for the Stentor.