Time saver... enter a name or any word(s) to
search for in this page, click 'Submit' once.
[ Press ALT + S to repeat your search ]

THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash
THE SETTLER PARTIES

NEAVE'S PARTY

No. 34 on the Colonial Department list, led by Joseph Neave, a bank clerk of Liverpool. Neave was the son of a substantial farmer and miller and had entered a banking house at 17; he told the Colonial Department that on his salary of £100 a year and with no prospect of promotion he could not afford to support his wife who was still living with her parents. He proposed to emigrate with a party of labourers, and if he prospered his wife would be able to join him within a few years. Neave's application was supported by a recommendation from Charles Stoker Dudley Esq.

This was a proprietary party, recruited in Liverpool; Neave undertook to give each of his men the use of 20 acres of land and to feed and clothe them in return for their labour. After five years they would receive title to their 20 acres plus the gift of £10, a cow and a pig. Neave asked to be located near Hayhurst's party, also from Liverpool, and proposed that the two groups should form themselves into a corps of militia - a suggestion that received no encouragement from the Colonial Department.

The party left Liverpool in the regular freight ship Stentor on 13 January 1820, reaching Table Bay on 19 April, where her charter expired and all her passengers were disembarked. Two of the settler parties on board were transshipped to the Weymouth to be taken on to Algoa Bay; the three proprietary parties led by Neave, the Griffith brothers and Thomas White, as well as Captain Duncan Campbell's party from the Weymouth, were assigned land at the Zonder End River about 70 miles from Cape Town. White, Campbell and the Griffiths refused to accept their locations and were given the option of removal to Albany; the Griffiths chose to remain in the western districts, as did Neave, although he did not persevere for long with agriculture and his party soon dispersed to find other employment.

LIST OF NEAVE'S PARTY

DOWNING, Thomas 21. Cooper.
FLEETWOOD, John 20. Agriculturist.
GREARY, Richard, 21. Mason.
GREGORY, Thomas 24. Carpenter.
HUDDLESTONE, Richard 25. Blacksmith. w Sarah 26. c Betsy 5, John 2.
KEEGAN, John 32. Gardener. w Jane 23.
KNOWLES, Richard Holding 35. Planter.
NEAVE, Joseph 30. Clerk.
QUILHAM, Richard 35. Farmer. w Ann 30. c Ann 12.
RANN, Frederick George 22. Draper.
SIMMONS, James 20. Labourer.
TYLER, Joseph 32. Labourer.

*GARRETT, Joseph.

Main sources for party list
List of settlers under the direction of Joseph Neave (Cape Archives CO 6138/1,99). This agrees with the final list submitted to the Colonial Deparment by Neave on 26 December 1819, but it is not known whether all the men named actually sailed for the Cape. References have been traced in colonial records to Fleetwood, Gregory, Quilham and his family, Tyler and Simmons. John Keegan's wife Jane was entered on the final Liverpool list as Jane Lloyd; the couple may have married before leaving England.

*The name of Joseph Garrett does not appear on any official list, but he described himself as a member of Neave's party in his application for a colonial pass, and may have sailed as a last minute replacement for some other man.