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THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash
SYNNOT'S PARTY No. 56 on the Colonial Department list, led by Captain Walter Synnot of Ballywalter, Newtown Hamilton, county Armagh in northern Ireland, an officer of the 89th Regiment on half-pay. Synnot was the second son of a baronet, and was described by Sir Rufane Donkin, the Acting Governor of the Cape, as 'one of the most respectable of all the settlers'. He had first enquired about the possibility of emigrating to the Cape in May 1818, and when the emigration scheme was advertised a year later, he applied at once to take out a proprietary party of 10 labouring families from Armagh, 'all members of the Church of Scotland'. By late October, however, half his party had dropped out, and Synnot was given official permission to replace them with others so long as the number remained the same. Synnot's own family group comprised his 12-year-old son by his first marriage, his second wife and their two small sons (a third, Marcus, was born during the voyage), and Frances Houston, aged 15, a sister (or niece) of Mrs Synnot. Arrangements were made for all four Irish settler parties, under Butler, Ingram, Parker and Synnot, to sail from Passage West, Cork. After travelling almost the length of the country by road, Synnot's party, the only one from nothern Ireland, had to wait for permission from London before boarding the Fanny, because of the late payment of its deposit money. Deposits were finally paid for 11 men, and the Fanny and her consort, the East Indian, sailed from the Cove of Cork on 12 February 1820, anchoring in Simon's Bay on 1 May. It was official policy that the Irish settlers should be located separately from the main body of emigrants, and in mid-May they sailed on to Saldanha Bay where they were disembarked. Synnot's party was located in the Groot Seekoei Valley in the Clanwilliam district, at the junction of the Jan Dissels and Olifants Rivers. When the Irish settlers were subsequently given the option of relocation in Albany, Synnot chose to remain in Clanwilliam. He was appointed a Special Heemraad (Justice of the Peace) for the district soon after his arrival, and became Deputy Landdrost of the sub-drostdy of Tulbagh in 1821. By 1825, Cowser and Kennedy were the only other men of the party still living in Clanwilliam. In that year Synnot decided to return to Ireland, and some years later he emigrated to Tasmania. LIST OF SYNNOT'S PARTY
CALISTON, William 28. Carpenter.
Main sources for party list
'Anne Synnot', aged 16, has been identified by GB Dickason in Irish Settlers to the Cape as a maidservant named Ann Clerk.
Further reading
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