1820 British Settler

Robert Newton Dunn 24, was a member of Daniell's Party of 41 Settlers on the Settler Ship Duke of Marlborough.

Party originated from Devon.

Departure Portsmouth, 30 March 1820. Arrival Table Bay, Cape Town - 18 June 1820.

Area Allocated to the Party : Sidbury Park, on the Buffels Kloof stream, Albany

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Marriage :

"South Africa, Church of the Province of South Africa, Parish Registers, 1801-2004," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TWM-9B33?cc=1468076&w... : 21 May 2014), South Africa > Cape of Good Hope > Grahamstown, Cathedral > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1823-1826 > image 17 of 71; William Cullen Library, Wits University, Johannesburg.

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Death:
"Dunn was killed at the age of 51. The Natal Witness noted that he had been found dead 'near the edge of the bush'. He had left Durban for Seaview on September 4th 1847 and had failed to arrive. His family and Durban residence started searching for him the following morning and he was found at 8 a.m. on the 6th it was thought that he had been thrown from his horse after out had been surprised by elephants. Another contemporary account is that of Captain Garden who states it was drink 'which ultimately brought him to an untimely end'. S.W.B. Griffin, who was living in Durban at the time, wrote in 1896 that Dunn had been found dead at Congella - the cause 'a supposed apoplectic fit. Nowhere in contemporary sources has any mention been found of his being trampled by an elephant, a fate sometimes ascribed to him."
From Robert Newton Dunn - Brief History (535kb) An extract taken from 'British Settlers in Natal 1824 - 1857 Volume 5- See attached pdf and https://www.dunnsland.com/documents.php

Dick Pierce and his wife worked in PE as servants to Robert Newton Dunn, also an immigrant of 1820. When Robert Dunn moved his family in the 1830s to Port Natal, where his father-in-law, Alexander Biggar was a leading figure in the fledgling settler community, with – like most of the other Englishman there – a son by a Zulu woman, the Pierces went with them.

Dunn settled at South Coast Junction, imposing his authority over several hundred Zulu and coloured clients. His son, John , was born in about 1835, followed three years’ later by the Pierce’s daughter Catherine. The 2 children grew up together. When John was about 14 his father was trampled to death by an elephant. His mother died a few years later and the household broke up. The orphaned John , in his own words ‘took to a wandering existence, having always been fond of my gun and a solitary life.’ He disappeared for a few years, taking Minna’s granddaughter, Catherine with him.

The teenagers lived off the land – ‘Dunn was a regular white kaffir and used, as a boy, to go about in native dress,’ said one old settler – surviving by hunting and ivory trading. They were ‘found’ by a trader named Walmsley while hunting in the wilds of Zululand near the Thukela River. Walmsley took Dunn under his wing and educated him. John stayed with the trader for 6 years, marrying his childhood companion, Catherine Pierce in 1853. (He was about 18; she 15.) [Crampton, p303]

“By the 1860s John was well established as a gunrunner, conducting an extensive trade in firearms, for which the Zulu king, Cetshwayo was a leading customer. Dunn became his friend and confidant and was awarded some land near the eMatikulu River. He became a man of power and adopted Zulu customs, one of which was polygamy.

Eight years after his marriage to Catherine he took a Zulu woman by the name of Macebose Mhlongo as his second wife, then 48 others another, securing marital ties with clans living in his district, and beyond. He was careful to respect traditional marriage rituals, paying lobola of 9 to 15 head of cattle for each and every one of them.

During the Anglo-Zulu War Dunn sided with the British and betrayed Cetshwayo. When hostilities ceased, the vanquished kingdom was divided into 13 chiefdoms and Dunn was rewarded with the largest portion, the southern region, stretching from the coast to the Buffalo River.
John Dunn was described in 1880 as follows: ‘a handsome well-built man about 5 ft 8 in height, with a good forehead, regular features, and keen grey eyes; a closely cut iron-grey beard hides the lower half of his bronzed, weather tanned countenance, and a look of determination and shrewdness is discernible in every lineament.’

He was frequently visited by Whites – important officials from the colony and Natal, hunters and travellers – but neither his wives nor his children were allowed to socialise with them. Nor did Dunn ever take any of his black wives with him to Natal, and in this way their existence could be politely ignored. His son, Dominic acknowledged that ‘there was a kind of segregation practised… My father kept to his whiteness in social matters..we, the children, as coloureds, lived separately from the natives.” They were not encouraged to establish relationships with the Zulus.

Catherine remained very much opposed to his marriages to Zulu women, and despite t fact that she was herself of mixed descent, she ‘aspired to being as ‘European’ as possible and condemned Dunn for his ‘degenerate social behaviour.’

Dunn died on 5 August 1895, aged 60. He was survived by 33 sons, 46 daughters, and 23 wives, including Catherine. 2 years after his death the rinderpest epidemic destroyed 90% of Dunn’s cattle, and his descendants and dependants were reduced to extreme poverty. The government of the colony of Natal set aside a piece of land for the occupation of Dunn’s descendants, but many were forced to leave Zululand to seek employment, and today can be found all over the world, including Britain, America, Canada and Australia.

Catherine died on 27 January 1905, aged about 70. She left no building or land to her surviving children; the ones she lived in reverted at her death to her husband’s will, which stated they were ‘to be shared amongst all members of the family.’ Described as a ‘housewife’ in her estate papers, she was survived by several children, listed as Ann Agnes (41), Sarah Amy (39), Mary Rose (38), Alice Lil and Lizzy Edith (both 35), Catherine Louise (34) and Sunny Dunn (26). [Crampton, p 305-6]

• Crampton, Hazel. ‘The Sunburnt Queen’. Johannesburg: Jacana. 2004. Print. Contact Sharon Doubell

http://www.dunnsland.com/

http://hunterdunn.com/Images/treeHD.pdf

http://hunterdunn.com/Images/treeOld.pdf

England, Births & Baptisms 1538-1975

Image available at findmypast

• First name(s) Robert Newton
• Last name Dunn
• Gender Male
• Birth year 1795
• Birth place -
• Baptism year 1795
• Baptism date 26 Mar 1795
• Place Ware
• County Hertfordshire
• Country England
• Father's first name(s) Hannibal
• Father's last name Dunn
• Mother's first name(s) Elizabeth
• Mother's last name -

England & Wales Non-conformist births and baptisms

• First name(s) Robert Newton
• Last name Dunn
• Birth year 1795
• Birth date 26 Feb 1795
• Baptism year 1795
• Baptism date 26 Mar 1795
• Place Ware
• Denomination Independent
• Father's first name(s) Hannibal
• Mother's first name(s) Elizabeth
• County Hertfordshire
• Country England
• Archive reference TNA/RG/4/673
• Description HERTFORDSHIRE: Ware, Old Meeting House, Dead Lane (Independent): Births & Baptisms

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWGT-NVV

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5VS-98T

Bigger & Dunn Key Dates
1820 - Circa: Alexander Harvy Biggar and Robert Newton Dunn arrive with the Darniel party. The Darniel party was a private party, the arrived on the Duke of Malbourgh.
1824 - The first white settlers were 26 hunter/traders arrived at Port Natal. Before the end of the year only six remained - Spencer.
1826 - October. The Zulus deemed all persons who 'wore clothes' to be Europeans - this included Hottentots (Fynn P129)
1828 - Shaka Zulu. Killed by Dingaan
1828 - Dingaan became paramount chief of the Zulu's
1835 - Other 1820 settlers in Port Natal in 1835 - see list below
1836 - May. Alexander Harvey Biggar moved to Natal with his younger son George
1836 - Robert Newton Dunn and his wife Ann moved to Natal. Ann was the daughter of Alexander Harvey Biggar.
1837 - Port Natal Volunteers under Commandant AH Biggar formed and disbanded - MacKeurtan P198
1838 - February 6. Retief Killed by Dingaan. Two of Alexander Biggars sons are killed at the slaying.
1838 - Robert Newton Dunn (1796-1847) arrived in Natal circa 1836 and purchased the deceased James Collis' farm Sea View in 1838.
- John Dunn Foundation