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Holder's Party
Main References - The Settler Handbook by MD Nash and 1820 Settlers.com
The aim of this project is to link profiles on Geni to the names in the list, and to expand notes about individuals - mostly on the Profile page in the "About Me" field, or here if no profile exists.
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Party Details
- Leader William Holder
- Number 39
- Area Party originated from Gloucestershire
- Area Allocated to the Party New Bristol on the Bush River
- 1820 Settler Ship Kennersley Castle
- Dates
- Departure Bristol, 10 January 1820
- Arrival Table Bay, Cape Town - 29 March 1820
- Final Port - Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth 29 April 1820
(Other parties on this voyage - Bradshaw, Greathead, Philipps, Southey)
M.D. Nash 1987 - Settler Handbook
"No. 44 on the Colonial Department list, led by William Holder, a yeoman of 7 Nelson Street, Bristol. This was a joint stock-party recruited in Bristol and consisting almost entirely of small tradesmen, although their leader assured the Colonial Department that 'all understood agriculture'. Only two of the names on the first list submitted - Holder himself and Webb - appeared on the party's final sailing list. Powell and Roberts were originally members of a party formed bt John Staples of bermondsey, London, who was unsuccessful in his application to emigrate; they were both Bristol men, and after Staples' party was rejected they joined Holder in place of drop-outs from his early list.
Deposits were paid for 12 men, one of whom did not in the event emigrate. Two of the party, Holder and Powell, were accompanied by servants (Currier and Woods; the latter's age was given as under 18 in order to avoid paying the full deposit).
The party sailed from Bristol on 10 january 1820 in the regular transport Kennersley Castle, reaching Table Bay on 29 March and Algoa Bay on 29 April. Eighteen children died on the voyage, many from measles; four children of Holder's party appeared on the London list but not in the Agent's Return, and may have been among those who died. In writing about his fellow passengers on the Kennersely Castle. Thomas Philipps described the party as 'mechanics from bristol, we like all but the head, he and the Lieut (i.e. the Agent of Transports) often quarrel ...' This opinion of Holder was evidently shared by his people, who complained that they were 'dissatisfied with his general conduct and behaviour as also of his Gross ignorance and uncouth manner', and requested permission soon after arriving in Albany for Shepstone to take over the direction of the party. Their location on a tributary of the Bush River was named New Bristol".
Members of Holder's Party
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
- William Currier 24. Labourer (servant of W Holder).
- Edward Guest 34. Mason. Wife. Ann 40. Child John 8
- John Hancock 23. Tailor.
- Frederick William Hiles 38. Sawyer and army pensioner. Wife Mary - (or Elizabeth) 35. Mary later married William Howard - leader of Howard's Party]
Children
- William Holder 30. Yeoman. Wife Sophia Clark/Clarke 25
Children
- Sophia Holder 3
- Eliza Holder 2
- Alexander Kidwell 38. Labourer. Wife Phoebe 32
- James Powell 32. Smith. Wife Sarah- 32
Children
- William Roberts 25. Carpenter. Wife Maria 24. Child John 3.
- John William Shepstone 24. Mason. Wife. Mary 20. Child Theophilus 3
- Richard Tainton 24. Carpenter. Wife Ann (or Mary) 22
- John Webb 34. Pump and engine maker. Wife Sarah 30.
Children
- Eliza Webb 7
- Frederick James Webb 5
- Henry Webb 3
- Sara Webb
- Samuel Webb 17 (servant of James Powell).
Main source for party list
Agent of Transports' Return of settlers under the direction of William Holder (Cape Archives CO 6138/2,67); Special Commissioner William Hayward's notes (Cape Archives CO 8542). The first names of the women given in the Agent's Return differ in several cases from the names set down in the London sailing list.