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Menezes' Party
Main reference The Settler Handbook by MD Nash
Additional information from South African Settlers
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Party Details
- Leader William Menezes
- Number 51
- Area Party originated from Kent
- Area Allocated to the Party Reitfontein then Kareiga River
- 1820 Settler Ship Weymouth
- Dates
- Departure 7 January 1820
- Arrival Table Bay, Cape Town - 16 April 1820
- Final Port - Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth 15 May 1820
(Other parties on this voyage Biggar, Bowker, Duncan Campbell , Cock, Ford, Gurney, Hyman, James, Osler, Parkin)
M.D. Nash 1987 - Settler Handbook
"No. 12 on the Colonial Department list, led by William Menezes, a shoemaker and veteran soldier of Dover, Kent. The first application on this party's behalf was made by James Hayward, who submitted a list of 10 men from Dover. A week later Manezes submitted an amended list of 12 men, all ex-servicemen, and their families. These men, all under 40, had been honourably discharged from the armed services at the end of the Napoleonic wars. John Green and the three Hayward brothers, who had seen service at the Cape while in the Navy, were from the parish of Walmer, Thomas Eastland was from Deal and the rest of the party from Dover. Reed and Dickson were the only names to appear on the final sailing list that had not been included in Menezes' original list.
According to Menezes, the men were all 'perfectly satisfied with the arrangements made with their parishes', although the amount of financial assistance given is not known except in the case of George Hayward, half of whose deposit was paid by Thomas Sweetnam and half by the parish of Walmer. The party was formed on a joint-stock basis and its members signed articles of agreement that bound them to mutual help and good behaviour, but there was no mention made of a common stock of tools and equipment. Menezes undertook to distribute the party's land in equal shares, and to do his best to settle any quarrels or complaints that might arise. The party solemnly agreed to 'bear this motto in our Hearts, To do to each other, as we would wish others to do to us; that the Sabbath shall be kept holy, and all manner of Work desisted from, and that lying and swearing shall be consider'd as a Breach of our Articles'.
Deposits were paid for 12 men, and the party embarked at the Downs in HM Store Ship Weymouth, which left Portsmouth on 7 January 1820 and reached Table Bay on 26 April and Algoa Bay on 15 May. Thomas Sweetnam worked as a ship's cooper during the voyage. Babies were born at sea to the wives of John Green and James Reed.
The party was first located in Albany at Rietfontein and then moved, together with Parkin's party, to the Kariega River".
Members of Menezes' Party
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
- AMOS, Henry 16. Eliza 13, Charlotte 12, Rebecca 9, Thomas 7, Sarah 6, Edward 4
- (stepchildren of Richard Bowles).
- BOWLES, Richard 35. Labourer. w Elizabeth 36. c Esther 10, Jemima Weymouth 1.
- CUMMINS, Alexander 24. Labourer. w Elizabeth 26. c Alexander 2.
- DICKSON, Richard 39. Glazier.
- Eastland, Thomas 39. Sawyer. wife Sarah White 36.
Children
- George Eastland 13,
- Thomas Eastland 11,
- James Eastland 9,
- Cecilia Eastland 6,
- Elizabeth Eastland 4,
- Mary Jane Eastland 1.
- GREEN, John 39. Labourer. w Ann 30. c Hannah 9, Mary 7, John 6, James 5, Thomas 3, William 2,
- a baby born at sea.
- HAYWARD, George 21. Labourer. w Mary 17.
- HAYWARD, James 25. Smith. w Mary 24. c William 1.
- HAYWARD, William 22. Butcher.
- William Menezes/Menzies 29. Shoemaker (Died before Feb 1822). Wife. Mary Whitall 25. (Married Benjamin Patrick of Sephton's party 4 Feb 1822)
- OLIVER, John 27. Labourer. w Mary 24.
- REED, James 29. Blacksmith. w Sarah 31. c Joseph 8, Emily 4, Mary 1, a baby bon at sea.
- SWEETMAN (or SWEETNAM), Thomas 36. Wheelwright. w Jane 35. c James 7, Hannah 5, Ruth 3.
- MARSH, William.
Main sources for party list
Return of settlers under the direction of William Menezes (Cape Archives CO 6138/1,30); Articles of Agreement (Cape Archives CO 178,145); Muster-roll and Log of HM Store Ship Weymouth (Public Record Office, London); Special Commissioner William Hayward's notes (Cape Archives CO 8543).
Henry, Eliza, Charlotte, Rebecca, Thomas, Sarah and Edward Amos were the children of Elizabeth Bowles and her first husband, Henry Amos. Amos, a soldier, went missing during the Napoleonic wars and was presumed dead; his wife married Richard Bowles by whom she had a daughter, Esther, before her former husband reappeared and she returned to him. The couple had four more children before Amos died, leaving Elizabeth a widow in actuality. She then remarried Bowles by whom she had another daughter, Jemima Weymouth, and a son, Richard, born after they reached the Cape.
There is some doubt about the identity of the twelfth man in Menezes' party. Although Richard Dickson's name was entered in the Muster-roll of the Weymouth, Menezes had informed the Colonial Department in November 1819 that Dickson was ill and unable to travel and would be replaced by Joseph Hamman, and his wife and two children. It is possible that Dickson recovered in time to sail and the exchange never took place.
- Special Commissioner Hayward's notes list William Marsh as a claimant to a share of the party's location in 1824; his name does not appear on any of the official lists of the party. E Morse Jones records that a settler of that name arrived in the Waterloo, but his connection - if any - with Menezes' people is not known.