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Philipps' Party
Main References - The Settler Handbook by MD Nash and 1820 Settlers.com
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Party Details
- Leader Thomas Philipps
- Number 30
- Area Party originated from Pembrokeshire, Wales
- Area Allocated to the Party Bush River - Philipps named the location Lampeter, after the Carmarthenshire village of Lampeter Velfrey
- 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, Holder, Southey)
M.D. Nash 1987 - Settler Handbook
"No 19 on the Colonial Department list, led by Thomas Philipps, a gentleman banker of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. This was a proprietary party consisting of Philipps and his family and servants, accompanied by a young doctor, Robert Currie, who had initially applied to emigrate to the Cape as an independent settler at his own expense but subsequently arranged to join Philipps' party instead. The men were mostly recruited in Pembrokeshire, but four last minute replacements - W B Jones, Larkum, Rickards and Shellard - were probably engaged at Bristol shortly before sailing. Apart from Philipps' own family there was only one married man and no young children in the party.
Philipps was a man of means and was recommended by influential friends, including Sir John Owen, the Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire, and the Countess of Mansfield. Deposits were paid for 20 men and three maidservants. The party sailed from Bristol in the regular transport ship Kennersley Castle on 10 January 1820, reaching Table Bay on 29 March and Algoa Bay on 29 April.
The Cape authorities had intended to locate Philipps' party at the Zonder End River, with the other Welsh parties led by his friends Captain Campbell and the Griffith brothers, but on arrival in Table Bay the Kennersley Castle was quarantined for measles and its settlers were not permitted to land. Philipps' party was sent to Algoa Bay and located in Albany, on an arm of the Bush River. Philipps named the location Lampeter, after the Carmarthenshire village of Lampeter Velfrey where his father had been Rector and where his boyhood had been spent".
Members of Philipps' Party
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
- Richard Butler 19. Labourer.
- Robert Currie 25. Surgeon.
- John Davies 38. Carpenter.
Child
- William Davies 13.
- John Davis 23. Labourer.
- William Davis 21. Labourer. Wife. Mary 25.
- William Estment 18, Labourer.
- John Gittens 23. Gardener.
- Benjamin James 21. Labourer.
- David James 18. Labourer.
- John James 21. Labourer.
- Ann John 25 (servant to Thomas Philipps).
- John Jones 21. Miller.
- William Brooks Jones 26. Shoemaker.
- Robert Larkum 18. Labourer.
- John Mack 19. Labourer.
- Thomas Matthias 22. Gardener.
- Mary Owen 20 (servant to Thomas Philipps).
- Thomas Philipps 44. Gentleman banker. Wife. Charlotte Harriet Arbouin 41.
Children
- Catherine Philipps 17,
- Edward Philipps 16,
- Charlotte Philipps 14,
- Sophia Philipps 12,
- Frederick Philipps 10,
- Emma Philipps 6,
- John Philipps 4.
- William Phillip 21. Labourer.
- James Prout 23. Carpenter.
- William Rickards 21. Baker.
- George Shellard 25. Carpenter (servant to Robert Currie).
- Martha Thomas 18 (servant to T Philipps).
Main source for party list
Agent of Transports' Return of settlers under the direction of Thomas Philipps, Table Bay, 29 March 1820 (Cape Arc hives CO 6138/2,64).
Further reading
Thomas Philipps' letters to his kinsfolk (manuscript in the Cory Library, Rhodes University). A selection of these letters has been edited by A Keppel-Jones and published under the title 'Philipps 1820 Settler' (Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, 1960), with an index by Thelma Gutsche (Johannesburg Public Library, 1961).