Follow
Follow Us
Be a Fan
Russell's Party
Main Reference The Settler Handbook by MD Nash
Additional information from South African Settlers
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.
To take part in any project
- you do need to first be a collaborator - so join the project. See the discussion Project Help: How to add Text to a Project - Starter Kit to get you going!
How to Participate
- Please add only the profiles of members of this party to this project (not their descendants)! This is easily done from the profile page using the Add to project link.
- If you have any queries related to these settlers please start a discussion linked to this project. (See the menu top right).
- Please add related projects to the menu on the right.
- If you have links to related web pages that would be of interest to others please add them in the relevant section at the bottom of the page. In order to do this use the drop down menu at the top left of the screen and Join the Project. If this option is not available to you then contact a collaborator and ask to be added to the project. As a collaborator you will be able to edit this page.
- Add any documents of interest using the menu at the top right of the page, and then add a link to the document in the text under the heading below. If you do not know how to do this please contact one of the other collaborators to assist you.
How to add a link is explained in the attached document - Adding links to Geni profiles in projects.
Led by William Russell of 48 Bridge Gate Street, Glasgow, Scotland. This was a party of Scots artisans and trademen whose deposits were paid through Monteith of Glasgow, and who sailed from Greenock in the Abeona on 13 October 1820. At sea on 25 November, in latitude 4° 30' N and longitude 25° 30' W, the ship caught fire, and after burning for fifteen hours was totally destroyed. Three small boatloads of survivors were rescued by a Portuguese merchant ship; 16 of the crew including the master, 27 emigrants and nine passengers were saved, and 114 people - nine of the crew, 100 emigrants and five passengers - were lost with the ship.
Six survivors of the Abeona disaster were given passage to the Cape in HMS Sappho in the following year, and arrived in Simon's Bay in August 1821. They applied for a grant of land, and presumably settled in the western Cape.
Survivors of Russell's Party who reached the Cape
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
- CLARK, James.
- McLAREN, John. Joiner.
- McLEAN, John.
- REID, Thomas. Sawyer. w Agnes.
- THOMPSON, Robert. Bricklayer.
Main sources for party list
Correspondence of Russell and Monteith with the Colonial Department (Public Record Office, London, CO 49/14); Account of the loss of the Abeona in GM Theal, Records of the Cape Colony vol. 13; Memorial of Abeona survivors on board Sappho (Cape Archives CO 158,146).
For a full list of those onboard and more information about the event read
Loss of the Abeona written by Trisha McLeod in the eGGSA Library - 1820 Settler Correspondence.
Terrible loss by fire of the Abeona transport ship from various printed source and maritime chronicles - Pascal Kainic