Follow
William Smith'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.
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.
Party Details
- Leader William Smith
- Number 40
- Area Party originated from London
- Area Allocated to the Party Stoney Vale, Trompetters Drift
- 1820 Settler Ship
Northampton
- Dates
- Departure Portsmouth 13 December 1819
- Arrival Table Bay, Cape Town - 26 March 1820
- Final Port - Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth 30 April 1820
(Other parties on this voyage Clark, Dalgairn, Mahony, Pigot.)
M.D. Nash 1987 - Settler Handbook
"No. 7 on the Colonial Department list, led by William Smith, a seafaring man ans surveyor of 3 Barnards Inn, Holburn, London. Smith had served at sea in the India trade and had subsequently been engaged in commercial pursuits abroad. His initial application to the Colonial Department was made on behalf of an emigration society consisting of 'a number of respectable and intelligent individuals wishing to embrace the offers of Government and desirous of taking out the requisite number of labouring families'. They hoped to make up a party of 100 or more families by advertising. This proposal was not accepted, and Smith then applied on his own account to take out a party of 10 families. After a personal interview at the Colonial department, Smith was accepted to fill a vacancy created by the withdrawal of a party of 11 men, provided that he could supply a suitable reference from some 'respectable Gentleman'. This condition was fulfilled by an effusive letter of recommendation from an ex-member of Parliament, Benjamin Shaw.
Smith hastily organised a new small party from the remnants of the former one. Eight men whose names had been on the 'emigration society' list enrolled again under his leader ship. Two Northamptonshire farmers, Robert Bagot from Kingsthorpe and David Hobson from Cottesbrook, and Smith's brother-in-law, John Cornfield of Northampton, all from the earlier list, joined him as partners and were each to receive SO acres of his land grant, al though Smith reserved to himself the 'manorial rights' of hunting, hawking, shooting and fish ing. (Captain Bagot was clearly short of funds: he had already attempted, with predictable lack of success, to borrow £100 from the Colonial Department to enable him to form a party of his own.) William Thackwray, an 'emigra tion society' member from Sheffield, had in the meantime enlisted with Bailie's party, but withdrew to rejoin Smith, who promised him and his son 100 acres of land. Two of the five indentured servants who made up the rest of the new party, Edkins and Warmington, had also been on Smith's earlier list; Picket, Rooke and Scott were new additions.
Deposits were paid for 11 men, and the party was instructed to embark at Deptford in the Nautilus transport in the third week of November 1819. At Smith's request, however, permission was granted for his party to embark a week later in the Northampton instead.
The Northampton sailed from Gravesend on 13 December and reached Table Bay on 26 March and Algoa Bay on 30 April 1820. A daughter was born at sea to the wife of John Cornfield. The party was located on the north ern border of the Albany settlement, on the road to Trompetter's Drift, and the location was named Stoney Vale".
Members of William Smith's Party
[Bold links are to Geni profiles; other links are to other biographical notes]
Profiles are being added to an William Smith's Party Umbrella Profile pending tree development. Please feel free to expand individuals into trees if you have more information.
Robert Wood Bagot 35. Capt, 47th Regt (half-pay).
Wife Letitia Bagot 35.
Children
Richard Bland 13 (in the care of John Comfield). (Later married Caroline Hepzibah Bonnin of Septon's Party.)
John Comfield 21. Artist.
Wife Eliza 27.
Child
- Eliza (born at sea).
John Edkins 28. Carpenter.
Wife Ann 29.
Children
David Hobson 24. Husbandman.
William Carey Hobson 15 (brother of David Hobson above). (Later married Susannah Bonin of Sephton's Party.)
Harriet O'Connor 17 (step-daughter of Capt Bagot).
Robert O'Connor 16 (step-son of Capt Bagot).
William Picket 27. Bricklayer.
James Rooke 25. Sawyer.
John Scott 20. Blacksmith.
John Josiah Smith 16 (brother of William Smith).
William Smith 27. Surveyor.
Wife Anna 24.
John Thackwray 18. Mechanist.
William Thackwray 40. Agricultural implement maker.
Wife Dorothy 43.
Children
- Dorothy Thackwray 15,
- Ann Thackwray 13,
- William Thackwray 11,
- Joseph Thackwray 9,
- James Thackwray 4. (Later married Jane Booth of Sephton's Party.)
Alfred Warmington 19. Butcher.
Others
John Todd Jakins (was apparently in this party - brought up by William Smith).
William Andrews 17. [See note §]
Thomas Doe 18. Blacksmith and farrier. [See note §]
Note §Neither Doe nor Andrews appears on any official party list, but both are mentioned in colonial records as members of Smith's party. According to his colonial pass, Doe was a farrier and blacksmith, aged 18. It seems likely that both these men joined the party as last minute substitutes for others who had dropped out, and travelled under the names of whoever they replaced - possibly Picket and Rooke, for whose presence at the Cape no confirmation has been found in colonial records.
Main source for party list
Agent of Transports' List of persons belonging to Mr Smith's party (Cape Archives CO 136); Special Commis sioner William Hayward's notes (Cape Archives CO 8543); Agreement betWeen W Smith, D Hobson, R W Bagot and J Cornfield (Cape Archives CO 6138/1) . This agreement was signed at sea on 22 February 1820, and witnessed by Alfred Warmington, John Edkins, William Andrews and Thomas Doe.
Further reading
The voyage to the Cape in the Northampton is described in The Journals of Sophia Pigat, ed Margaret Rainier (Cape Town, A A Balkema, 1974) and The Reminiscences of Thomas Stubbs, ed WA Maxwell and RT McGeogh (Cape Town, A A Balkema, 1978).