Catherine Pierce Dunn, Indlunkulu - Mother?

[[Minna Minna] Minna] was possibly Mary Wilmot, the 7yr old survivor of the wreck of the East Indiaman, the Grosvenor in 1782. In 1907 William Bazley describes how, “after the women and children were abandoned by Capt. Cox and his officers, one little girl, who he calls [[Minna Minna] Minna], was carried across the Mzimvubu River by a Lascar man. … Bazley calls her maMolo [so] she was probably raised by the amaMolo.” [Crampton, p299.]

Said to have married a [[NN Renegade Soldier NN Renegade Soldier] soldier] who had deserted from the Cape. Crampton speculates that it might have been one of the four Englishmen deserters who associated with the rebel boers: John Madder, Thomas Bentley; Harry Obry; Coves Bork associated with Willem & Nicholas Lochenburg (the old boer who guided the first missionaries to Bessie’s son, Mdepa in 1827) [Crampton, p299.]

[[Minna Minna] Minna] – or Minnie – as Bazley sometimes calls her, is said to have had children with this man, before he died. He says that she then married an escaped slave (or one of the Lascars who survived the Grosvenor) – ‘[[Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG] Domosi]’. Crampton suggests the name could be a corruption of ‘[[Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG] Damin]’ – a runaway Bengalese slave, who spoke Dutch and acted as [[Ngqika ka Mlawu, 3rd Paramount Chief of the amaRarabe Ngqika ka Mlawu, 3rd Paramount Chief of the amaRarabe] Ngqika]’s mother’s interpreter, and who is known to have lived alongside the boers.

A missionary, van der Kemp, at Ngqiuka’s Great place, taught [[Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG] Damin] – who he called a ‘Mahometan Hindoo’ to read and write. Another of van der Kemp’s pupils was the Khoi woman Sarah, who later married Nicholas Lochenberg, and a ‘Heathen’ woman called Mary… As [[Minna Minna] Minna], like Sarah, eventually settled at the Butterworth mission station, it seems like to Compton, that [[Minna Minna] Minna] – the child survivor of the Grosvenor, Mary, the convert, and Mary Wilmot – the 7 year old Grosvenor survivor were the same person. [Crampton p300]

[[Minna Minna] Minna] and [[Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG Damin 'Damoyi' damoyi, SV/PROG] Damin] had several children. One, a son – [[May Jong Damoyi May Jong Damoyi] May Jong] (Eastern name?) is said to have lived for many years at the Ibisi in East Griqualand and died there, an old man.

Bazley says at least two of her daughters married white men – one becoming [[NN wife of Toohey NN wife of Toohey] Mrs ‘Toughy’] and the other [[NN wife of Richard Pierce NN wife of Richard Pierce] Mrs ‘Piarse]’ – with a daughter, [[Catherine Dunn, Indlunkulu Catherine Dunn, Indlunkulu] Catherine], who marries [[John Robert Dunn, b5 John Robert Dunn, b5] John Dunn].

Crampton, Hazel. ‘The Sunburnt Queen’. Johannesburg: Jacana. 2004. Print. [[Sharon Doubell Sharon Doubell] Contact Sharon Doubell]