Charles Chandler

1820 Settler to South Africa with Sephton's Party on the Aurora.

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Matrimonial Court Minutes : Film No. 1886513 Entry #25 - 3 Oct. 1822 Husband: Charles CHANDLER, 25, Protestant, England Wife: Ann DENTON, 17, Protestant, England Father, Charles DENTON, gives consent

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From : William Jervois, Resident Genealogist, Albany Museum, Somerset Street, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa

What an interesting piece of evidence! There is no doubt that Ann, dau. of Charles and Ann Denton, was married to William Estment - I have a transcript of her DN. Her eldest Estment child (William) was born in 1824.

The evidence that I have of Charles Chandler is both fragmentary and conflicting! Very little is known of him, other than that (according to Makin's notes) he was a 22-year old member of Sephton's party and a tanner by trade. Theal ("Records of the Cape Colony") says that he arrived with a 4-year old son, also Charles. In 1823, together with his brother (?) William, he served in the Blue Krantz division of the Burgher Levy. I cannot find a shred of evidence about him after this date. If he had lived, he might have been listed as one of the grantees of land at Salem, but he wasn't!

My guess is that he died/was killed in action in 1823 and that his young widow promptly remarried to William Estment and didn't feel that it was necessary to mention her brief marriage to Charles!

There is also some evidence (Cape Archives CO 1/6137) to suggest that Charles was a farmer, aged 32, when he arrived in 1820. It is thought that Charles had a sister Margaret who later married James Hogsflesh of Sephton's party. She was the dau. of Thomas Chandler and Ann (nee Lambeth) of Woodbridge in Suffolk.

I have assembled a file on the younger Charles Chandler (1814-?) and some of his descendants and, although there is doubt on his parentage, the names of William and Charles persisted in some of his descendants.

All a bit confusing and, as so often happens, it does not seem likely that we shall ever have totally satisfactory evidence.