Frederick Mitchley

There are conflicting sources regarding the parentage and birth of Frederick Mitchley.

Family records (including a photograph), his Death Notice and his gravestone give his date of birth as 19 October 1823 in the Cape.

Some secondary printed sources claimed there was an infant by that name on the George Osborn. Frederick William was in fact the son of Sampson Daniel, Peter Clarke Daniel's brother.

Frederick’s Death Notice gives his father as "Peter Mitchley": there was no such person and the extensive archive documentation surviving shows not a trace of such a person. In fact his father was Peter Clarke Daniel - the family disguised their illegitimacy by giving Peter Daniel their mothers surname on official documents. This led later researches to assume the father died at sea. But there are no records of a Peter Mitchley on the George Osborn nor a Thomas Henry.

His grandson PH de Villiers recorded a hint of this illegitimacy by misremembering the name and writing on his photograph “Frederick Mitchley (really Andrews)” instead of “really Daniel”

In the absence of primary sources demonstrating his passage on the George Osborn, we can only acknowledge that there is some doubt. What is certain is that his own family recorded his birth as 1823

Frederick Mitchley's parents and siblings/half siblings, were members of Turvey's Party of 61 Settlers on the Sir George Osborn.

Party originated from London.

Departed London - 16 March 1820. Arrival Simon's Bay, Cape Town - 17 June 1820. Final Port Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth - July 1820

Area Allocated to the Party : Trompetter's Drift Post - Albany

Children :

• Thomas Mitchley 9
  
• Samuel Mitchley 7
  
• Eliza Mitchley 4
  
• Ann Mitchley 3