Reverend William Campbell

About REV. William Campbell: -On the 17th September 1850 the Unicorn anchored in Durban Bay in Natal. They had set sail on June 14 1850 from Scotland ( Diary of Robert Strachan) Rev. William Campbell ,Free Church minister at Alexandria, near The Firth of Clyde was a Caithness man, Campbell had been educated at Aberdeen University and had begun his ministry in Ireland. Poor health induced him to accept J C Byrne's offer of cabin passages for himself and family on his taking up duties as minister to the emigrants. Some seventy persons, mainly agriculturists from the Highlands, embarked with him and Charles Scott on a small steamer at the Broomielaw, to connect with the sailing of the Unicorn from Merseyside.--- While Charles Scott,on the pressing invitation of A. K. Murray, took his family to Pinetown, Campbelll set about collecting funds to build the Presbyterian Church in the colony.. As early as 1850 he severed his connection with the Byrne scheme. As the causes which had brought about disruption in the mother Church were inapplicable in Natal, ,he soon achieved a united congregation; and with subscriptions raised at the Cape and in Scotland, erected the original Presbyterian Church in grey random rubble in Pietermaritzburg. There is a post card printed by Sallo Epstein which shows a building with a long nave & a square tower, it is denoted The Scotch Church, Pietermaritzburg. {Source: Alan Hattersley: The British settlement of Natal: a study in imperial migration.}