Skip to main content
GSSA
The 1820 Settler Correspondence
 as preserved in the National Archives, Kew
 and edited by Sue Mackay

Correspondence 1821 to 1837.

Here only letters by known settlers or their families, or letters of great relevance to the 1820 settlers, have been transcribed, whereas ALL the 1819 correspondence was transcribed (see CO48/41 through CO48/46) whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape.

Unless otherwise stated letters were written to either the Secretary of State for the Colonies or his deputy.The original correspondence is filed in order of receipt. Here it has been placed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the writer, with letters by the same writer in chronological order, for ease of reading. Original spelling has been maintained. Reference numbers, where given, refer to printed page numbers stamped on the letters and will enable visitors to the National Archives to locate the letter more easily.

PEARSON, J re David PONTARDENT, 1826

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew, CO48/86, 311

Serjeants Inn

Temple

3 July 1826

Sir,

At the request of the family of a gentleman who died at the Cape of Good Hope, I take the liberty of representing to you the necessity they are under of soliciting the aid & protection of Government in the situation in which they stand with respect to property of which, from various sources of information, they are led to supposed he died possessed; & to which they have become entitled by his decease.

Their father, Mr. David PONTARDENT, went to the Cape about the year 1806 & continued to reside there till his death in May 1825; &, it has been understood, he was officially connected with the Court of Admin[istration] there. Mr. PONTARDENT left his wife and family in England under the protection of her friends (who are highly respectable) communicating with them not very frequently & never upon pecuniary concerns. They are therefore almost entirely uninformed [respecting] them except from vague & unconnected sources, being led to suppose that he left property of an amount not inconsiderable: but in whose hands [or] of what nature, or in what situation, there is no information whatever transmitted by an one connected with his affairs.

Under these circumstances they are advised to entreat the intervention & protection of Government, humbly requesting that inquiry may be directed to ascertain whether he has left a will or how his affairs have been administered.

Mrs. PONTARDENT died before her husband. I address you merely as a friend of their family, not professionally. If from this there should appear to be any deficiency, either in the statement of the case, or want of regular authority, if I may request the favor of intimation of it, I will endeavour to supply whatever may be further needful.

I have the honor to be Sir

Your most obed't hbl serv't

J. PEARSON

  • Hits: 5905