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

pre 1820 Settler Correspondence before emigration

ALL the 1819 correspondence from CO48/41 through CO48/46 has been transcribed whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape. Those written by people who did become settlers, as listed in "The Settler Handbook" by M.D. Nash (Chameleon Press 1987), are labelled 1820 Settler and the names of actual settlers in the text appear in red.

BRINT, Thomas (BRENT in The Settler Handbook)

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew CO48/41, 407/408

Glostershire

Aug 19th 1819

My Lord,

Having been informed that it is the intention of Government to assist a number of individuals to emigrate to the Cape of Good Hope, I should be happy to participate in the favour. I have seen an article in the Gloster Journal containing the conditions on which the Government purpose to assist persons who are willing to emigrate. I have accordingly made application to my Parish officers to know their pleasure on the business and they have agreed to advance the money required. I have also been in expectation of further information relative to the proper person to whom I may apply and also the time and place of embarkation but receiving no satisfactory account on this subject I have found myself under the necessity of addressing your Lordship and here I observe that I have seen a letter which one of my neighbours has received from your Lordship from which I learned that it was not the plan of Government to entertain individual application. The reason therefore for my addressing your Lordship is because I cannot obtain the necessary information from any other quarter. The information which I humbly request of your Lordship is that your Lordship will have the goodness to direct me to whom I may apply so I may give in my name. I am a poor man with a wife and four children under fourteen. I have been engaged in HM Service and have a salary from Government for servitude and since discharged at the conclusion of the Peace by intrest and since being discharged have not had employment to support my family and should therefore be glad to embrace the opportunity of emigrating to the place where I have already been and I like the country extreemly well. I therefore shall wait your Lordship's pleasure for an answer and remain your Lordship's most obliging and humble servant

Thos. BRINT

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