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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.

HOLLOWAY, Solomon

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew CO48/43, 611

London

July 28th 1819

My Lord,

It being the wish of my friends & my own united, I feel confident, your Lordship will feel satisfied, that an humble individuals intentions are honorable, justly ambitious, and when your Lordship has read the following letter, his pretensions of abilities have some claim to those who patronize talents. I wish to go to the Cape of Good Hope.

I am 31 years of age of the established Church, & my whole relations staunch supporters of His Majesty &c &c. As tutor to a part of the rising generation I have stood in the public estimation high, I have been classically educated at the same public seat of learning as the nephews of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, have a brother who was tutor to the Duke of Sussex' son, who is Dr. HOLLOWAY DD of Liverpool, but circumstance have debarr'd me of being ordain'd otherwise should ere this have embraced the opportunity.

My pretensions with humble submission to your Lordship are there, I flatter myself, fully competent to instruct & guide youth through that critical season, seeing them forward in the path of virtue, annihilate those seeds of vice which are too apt to take possession of their breast, & to make them useful members of society & to rivet in their hearts, their duty towards their God & their duty towards their neighbours.

I am perfectly acquainted with Dr. BELL's, or the Madras system of Education, the Lancasterian likewise, conversant perfectly so, in Bookkeeping Merchant accounts, land surveying, dividing lands, measuration, the Classics if required &c &c. I consider my Lord, my family connections are of the highest respectability my references for competency &c highly satisfactory, free from incumbrance, at a time of life which promises activity of many years to come & experienced in a manner peculiarly applicable for the situation I solicit. Should your Lordship deign to attend to my solicitations, your Lordship will find, even upon the strictest investigation, that what I have asserted is true. I should be extremely happy to organize a school on the Madras system at the Cape, my abilities shall be punctually exerted for the benefit of the rising generation and my King & country. I likewise consider myself acquainted with the system of agriculture, having been in the country these last 12 years, and have had a farm myself. However if your Lordship will allow the principal to call, every requisite satisfaction as to character abilities &c &c will be given to your Lordships secretary, and I trust my conduct shall ever merit so distinguished a patronage as your Lordships,

Permit me the Honor My Lord, to subscribe myself

Yr Lordships (with the utmost deference & respect) most obedt. hbl sevant

Solomon HOLLOWAY

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