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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.

MOWAT, William

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew CO48/44, 636

38 Berkeley Street, Lambeth

August 25th 1819

Sir,

I beg leave to become a candidate to go out as a settler to the intended new settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. I am entering the thirty fifth year of my age, am unmarried & without incumbrance. My father had the honour of serving His Majesty as a past captain in the Royal Navy; but a sad reverse of fortune obliged me, after trying every channel through which any chance of obtaining a situation in this country presented itself, to make an attempt in a distant land for that support, which fortune seems to deny me in this.

As my education has been liberal, perhaps I might be found an acquisition to the new colony, in filling one of those places of trust which may be vacant, & for which I beg leave also to become a candidate, and I trust I may be considered deserving of which as my sentiments of attachment to my Sovereign & his Government have never varied, even in the hour of adversity, a rare instance of fidelity in these times!

I have the honor to be Sir with the highest sentiments of respect

Your most obedient humble servant

William MOWAT

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