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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.

CARLTON, George

Written by Sue Mackay on .

National Archives, Kew CO48/42, 128

No.3 Pleasant Place

Holloway

London

31st July 1819

My Lord,

Uncertain to whom I should address myself I take the liberty of offering to your Lordship as head of the Colonial Department my services in any situation connected with the proposed emigration to the Cape of Good Hope.

Aware that the Measure was suggested by the Government of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent for the benefit of any of His Royal Highness's distressed subjects, I trust I may be able in the course of my letter to interest your Lordship in my favour, and to satisfy your Lordship that I am a person worthy of and in need of its aid, and eligible for the furtherance of the plan, as well as possessed of some claim on the ground of prior service.

During the campaigns in Spain and Flanders I was employed in the Commissariat either as Clerk, Storekeeper or Conductor and generally on the most active duties of that department. For testimony to the zeal and steadiness with which I fulfilled these duties I can refer your Lordship to the officers under whose orders I acted, and to some written testimonials. The return of peace displaced me from this employment and I have since been struggling against difficulty which time seems but to increase. I can also offer your Lordship testimonials equally satisfactory as to pursuits in which I have been engaged unconnected with the situations before mentioned.

There will be required doubtless some few intelligent persons tried in difficult situations and of experience from travelling and observation, to accompany their less informed and more domesticated countrymen where they are to be located. For this purpose I offer myself most humbly to your Lordship not as one entirely bereft of all character in my own country but as one whose time may be more efficiently employed on the object in question.

I trust my application will not lead your Lordship to doubt my discretion, only again crave your Lordship to give me some employment for Government arising from this plan of emigration, or to mention me to any person going out with enlarged views, having an occasion for an active & efficient assistant in their plans.

I humbly beg to be informed to whom I should address myself and that I may receive a letter either instructing me how to act or rejecting my services. I have the honour to be with the highest respect my Lord

Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant

George D. CARLTON

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