Thursday 7 July 1836

BIRTH at Fort Cox on 3rd July 1836, Mrs. BEST, wife to Serjeant John BEST, 72nd Highlanders, of 2 daughters; both the mother and children are doing well.
Fort England, 6th July 1836

Thursday 14 July 1836

BIRTH at Fort Willshire on the 11th inst, the Lady of William M. FORD Esq, 72nd Highlanders, of a daughter.
Fort Willshire, July 12th 1836.

Thursday 28 July 1836

It is our painful duty to record this week the death of W. CURRIE Esq of Bathurst, where he had for many years sustained the office of stipendiary justice of the peace, with the highest credit to himself, and advantage to the public service. Perhaps there was none amongst the British Settlers of 1820 who stood higher in the public esteem, for inflexible integrity of character and singleness of purpose, than the deceased; added to which he was alike remarkable for intelligence, for industry, and for an incessant anxiety to improve the country of his adoption. To a new settlement such an individual is peculiarly valuable; and hence the loss sustained by the death of Mr. CURRIE must be viewed as a severe and trying public misfortune.
This calamitous event has happened also at a period when his moral weight in the scale of society would have been of essential importance. He had had great opportunities of knowing, and of justly appreciating, the Kafir character, as well as of the motives of those who have stood forth as their defenders, and as the accusers of the British immigrants and colonists in general. With singular force, manliness and effect has he often stood forth in opposition to those mischievous principles and false notions which, in spite of this opposition, and the warnings given from time to time by him and a few others, have ultimately ended in the ruin of one of the most promising settlements ever formed by the hand of industry. To this fatal catastrophe may be traced the death of this upright and valuable magistrate. When the neighbouring barbarians burst into the colony, all the inhabitants of Lower Albany who escaped fled to Bathurst; and when there congregated, the whole presented such a scene of wretchedness and woe – whilst the prospect was so gloomy that Mr. C appears to have sunk under the painful conflicts which his mind was called to endure at this trying crisis. From this state of mental depression he never rallied. All hope of amelioration, or of again raising the settlement to its former state of enviable prosperity, seems to have been abandoned by him; and when labouring under this depression of spirits, with the mind in a state of feverish excitement, to which he was peculiarly exposed by his public duties, he was attacked by dysentery and fever: and though everything was done for him which skill could suggest, yet nothing afforded him any sensible relief, and on Friday last his mortal career terminated at the early age of 52 years; leaving an affectionate wife and large family to deplore the loss of a most amiable husband and parent – and society of a tried and truly valuable member.

Thursday 11 August 1836

DIED at Uitenhage on the 24th July 1836, in her 45th year, Sarah, relict of the late Lieutenant Richard LAMONT of the 1st Foot.

Thursday 18 August 1836

DIED at Port Elizabeth on Monday the 15th August, aged 51 years and 7 months, \Mr. William PLACKETT, universally respected.

Thursday 25 August 1836

In the Goods of James COLLIS, late of Port Natal
By virtue of Letters of Attorney, executed in favour of the undersigned by Miss Ann COLLIS of Stourbridge, in the County of Worcester, bearing date the 14th day of April 1836, Administratix of the Estate of her brother, the said late James COLLIS, as appears by an exemplification of the grant of letters of administration by the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We have to request that all persons who have Claims or Demands on the Estate of deceased will forthwith send the particulars thereof to Mr. J.B. BARNES, Solicitor, Graham’s Town; and all persons indebted to the Estate are also requested to pay such Debts to the same person.
For Thomas PHILIPPS and J.B. BARNES
J.B. BARNES, Solicitor
Graham’s Town, Aug 23rd 1836

BIRTH on Saturday the 20th inst, Mrs the Rev W.R. THOMSON, Balfour, of a son.

DEATH at Balfour, Kat River Settlement, on Sunday the 21st inst, Frances, the wife of the Rev W.R. THOMSON, in the 36th year of her age.

It is our painful task this week to announce the death of Mrs. THOMSON, wife of the Rev W.R. THOMSON, Minister of the Reformed Church at the Kat River. To all who were acquainted with the deceased the record of her virtues as a friend, a neighbour, a wife, a mother and a Christian will never be erased from their remembrance. She has left her bereaved partner and a family of seven young children to deplore their premature and irreparable loss.

Thursday 15 September 1836

SUDDEN DEATH – Yesterday, at Graham’s Town, a soldier of HM 72nd Regt, named W. McDONALD, suddenly dropped down in a fit of apoplexy, and before medical assistance could be provided was a corpse.

Thursday 13 October 1836

DREADFUL ACCIDENT
On Saturday as two English farmers named G. MARSDEN and S. WETHERALL were on their way to Graham’s Town with a wagon, in passing the drift near Mr. CARLISLE’s farm, one of the wheels came in contact with the stump of a tree. The former, who was driving, was thrown down on the instant when the vehicle passed over his body, mutilating his head in a frightful manner, and causing various other severe injuries – whilst the latter was killed on the spot, the skull being extensively fractured, or rather shattered to pieces. MARSDEN still survives, and hopes are at present entertained of his recovery. We are sorry to add that these two unfortunate men had been indulging in liquor just previous to the fatal accident, and hence there is too much reason to fear that it may be attributed to a cause from which springs so many of our daily calamities.

Thursday 27 October 1836

MARRIED at Bathurst on the 25th inst, by the Rev J. Barrow, Colonial Chaplain, Frederick Thomas, second son of T. PHILIPS Esq JP, to Mary Anne, eldest daughter of the late Walter CURRIE Esq JP

At Bathurst, on the 25th inst, by the Rev J. Barrow, Colonial Chaplain, the daughter of Temple NOURSE Esq baptised Mary Frances.

Thursday 3 November 1836

DIED at Somerset on the 29th Oct, in her 73rd year, Harriet JOSEPH, relict of Mr. F. JOSEPH of St.James’s-street, St.James, Westminster, London.

Thursday 8 December 1836

DIED at Bathurst on Thursday the 24th ult, the wife of the Rev W. DAVIES, pastor of the Baptist Church in this town. It will probably be in the recollection of many of our readers that Mr. DAVIES and family, when on their voyage to this colony in Jan 1832, were shipwrecked on the island of Palma. They had had hazy weather, and were sailing at night perfectly unconscious of danger, when the crew suddenly found themselves surrounded by breakers, and in spite of every effort the ship struck on a reef of rock, and canted over on her beam ends. The sufferings of that fearful night are beyond description. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. DAVIES was torn from their arms by the resistless surges, and buried in the ocean, and it was only by the merciful interposition of providence that their own lives were preserved, till daylight enabled them to take measures for their escape to land. This, however, was happily effected, shortly after which Mrs. DAVIES was confined with twins, one of whom only survived a very brief space. But the constitution of the mother had sustained a shock from which it never recovered. Though possessing great fortitude and decision of character, which enabled her, in firm reliance on Divine Providence, to recommence the voyage, still her physical powers were greatly impaired, and after struggling with great bodily infirmity and suffering, she at length closed a life of considerable usefulness, at the early age of 38 years, in perfect acquiescence in the Divine will, with a firm reliance on the atonement of her Redeemer, and a “sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection”.