A South African Odyssey

My great great aunt emigrated to South Africa on board the Gipsy Bride in 1858. This is the story of that traumatic journey.

Robert Baird Paterson was a mason, born in Inch (a district of Edinburgh?) in Scotland in 1832. He had married Agnes Watt (my great great aunt) and they had a son, John Paterson, born on the 13th of June, 1856 in Glasgow. It is likely that Robert became unemployed following the failure of the Western Bank of Scotland when a number of respectable tradesmen, mainly masons and joiners, had lost their jobs. With their young child, and his wife again pregnant, they decided to seek their fortune in South Africa.

A shortage of labour in the Cape Province of South Africa had resulted in the promotion of large scale immigration which included the appropriation of £50,000 by the authorities to recruit immigrants from England and Scotland. For a £1 deposit their application would be considered for an assisted passage.

The ships chartered to carry immigrants to the Cape between 1858 and 1862 were mainly wooden sailing ships or barques. The Gipsy Bride was the largest vessel, 190 feet long, 38 feet wide with 7ft 6 in headroom and carrying 513 passengers. It set sail from Liverpool on the 20th March 1858. The probable route was through the Bay of Biscay to Madeira, then towards Cape St Rogue or Recife on the South American Coast and finally south-eastwards with the trade winds to the Cape. She took the shortest time - 54 days - to reach the Cape.

Table Bay 1857

On board, the ship's surgeon had to cope with an outbreak of tuberculosis amongst the single men who were all from Scotland and several subsequently died. In addition there was a severe outbreak of measles and, despite the surgeon's untiring efforts to save them, 22 children died, including Robert and Agnes's son, John, on the 9th May 1858, 3 days from reaching their destination. The vessel was put into quarantine on arrival in Table Bay on the 12th May but when 2 more children died a request to lift the quarantine was granted. All bedding was destroyed and on the 15th May the immigrants were taken to a depot (the building acquired for the purpose was much too small to house all the immgrants and so the new gaol which was adjacent and was nearing completion was utilised) where quarantine was maintained for a further 3 days. Meanwhile, Agnes had given birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Robertson Paterson, while the ship was at anchor in Table Bay on 12th May 1858. John was buried in the Scottish burial ground in Cape Town.

Wale Street, Cape Town c 1850

At this time the Cape was in a state of prosperity and Cape Town itself was growing rapidly, with a population of more than 25,000. Apparently a group of stone-cutters (supposedly incorrectly listed as masons) from the Gipsy Bride, while out walking not long after their arrival, identified a bed of sandstone at the base of Table Mountain (the Freestone Quarry) and were immediately set to work under the direction of the civil engineer to cut and prepare stone for some of the new buildings. It is likely that Robert was one of these masons as it is recorded that he was assigned to the Cape Town Civil Engineer. (Also assigned was a William Paterson, 21, a painter, with his wife Elizabeth, 20, both Robert and William being recorded as from Lanark - could this be a brother?).

By 1860 the Patersons were living in Oudtshoorn where they owned a canteen. They had 2 further children, Robert Baird Paterson (b 3rd July 1860) and Agnes Watt Paterson (b 15th Aug 1862).

Subsequently 3 of my grandmother's brothers and sisters (nieces and nephews of Agnes Watt), William Alexander Falconer, Agnes Beatrice Robertson Falconer and Elizabeth Watt Falconer, all emigrated to South Africa and their descendents live there today. Apparently my grandmother nearly went as well, but instead her husband got a job in Belfast and, as they say, the rest is history.

Acknowledgements

1. The information on the Gipsy Bride is taken from Esme Bull’s book ‘Aided Immigration from England’ and from newspapers of the time.

2. The paintings are by Thomas William Bowler (1812-1869) and are part of the William Fehr Collection in Rust en Vreugd, Cape Town.