The Story of Thornhill's Party

                            From "The Settler Handbook" by MD Nash and per kind favour of the Port Alfred Museum

                            No. 57 on the Colonial Department list, led by Christopher Thornhill, a merchant from a landowning family of Sutherland,
                            Durham.

                            Thornhill initially entered into a partnership with William Wait and Arthur Barker to take a party of some 50
                            labourers and their families to the Cape, under Wait's direction (see Wait's party). Labourers were recruited in
                            Buckinghamshire in October 1819 and signed on at a meeting attended by parish officers at the Greyhound Inn, Marlow.
                            In December the settlers were assembled at Marlow and a nephew of Thornhill's, Adam Gilfillan, supervised their journey
                            on foot to Depford where they were to embark. The settlers marched with the baggage wagons and spent a night at an
                            inn at Hounslow en route.

                            Towards the end of December 1819, when the party was about to board the Zoroaster transport, the Colonial
                            Department was notified that Wait had been arrested for debt and a writ to prevent his leaving the country had been
                            issued on the application of a former business partner. Thornhill was appointed head of the party in Wait's place. Three
                            weeks later, however, with the Zoroaster still lying at Depford, Wait managed to settle his affairs and obtain his release.
                            Thornhill was unwilling to place himself and his share of the party's finances again under Wait's direction, and a quarrel
                            developed that the Colonial Department was called upon to settle by arbitration. An official was sent from Downing
                            Street to Depford to dissolve the partnership and divide the party into two separate units, and the settlers on board were
                            given the choice of which master they would serve. Twenty-six men signed a new service agreement with Wait, and
                            Arthur Barker with his steward Henry Ulyate and nine labourers (two of whom deserted before the ship sailed) also
                            chose to remain under Wait's leadership. When the settlers eventually reached Algoa Bay, Barker's party split off and
                            was located separately.

                            Thornhill was made head of a party of his own, comprising 16 men, including two of his nephews, Adam Gilfillan and
                            Phillip Camm. His Labourers signed an agreement similar to Wait's, binding them to six years of service at a daily wage
                            equivalent to the value of half a bushel of wheat. Working hours were to be from eight in the morning to four in the
                            afternoon, and each man would be entitled to 'a suitable habitation' and half an acre of garden ground. Three of
                            Thornhill's party deserted before the Zoroaster sailed, but a late replacement, William Stokes, was allowed to board the
                            ship while she was detained in the Downs awaiting a favourable wind.

                            The Zoroaster left the Downs on 12 February 1820, and reached Simon's Bay on 30 April. Here her charter terminated,
                            and the settlers were transhipped to the Albury for the voyage to Algoa Bay, which they reached on 15 May. Thornhill
                            was granted a plot of land at Algoa Bay for the erection of a prefabricated wooden house which he had brought with him,
                            as its size made it difficult to transport to his location in Albany.

                            Thornhill's party - described by one of the colonial officials as the 'best regulated of any yet landed here' - was located
                            between the Kowie and Rufane Rivers, and the location was named Thornhill. Lieut. William Gilfillan (half pay, late 60th
                            regiment), a brother of Adam Gilfillan, also lived at Thornhill after his marriage to Christopher Thornhill's daughter Ann.
                            William Gilfillan did not, as is popularly supposed, emigrate with Thornhill's party; he landed in CapeTown from the
                            Importer in March 1820, and applied for a grant of land by virtue of his seven years' army service at the Cape.

                            See also: www.geocities.com/capecolonysettlers/thornhill.html
                                             www.genealogy.co.za/1820%20Settlers.html
                                             www.tantrem.com/Settlers/Ships/ShipIndex.html