Notes |
- Peter Clarke Daniel was born in Dublin, became a goldsmith/jeweller, wed Eliza Jackson and moved to London. About 1908/09; met Ann Mitchley and fell in love. In 1820 he emigrated to S.A.aboard "Sir George Osborne" as part of Turvey's party. Allocated a farm which he named Beggar's Bush. After Eliza and Ann had died, he wed Ann Smith who divorced him for infidelity with Ann Pote. He wed Ann Pote in
1850, and made a new will. In all he produced 20 children. He died in 1852 of measles (his obituary). His Mitchley children hid their illegitimacy. {Dan Daniel }
In the Grahamstown Journal issue of 9 July 1840 is the following notice: Mr. P.C. DANIEL, in his marriage with the late widow Ann SMITH, having entered into an Ante-Nuptial Contract, hereby cautions the Public against giving Credit to any individual on his Account, without his written document, as all such claims will meet with legal opposition. T.C. DANIEL [sic] Graham’s Town, July 8th 1840
There is a comprehensive 'Daniel' tree on Ancestry at http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/35998428/family
see also the book "In Search of Ann Mitchley" by Francis L H De Souza.
see https://www.beggarsbush.org.uk/albany-cape-province-south-africa-beggars-bush-1832/
Charles Llewellyn Patrick Daniel wrote: "Peter Clarke Daniel was born in Dublin, the son of a prominent Anglican minister whose family owned the estate called "Beggar's Bush", then just outside Dublin.
He became a goldsmith/abt. and wed (Eliza) Elizabeth Jackson - who was about sixteen years old - likely because she was already pregnant. They immediately moved to London. At St Clements Dane their son, Peter, was baptised (1804); daughter Isabella was baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields (1806); daughter Eliza Jane at St. Anne, Soho (1810), and buried there (1812). Sometime about 1909/10 Daniel met Ann Mitchley, who was born in 1789 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. When a young woman she went to London, either with her brother Tom, or shortly after he did. Tom Mitchley first resided in the Holborn district but later moved to Rotherhide/Bermondley.
As for Ann, the only sure thing known about her during this period is that she met Peter Clarke Daniel - and so began the great love affair. There is a suspicion that Eliza Daniel was mentally unstable and Ann looked after her or, as is more likely - the Daniel children. But who knows. What is known is that Peter Daniel and Ann proceeded to have son Thomas Mitchley (1811). To date no baptism entry has been found for Thomas because ministers those days were reluctant to baptise illegitimate children.
After Thomas's birth came Robert Clarke Daniel (1813) who was baptised at St. Ann, Soho in 1814.
Daniel from about 1810 was a abt. at Meard St./Court, Soho, and remained there until the exodus to South Africa.
Between 1812/1819 Peter and Ann proceeded to have Samuel (1813), Eliza (1816) and Ann (1818). Could be during this period she was living at Meard St./Court for she was fond enough of Robert to remember him in her will.
In 1820 the entire Daniel clan - Peter, sister Julia Turvey (once Wright), with Wright and Turvey children (from the Strand, London); brother Sampson (from Scotland) with his brood, and half-brother, John Nivens (from Dublin, Ireland) AND Ann Mitchley and HER children, and others - all sailed for South Africa with the 1820 Settlers. Ann's children were listed under Peter and Eliza or Sampson and Amelia Daniel. In fact, the Daniel siblings distributed clan children up between them indiscriminately - and it took time to sort them all out. Many early researchers mixed them up or duplicated them.
In Albany, in the Eastern Cape the clan was given land to farm east of Grahamstown and the farm was called "Beggar's Bush" - it still is. However, the Daniels were not farmers. Sampson soon departed Beggar's Bush for Uitenhage and Peter Clarke Daniel Junior for Cape Town. John Nivens Daniel decided to return to England but later changed his mind.
Ann Mitchley apparently did have some farming experience for she farmed Beggar's Bush and Peter Clarke Daniel turned the place over to her.
At the same time she and Peter went on having children - David (182110, Frederick (1823), Jane 1825), John (1828) Peter (1830) and Sarah (1832).
In 1832 when Beggar's Bush became Daniel's absolute, he turned the farm over to Anne and investigated the jewellery business in Grahamstown. What Eliza Daniel thought of all this is a moot point. How did she put up with Ann? Perhaps she was mentally unbalanced.
In 1833 Eliza died at Beggar's Bush and in 1828 so did Ann, likely worn out by having children, farming the land and fighting off cattle-stealing and farm burning Africans. She died at Settlers Hill in Grahamstown. In her Will Ann left everything to Peter Clarke Daniel and after his death to the children including Robert Daniel who was "not of her flesh".
All too soon Daniel married again - Ann Smith, a widow of Grahamstown - and proceeded to have a child with Ann (1841). However, he already was playing around with Ann Pote, 19, who apparently was living at Beggar's Bush - likely looking after the Mitchley children. It seems she bore Daniel a daughter, Charlotte who died. However while Ann Smith was bearing HER child, Ann Pote was pregnant with another child.
But Ann was no 'Eliza'. She promptly divorced Peter Daniel. During the divorce the Mitchley children went to bat for Ann Smith - they obviously did not like Ann Pote - a Catholic, who after the divorce, proceeded to have Robert James, John and Charles.
Ann Pote must have desperately wanted to be respectable and pressed for marriage and eventually Peter Daniel gave in and they were married in 1850. The same day the children of Ann Pote were baptised and Daniel made a new will.
Possibly by then he was going senile - he was 75 years old - for in the will he repeats himself. Too, he is doubtful whether his youngest Mitchley children would accept what he was leaving them - for he rambles on and on about what should occur if they didn't. Daniel died in 1952. One report says that he died of strychnine poisoning, but his obituary says it was from a case of measles.
As for the Mitchley children, one thing they all subsequently tried to hide was their illegitimacy - although John Mitchley when he died in 1841 had been buried under the name John Mitchelley Daniel. Others listed their father on their death certificates as Peter Clarke Mitchley."
- From Sarah's D/N says her father is Peter Mitchley
Edward Turvey's brother-in-law
Peter Clarke Daniel was born in Dublin, became a goldsmith/jeweller, wed Eliza Jackson and moved to London. About 1908/09; met Ann Mitchley and fell in love. In 1820 he emigrated to S.A.aboard "Sir George Osborne" as part of Turvey's party. Allocated a farm which he named Beggar's Bush.
After Eliza and Ann had died, he wed Ann Smith who divorced him for infidelity with Ann Pote. He wed Ann Pote in 1850, and made a new will. In all he produced 20 children. He died in 1852 of measles (his obituary). His Mitchley children hid their illegitimacy. {Dan Daniel } [4]
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