Notes |
- Thomas Plewman, the progenitor of the Plewman's in South Africa, landed at Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) with an older brother Micheal on the 10th April 1820. Born in Dublin, the two brothers emigrated to South Africa under the settlement scheme inaugurated by the British Parliament in June 1819, during the terms of office of Lord Charles Somerset at the Cape.
Micheal Plewman, a pensioner in the Marines, was 40 years old and was married, but Thomas Plewman was a young man, 23 years of age. They were members of Bailies party of emigrants and sailed from Deptford on the Thames, on the 9th December 1819 in the "Chapman", a sailing vessel of under 500 tons. The official records give the name as "Plowman", but the correct spelling of the surname is "Plewman".
The members of Bailies's party were settled at Cuylerville, near the mouth of the Fish River in the district of Albany. Micheal Plewman was one of the signatories to a letter of appreciation written on the 11th April 1820 on behalf of all the passengers to the Captain of the "Chapman". He. however, did not remain here long and with the consent of the Authorities, returned to England.
History record that the arrangements made for settling so large a number of immigrants untrained on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, left much to be desired, and as there was a complete failure of crops during the first three years the Authorities at the Cape allowed the settlers to move away and go wherever they could make a living. Many moved to the more settled areas in the Cape Colony, but the pioneering spirit of Thomas Plewman caused him to migrate to Colesburg, a town in the making in the most northerly portion of the Colony, where he carried on his trade of cabinet-maker.
Thomas married Louisa Rosa Robinson and their eldest child, Thomas John, was the first white child born in Colesburg. The Plewman's home in Colesburg was one of the first houses to be built in the township.
Thomas Plewman was also interested in farming and spent some time at Fauriesmith in the then Orange Free State, but apparently he always found difficulty in knowing his own cattle. A cream coloured ox was uncommon and as he possessed one, he regarded it as an infallible means of identity and was prone to lay claim to any span of oxen which happened to have a cream coloured ox in it's number. He never left the shores of South Africa again, but the deep attachment he had for his mother was pointedly revealed, when after his death, a small piece of cake, carefully kept in a tin, the last gift from his mother when he left Ireland 47 years before, was found amongst his treasured possessions.
- He came from Dunlavin, Ireland and emigrated with his uncle Michael Plowman. In May 1820 he left Bailie's party's location to live in Grahamstown and work as a cabinetmaker for the officers of the Royal African Corps, under the patronage of Captain Sparks. His application for the grant of an erf of land in Grahamstown was unsuccessful, and in 1823 he requested a colonial pass to move to another part of the country. He was resident in Somerset in 1828, and moved from there to Graaff Reinet and finally Colesberg, where he established himself as a storekeeper, and traded with the emigrant Boers in Transorangia and the chiefdoms further north. He married Louisa Rosa Robinson of Cradock and founded a prominent Colesberg family.
PRO CO 48/64, O'Gallagher to Colonial Department, 29.4.1835 (reference supplied by Prof. W.A.Maxwell); Gutsche, The Microcosm; CO 8448 no.211, 29.8.1820; CO 8485, n.d. (1821); CO 201 no.152, 27.10.1823; CO 8461 no.67, memorial of residents of Somerset, 26.9.1828.
|