No. 47 on the Colonial Department list, led by Benjamin Osler, a merchant of Falmouth, Cornwall, who had spent seven years in Cadiz and Gibraltar and travelled to the West Indies, Portugal, Spain and Italy on business. His application was forwarded by the Mayor of Falmouth, Andrew Young, who recommended him as a man of good character.
This was a joint-stock party, recruited in and about Falmouth (William Mallett was from Penryn), each man paying his own deposit except for Osler's servant John Bridgeman. The party of 11 men and their families left Portsmouth on 7 January 1820 in HM Store Ship Weymouth, reaching Table Bay on 26 April and Algoa Bay on 15 May. The party was located on the left bank of the Mansfield River and named the location Pendennis. (Pendennis Head and Pendennis Castle are landmarks overlooking Falmouth Bay.) Benjamin Osler died in 1821.
LIST OF OSLER'S PARTY
BALL, James 44. Schoolmaster. w Ann 45. c James 6.
BLEE, Richard 22. Ironmonger. w Jenopha 19.
BRIDGEMAN, John 19. Husbandman.
DALE, John 24. Boot-and-shoemaker. w Mary 17.
EVA, Richard (or James) 24. Baker. w Elizabeth 22.
GOODMAN, Henry 23. Currier. w Elizabeth 20.
MALLETT, William 45. Mason. w Elizabeth 46.
OSLER, Benjamin 44. Merchant. w Jane 45. c Stephen 13, Mary Ann 12, Amelia 10, Elizabeth 6.
PEARSE, Charles Blight 35. Merchant. w Ann 32. c Eldred 11, Charles 8, Horatio 6.
RICHARDS, Joseph 25. Boot-and-shoemaker. w Sally 21. c Sally 3, Phillis 1.
WEEKS, James 29. Baker and confectioner. w Grace 25. c Elizabeth 2 (died at sea).
*CARPENTER, John.
*OSLER, Susannah 20 (daughter of Benjamin Osler).
*WILTON, Richard.
Main sources for party list
List of settlers under the direction of Benjamin Osler (Cape Archives CO 6138/2,31); Muster-roll and Log of HM Store Ship Weymouth (Public Record Office, London); Special Commissioner William Hayward's notes (Cape Archives CO 8543). Richard Eva in the sailing list is referred to as James Eva in Special Commissioner Hayward's notes.
*Osler had a large family of 10 children, and informed the Colonial Department that he planned to 'leave three or four of the youngest with their friends at home' until he had established himself at the Cape. Only four children were entered on the official list, but it appears that at least three others did in fact emigrate with their parents. Susannah Osler, aged 20, is known to have married John Colman of Cock's party a month after the Weymouth reached Algoa Bay, and when Benjamin Osler died in 1821 his widow was left on the location with six dependent children - a son of 15 and five daughters between 4 and 14. Joseph Richards, who according to the sailing list emigrated with a wife and two chilren, described himself in 1822 as an unmarried man; it is conceivable that 'Sally Richards' on the sailing list was actually Susannah Osler, and 'Sally' and 'Phillis', aged 3 and 1, her two youngest sisters. (It was not uncommon for single women among the emigrants to be listed as the 'wives' of unmarried men in order to avoid paying separate deposits.) Another man of the party, John Dale, claimed in 1822 that he had left his wife and family in England; his 17-year-old 'wife' Mary, as she was entered in the sailing list, may have been another of the Osler daughters.
*John Carpenter's name does not appear on the sailing list or in the Muster-roll of the Weymouth, but he sailed with Osler's party and was allowed to land at Cape Town for health reasons. He rejoined the party on its location three months later (Cape Archives CO 178,50). Richard Wilton, another unlisted settler, was engaged as a servant by Osler and Carpenter in England (Cape Archives 1/AY 13/1). No mention hs been found in colonial records of the presence of John Bridgeman or Henry Goodman at the Cape, and either or both of them may have been replaced at the last minute without the change being reflected in the sailing list.
from THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash page 97
