No. 3 on the Colonial Department list, led by Thomas Owen of 9 Carey Street, Horseferry Road, Westminster, London. Little information has been traced about this party; most of its correspondence with the Colonial Department was conducted by the Rev J Owen of Fulham, Thomas Owen's father. It was a joint-stock party and probably recruited in London.
Deposits were paid for 11 men and the party sailed from Gravesend on 3 December 1819 in the Nautilus regular transport, arriving in Table Bay on 17 March 1820 and in Algoa Bay on 14 April. By an odd coincidence, the captains of the first two settler transports to reach the Cape both chose brides from among their passengers, Captain Walton of the Nautilus marrying Thomas Pullen's eldest daughter Dorothy, and Captain Milbank of the Chapman marrying William Reed's elder daughter Eliza.
The party was located near the Kap River and called its location Spanish Reed Place. Thomas Owen (Special Commissioner Hayward called him 'this querulous man') refused to draw rations for his people, and his brother WS Owen was appointed director in his place. Thomas Owen left the location early in 1821 and the party dispersed soon afterwards.
LIST OF OWEN'S PARTY
BROWN, James 22. Bricklayer.
CHURCH, Henry 25. Ropemaker. w Elizabeth 21.
COLE, William 22. Goldsmith.
DYKE, Ann 36 (with the family of Thomas Pullen).
KOLBE, George Augustus 20. Chemist. w Margaret 19.
OWEN, Thomas 38. w Elizabeth 35. c Thomas 5.
OWEN, William Samuel 40. Farmer. w Judy Ann 35. c Margaret 13, Mary 12, Elizabeth 6, Ellen 4, Frederick John 2, an infant daughter.
PULLEN, Adelaide 18 (daughter of Thomas Pullen).
PULLEN, Dorothy 20 (daughter of Thomas Pullen).
PULLEN,Thomas 43. Farmer. w Dorothy 36. c Augusta 16, Thomas 15, Edward 14, Tindal 12, Julia 10, William 8, Helen 7, Harriet 5, Charles 2, Lavinia 1.
STANLEY, Francis 42. Edged-tool maker. w Mary Ann 41. c Mary Ann 15, Francis 13, Joseph 11, Nathaniel 9, John 2.
STANLEY, William 20. Edged-tool maker.
WALL, Allan William 47. Farmer. w Mary 36. c John 13.
WHILEY, William 31. Smith. w Deborah 31. c Mary Ann 11, Caroline 10, Emma 8, William 6, George 4, Edwin 2, James 1.
Main sources for party list
List of settlers under the direction of Thomas Owen (Cape Archives CO 6137/1,4); Special Commissioner William Hayward's notes (Cape Archives CO 8543); Memorial of independent settlers aboard the Nautilus (Cape Archives CO 3917). No Agent of ransports' Return has been traced for the Nautilus, showing the state of the parties as they arrived at the Cape, but mention has been found in colonial records of all the men in the London list except William Cole. His name does not appear in the Nautilus memorial or in Special Commissioner Hayward's list of Owen's party, and it is possible that he did not sail.
THE SETTLER HANDBOOK by MD Nash page 98
