Person:George Southey (1)

Father: John SOUTHEY b: 1731 in Somerset, England
Mother: Elizabeth POTTER b: 1751

(Research):Extract from the South African 1820 Settlers Association Name of Settler: Southey, George - age 39 Name of Wife: Joan nee Baker - age 38 Names and age of children: Sophia (16) ; William (13); Richard (11); George (9); Elizabeth (7) ; Henry (4); and Cannon (1) Other: Elizabeth Skinner age 30, probably a servant, accompanied them Party: George Southey was the leader of the Southey Party, comprising of 49 people , sailed aboard Kennersley Castle from Bristol on 10 January 1820 and arrived in Table Bay on 29 March 1820. They were confined in quarantine aboard for 3 weeks and then landed at Algoa Bay on 29 April 1820. Their allocation of land was about 30 miles from Grahamstown, where they arrived on the 12 May 1820. Head of the Southey Party of 1820 Settlers to South Africa. He and his wife brought their 7 children and 49 other settlers out in the Kennersley Castle. Southey was allocated 700 morgen ( SA Encyclopaedia 1 morgen = 2. 11654 acres ) on a branch of the Kowie river between Bathurst and Martindale. From Capt Robert Southey's "History of the Southey Family": His father married Elizabeth Potter of Culmstock in 1776 and by her had seven sons of whom the eldest and natural heir was baptised George at Culmstock on January 12, 1777. George grew up , married Joan Baker and in 1820 at the age of forty-three took his wife, five sons and two daughters to Cape Colony in the Kennersley Castle . The youngest of these children was named Cannon and died on the voyage out. The fourth Richard then a boy of twelve, was destined to become one of the most distinguished of the 1820 Settlers. In 1873 Richard Sowthey was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Griqualand West and in 1891 he was knighted. His descendants are now among the most progressive of Karoo sheep bloodstock breeders in South Africa. Had there been no three-year-old son living in West Buckland when Laurence Sowthey died there in 1741 then George would eventually have inherited Pitt House and his services to the Empire would have been lost, and very probably his descendants would then have shared the fortune of their two cousins of remote degree who today live in Culmstock."