British Residents at the Cape 1795 – 1819
South Africa is a plural society in the sense that it is the meeting place of migrant streams from many countries of Europe, Asia and the African continent north of the Limpopo River, who met and mingled with the indigenous Khoisan (Hottentots and Bushmen) to form the people of South Africa. Each of these communities made its special contribution to the eventual character and development of the whole, and each can be proud of that contribution. This book concerns itself with the initial arrival of only one of these migrant streams, not because the others were less important or played a less significant role, but simply because an understanding of the whole can only be achieved by understanding its component parts. This is, therefore, an attempt to list those pioneers of British stock who made the Cape their home – in some cases a temporary home, and in other cases a permanent home – during the first 25 years of British rule.
The first British occupation of the Cape began on the 16th September 1795, when the Articles of Capitulation were signed by the Dutch administration and the British naval and army commanders. It ended in March 1803, when the last remnants of the British colonial government and garrison embarked in Table Bay and sailed for England. The second occupation took place in January 1806, and this time the country remained a British Colony until the Union of South Africa came into being in 1910.