2026-08-11T13:15:21.000Z

Hi Parkin Family, This post is short biography of John Parkin's son, William Parkin b1810 and his chance witnessing of a few major historical events in Southern Africa in the 1800s. William Parkin (1810–1885): Settler, Witness to History, and Natal Sugar Pioneer Early Life William Parkin was born on 22 June 1810 in London, Middlesex, England, the son of John Parkin and Elizabeth Abraham (Howard) Parkin, and was baptised on 29 July 1810. Although William's parents were originally from Exeter, Devon, they appear to have been in London at the time of his birth, returning to Exeter before January 1813, when his brother John was born. Several more siblings — Elizabeth, Isabella, Jane and Robert — followed, all born and baptised in Exeter. It was in Exeter that William's father, John Parkin, petitioned the Crown to join the Cape Emigration Scheme. After some back-and-forth correspondence and the submission of a list of prospective settler families, with funds duly paid, the family departed Portsmouth on 3 January 1820 aboard the HMS Weymouth, as part of the Parkin Party of 1820 Settlers. William was just ten years old when the Weymouth dropped anchor in Algoa Bay, Cape Colony, on 15 May 1820. The family originally settled on the "Devonshire" farm allocated to them and the Parkin Party in Albany, and after approximately three years moved back to Port Elizabeth, settling initially at Cradock Place. By the time William turned 21, his father, John, had acquired a number of properties in the growing Port Elizabeth area, and the family was living at the Baakens River Farm. It was at this time that William volunteered to accompany the renowned Dr Andrew Smith on an expedition to Port Natal. The Andrew Smith Expedition to Port Natal (1831–1832) William joined Dr Andrew Smith — later celebrated as the father of South African zoology — on the expedition to Port Natal, departing Port Elizabeth in December 1831. On the surface, the expedition was a scientific one, but it was shadowed in secrecy and served several purposes: establishing relations with the Zulu king Dingane, assessing the region's potential for settlement, and keeping an eye on American interests after reports that a vessel had anchored in the port some months earlier. How William came to be involved is not known, but he joined Smith, the German botanist brothers Johann Franz and Carl Friedrich Drège, an officer named William Edie, and several others — Minting, Terrie, and farmers Hermanus Barry and William Parkin himself. The party was accompanied by a group of Khoisan servants who acted as cattle drivers, hunters and general assistants. It was a small expedition: two or three wagons, around thirty cattle, and a handful of horses, all of which set out from Port Elizabeth in December 1831. The journey is well documented in Dr Andrew Smith's own diary. On reaching Port Natal (present-day Durban), the group met briefly with the small society of European traders already settled there — among them Henry Francis Fynn, Nathaniel Isaacs, John Cane, John Ross (Charles Rawden Maclean), Thomas Halstead and Henry Ogle — before the expedition split. Smith and the two botanists pressed on inland to meet Dingane, accompanied by at least some of the Khoisan assistants, while Edie, Minting, Terrie, Barry and Parkin returned to Port Elizabeth. The round trip took roughly three months, with the party arriving back in Grahamstown in June 1832. It remains one of the most secretive official expeditions undertaken by the British in Southern Africa, with Dr Andrew Smith's diary the only substantial record to survive in the archives. It was also, in hindsight, one of the most consequential — though none of the party could have known it at the time. Hermanus Barry, in particular, was captivated by what he saw, reportedly declaring: "Almighty (Allemachtig), I have never in my life seen such a fine place. I shall never again reside in the colony if the British Government make this a drosdy." His account reached Piet Uys, later one of the leaders of the Great Trek, and is thought to have been a decisive factor in the Voortrekkers' eventual move north-east. Return to the Cape, and Captivity at Congella William is recorded as a witness at the weddings of his siblings Elizabeth and John, in Port Elizabeth in 1833 and 1838 respectively. He seems to have returned to Port Natal sometime afterwards, as the historian Edward Morse Jones records William — alongside George Cato — among the civilians captured and held prisoner by the Boers at the Battle of Congella in May 1842. The captives were marched to Pietermaritzburg and held in stocks and irons. George Cato managed to smuggle word out to Dick King, who famously rode nonstop for ten days from Port Natal to Grahamstown on his horse, Somerset, to alert the British. Reinforcements arrived in late June to secure their release. William appears to have returned to Port Elizabeth once more after this ordeal, where he met his future wife, Ellen Campbell. Marriage, Children and Farming William married Ellen Campbell on 20 May 1845 in Port Elizabeth. The couple had five children between 1846 and 1853 — William, Robert, Jessie, Temperance and Francis — all born in Port Elizabeth. During these years the family was established in Port Elizabeth, where William appears in the earliest business directories and in newspaper advertisements between 1848 and 1857 as a soap maker and tallow chandler (candle maker). When his father John's will was drawn up in 1852, William was named as one of the executors of the estate, alongside John Owen Smith and George Whitehead (husband of William's sister Charlotte). According to N. P. Sellick's book, William and his family relocated to the Natal Colony in January 1859, taking up residence on the farm Hull Valley Estate sometime between then and March 1861. Records of Indian indentured labourers arriving in the Natal Colony show that William Parkin received his first allocation of two labourers in March 1861 — though as such applications could take a year or more to be fulfilled, it appears probable that the family had already settled at Hull Valley somewhat earlier. Between March 1861 and July 1911, William and his family were allocated around 413 indentured labourers from India. Conditions for indentured workers were frequently a source of dispute, and over the decades various go-slow and resistance campaigns emerged in response to their treatment — several of which touched William's family directly and are documented in court records held in the Pietermaritzburg Archives. Death and Descendants William died at the age of 74, on 30 January 1885, at Hull Valley Estate, Umkomaas, Umzinto, Natal. He left the farm to four of his children in equal shares — his eldest son, William, was excluded, having been committed to a mental asylum, where he died in 1872. The four children who inherited the property remained on the sugar estate and worked it until their own deaths. William, Robert and Jessie never married. Robert appears to have taken the leading role on the estate, as most of the indentured labourers were assigned to him in the government records following the first arrivals in 1861. His sister Jessie is also mentioned in records concerning disciplinary disputes with indentured labourers, reflecting some of the difficulties the family faced during the resistance campaigns. Of the two children who married — Temperance and the youngest son, Francis — only Temperance, who married Thomas Carmichael Forte, had children. Of their two children, daughter Ellen Winifred Forte died at 28 and never married, while the elder son, William Francis Forte, married Claire Gertrude Brickhill, and the couple had four children. Thomas Carmichael Forte's death certificate lists him as resident at Hull Valley farm at the time of his death in 1911, suggesting the property remained in the family at that point. A further record — the baptism of William Francis and Claire's four children on 27 December 1921 — lists William Forte's occupation as farmer in Umkomaas, most likely still at the Hull Valley sugar estate. Exactly when Hull Valley passed out of the Forte (Parkin) family's hands is not yet clear. Of the four grandchildren, only the youngest son, Raymond Carmichael, appears to have remained in the Umkomaas area of Natal. His marriage took place in Umkomaas in October 1948, by which time his occupation is listed as clerk — suggesting the family no longer held the farm by then. Further research at the Deeds Office would help pin down the exact date of sale. A Life at the Crossroads of History William Parkin never played a leading role in South African history, but he was, remarkably, a first-hand witness to three events that shaped the future of the region: His journey with Dr Andrew Smith to Natal in 1831, which helped set in motion the Great Trek. His capture alongside George Cato at Congella in 1842, which occasioned Dick King's famous ride. His reliance on indentured Indian labour on the family's sugar estate in Natal — part of a system that would leave a lasting mark on the region's history and demographics. Other Facts William was named a beneficiary in his father John's will following John's death on 13 October 1856, inheriting the following property: Erf No. 7, Port Elizabeth — jointly with brothers John, George and Cradock. Ground No. 6, Port Elizabeth. A portion of land in Korsten — not part of John Parkin's estate, but purchased separately from the estate by William and others. There are no known descendants of William Parkin who still carry the Parkin surname.