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LETTERS
by the
passengers
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Many of the Cabin Passengers signed a Letter of Appreciation to Messrs. Waddell & Co. London in November 1838,
thanking them for the liberal manner in the liberal provision of supplies and wines for the voyage.
Capt. Duncan Ritchie also received a Letter of Appreciation from many of the Second Cabin and Steerage passengers.
They refer to being exceedingly anxious (the season being late) to arrive in Adelaide as early as possible.
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John Cock Belton -
No official passenger lists have been found for either voyage and the following lists have come from many different sources, the main one being the Register of Emigrant Labourers applying for a Free Passage to South Australia 1836 - 1841
Searches through the entries of over 2500 applicants during the relevant periods have provided the names of most of the RAJASTHAN's passengers for each voyage others have come from the 1838 Cabin passengers' letter and that of the Steerage and Second Cabin passengers, both of which were published in the "S.A. Gazette and Colonial Register", December 1838
Some have also come from shipping reports published in the "Register" and in the "Southern Australian", from E.A.D. Opie's book "South Australian Records prior to 1841", the Register of Sick and Destitute Relief, Old Colonists' Photographs Pioneers' Register 1877, Biographica Index of S.A., and from descendants.
Source: The RAJASTHAN 1838 and 1839-1840 by Helen Scarborough. |
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Of the emigrants on the 1838 voyage, members of the WHITE family from Stoke Kent, were the earliest of the applicants fo a free passage to be allotted embarkation numbers for a berth on the Rajasthan. Their applications, and that of John H. SOUTHON (Nos. 1905-1910), were all lodged on 23 February 1838, whereas the last applicant Mary Sleigh, 17, of Scotland, (No. 2775) applied only on 17 July - the day the RAJASTHAN's than actually sailed from London.
Perhaps Mary did not join the Ship until just before she sailed from Plymouth, but what a rush it must have been for her - at least there would have been little or no time for second thoughts!
Other applicants, also from Scotland, had applied only a week earlier.
These were two young married couples, Archibald ELLIOT, his wife and three children (3,2 and one aged 7 months),
and William and Helen DUNN and their two children (2 and one aged 4 months),
and William Sleigh 23, a shepherd of Butterdean perhaps Mary's brother?
For William OWEN and his wife Christina of Fifeshire, perhaps it was an even greater rush; although they had applied for a passage on 9 April 1838, (Appl. No. 2130), they were allotted the very last embarkation number for that voyage (No. 1478), one number after Mary Sleigh, giving them virtually no notice whatever.
William PORTER, his wife and four children (14, 13, 5, 2 years) of Dansbury, Essex, were the earliest of the applicants (No. 4558) to come on the 1839/40 voyage. They had applied on April 10 1839, and a month later William Porter, 19, and Sarah Porter, 16, both of Dansbury, Essex, and possibly two older children of William and his wife, also applied for a passage (Nos. 4882-3).
The last applicant, Margaret WALDREN 28, a servant of Brompton (No. 6240), applied on October 10 1839, eleven days before the RAJASTHAN sailed from London. Margaret's Agent was shown as G.F. Davenport - perhaps also her employer - as G. F. (George Francis) DAVENPORT and either his wife or daughter were also among the cabin passengers.
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