John Penny Mandy (1787 - 1848)

Born 1787 in Foots Cray, Kent, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann Wilkinson (Day) Mandy — married 20 Apr 1813 in St Mary le Bow, London, England

Husband of Mary (Dogherty) Mandy — married 25 Sep 1826 in Grahamstown, South Africa

Descendants

Died 25 Jun 1848 at about age 61 in Grahamstown, Cape Colony

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Desmond William Kelly Lynch [send private message]

Biography

Birth

John Penny was born in England in 1787; he was the son of Henry Mandy and Ann (Abott) Mandy. He was resident in the small town Foot's Cray, Chislehurst, Kent.

Marriage

He was 26 years old when he married Mary Ann Day in Saint Mary Le Bow, London on 20 April 1813:^[1]

Name: John Penny Mandy

Event Type: Marriage

Event Date: 20 Apr 1813

Event Place: St Mary le Bow and St Pancras Soper Lane with All Hallows Honey Lane, London, England, United Kingdom

Event Place (Original): Saint Mary Le Bow, London, London, England

Sex: Male

Spouse's Name: Mary Ann Day

Spouse's Sex: Female

Emigration-1820 Settler

Introduction

During 1819, the world still reeled from the consequences of the Napoleonic Wars and the flood of revolutionary ideas which infected every field of human endeavour. Since the end of Napoleonic Wars, there had been poverty, distress and social unrest in England. Soldiers and sailors were on half-pay. British troops even fired on their own dissident countrymen in the notorious Peterloo Massacre which shocked the whole country. Wild weather, poverty and the sight of many able bodied men and women in work-houses while others starved outside had a depressing effect on the whole nation. In the midst of a time when more and more people began to find life intolerable in Britain, Lord Somerset pressed for an emigration scheme - an attractive proposition which would solve the problem of many afflicted individuals and at the same time relieve the nation of the financial burden of defending a colony.

For many years, the idea had been propagated that England could be saved much money in the defence of the troublesome Cape Frontier if a bloc of thickly-distributed settlers could be planted along at least some of its length.

John was the leader of Mandy’s Party of 1820 Settlers. “John Mandy, was a master carpenter of Lambeth Marsh, Surrey (now part of Greater London), who was originally from Foots Cray near Chislehurst, Kent. Mandy’s application to emigrate was warmly supported by Viscount Sydney, who knew the Mandy family and had ‘constantly employed them in their different trades’ on his estate at Chislehurst. In his Lordship’s opinion, John Mandy was a man of excellent character, and ‘if the Colony were all of such good materials it would probably succeed’.

Mandy attended a public meeting for prospective emigrants at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand, London, on 9 August 1819, and together with another party leader, Lieut John Bailie, was elected to a committee appointed to collect and distribute information about the Cape emigration scheme. It is not known whether the joint-stock party that he subsequently formed was recruited in London or in Kent, but the latter seems likely, since one at least was a Kentishman from the Foots Cray area and most of the men were referred to as ‘farmers’. Deposits were paid for 11 men, and the party left Gravesend in the regular transport Nautilus on 3 December 1819, sailing in company with her consort the Chapman. The Nautilus had the misfortune to run aground on the treacherous Goodwin Sands, off Ramsgate, but was refloated without serious damage. On 17 March 1820 she reached Table Bay, and on 14 April anchored in Algoa Bay. John Mandy’s wife gave birth to a son during the voyage.^[2]

The Voyage to the Colony

Some idea of what the 1820 Settlers endured during their long voyages out in tiny vessels, is given in John Penny Mandy's letters to his mother in England.^[3] In one letter, written in January, 1820, he describes the Nautilus disaster in the Downs. After they dropped anchor in the Queen's Channel, a day after leaving Gravesend, "it came on to blow tremendously hard, the sea running mountains high. We could not weigh anchor till Sunday afternoon, when our troubles began, the sea breaking over us in all directions, tables, chairs, boxes, plates and dishes; men, women and children all mixed together, tumbling over one another, and all dreadfully seasick, except myself and Smith, who was on deck working the ship; I below, basin holder."

"In the midst of this the sea broke into our cabin windows, dashing glass and frame in, the things that were below rolling and sliding, took to swimming." John Mandy wrote that when the ship struck on the sands all was confusion and dismay - "even the sailors seemed panic struck." After an hour and a half, when a heavy sea set them afloat without much damage, (five or six boats) went to their help. Then followed better days, till they struck another storm, which lasted three days. "The sea was running as high as our masthead, and two of the waves broke over us; the forepart of the ship had three tons of water in, which swamped almost every person in their beds, Joseph was washed out of his cot."

Landing in Algoa Bay

In a letter written from Algoa Bay on April 20, 1820, John Mandy said, "I landed on Sunday night to get ready for Mary Anne and the children. When I had got all ready for them, a strong south-east wind set in, and stopped their landing for four days, the surf beating round the shore to a height often or twelve feet. They saw me, but could not get at me."

When his wife and children came ashore on the 19th they were "very much frightened, the boats three parts full of water." Things were better on shore. We are now living on the fat of the land, a fowl for 9d. beef 1½ d per lb, milk and eggs in great abundance." .^[4]

But of course, there was a lot of hardship still ahead.....

Settler Life

"A convoy of ninety-six wagons, hired from Dutch farmers, came over the Bushman's River at Jager's Drift, passed through Theopolis Mission and outspanned at the Reed River Post. They carried the baggage of some four hundred settlers walking beside them, together with rations, tents to be employed until dwellings could be erected, and other gear." John Mandy's party formed part of these; his party was located in Albany on a tributary of the Kap River. ^[5]

11 Sep 1820; John Mandy was awarded Lot 12 in Bathurst; on which he had built a house by 1825. (Comment; Des Lynch Jan 2021) This is the corner stand across the street from the Pig and Whistle; it became the Bathurst Arms and in 2018 is Pickwick's!

The remaining twenty-five building lots at Port Frances had been sold, most of them for less than £11." John Mandy had purchased one of these.

After their home was burnt down during one of the Frontier Wars, they went to the farm Lushington Valley

Building the Bathurst Drostdy

On 28 August 1820 Capt Charles Trappes submitted an improved plan for a Residency at Bathurst to cost £900. It was to have fourteen rooms. In anticipation of approval he was continuing to have bricks made in readiness. John Mandy had undertaken to build it.

On 19 February 1821 it was reported that John Mandy estimated that £802-10-00 was required to complete the Drostdy. This sum was approved.^[6]

12 April 1821 it was reported that "Thomas Mahoney undertook the unfinished portion of the work on the Bathurst Residency for £750. John Mandy had not completed his contract. While he had held the contract he had employed Thomas Whittle at 4- per day and James Kemp at 36 per day; the wages to be paid by the government. Both of New Botany Bay." ^[7].

A more detailed version of this misadventure by Roger C Fisher is to be found in the magazine "Architecture SA" Issue 70, Page 74, and reads as follows:

"In the same decade of Endres’s death occurs the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers and the planning of facilities in the Albany District of the Eastern Cape Frontier, as Bathurst was meant to be the administrative centre of this district. The design of a new Drostdy of the time is attributed to the provisional magistrate, Major Charles Trappes, in 1820. The foundation stone was laid on 9 November 1820. The contractor was one John Mandy. The costs of the project soared, probably due to Trappes’s extravagant plan for his residence. However, it was Mandy who was to bear the brunt of this and he was dismissed. Thomas Mahoney (1785–1834) was appointed in his place. Work continued at a leisurely pace, in Mahoney’s words ‘getting on nicely’, but by the time Lord Charles Somerset summarily suspended Bathurst as seat of the magistracy on 8 February 1822 and moved it to Grahamstown, the Drostdy was left half completed. It was determined that the building should serve as a school, but Mahoney’s procrastinations exasperated the authorities. Lewcock (1962: 238) laments in his tome that he does not have enough space to relate the litany of complaints against Mahoney ‘which never succeeded in disturbing his unruffled calm’! When Herman Schutte (1761–1844) did a tour of inspection in 1824, the works were found to have fallen into a bad state of repair, the local quarried and hewn roof slate having soon degraded. When finally completed after the death of the resident schoolmaster, it became home to the government chaplain, grander than the pastorie. ‘Indeed, there was certainly not a house to equal it in the eastern part of the colony, either for comfort or for fashionable elegance’ (Lewcock, 1963: 239). It was originally a 14-room building constructed of locally burnt brick. In 1827 the roof was rebuilt and covered in imported Welsh slate, the first such use of this material in South Africa. Now only a wing survives, incorporated into a private residence. Mahoney was to come to a sticky end. He had arrived from London in the Cape in 1820 as leader of a party of 16 English colonists as ‘sole proprietor ... architect, surveyor and engineer’. He was of the first of the 1820 Settlers to be murdered on Christmas Eve in the Sixth Frontier War (1834–1835) on his farm Clay Pits near Grahamstown, the traditional source for white clay used ceremonially by the Xhosa. The British authorities saw no good reason why they should have this for free and imposed a tax on its excavation. Mahoney, as implementing agent for the Crown, paid the price!"

Grahamstown

On 13 February 1826 it was reported that: Mary, wife of John Mandy, died at Grahamstown aged 36 years. She was buried there by the Reverend William Geary.^[8].

Later that year John married Mary Dougherty in the Catholic Church in Grahamstown. Mary was 23 years of age and John 39 when they married. She was the daughter of Neil Dougherty:^[9]

John Penny Mandy, Status: Widower

Residence: of the District of Albany

and

Mary Dougherty, Status: Spinster

Residence: of the same District

were married here by Banns this 25th day of September 1826 by Thomas Ireland, Chaplain

Witnessed by: [Nab] Dougherty, John [ ] Penny, Mary [Ryan], Wm. Howard

On 23 March 1832 "John Mandy, now in Grahamstown, advertised for a waiter for his Freemason's Tavern.” .^[10]

Death

John died on 25 June 1848 in Grahamstown, Cape Colony at the age of 61 years.^[11]

Death Notice of John Penny Mandy

He was buried in the Anglican Section of the Old Cemetery in Grahamstown, next to the grave of his first wife, Mary Ann. A black slate slab, still in excellent condition, bears his name: ^[12][13]

Mandy, John Penny

Born:

Died: 23 May 1848

Buried: Old Cemetery, Grahamstown, District Albany, Eastern Cape, RSA

Note: John Penny Mandy. Died 23-05-1848. Aged 61 years.

Sources

1. ↑ England Marriages, 1538–1973 ", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NL4Y-VH4 : 13 March 2020), Mary Ann Day in entry for John Penny Mandy, 1813
2. ↑ Nash, M.D, The Settler Handbook, Chameleon Press, Diep River, Cape Town, 1987., Page 86
3. ↑ Newspaper Article; Published in the Eastern Cape Herald in June 1970, Transcribed by Becky Horne
4. ↑ Nash, M.D, The Settler Handbook, Chameleon Press, Diep River, Cape Town, 1987., Page 90
5. ↑ Morse-Jones, E., The Lower Albany Chronicle, Part 1, 1806 – 1825, Page 22
6. ↑ Morse-Jones, E., The Lower Albany Chronicle, Part 1, 1806 – 1825, Pages 30, 38 & 95
7. ↑ Morse-Jones, E., The Lower Albany Chronicle, Part 1, 1806 – 1825, Page 40
8. ↑ Morse-Jones, E., The Lower Albany Chronicle, Part 2, 1826 – 1840, Page 2
9. ↑ Source: Grahamstown - St George (Anglican), Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. marriage register, 1826-1836, page 11, entry no 142. Repository: Cory Library, MS 14 879-1. Transcribed by Lynn MacLeod as part of the eGGSA Project, from photographs by William Jervois, and proofread by Sue Mackay
10. ↑ Morse-Jones, E., The Lower Albany Chronicle, Part 2, 1826 – 1840, Page 50
11. ↑ South Africa, Cape Province, Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1834-1989," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLKL-HB76 : 11 March 2018), John Penny Mandy, 1848; citing Probate, Grahamstown, Albany, Cape Province, South Africa, 1848, Pietermaritzburg Archives (Formerly Natal State Archives), South Africa; FHL microfilm 1,281,536
12. ↑ SA Genealogical Society Graveyard Project, Revision: 17 and before
13. ↑ Added by Des Lynch on 30 January 2021

• www.1820settlers.com
• [McArthur-306 : Ian McArthur - 13 Feb 2107]
• Source: S500098 Jen Bales-Smith PHILLIPS/Bales-Smith Family Web Site

  MyHeritage family tree

  Family site: PHILLIPS/Bales-Smith Family Web Site

  Family tree: 26274721-1 Smart Matching Media: 26274721-1https://www.myheritage.com/person-1510754_347662981_347662981/john-mandy Certainty: 3 Individual added by confirming a Smart Match Event: Smart Matching Role: 1:347662981-1-510754:0