Sunday, August 19, 2012

More emigrants from Redhill Farm School, Surrey

After further research, Peter Bathe can now offer additional information on Redhill Farm School emigrants. He reports:


There were 29 ex Redhill boys who emigrated to Port Elizabeth, all of whom came to the school in 1847 or 1848, and so probably emigrated between 1850 and 1853. After then, the boys were noted as having emigrated to Natal and then, in the 1880s, more generally as 'to South Africa'.

The popularity of southern Africa as a destination for the boys waxed and waned. Of the boys who were admitted to the school between February 1852 and June 1856, 13 went to Natal (probably arriving between 1855 and 1861).

No boy from the next three years’ intakes was sent to Natal, but seven of those admitted between May 1857 and December 1858 did (including Henry Dongworth, admitted May 1857, arrived Natal 1861).
Again there was a gap when none of the boys admitted in 1859 went but then 12 from January 1860 to December 1861 admissions sailed for Natal (including George Bathe, admitted November 1861, emigrated October 1865)

Two boys from the 1866 intake and six of those admitted to the school between December 1872 and September 1875 went to Natal or were noted as having gone to South Africa. (This last group would have arrived between 1875 and 1880)

The biggest migration occurred in the period 1882 to 1884. A total of 26 boys who had entered the school between February 1877 and September 1881 went to Natal in seven groups – and these are all listed in the database currently in process of development by eGGSA i.e. the Passenger List Project.
See previous post http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/search?q=eggsa+passenger+list+project.

After this period, emigration to South Africa tailed off, with only four more boys going, one each from the intakes of 1887, 88, 89 and 92.

Names of Redhill boys who emigrated to Port Elizabeth will follow in a future post.



Redhill, Surrey: the Philanthropic Society's Farm School
for the reformation of juvenile offenders



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