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the Irish contingent, and both ships departed for the Cape on 12 February. During the long

voyage there were numerous arguments on board the East Indian, mainly between Parker and
two of the settlers, Thomas Seton and a preacher, Francis McCleland, who accused him of

dubious financial transactions to fund the deposit money for his indentured passengers. But
John Hare was not involved in these altercations as it appears that the Hare family had changed

ship at Cork and boarded the Fanny to join the three other Irish parties led by Captains Thomas
Butler and Walter Synnot and a merchant, John Ingram. This indicates that John was not

indentured to William Parker and had probably received financial support from his family in

Ireland. Eventually both ships arrived in Simon’s Bay after voyages lasting almost two and a
half months.

The troubles continued. The colonial authorities in the Cape were totally unprepared for the
numbers of settlers that docked over the relatively short period. It seems that they were

expecting some 2,000 but double that number had arrived. Acting on a vague suggestion from

the British Government that it would be advisable to locate the parties from England, Scotland,
Wales and Ireland separately, it was decided to send some of these groups to destinations other

than the Albany District. Although this obviously defeated the main purpose of the scheme,
only the English and Scots were dispatched to Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape, while the Welsh

were located on the Sonderend River in the Caledon District some 40 miles east of Cape Town.

Most bizarrely of all, the Irish were allocated land in the Clanwilliam District, some 170 miles
north of Cape Town. Parker objected strongly and applied for land in Knysna, but was

persuaded to move up north when it was pointed out that the land at Knysna was privately
owned.

On 16 May the two ships were sent up the west coast to Saldanha Bay where it had been
arranged for the settlers and their belongings to be transported the 80 miles to Clanwilliam on

wagons. Parker’s party was granted land north of the village at Klein Valley on the east bank

of the Olifants River. John Hare must have maintained a reasonable relationship with Parker,
as he was allotted one of the three sites bordering the river, whereas others like McCleland had

to accept much more barren acreage in the hills further east.

After many of the Irish settlers had complained vociferously about the conditions at

Clanwilliam the complainants were relocated to the Eastern Cape, to be settled at Seven

Fountains on the road between East London and Grahamstown. The tempestuous William