JOSEPH and ELIZABETH LEVEY BIRTH: Joseph Levey was born in the burgh (borough) of Leven, parish of Schoonie,

county of Fifeshire, Scotland (see reference 7). His date of birth is still something of a mystery as the dates from the various sources available, vary from one to the other. The following illustrate the problem: 1. Josephs military discharge certificate issued in 1827, states he was 22 years old when he enlisted in the British Army on the 5 May 1807. That means he would have been born about 1785. His age on discharge in November 1827 was given as 43, again indicating a birth date of about 1785. 2. The age reflected on his death notice and in the newspaper notice reporting his death is given as 66 years. He died in May 1850, which means he would have been born in 1784. 3. In the book, British Residents at the Cape, his age in 1817 is given as 32, making his year of birth about 1785. 4. The inscription on his gravestone in the Grahamstown cemetery gives his age at death in 1850 as 60 years, making his year of birth 1790. This inscription was initially thought to be a mistake until 2008 when Patricia Putter (A613123) found a birth and christening record for a Joseph Levi on the Latter Day Saints Family Ancestry website. The record reflected the following details: IGI Individual Record FamilySearchTM International Genealogical Index v5.0 Search Results | Download Joseph Levi Pedigree Male Event(s): Birth: 03 JUN 1790 Christening: 24 JUN 1790, Scoonie, Fife, Scotland Death: Burial: Parents: Father: Isaac Levi Family Mother: Mary Matthewson Messages: Extracted birth or christening records for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date. Source Information: Batch no.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call no.: Type: C114564 1770 - 1792 1040339 Film 6900787 Film In an effort to find out more about the record Colin Levey emailed the Family Ancestry Support centre and received the following reply: Dear Colin, Thank you for contacting FamilySearch Support reference information concerning Joseph Levi born c 1784/1790 in Scoonie, Fife, Scotland. We are unable to perform research for patrons but can offer the following advice: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ is the official Scottish website. By registering, you will be able to search the Old Parish Registers for the Parish of Scoonie, online. This is not a free website, but for your immediate needs, information can be viewed online, without having to purchase credits. After registering, click on Birth and Baptisms under the heading of Old Parish Registers. Scroll down and highlight Scoonie (found under All Parishes), add the name of Joseph Levi to the Forename and Surname fields and set the Date From and Date To fields to 1776 -1801 you will see that 2 matches are made.

Alter the surname to Levey and no matches are made, neither are there any matches when Levy or Levie are entered. So keeping the name as Joseph Levi and the parish of Scoonie highlighted now keep the Date From at 1 January 1776 but alter the Date To to 31 December 1776 and click the green Search button. You will see that no matches are made. Continue altering these dates by 1 year at a time i.e. 1777/1778 etc. and you will see that the two matches both come within the year of 1790. No matches are found from 1776 - 1789. As the IGI record gives both a birth and baptism date...this is the one and only entry for someone with a name anywhere near your ancestors name, within Scoonie and within the time parameters set by your other documented evidence. The 2 matches found on the Scotlandspeople website refer to the birth date and baptism date found within that record in 1790. We wish you continued success with your Family History endeavours. Sincerely, FamilySearch Support adh What strikes one immediately about this record is a. - The name of the parish (Scoonie), which, according to Josephs military discharge record was also his place of birth, and b. - The year of birth of 1790, which is the date Joseph was born according to his gravestone. It therefore seems very likely that this is in fact a record of Joseph Leveys birth and Baptism. The spelling of the surname tends to indicate otherwise but it must be borne in mind that the modern Levey name has a number of origins, most of which are speculation (See REFERENCE 6). One in particular is of interest here, and that is from the book A DICTIONARY OF SURNAMES by Anthony Lower. According to the entry in this book, the Levey surname is a derivation of Levi. The entry under Levi is as follows: This personal name seems to be the common source of Levy, Levey, Levison, Leeves & c. It is also interesting to note that the spelling of the name in Essex, England, gradually changed from Levy in the 1700s to Levey in the 1800s. This was probably as a result of most people being illiterate at the time and hence incapable of spelling their own names. It would then have been left up to the scribes who maintained official registers and documents to spell the name as they saw fit. As the Church had taught most of these scribes, they would most likely have spelled the name as it appeared in the Bible. It was only during the 19th century, when literacy became more common, that individuals were capable of having a say as far as the spelling of their surnames were concerned, and hence some sort of conformity was maintained. Today, one would immediately assume from the surname Levi that Josephs father, Isaac, was Jewish. However, it must be noted that Joseph was christened, which clearly indicates that the family were not Jewish, or were certainly not practising Jews. The date of birth on the record is in conflict with all other official records except for that on his gravestone. Surely Joseph, as a man who obviously learned to write at some stage of his life would have known his date of birth? Why then is it not mentioned in any family or official records? And here a distinct possibility arises. According to Josephs discharge record, he enlisted in the army in 1807, at which time he would have been only 17 years old if he were born in 1790. While there does not appear to have been any minimum age for enlistment in the British Army at that time, it appears that only service after the age of 18 years counted for pension purposes and it is quite possible that Joseph lied about his age on enlistment, and made himself 5 years older by stating his date of birth as 1784. Once that lie was told, and the date was on army record, he would have had to live with the lie from

then on until he died. Is this perhaps why his gravestone reflects his age as 60 years - his true age? It would be one thing to live a lie in military and government records but to be buried under a lie would be quite another! It must also be considered that by 1807 Britain had been involved in the Napoleonic Wars for 14 years and during this time the British Army had grown by six fold, with 25% of the male population being soldiers (See References 1). Was this the earliest possible time Joseph could enlist - as he approached the age of 18? BIOGRAPHY: It is not known what Joseph did before enlisting with the British Army in 1807 but according to the discharge certificate, he was a hosier by trade/profession. It is interesting to note that many of the people of Leven are still hand weavers to this day and it would seem likely that Joseph learned the trade in his home borough of Leven. It is not clear whether he practiced his trade in the army, although it would seem likely. The certificate also provides a physical description and it seems he was a rather small person, his height having been only 5 feet 5 inches. His hair was brown, his eyes grey and his complexion is described as fresh. It is interesting to note that Joseph signed his discharge certificate as Sjt. J Levey. The rank was spelled serjeant in those days. The fact that Joseph became a clerk (writer) in the Commissariat Department in Grahamstown after his retirement from the Army in 1827 clearly indicates that he could write. Whether this ability was acquired during his 20 years service in the army or whether he was able to write before enlisting, is pure speculation. Joseph enlisted in the British Army for unlimited service, which means he signed up for life and not for the usual 10-year enlistment period. Rather surprisingly, he enlisted in Portsmouth, which is in the County of Hampshire on the extreme south of England. This raises the question as to why he, being a native of Fifeshire, Scotland enlisted on the opposite end of the British Isles? Surely there must have been recruiting stations in Scotland? Did Joseph perhaps leave Scotland because his parents had come from the County of Essex in England where there was then and still is today a very large Levi/Levy/Levey community? It is rather coincidental that the county of Essex is just north of Hampshire. Joseph went on to serve in 3 units of the British Army - The 50th Foot Regiment, The Royal African Colonial Corps (RAC), and the Cape Infantry (Cape Corps or CC) - later to become the Cape Mounted Rifles (CMR). The periods he served in each unit are listed on his discharge certificate and are as follows: 50th Foot Regiment: From 5 May 1807 to 14 March 1811 Royal African Corps: From 15 March 1811 to 23 July 1817 (West Africa) Royal African Corps: From 24 July 1817 to 24 June 1821 (Grahamstown) Cape Infantry (Cape Corps): From 25 June 1821 to 29 Nov 1827 (Grahamstown) His service record shows that he was a private for 4 years and 305 days and a serjeant (sic) for a period of 16 years and 255 days. These periods were taken from his discharge papers and have been incorrectly calculated. Nonetheless, the periods indicate that he was promoted to serjeant when he joined the RAC in March 1811. The certificate also states that his conduct as a soldier was good. It is not known where he served while in the 50th Foot Regiment but that regiment served in the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) and saw action in Egypt, Denmark, the Iberian Peninsula and Walcheren (The Netherlands). After almost 4 years service he was transferred to the Royal African Corps with the rank of serjeant and was posted to the West Coast of Africa, and here we can be almost certain it was Sierra Leone as that was the only British colony on the West Coast of Africa in 1811 (See references 2).

The Royal African Corps (RAC) Regiment was formed before 1800 and was composed of military criminals from various British regiments who had been pardoned on condition that they served for life either in the West Indies or Africa. The RAC initially served in the West Indies and in 1809 was reorganized as the Royal York Rangers in recognition of their distinguished service. A new Royal African Corps was formed and this would have been the corps that Joseph transferred to as a serjant in 1811. Quite obviously Joseph wasnt a military criminal. In West Africa the regiments role was to enforce Britains anti slavery campaign (Slavery having been abolished in 1807). Joseph served in West Africa for the next six years until the RAC were transferred to the Cape of Good Hope in June 1817 to replace other military units that had been withdrawn from the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony to serve in the troubled Far East. In 1816, a contingent of the Royal African Corps under the command of a Captain Alexander Grant was sent (from Sierra Leone?) to The Gambia in 1816 to establish a base from which the British Navy could operate to control the slave trade. The military town of Bathurst (now Banjul) on St Marys Island (now Banjul Island) was subsequently established. Was this the completion of the RACs West African Campaign, which allowed the British Army to consider sending 400 soldiers of the RAC to the Cape of Good Hope in 1817? It is here where something of a mystery arises as to whether Joseph and Elizabeth boarded the ship Brilliant with the Benjamin Moodie Settlers in Scotland or in British West Africa. It is unlikely that he would have been granted leave to return home to Britain where he could possibly have met and married Elizabeth. Further evidence that Joseph did not return to Britain appears in a note his son Joseph Brilliant wrote in his bible about his birth. The note reads as follows; "On her voyage from the West Coast of Africa on board the ship Brilliant, at 11 o'clock Sunday morning 7 days sail from Cape of Good Hope - JOSEPH BRILLIANT LEVEY, born July 6th 1817. The wording on her voyage from the West Coast of Africa is a clear indication that Joseph and Elizabeth boarded the Brilliant somewhere in British West Africa - the most likely place being Freetown, Sierra Leone (or Bathurst in The Gambia?). Freetown was at that time a British Naval base and quite probably a replenishing station for ships sailing to and from the Cape. It is quite possible that the Brilliant was the first suitable ship on which Joseph and Elizabeth could obtain passage to the Cape. Why the family did not sail with the troops is not known but it would seem unlikely the army would have allowed Joseph to sail with his heavily pregnant wife on a troopship with 400 former criminals! If they did indeed board ship in West Africa, it poses another question - that of the marriage of Joseph and Elizabeth. Where and when they were married is not known and although it is most likely that there is a marriage record somewhere, no record has been found by family researchers to date. Did they marry in West Africa or somewhere in England before Joseph was transferred to British West Africa in 1811? It is hard to believe the latter if their first child Joseph Brilliant was only born 6 years later. We know from family records that Elizabeth was born in Dublin, Ireland, and it is common knowledge that that country provided wives for soldiers and settlers in many parts of the world, including South Africa. There is the possibility that Elizabeth was the wife of an Irish soldier in Josephs regiment and that she had gone to British West Africa with her husband. British West Africa was at that time known as the white mans grave so it is possible Elizabeths husband died and she became a military widow in Sierra Leone. Although it is not unusual that the surname of a wife is not mentioned in family records, it is nonetheless strange that Elizabeths surname is not mentioned

anywhere in the family bibles or other records. Her place of birth was recorded, and yet no surname - was it a case of not knowing her surname or not wanting her surname to be known? And here we have to consider the fact that there were many London prostitutes who provided wives for the freed slaves who were settled in Freetown. These couples were the progenitors of the Creole race in Sierra Leone. Was Elizabeth one of these women, or perhaps a daughter of one of them? Joseph and Elizabeth arrived in Cape Town on the 4 June 1817. The date of arrival of the Brilliant at The Cape of Good Hope was published in the June 7th edition of the Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser, so the date of 4 June seems indisputable. The implications are that the entry in Joseph Brilliants bible, which gives his birth date on board the Brilliant as 13 July 1817 is incorrect. Because the family sailed with the Benjamin Moodie party of Scottish Settlers on the Brilliant, (See References 3) it has led to some confusion with historians who considered them Moodie Settlers. Joseph and Elizabeth are not included on the list of Moodie Settlers because they were not part of that group. And yet in the publications British Residents At The Cape 1795-1819 and Record Of Roll Of British Settlers In South Africa they are listed as Moodie Settlers. It is quite clear from Josephs military record that his service with the British army was continuous from 1807 until 1827 and that he came to the Cape because he had been posted to the Frontier with his Regiment, The Royal African Corps. Shortly after their arrival in Cape Town in June 1817, the RAC (some 400 troops) were shipped out to the Frontier to guard the eleven military posts established along the Fish River, from the coast up to Slagters Nek (see References 5 and 6). Joseph could have been posted to one of these outposts or to the RAC headquarters in Grahamstown. At the battle of Grahamstown in 1819 there were 135 RAC and 82 Cape Corps personnel in Grahamstown and a painting of Grahamstown in 1820, also confirms that there were military headquarters for both the RAC and the Cape Corp in the town at that time. It is still not known what duties Joseph performed as a sergeant, but the fact that he could write and was a clerk in the commissariat (the army supply department) after he was discharged from the army, could mean that he was a quartermaster sergeant or perhaps practiced his trade of hosier by supplying the troops on the Frontier with stockings (socks?) If that is indeed so, he would have been based at the Regiments headquarters in Grahamstown. It is interesting to note that 3 of Josephs sons went on to be involved in the clothing trade - Joseph Brilliant was a tailor and Richard and Henry were both boot and shoemakers. One can only wonder if their fathers profession had any influence on them to enter these trades. The extracts from THE RISE OF SOUTH AFRICA and FRONTIERS (References 5 and 6) confirm the movement of the Royal African Corps and provide some interesting facts regarding the regiment. One is particular is rather intriguing; It is a known fact that at the Battle of Grahamstown in 1819, the Xhosa Chief Ncele-Makana had a former British sergeant-of-the-line serving as an advisor. Was that sergeant a fellow sergeant of Josephs from the RAC? The RAC was disbanded after peace was established on the Frontier following the 5th Frontier War and on 25 June 1821 Joseph was transferred to the Cape Corps Infantry. The headquarters of this unit was also in Grahamstown and it was probably Josephs choice to accept a transfer to this regiment, rather than return to Britain to serve in some other regiment. In 1827 the Cape Corps was transformed into the Cape Mounted Rifles and it was at this stage that Joseph must have applied to be discharged from the army for medical reasons. In November 1827 his discharge on pension was approved, and was signed

by none other than Lieutenant Colonel Henry Somerset, the commanding officer of the regiment at that time. Somerset was to become famous for his incompetence as a soldier on the Frontier. The medical reason for his discharge on the discharge certificate is given as fistula in the perinium and worn out. This would seem to be a condition he acquired during his 6 years service in West Africa where more British troops died from malaria, yellow fever and black water fever than were killed in action. After his discharge Joseph appears to have become a writer (clerk) in the Commissariat (the military supply organization) in Grahamstown and in 1834 he purchased a cottage on the corner of Chapel and Queen Street in Grahamstown. That cottage remained in the possession of the family until almost the end of the 20th century. Elizabeth died on 18 August 1846 and three months later on the 17 November 1846 Joseph married Christiana Watson, a widow. After Joseph's death in 1850, Christiana remarried in 1851 in Bathurst to George Palmer. She died in 1870 at the age of 78 years. It is not known how long Joseph worked as a clerk at the Commissariat but his marriage record to Christiana Watson reflects his occupation as Writer in the Commissariat Department and in the 1849 Edition of The Eastern Province Annual Directory and Almanac he is listed as a clerk - presumably still at the Commissariat. It is however, doubtful whether he was still employed there as late as 1849 as his death notice states that he had been insane for some years before 1850. There has been much speculation as to why Joseph and Elizabeth did not follow the customary naming traditions of the Scots when naming their children. In this tradition, the first son was named after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandfather and the third after the father (the same pattern was followed with daughters being named after grandmothers and mothers). If they had followed this pattern then Joseph Brilliant should have been named Isaac and Henry should have been named Joseph (it cannot be speculated on what Richards name should have been as we do not know what Elizabeths fathers name was). The names that Joseph and Elizabeth gave their 5 sons raise even more speculation, as none of them have Scottish origins. Richard, Henry, Charles and George are all English names of Norman (French) origin. It is also interesting to note that the names are very common among the Essex Levey families, who lay claim to Norman ancestry. It cannot therefore, be ruled out that Josephs parents were not from Essex, England. To add to the mystery, no record of Isaac Levis birth can be found in Scotland, although that may well be because birth records prior to 1770 are virtually non-existent in that country. It is hard to believe that Joseph would have broken with the naming tradition in this manner had he been a true Scot, and yet it seems indisputable that he was if one considers that his grandchildren called him Coupar Angus. Jewish families also followed the naming tradition as outlined above but had Joseph followed the Jewish custom Joseph Brilliant should have been named Isaac! As he clearly wasnt, it follows that Josephs parents were either not Jewish or had abandoned the faith. Why Joseph chose not to follow the naming traditions of either the Scots or the Jews, and why the name of Isaac was not carried down in the Levey family will in all probability remain an unsolved mystery. What is even more puzzling is the fact that the names of Joseph and Elizabeths children have indeed been carried down in subsequent generations! This is clear from the following list of the number of descendents bearing their names: Joseph 20 Richard 27

Henry 23 Charles 42 Much of the above was revealed by the acquisition of Josephs military record in October 2008 and the facts in those documents have provided us with a much better understanding of and appreciation for our progenitors, who not only played a part in the settlement of the Eastern Frontier in South Africa, but left a human legacy of over 1 000 living descendents by the year 2008. In 2017, (a mere 9 years away at the time of this writing) surviving descendents will be able to celebrate 200 years of the Levey Family in South Africa. Those of us who are approaching our twilight years may not live to celebrate that milestone but we can only hope that those who do, will arrange a gathering of grand proportions for the Levey Clan from Scoonie, to honour the memory of Joseph and Elizabeth Levey. The afore-going should not be seen as the final word on Joseph and Elizabeth. Research continues, and as more government records are converted to digital format and made available to the general public, it is hoped that new facts will be uncovered. Author - Colin Levey. December 2008 Research by: Colin Edwin Levey (A31725) Val Trevorrow (A4631) (Author of the Levey Family Tree) Patricia Euginie Putter (A613123) Liz Eshmade (Genealogist and Producer of the Levey Family Tree) DEATH: Joseph died on 19 May 1850. His death was reported in the May 25th edition of the Graham's Town Journal: "Died in Graham's Town at the residence of his son, Joseph Brilliant Levey, on Sunday morning May 19th, Joseph Levey Snr. Aged 66 years. His Death Notice MOOC 6/9/55 8991/2 gives his age, date and place of death as above and his occupation as Commissariat Clerk. Interestingly, the entry next to marital status gives the unusual "married - widower to first marriage." There was also a note that while he held no property there was still property he had sold waiting to be transferred. It is not known what caused the delay or even what caused the matter to come up again but some 27 years later, in 1877, his three surviving sons, Joseph B., Richard and Charles formerly requested that the property, which their father had sold to them in his lifetime, be finally transferred to them. This required another Death Notice (MOOC 6/9/159 4137/77) and here some interesting changes appear. The second notice states that he had died sometime in -1855, not 1850 and that he was a widower at that time. Had he still been alive in 1877 he would have been a widower as Christiana died in 1870. The notice also states that he died at a house on the corner of New Street and High Street Grahamstown where for some years he was insane. This address is incorrect as New Street runs parallel to and a good block away from High Street. Clearly it is Hill Street that was meant and this was where Joseph Brilliant had his tailoring business and home. That corner is still known as the Joseph Levey Corner in Grahamstown. A picture of this building appears in the Souvenir Commemoration of the 1820 Settlers published in 1916. The comment that he was insane indicates he was suffering some sort of mental illness, which is not surprising in view of his 20 years military service, some of which must have been under extremely harsh conditions, especially during his 6 years of service in West Africa. That being so, he could no longer have been a clerk as stated

on his original Death Notice and one must assume he was on pension and was suffering from a mental illness. BURIAL: Joseph was buried with Elizabeth in the Old Cemetery, Grahamstown, and the gravestone inscription records his death as 17th (which has proved to be incorrect) and his age as 60 years. It is also possible that either the recorder misread the inscription or the monumental mason misread the writing of what he had to inscribe on the stone. Alternately, the date reflects his true date of birth if the Baptism record for Joseph Levi in Scoonie, Fifeshire, is in fact the record of his Baptism. REFERENCES 1. THE NAPOLEONIC WARS The Napoleonic Wars were massive in their geographic scope, ranging, as far as Britain was concerned, over all of the five continents. They were massive, too, in terms of expense. From 1793 to the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 the wars cost Britain more than 1,650,000,000. Only 25 percent of this sum was raised by government loans, the rest coming largely from taxation, not least from the income tax that was introduced in 1798. But the wars were massive most of all in terms of manpower. Between 1789 and 1815 the British army had to expand more than sixfold, to about a quarter of a million men. The Royal Navy, bedrock of British defence, aggression, trade, and empire, grew further and faster still. Before the wars it had employed 16,000 men; by the end of them, it employed more than 140,000. Because there was an acute danger between 1797 and 1805 that France would invade Britain, the civil defence force also had to be expanded. The militia was increased, and by 1803 more than 380,000 men were acting as volunteers in homebased cavalry and infantry regiments. In all, one in four adult males in Britain may have been in uniform by the early 19th century. Extract from Encyclopaedia Britannica 2. BRITISH COLONIES IN WEST AFRICA Although Britain's energetic activity to suppress the slave trade was far from effective, its diplomatic and military operations for this end led it to much greater involvement in African affairs. Additional colonies were acquired (Sierra Leone, 1808; Gambia, 1816; Gold Coast, 1821) to serve as bases for suppressing the slave trade and for stimulating substitute commerce. British naval squadrons touring the coast of Africa, stopping and inspecting suspected slavers of other nations, and forcing African tribal chiefs to sign antislavery treaties did not halt the expansion of the slave trade, but they did help Britain attain a commanding position along the west coast of Africa, which in turn contributed to the expansion of both its commercial and colonial empire. British West Africa - an assortment of widely separated territories in western Africa that were administered by Great Britain during the colonial period. These included Sierra Leone , the Gambia , Nigeria (with the British Cameroons) (1861), and the Gold Coast (including Gold Coast crown colony, the Asante empire, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland) (After 1820). Sierra Leone was colonized from England in 1787 by blacks who had been slaves in America and they built a new settlement, named Freetown. Other groups of blacks followed from Nova Scotia (1792) and Jamaica (1800). These settlers were Englishspeaking, and many were literate and Christian. They were sponsored and governed by the private Sierra Leone Company until 1808, when Britain made Sierra Leone a

crown colony. The settlement served as a naval base against the slave trade and as a centre to which slaves, captured in transit across the Atlantic, could be brought and freed. In 1816 the British founded the colony of Bathurst at the mouth of the Gambia River. Both colonies served as bases for the British effort to block the slave trade along the coast. Later in the century, British rule spread to the interior of Sierra Leone and the Gambia. Both interiors became protectorates governed through indigenous rulers. Between 1807 and 1864, when the last slave ship case was adjudicated in the Freetown courts, the British Navy brought in more than 50,000 recaptives. Drawn from all over western Africa, these heterogeneous people lacked any common language or culture. The government therefore introduced a deliberate policy of turning them into a homogeneous Christian community. Protestant missionaries, along with the black pastors of Freetown churches, worked with such success that within a generation the policy was virtually fulfilled. The (Anglican) Church Missionary Society founded an institution to train teachers and missionaries, Fourah Bay College, which was affiliated to the University of Durham, England, in 1876. The Society also opened boys' and girls' secondary schools. The Gambia - Captain Alexander Grant (of the Royal African Corps) was sent to the Gambia in 1816 to re-establish a base from which the navy could operate to control the slave trade. He purchased Banjul Island (St. Mary's) from the king of Kombo, built barracks, laid out a town, and set up an artillery battery to control access to the river. The town, Bathurst (now Banjul), grew rapidly with the arrival of traders and workers from Gore and upriver. The Gambia was administered as a part of the British West African Federation from 1821 to 1843. (Extracts from Encyclopaedia Britannica) 3. RECORDS OF THE ARRIVAL OF JOSEPH AND ELIZABETH AT THE CAPE: 3.1 BRITISH RESIDENTS AT THE CAPE 1795-1819 by Peter Philip (Page 223): Levey, Joseph 6.16.17 (Moodie settler) arrived Table Bay in "Brilliant" ex Downs, with his wife Elizabeth aged 24 (his age was 32*). He was a Scot from Fife. His first child Joseph Brilliant was born at sea. His descendants well known in Grahamstown**. Descendants in SA. 3.2 RECORD OF ROLL OF BRITISH SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICA by E. Morse Jones (** Info supplied by Prof J. V. L. Rennie of Grahamstown): Joseph and Elizabeth formed part of the Benjamin Moodie party of Settlers who sailed from Leith, Scotland, on 14 March 1817. The party was comprised of artisans and their families and made up a group of about 200. There is some confusion as to the actual date of arrival of the Brilliant in Cape Town. According to some authors the ship arrived at the Cape 4 June 1817, others say the 16 June 1817. There is a reference to the arrival of the ship in Cape Town on 4 June 1817 being published in the Cape Town Gazette. While this has not been confirmed, it would seem to be the most likely date. The RAC arrived in Cape Town in June 1817 and were dispatched to the Frontier in the same month. It is quite obvious that Joseph and Elizabeth did not sail with the regiment but it would seem odd had he arrived at the Cape in July - a month after his regiment. Joseph Brilliant wrote a record of his birth in his bible, stating that he was born on board the ship on 6 July 1817 when the ship was 7 days sail from the Cape. This cannot be correct, as the ship arrived in June. There also appears to be some confusion regarding the Captain of the ship, which Joseph Brilliant had written down as Cpt. Bothwell. The captain of the Brilliant that brought the Moodie Settlers to the Cape was , however, Cpt. W. Young.

According to the Lloyd's of London ships register, there was more than one ship by the name of Brilliant that sailed to the Cape during 1817. The details of these ships and the years they sailed are as follows: BRILLIANT - 1817 1) Master: Captain B Fenn Rigging: Ship; 2 decks; sheathed in copper in 1814 Tonnage: 367 tons Construction: in Whitehaven; vessel 11 years old Owners: Campbell Draught under load: 16 feet Port of survey: London Voyage: sailed for the Cape of Good Hope 2) Master: Captain W. Young Rigging: Snow; single deck with beams; sheathed in copper Tonnage: 237 tons Construction: in Whitby; vessel 5 years old Owners: Berry Draught under load: 14 feet Port of survey: London Voyage: sailed for the Cape of Good Hope BRILLIANT 1920 1) Master: Captain J. Deyard Rigging: Ship; 2 decks; sheathed in copper in 1814 Tonnage: 330 tons Construction: in Aberdeen; vessel 7 years old Owners: J. Robinson Draught under load: 16 feet Port of survey: Plymouth Voyage: sailed on Transportation 2) Master: Captain Bothwell. Rigging: Ship; single deck with beams; sheathed in copper in 1820. Tonnage: 332 tons. Construction: 1814 in Aberdeen. Owners: Lumsdain. Draught under load: 16 feet. Port of survey: London. Voyage: sailed for Cape of Good Hope. From the above it is clear that the Brilliant that brought out the Moodie Settlers in 1817 is not the same Brilliant that brought the 1820 Settlers in 1820. 4. BIRTH OF JOSEPH BRILLIANT LEVEY The note in Joseph Brilliants Bible recording his birth reads as follows; "On her voyage from the West Coast of Africa on board the ship Brilliant, at 11 o'clock Sunday morning 7 days sail from Cape of Good Hope - JOSEPH BRILLIANT LEVEY, born July 6th 1817 - Capt Bothwell." There are two glaring errors here - the month of birth and the name of the ships captain. The Brilliant appears to have arrived in Cape Town on 4 June 1817 and if the ship had indeed still been 7 days sail from the Cape of Good Hope when he was born, then Josephs date of birth should be 28 May 1817. It is obvious that he did not know the date of his parents arrival in Cape Town and must have thought it to be 13 July 1817. Further evidence that he was not certain of the details of his birth is provided by his comment that Captain Bothwell was the captain of the ship on which he was born. This is incorrect as the captain of that ship was Captain W Young. Captain Bothwell was in fact the Captain of the

Brilliant that brought the British Settlers to Algoa bay in 1820. It seems likely that Joseph B had learned of the name of Captain Bothwell from the 1820 Settlers and had thought the ship and its captain were the same as that on which he was born in 1817. Captain Bothwells name appears to have been added on to the note afterwards and would tend to confirm this supposition. It must be borne in mind that this note was written by Joseph B. some time after 1837 (date of publication of the bible), more than 20 years after the event. It follows that his memory and that of his parents would have been somewhat rusty by that time. Joseph and Elizabeth do not appear to have known their own dates of birth and it would seem that they were not particularly concerned about such matters. 5. THE RISE OF SOUTH AFRICA (Volume 1 - Up to 1820) by G. E. Cory: Whether the Colony was regarded in those days, as it was at a later date (viz. 1849), as a distant region useful to the home country in assisting to rid itself of its neer-do-wells and undesirables, is not clear, but certain it was that the characters of the men who composed these reinforcements were the worst possible. A large number of them were restless foreigners, captured deserters, with no particular attachment to the British, or, perhaps, any other Government The remainder were British, but most of them deserters and some of them criminals of the worst type. As a body they were, for some time at least, not only useless on account of the fear there was to trust them but so dangerous as to necessitate their control by other troops. About 400 constituted what was known as the Royal African Corps, while the others were drafted to the 1st Battalion of the 60th Regiment. On June 20 (1817) the first batch of 161 deserters arrived in Simons Bay in the transport Lloyds. Some indication, even then, was given of the character of the newcomers, for before arrangements were completed for landing them a detachment of the 48th regiment had to go on board to guard them, as they had formed a plot to seize the vessel and get away in her. The Royal African Corps was sent to the eastern frontier and distributed among the Fish River posts. Scattered as they thus necessarily were, and not being directly under the eye of sufficiently powerful authority, they were able to follow the dictates of their evil inclinations. The result was that desertions from each of the posts became frequent. Some even made their way with their arms and ammunition into Kaffirland, while others caused consternation in the Colony. Before long the prison accommodation was taxed to the utmost, and though general as well as regimental courts martial were held, matters did not improve. The RAC eventually went on to render good service and served with valour during the Battle Of Grahamstown in 1819. 6. THE ROYAL AFRICAN CORPS - EXTRACT FROM FRONTIERS BY NOEL MOSTERT -Page 456 (In 1817) The Cape was reinforced with several hundred men from two regiments, the Royal African Corps (which originally had been formed for the deadly West African service) and the 60th Regiment. What astounded and dismayed Somerset (Governor of the Cape) and his senior officials was that all these men were deserters and criminals 'of the worst type', who had been offered military service as an alternative to long penal sentences. When the first batch of these diehards [The 60th Regiment] arrived at the Cape a detachment from one of the regiments already stationed there had to go aboard the ship to maintain a guard, because a plot had been formed to seize the vessel and get away in her. On the voyage out sodomy had been rife and four of the men had boasted of themselves as murderers. On 21 June 1817 Somerset wrote angrily to Bathurst: I cannot employ the description of soldier of which the 60th Regiment is composed . . . foreigners,

deserters from all nations, grumblers, and of general desperate and bad character. The slave population was numerous, and had been up in arms once already. Fear of collusion between slaves and soldiers was only one reason for concern. The other was the constant one of desertion to the Xhosa, and what this could mean to frontier peace: From this arrived the odd but understandable notion that the new soldiers should be put on Robben Island as prison guards. The merit of the idea presumably was that, out in the shark-populated bay, they would be as isolated as the prisoners themselves, for they were, as another description of them had it, a set of the most desperate villains and worthless thieves and vagabonds that ever disgraced any country in the world. They wasted little time in proving the point. A whaling station had been established on Robben Island and when a ship anchored off to load whale oil some of the 60th together with a number of convicts rowed out and seized her, the master was put off in the ship's longboat with members of his crew. A convict who had served in the navy took command and the vessel moved off in a 'seamanlike' manner, with the soldiers tearing off their regimental insignia and flinging them into the sea. A naval vessel went in pursuit, but lost her. It remains by far the most colourful and notable escape ever managed from that notorious island. Somerset, however, probably considered himself lucky to be rid of them, especially in view of what followed with the others. Those belonging to the Royal African Corps were sent to the Frontier [they were posted at Kaffir Drift Post to patrol the Fish River frontier]. Here their behaviour caused such terror, Somerset told Bathurst, that the colonists feared the Xhosa less than those who have been placed there for their protection, and he begged that they be speedily removed. The employment of this description of soldier in the colony, and the enormities they have committed have caused more discontent than any act the British government could have committed towards the colony. Inevitably, many of them deserted and went to live among the Xhosa. Like all those others before them - shipwrecked sailors, runaway slaves, earlier military deserters and freebooting Boers - they found life among the Xhosa to their taste. Once there, they were committed to it for life, and that made them even more dangerous as Xhosa allies. The British colonial and military authorities had long memories and these deserters knew that what awaited them if they returned to the colony was either the hangman, the halberds, or some other vile and enduring punishment. [It is a known fact that at the Battle of Grahamstown in 1819, the Xhosa Chief NceleMakana had a former British sergeant-of-the-line serving as an advisor] 6. LEVEY NAME ORIGINS - A collection of theories - By Colin Levey A. A DICTIONARY OF SURNAMES - by ANTHONY LOWER - According to the entry in this book, the Levey surname is a derivation of the Levi surname. The entry reads as follows: This personal name seems to be the common source of Levy, Levey, Levison, Leeves & c. From this, it would seem that Levi may have been the original spelling of the family name as reflected in Josephs Baptismal record B. THE JEWISH CONNECTION - It seems that over many centuries, Jewish Levi families changed their names to Levy, Levey and Leavy for various reasons. One common reason was to avoid persecution in one or other of the many pogroms that occurred in various countries of the world in earlier times. In South Africa alone, we know of one Lithuanian Jew who came to the Cape in the 1880s and had three sons, one of whom changed his name to Levey, another changed his to Leavy and the other to Lee.

C. THE FRENCH CONNECTION Extracts from emails from Dee Negus - a descendent of the ESSEX Leveys .......My preferred version of the meaning of the name Levey is that it is French, a derivation of 'Les Vais' or similar, a place-name The Fields. We can trace our Levey line back to Stansted Montfitchett in Essex which is of Norman origin. Before that it is conjecture............... Extracts from emails from Ray Levey - a descendent of the ESSEX Leveys As my direct line peters out at Manuden in Essex, myself and others who relate to this line, have speculated as to the origins as to the surname and of course Ireland often gets a mention along with Jewish and French. The surnames being Le Vey or Lefevre for France. I cant predict for sure where the name comes from so I have to be happy to leave the line as it is for the time being and therefore its roots somewhat of a mystery. However, I am fairly sure that my Thomas Levy (Levey) who married in 1713 could have corrupted the name into its present spelling. D. THE IRISH CONNECTION - The following extract is from the book SURNAMES OF IRELAND by Edward Maclysaght (Mac) Leavy, Levy - Mac Con Shlibhe (u, hound - sliabh, mountain). This is the name of an old Co. Longford sept akin to the O'Farrells. It is only occasionally used as an abbreviation of Dunlevy. The prefix Mac is now very rarely retained. SIF 104' Map as Conlevy) Longford. Extracts from emails from Dee Negus : a descendent of the ESSEX Leveys....... I live in Ireland and if I want to claim Irish roots I say my name is Leavy which is a perfectly acceptable Irish name and it comes from the Irish language 'Slieve' which means hill or mountain. Extracts from emails from Ray Levey - A descendent of the ESSEX Leveys - ..the connection to Ireland had to arise at some stage . As my direct line peters out at Manuden in Essex, myself and others who relate to this line, have speculated as to the origins as to the surname and of course Ireland often gets a mention along with Jewish and French. The surnames being LEAVY MCLEAVY FOR IRELAND ... E. THE CELTIC CONNECTION: (This extract is from The Levey Family Tree Book by Val Trevorrow) Frank Victor Levey (A449) had been on a trip to Scotland and visited the Tartan Shop of "Lithgows & Cochrane." On his return he brought with him the following poem, which had been composed by the owners of the Tartan Shop when he could not find a suitable tartan for the Levey family. "It happened in Appin in days long ago, The Stewarts thought around the land they should go. They met with more wanderers who did some of them slay, But those who survived were annexed to Macleay. And then this sad story took on a new phase, The MacDonleavy tribe the MacCleay tribe erased. But because of the shame that this did to them bring They dropped the MacDon and started to sing:A Leavy for me, A Leavy for me If you're not a Leavy you're no use to me. MacLeays and the Stewarts before us did flee So being a Leavy means something to me. But boasters soon learn that revenge comes in time, And Leavy took flight to a far distant clime; From whence one returned with daughter and wife, and claimed to be Leavy from Kingdom of Fife.

From the land of adoption has come the request To Lithgows and Cochrane - "Oh Please do your best to find me a tartan I'm worth to wear So accept with best wishes but - Please do not swear" The tartan of "The Stewart of Appin." There is something rather coincidental about the MacDonleavy name in this poem! As stated in the previous paragraph, the Irish derivation of the Levey name is from (Mac) Leavy, which in turn appears to have come from the earlier Mac Con Shlibhe. Its not too difficult to imagine the latter being pronounced MacDonlevey! And then of course there is the possibility that the name is derived from the village of Leven where there has been a large Levey clan for many years. Could this have a bearing on the Celtic origin of the surname? CONCLUSION - It would seem from the above that there are a number of separate origins for the various Levey families. Prior to the 1900s, most people could not read or write and hence had no idea how their names should be written or spelled. Where written records were made, such records were inevitably recorded by Church or Government scribes who spelled them as they saw fit. This was a common occurrence even in the late 1800s. When considering he LEVI spelling on Josephs birth and Christening record, we need to take into account that the Scottish pronunciation of the name Levi would in all probably have been Lev Vee and not Lee Vy as the Jewish name is pronounced today. It follows that the scribe who entered the name on the baptismal register probably thought he was writing the name Lev Vee. One thing does seem quite clear - the spelling of the name in the 17th century seems to have split between Gentile and Jew, with Gentiles favouring the Levey spelling and the Jews retaining the Levi or Levy spelling. 7. LEVEN, SCHOONIE Leven is a baron burgh (borough) of the parish of Schoonie on the south coast of the county of Fifeshire, Scotland. The parish is about 8 kilometres long by 3 kilometres wide. The burgh of Leven consists of 3 streets running parallel to each other in an east west direction and which are connected by bye-lanes. The parish was a coal mining area but production has now ceased. It still produces ochre, which is milled in Leven itself. Leven has a number of different mills, including flax spinning, timber, flour, bone and linseed oil. It also has a herring net factory, an iron foundry and brickworks. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in hand-loom weaving and one cant help wondering if this was where Joseph learned his trade as a hosier. Leven is a popular summer resort for sea bathing. It has 3 churches - a parish church, a Free Church and a UP Church. There was formerly an independent chapel, but it has been shut for some time. One can only speculate in which of these Joseph was christened. (Edited from http://www.genuki.org.uk:8080/big/sct/FIF/parishes/Scoonie/).