# Benjamin Moodie

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Captain **Benjamin Moodie** (1789 - 2 April 1856) was the 10th [Laird](/source/Laird) of Melsetter who led a party of 200 Scottish immigrants to the [Cape Colony](/source/Cape_Colony) in 1817,[1][2] three years before the arrival of the [1820 Settlers](/source/1820_Settlers).

Moodie served in the Ross and Caithness Militia and returned from the [Napoleonic Wars](/source/Napoleonic_Wars) in 1815 as a [half-pay](/source/Half-pay) officer, and was forced to sell the heavily indebted family estate in the [Orkney Islands](/source/Orkney_Islands).[3][4] In 1817 he led a party of indentured Scottish artisans to settle in the Cape Colony.[5] The first party arrived in [Cape Town](/source/Cape_Town) on 14 June 1817 on the ship *Brilliant*, followed by a further 50 on the *Garland* on 23 August 1817, and a third party on the *Clyde* on 24 September 1817.[6] Among the party was [David Hume](/source/David_Hume_(explorer)), who became an explorer and big-game hunter, and his brother Donald Moodie. A second brother, [John Moodie](/source/John_Wedderburn_Dunbar_Moodie), joined him in South Africa in 1819.[7]

Benjamin Moodie settled on the farm Groot Vaders Bosch near [Swellendam](/source/Swellendam) and later at White Sands, now known as [Witsand](/source/Witsand), at the mouth of the [Breede River](/source/Breede_River). After his wife Margaret died in 1838, he returned to Britain where he married Susan Barnett, returning to the Cape in 1841 with 21 orphan children.[8]

In 1892, Benjamin Moodie's grandson [Thomas Moodie](/source/Thomas_Moodie_(Rhodesian_settler)) led a party of mostly Afrikaner farmers to settle in [Rhodesia](/source/Rhodesia), where they established the town of [Melsetter](/source/Melsetter), named after the Moodie ancestral home in the Orkney Islands.[9]

## References

1. ["1820 Settler Party : Moodie"](http://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/settlershowparty.php?party=Moodie). 1820 Settler Genealogies and Other Information. Retrieved 29 May 2017.

1. Seatter, Elsie. ["The Moodie Story"](http://www.themoodies.co.za/wmenu.php). Retrieved 31 May 2017.

1. MacKenzie, John M & Dalziel, Nigel R (2007). *The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, identity, gender and race, 1772-1914*. p. 39.

1. ["Moodie Family letters go to auction"](http://www.grahamstown.co.za/news/moodie_family_letters_go_to_auction). 14 January 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2017.

1. [The Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval](/source/Melville_Henry_Massue) (1906). [*The Moodie Book*](https://archive.org/details/moodiebookbeinga00ruvi). p. [53](https://archive.org/details/moodiebookbeinga00ruvi/page/n135)

1. Norval, Henry. ["Benjamin Moodie Arrives in Cape Town in 1817"](https://web.archive.org/web/20170921002440/https://www.norval.co.za/benjamin-moodie-arrives-in-cape-town-in-1817/). Archived from [the original](https://www.norval.co.za/benjamin-moodie-arrives-in-cape-town-in-1817/) on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.

1. Ballstadt, Carl P. Vol. 9. 4608.

1. ["Moodie, Benjamin"](http://www.southafricansettlers.com/?p=1246). South African Settlers. 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2017.

1. ["Moodie Trek to Rhodesia - 1892"](https://www.geni.com/projects/Moodie-Trek-to-Rhodesia-1892/14431). Geni. Retrieved 1 June 2017.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Benjamin Moodie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Moodie) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Moodie?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.