116. Wayne's 2nd great grandparents, William and Mary Chamberlain, lighthouse keeper, at Cape of Good Hope and Port Elizabeth, Africa

William Chamberlain and his wife Mary Allen Chamberlain were the great grandparents of Gladys Tregenna Dayton Eckman.  Anne Chamberlain, mentioned below, became the wife of Hiram Miles Dayton, and was Gladys's grandmother.  Hiram's father's history is told about in blog # 67. 

William Chamberlain was born 27th October, 1815, in Ewelme, Oxfordshire, England. He was married November 12, 1836 to Mary Allen, born 1 Jan 1815, also born in Oxfordshire, England. They spent the first part of their married life in England where Mary gave birth to John 1838; Henry, 1840; Elizabeth, 1842; and Joseph in 1844, who died at 11 months of age.  They lived near Oxford, which has the oldest university in the English speaking world. 

As the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford is a unique and historic institution. There is no clear date of foundation, but teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.   

            These pictures above give an idea of the area in which they lived.  

In about 1845 William and Mary moved from Ewelme, Oxford, England, to Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope,South Africa. The English Government owned large tracts of land in South Africa and were offering a rosy future to all the people who would go there and settle.  The King was anxious to have his own subjects take up land and build homes in the Southern part of Africa on the coast line, and inland, which was owned by England. To encourage the English people to move that long way away from home, he offered 100 acres of land and the privilege of borrowing 50 lbs. (money)  to get started on their new home.

So with their family of 3 small children, John, Henry and Elizabeth, (Joseph had died about age 1) they embarked on this adventurous journey.  Here William got employment as a lighthouse keeper in Cape Town. It was here that their fifth child, Anne, (who married Hiram Miles Dayton) was born, July 19, 1846. James, their sixth child, was born in 1848; the seventh was Emma, who was born in 1850.  This picture below may not have been the lighthouse they lived in, but is typical of lighthouses there.

Sometime after 1850, after the last child was born they moved some 450 miles to the east of South Africa, still on the coast, to a place called Port Elizabeth. It was here that Mormon missionaries, William Walker, Leonard I. Smith, and Jesse Haven, who were sent there from America to search out the honest-in-heart, found the Chamberlain family and taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This seemed to be a most productive field because a good many of these English people joined the Church about that time, and also came to Utah.

They had quite an active branch in Port Elizabeth. At that time, the missionaries who were sent out among the people were instructed to encourage the newly converted Saints to emigrate to Utah, to strengthen the Mormon commonwealth. These missionaries spoke glowingly of Utah and the advantages of being with the main body of the Saints in Zion. America was the land of the free and was not ruled by a king. All this sounded good to these South African Saints and they started making plans to leave for Utah. A large group of Saints, including the Chamberlain family left their friends and comfortable surroundings, and from Port Elizabeth they set sail, March 27, 1859, on the ship “Alacrity” with Captain Cooper in charge. Our ancestor, Anne was almost 13 years old on the journey.

At the island of St. Helena, the ship stopped to take on fresh water and the passengers were allowed to visit the grave of Napoleon Boneparte. 

  Enroute from the island a dense fog came up and Captain Cooper asked them all to fast and pray that they might not be ship wrecked. Their prayers were answered and the fog lifted. From then on there was only the sea to gaze upon until they reached Boston Harbor the last of May, 1859, a journey of 70 days.  

They spent two days in Albany, New York, and then they came by train to Florence, Nebraska. They were assigned to the Edward Stevenson Company of 285 saints and 54 wagons. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 16, 1859. They remained in Salt Lake for a short time, maybe until spring, and then moved to Kaysville, Davis County, to make their home. He got work there, but became ill after a few years.

He went through extensive treatments, but his ailment was diagnosed as a form of cancer. He grew steadily worse and decided to go back to England to his doctor. He died in Oxford, June 6, 1868. He was buried in England, the land of his birth. Mary was left a widow at the age of 53. In fact, she remained a widow for 32 years. When her children married, she
lived around with them. The last years of her life she spent with her youngest daughter, Emma, in Charleston, Utah.

 She died there on March 23, 1900 at the age of 85 and was buried in Charleston.  Gladys was born October 11, 1901, after her great grandmother had passed away.

In the next blog, I will tell about their daughter Anne Chamberlain, who married Hiram Miles Dayton, Gladys's grandparents.