Thurs 21 Aug: Is a woman’s place in business? Clearly Mrs Townsend, the daughter of Mrs Hockly (who was a Moore by birth, and with her second marriage after widowhood to William Dods Pringle, scion of the 1820 Settler family), thought so. The detritus of Mrs Townsend’s trading and business activities, at one point with stock valued at around £1500 (a very large amount at that time), is an important component of the Pringle collection. She took over the trading and importing business engaged in by her first rather useless husband Edward (his brother in England despaired of him) and greatly expanded it. However, little appears in ‘the history’ of the 1820 Settlers to the Eastern Cape and their families about such things as women entrepreneurs, in particular at such an early point as the 1840s. It would be good – but would it be possible? – to be able to hunt her business and also her heirs, both with Edward Townsend and then with Dods Pringle.

Last updated: 21 August 2014