MUNRO, Alexander

National Archives, Kew CO48/44, 525

5 Butcher Row

Ratcliff

27^th July 1819

My Lord,

May I beg to inform your Lordship that I am a Lieut. on the retired pay of the Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners with a family of five sons and three daughters from the age of 18 to 2 years, wholly depending upon my retired allowance 6/7 per day without the least prospect of situating any of them. And having learned the benevolent intentions of Government to encourage emigration to the Cape of Good Hope I must humbly beg (in consideration of my family) to be permitted to partake of the Government's most gracious design, under such existing regulations as may appear to your Lordship best calculated to my circumstance. The three senior sons are tolerably well educated and were designed for the Army and Navy in which they would have been employed had the war continued, and my endeavours for employment for them since have been very unsuccessful. I am 44 years of age and of a strong healthy constitution and by profession a practical engineer either civil or military, but the circumstance of so many of the profession in England almost precludes the possibility of obtaining employment for the benefit of my family, but which united with the art of agriculture would be found extensively usefull in the Cape Colony, should it please your Lordship to class me with some respectable applicants on the same subject that I may pass by the first conveyance. A reply will be most humbly received by, my Lord

Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant

Alex'r MUNRO

Late Lieut. Rl Sappers & Miners