1. Robert Godlonton was an influential politician of the Cape Colony.
19 Facts About Robert Godlonton
1. 2.
Robert Godlonton was an 1820 Settler, who developed the press of the Eastern Cape and led the Eastern Cape separatist movement as a representative in the Cape's Legislative Council.
3.
Robert Godlonton was a weak and sickly child and after he was orphaned at the age of twelve he was apprenticed at a printing office.
4.
Robert Godlonton emigrated to the Cape as part of the 1820 Settlers, taking with him a small printing press.
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In 1834 Godlonton became partner in the Grahamstown Journal and in 1839 he took over the business.
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Robert Godlonton eventually developed a wide range of business interests, but his primary activity remained newspapers and the printing industry.
7.
Robert Godlonton gained a controlling stake in the Kingwilliamstown Gazette, the Uitenhage Times, the Queenstown Free Press, the Eastern Province Herald, the Eastern Province Monthly Magazine, the Friend of Bloemfontein, and Het Grahamstads Register en Boeren-vriend.
8.
Robert Godlonton began to involve himself in politics soon after he arrived in the Cape.
9.
Robert Godlonton took an active role in the frontier wars as member of the board of defence and, although never elected a municipal commissioner, he diligently attended town and committee meetings in the area.
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Robert Godlonton swiftly came to the forefront as the leader of this Eastern Cape settler movement.
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Robert Godlonton used his newspapers to condemn Stockenstrom's treaty system and advocate seizing the Xhosa lands.
12.
Robert Godlonton used his considerable influence in the religious institutions of the 1820 Settlers to drive his opinions, declaring that "the British race was selected by God himself to colonise Kaffraria".
13.
From his leadership of the frontier settlers' attacks on Stockenstrom's treaty system, Robert Godlonton had acquired a very prominent and powerful position in the Eastern Cape.
14.
Robert Godlonton represented the Eastern Cape in this new Legislative Council for the next 25 years.
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Robert Godlonton was permitted to retain his parliamentary seat until its dissolution in 1878.
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Robert Godlonton was immensely influential for his work in elaborating on and immortalising the trials and grievances of the 1820 Settlers.
17.
Robert Godlonton was outspoken in his beliefs and earned the nickname "Moral Bob".
18.
Robert Godlonton was a staunch Methodist, like a great many of the 1820 settlers of the Eastern Cape, who was strongly involved in Church and Missionary activity.
19.
Robert Godlonton was a prominent leader of the Cape's Methodist community, friends with other powerful churchmen such as John Ayliff, Henry Hare Dugmore and Henry Calderwood among others and, together with such men, formed a powerful business clique.