emigrant, adjective and & noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special sense of general English.
obs. except in historical contexts
A. adjective Usually in the collocations emigrant Boer or emigrant farmer, Voortrekker noun sense 1.
1837 Anderson in D.J. Kotze Lett. of American Missionaries (1950) 165A number of these Emigrant Boers..were on Vaal River, a few miles above the hunters’ camp, at the time it was attacked by Moselekatsi.
1837 Reply to the Memorial of Several Brittish Subjects Resident at Port Natal in S. Afr. Archival Rec.: Natal I. 407Reporting the arrival of the Emigrant Farmers at Port Natal and the Public Expressions of their determination to occupy that place and the adjacent country, and praying for the Protection of the British government.
1841 G. Napier in S. Afr. Archival Records: Natal I. 378Her Majesty has desired me to inform the Emigrant Farmers that she cannot acknowledge a portion of her own subjects as an independent Republic.
1847 ‘A Bengali’ Notes on Cape of G.H. 21It will be recalled that these Emigrant Boors had already once defied the British Government at Natal in 1840.
1888 W. Bird Annals of Natal I. 438Journal of the Expedition of the Emigrant Farmers Under Their Chief Commandant A.W.J. Pretorius (Formerly of Graaf-Reinet) Against Dingaan, the King of the Zulus In the months of November and December 1838.
1905 G.W. Stow Native Races of S. Afr. 219Commandos, long before the emigrant farmers moved in a body across that stream, were sent to scour the country to the north of it and to destroy as many of the hordes as they could discover.
1973 J. Meintjes Voortrekkers 13The emigrants..never referred to themselves as Voortrekkers — that came much later — but as emigrant farmers.
B. noun Voortrekker noun sense 1.
1838 Anderson in D.J. Kotze Lett. of American Missionaries (1950) 236The latest accounts..stated the effective force of the Emigrants at from 1,000 to 1,300 men...The fire-arms and the prowess of the Emigrants are..likely to make them masters of the country.
1839 H. Jervis in S. Afr. Archival Records: Natal I. 314Notwithstanding whatever Colonial Emigrants may think to the contrary, they cannot throw off their allegiance or cease to be considered as subjects of the Queen of England.
a1875 T. Baines Jrnl of Res. (1964) II. 161A Boer who has been at the Dorp informs us that it is decided that no person residing within the Sovereignty shall be capable of holding land among the Emigrants.
1877 J. Noble S. Afr. 91The condition of the emigrants for some time after this was miserable enough.
1994 M. Roberts tr. of J.A. Wahlberg’s Trav. Jrnls 1838–56 58Get on the wrong road and outspan by a spruit on the other side of the Modder laager (where the emigrants stayed for a long time).
Usually in the collocations emigrant Boer or emigrant farmer, Voortrekker noun sense 1.
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