Patrick Goold - MP King Williams Town - Het Volksblad - Sept 1883

Patrick Goold MLA (1814 - 1886) was a prominent member of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope.

Early life

Patrick Goold was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1814, the son of Michael Henry and Elizabeth Mahoney Goold. As part of the British Army, he came to the Cape Colony in 1835, where he served on the frontier for the next few decades - working more with logistics than in actual combat. He became a prominent merchant on the eastern frontier after discharge. He also formed the Veterans Volunteer Force in 1877, of which he became Captain. On 6 August 1849 he married Ellen Cullopy.

Political career

John Molteno and Saul Solomon preside over Cape Government - Zingari cartoon 1873

He settled in the frontier town of King William's Town, and in 1869 he stood with

Charles Abercrombie Smith Sir Charles Abercrombie Smith (12 May 1834 – 1 May 1919) was a Cape Colony scientist, politician and civil servant. Early life Charles Abercrombie Smith was born on 12 May 1834 in St Cyrus, Kincardineshire, Scotland, and studied physics and ma ...

in the hotly contested election for that district. Goold and Smith were elected as Members of the Cape Parliament (House of Assembly). Controversially, Goold was a Catholic, and both he and Smith were relative liberals, elected by a conservative and Protestant district. In parliament he was strictly independent. However he soon came to be one of a group of Eastern Province MPs who strongly supported the movement for

Responsible Government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bran ...

(or "self-rule" as Goold preferred to call it) led by

John Molteno Sir John Charles Molteno (5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a soldier, businessman, champion of responsible government and the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molten ...

, and the allied movement for Voluntaryism (complete separation of Church and State) led by Saul Solomon. He was noted for hardly ever speaking in the house, but for his slow, hard-hitting and very humorous eloquence when he did speak. He retired soon after Responsible Government and Voluntarism were successfully introduced in 1872.''Prominent men of Cape Colony, South Africa''. Portland, Maine: Lakeside Press, 1902.

References

Goold Goold Cape Colony people {{EasternCape-politician-stub