In 1820 John Bailie, a member of an Anglo-Irish landowning family, led a large party of British immigrants to South Africa as part of a group later to be known as the 1820 Settlers. The first volume (of three) based on the extensive research of Mrs M.D. Nash, an authority on the Settlers, attempts to trace the European background of both Bailie and the members of the settler groups, and to understand the cultural heritage they brought with them to South Africa.