1501 Bridget Bryan: An Immigrant s Story

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2 This is the story of my paternal great-grandmother Bridget Bryan (c ), who migrated from Ireland to Queensland in Her father John Burke (c ) grew up in County Galway during the terrible starvation and disease of the Great Famine in the 1840s. During this time the potato crops were devastated by blight and large numbers of Irish perished or emigrated. A modest economic recovery in the 1860s may have encouraged him to stay in Ireland, but the downturn in the 1870s that became the Long Depression 1 persuaded him to look overseas for a better life for his family. Bridget sailed as a nine year-old girl with her parents John (age 40) and Mary (age 38) and three brothers Michael (age 18), Patrick (age 16) and William Joseph (age 12) in the City of Agra from Gravesend and arrived at the Queensland port of Maryborough in July Queensland was declared a separate colony in 1859 and its population expanded steadily with assisted migration programs from Britain and Ireland. The Darling Downs area was particularly attractive due to its rich black agricultural soils. By the time Bridget s family arrived, the government was extending the road 3, rail 4 and telegraph 5 networks throughout the district. The family moved to Highfields, a village near Toowoomba, where John Burke was listed as a Freeholder in the electoral rolls from 1877 to Then from 1886, he was working for the railways and living at Cocks s Camp, a railway camp established in about 1883 near Highfields station. Mary died in and John lived in the camp until it was disbanded in about 1900, when he moved to Leyburn 8, a small town about 70 km south-west of Toowoomba. Figure 1 Highfields Railway Station - late 1870s Henry Bryan, an immigrant from Bath in England, started work with Queensland Railways in 1893 as a lengthsman 9 (someone who was responsible for the maintenance of a length of railway track). He also lived at Cock s Camp 10, and must have met Bridget while working with John Burke. He later became a railway bridge carpenter 11 and then a bridge inspector. Henry and Bridget were married in Toowoomba Catholic Church (now the Toowoomba Cathedral) in They had seven children over the next sixteen years. The first, Nellie Mary ( ) trained as a nurse and worked for a time at the Willowburn Mental Asylum ( ) 13 in North Toowoomba. Bridget s father John died in 1908 and is buried with Mary in Cabarlah Cemetery 14 near Highfields Bridget Bryan: An Immigrant s Story

3 Bridget s eldest son William ( ) followed his father and grandfather into the railways in , starting in the Locomotive branch of the Southern Division. By 1926 he was a fireman 16, and then an engine driver. His job took his family around the State to Quilpie (west of Charleville), then to Southport, before he finally settled in Coorparoo in South Brisbane. Bridget did more than her fair share of child-raising, because she also brought up two of her grandchildren who were born out of wedlock. Nellie gave birth to Daniel ( ), and her 15-year old sister Bridget ( ) gave birth to John (1920-c2001). However, there was a limit to how many of her children s offspring Bridget would raise for them, and when the still-unmarried Nellie gave birth to Jack (1922-), she must have put her foot down, because she was not the baptismal godmother as she had been for Daniel and John 17. Not long afterwards, Nellie left her nursing career and took Jack to the Charleville area to work as a cattle station cook, later moving to Brisbane. Nellie was keen for Jack to follow in the family tradition of a railway career. In 1938 when he was fifteen he sat for the entrance exams for both Queensland Railways and the Post Master General s Department (PMG). An acceptance letter duly arrived from the PMG, and Jack took the position, starting work as a telegram boy. A couple of weeks later an acceptance letter arrived from the Railways, but it came too late, much to his mother s disappointment. In the end, Jack had a successful career with the PMG, retiring in 1988 as the State Broadcasting Manager for South Australia and being honoured with an Order of Australia for services to the media as a radio broadcasting engineer the following year 18. Bridget s household made a worthy contribution to the war effort during World War II, although not all of them made it home. Daniel served as a clerk in the 25 th Infantry Battalion from 1940 to His unit saw service in the Egypt and Libya from 1941 to 1942, and then returned to reinforce the battered Australian units on the Kokoda Trail, finishing the war battling strong Japanese resistance at Balikpapan in Borneo 20. John saw service in New Guinea as an artillery gun layer in the 2 nd Field Regiment from 1942 to , following the unit s return from the desert campaign. Jack joined the RAAF in 1941 and became a radar mechanic in the 43 rd Squadron, flying operational patrols in Catalinas to New Guinea and beyond 22. Bridget s third son Tom ( ) enlisted in the Army in 1941 and was posted to the 31 st Infantry Battalion in Syria, arriving a month after the armistice was declared. Like other units, his battalion returned home in 1942 to reinforce the Australian forces on the Kokoda Trail 23. The 31 st was the first to re-enter Kokoda and to help break up the Japanese defensive position at Gorari. But the final operation of the war proved to be the most difficult for the 31 st, as they suffered the heaviest casualties of any unit after the landing at Balikpapan in July Tragically, Tom was killed on his birthday on the day after the landing. His death was mentioned in the Battalion s memoir, Forever Forward, because as the battalion advanced that day, he remarked to a comrade I m going into action on my thirty-eighth birthday, and wouldn t it be a bugger if I was ironed out on the anniversary of the day I came into the world 25. Bridget s third daughter Eileen ( ), in contrast to her older sisters, spent her whole life in the family home, had no children and was a devout Christian. Despite this quiet and sober life, she gained some notoriety in 1984 when the Toowoomba Council announced it was planning to move the Mothers Memorial from the main street to a 1501 Bridget Bryan: An Immigrant s Story

4 nearby park 26. This memorial contained the names of all Toowoomba residents who died in the World Wars, including her brother Tom. Eileen was outraged by this and threatened to have his name removed if the memorial was moved, saying that when it was installed in the early 1920s, the Council solemnly pledged that it would never be moved. The upshot was that the memorial was relocated to the park and Tom s name is still there, so she didn t carry out her threat. Eileen outlived her parents and all of her siblings, inheriting the family cottage. When she died she left it to the Catholic Church (much to the dismay of her nieces and nephews, who thought that Henry and Bridget wanted them to have it!). Bridget and Henry moved into a cottage in Toowoomba in about , probably after Henry retired from his job at the railway. Jack remembers that when he visited the house in the 1930s, the gateposts were fashioned from a very solid timber pylon that came from a railway bridge that Henry had repaired. Henry died in 1948, and Bridget died two years later at the grand age of After migrating to Australia in 1876, Bridget Bryan s life included the long period that saw Australia develop from a British colony to a prosperous independent nation. She lived through two severe economic depressions and two world wars. Her life in Australia began as an assisted migrant during a period of colonial expansion, and ended during another era of assisted migration as the country welcomed the displaced peoples of Europe to create the modern Australia of today. In the twilight of her life, she would be entitled to reflect that her family had contributed well, both to the nation s prosperity by helping develop the railway network that was essential to its development, and also to its freedom by service in the armed forces when it was most needed. References 1. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History, Timothy J. Meagher, 2013, Columbia University Press. 2. Assisted Immigration , Queensland State Archives 3. The Darling Downs Gazette, 28 May Roadworks approved for the Highfields Road near Cocks s Camp. 4. The Darling Downs Gazette, 20 Jun Meeting of settlers to promote a railway extension from Highfields to Crow s Nest. 5. The Brisbane Courier, 22 May Electric Telegraph extension from Highfields to Crow s Nest is in progress. 6. Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 7. Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. 8. Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 9. Queensland Railway Employees, June 1890 June 1901, State Library of Queensland. 10. Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 11. Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 12. Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. 13. Find and Connect, Willowburn Mental Hospital, Website: accessed May, Cemeteries, Toowoomba Regional Council. Website: accessed May, Queensland Railway Employees, June 1890 June 1901, State Library of Queensland. 16. Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 17. Records of Baptism, Archives, Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba. 18. It s An Honour Australians Celebrating Australians, website: accessed May, National Archives of Australia - Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, th Australian Infantry Battalion, Unit War History, Australian War Memorial Bridget Bryan: An Immigrant s Story

5 21. National Archives of Australia - Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, National Archives of Australia - Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, National Archives of Australia - Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, st Australian Infantry Battalion, Unit War History, Australian War Memorial. 25. Forever Forward: The History of the 2/31 st Australian Infantry Battalion, 2 nd AIF , J. Laffin. 26. The Toowoomba Chronicle, 17 November Queensland Electoral Rolls , 1903 to the present. 28. Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Figure 1: Queensland Rail, History Timeline, 1870s Bridget Bryan: An Immigrant s Story

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7 My Immigrant was an Exile Job King Ellement, was an intriguing character with an unusual name. He was transported to Melbourne, Australia for larceny, yet Victoria wasn t a penal colony so how did it come about that he was transported there! He married several times, had many hardships to endure, children in two countries and still lived to a good age for his era. These aspects of his life will be covered in more detail as this is his story. Job King Element, was baptised on 4 November 1821 at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England i. In England his name was spelt with one l, whereas most records in Australia contained a double l. Job s parents were John Element and Ann King ii. This explained Job s name i.e.: his mother s maiden name was his middle name. Job had a younger brother, Thomas Brown Element, and four half siblings from his father s previous marriage, they were Joseph, Phillis, Elizabeth and Susannah. Job s first marriage was to Rebecca Taylor on 8 June 1842 at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England iii. His occupation was listed as a labourer. Job and Rebecca had three children, James born 1839, Ann born 1840 and Elizabeth born 1843 all baptised at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England. iv They lived next door to Job s parents, John and Ann at Hearns Yard, Chesham. v The cottages in Hearns Yard were known as the Sixpenny Cottages, so named because their rent was 6d a week. This was a slum. Job was first charged with larceny for stealing a tin box and a sovereign and a half from the dwelling house of William Howard on 8 February 1842 vi. He was sentenced to three months hard labour. vii Two things occurred in 1844 that put pressure on the family s finances. Job s wife Rebecca was ill, and his father John died of Chronic Bronchitis on 23 April 1844 viii. This left Job s mother also in need. On 29 November 1844, Thomas (Job s brother) was charged with stealing two shirts and one handkerchief and Ann (Job s mother) was charged with receiving them ix. Both were acquitted. x Soon after, on 31 December 1844, Job was charged with stealing lead inlay. xi As it was a second offence, the sentence was harsher. In January 1845 he was sentenced to ten years transportation xii. Job s family were now without his income as well. We can only wonder what Job felt about the predicament his family was in, however, events were to further conspire against him. Job s wife Rebecca died of phthisis on 20 June 1846 xiii. Job s mother Ann was then looking after Job s three children and later, John J Element, a grandson born to Job s youngest daughter Elizabeth also lived in the same home xiv. Job went from Aylesbury prison, to Pentonville and then to Millbank. When he was received at Pentonville he was described as 10 stone 3lbs, his character was good and he could read and write. Job travelled on the ship Thomas Arbuthnot in January 1847, to be transported to Australia. xv The passenger list states 289 Male Convicts (Exiles). Victoria was short of labour, however, they didn t want to be labelled a penal colony so it was decided that a certain number of prisoners (known as exiles ) would be sent under special conditions. The prisoners selected were to have completed 15 to 24 months of their sentences in England and they were then landed in Australia with a conditional pardon. They were free men, as long as they did not set foot in England until the terms of their original sentence had expired. xvi My Immigrant was an Exile

8 There were 1723 exiles sent to Victoria, Australia xvii. Newspapers often referred to them as Pentonvillians as many came from Pentonville jail. Job landed at Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, in May On the disposal list for the ship. Job is listed as being engaged to work as a shepherd in the Grampians by a Mr W Shepherd(?) for a period of one year at a rate of 20 pounds per annum. xviii Job, is next heard of on 11 January 1853 when he appears in the Geelong Advertiser as having sold 82oz s of gold at Ballarat xix. This was just prior to him marrying. He also appears in the Geelong rate books from 1857 so we know he purchased a home.. xx It was on 31 January 1853 that Job Ellement married Margaret Fearon at the Christ Church in Geelong xxi. As Job was considered a free man upon landing in Victoria it appears he did not need permission to marry, from a research point of view this was unfortunate as an application may have provided more information. The Margaret Fearon that Job Married is likely to have emigrated from Ireland in September xxii 1852 on board the ship Bournef. She is listed as a domestic servant for Mr Robertson of the Union Bank xxiii. Job and Margaret married within four months of her arrival. The marriage short as Margaret died less than three months later on 20 March 1853 and was buried the next day at Geelong Eastern Cemetery xxiv. Unfortunately, cause of death was not listed. There is a family story that Margaret and Job had a child Isaac, however, no record of Isaac can be found. As she was only in Australia for six months and only married for three of those it appears unlikely, unless she died from pregnancy complications / still birth etc. Within months Job marries again, this time he married Elizabeth Jersey Griffiths on 24 June 1853 at the Christ Church in Geelong xxv. Eliza was from Jersey in the Channel Islands, she was the 5 th of 6 children born to George Griffiths and Mary Ann Green, but she was the first born in Jersey, hence her middle name. xxvi Eliza immigrated on the ship Runnymede in xxvii June Her passage was paid for by a Mr Robertson of Portland to work as a xxviii domestic servant. This may be the same Mr Robertson that Margaret Fearon worked for. Job and Eliza had six children all born in Victoria, Australia, they were Henry born 1854, Amelia born 1856, Charles Joseph born 1858, Edwin George bone 1861, Augustus Job born 1865 and Eliza Annie borm1866. xxix Job s mother Ann died in England in 1863, aged 83 years. xxx Then his son Augustus died in 1865 in Australia. xxxi The following year, his daughter Elizabeth (from his first marriage) died in 1866 in England xxxii. When Augustus died at 11 months, the family were unable to afford to bury him. It was stated on a police report that Job was in the country looking for work and Eliza was taking in washing to feed the family xxxiii. When Job s daughter Elizabeth xxxiv died in England, her son John had to go to the Amersham Workhouse. Unfortunately, Job was not in a position to help his grandson as he and his Australian family were also struggling. Job s wife Eliza died in 1875 from phthisis. xxxvi xxxv His son Edwin died at 21 years of age in Job died on 7 December 1898 in Geelong, Victoria, aged 77 years. xxxvii His cause of death is hard to decipher on the death certificate but it appears he died from a heart related illness My Immigrant was an Exile

9 Job was buried in an adjoining plot to his wife Eliza and son Edward at Geelong Western Public Cemetery. xxxviii There is no headstone. Job s death notice states he was a colonist of 50 years. 29 So, did his families know about each other? His first family were not listed on his death certificate. However, a poem was found in Job s possessions when his home was cleared out after his death, it s signed JJE. Could this be his grandson John Joseph Element who was living in the workhouse in England? There are a couple of newspaper articles relating to letters at the dead letter office, so that could also mean that he was in touch with his family even if not all the mail made it through. Illustration 1: Death Notice for Job Ellement (Source: Family Notices. (1898, December 10). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : ), p. 1. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from Like many that were transported, he probably had little hope of raising enough funds to return to England and even if he did, as an exile he was required to wait out the term of his ten year sentence. Job had 35 known grandchildren. Ten were offspring of his English children and 25 were offspring of his Australian children. As can be seen, Job had many difficulties in his life, from living in a slum in England, having to leave behind a family when transported as an exile to Australia. There were still hard times, the death of three wives, three children and three grandchildren before him. He never saw his English children or his mother again. However, transportation as an exile to Australia did give him opportunities he would not have had, he was a free man upon arrival (it is assumed, this better than sitting in jail in England). He could work where he wished, marry whom he wanted, he had a gold find, purchased a home, started a new life and family in Australia. i Baptismal record for Job King Element, St Mary, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg 458/1821 ii Ibid iii Marriage record of Job King Element and Rebecca Taylor, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg 169/1842 iv Birth Registration of James Element, Chesham, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg 268/1839. Birth Registration of Ann Element, Chesham, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, Reg 178/1840. Birth Registration of Elizabeth Element, Chesham, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg 215/1843. v Ancestry.com England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), And Ancestry.com England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Original data: Census Returns of My Immigrant was an Exile

10 England and Wales, Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), vi Bucks Herald, Saturday 12 March 1842, p3, Job Element guilty of stealing. Bucks Herald, Saturday 5 March 1842, p4, Job Element charged. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Criminal Registers, [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, vii Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Criminal Registers, [database on-line], Job Element, Buckinghamshire, viii Death Certificate for John Ellement, Chesham, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg432/1844 ix Bucks Herald, 7 December 1844, Thomas Element for stealing and Ann Element for receiving. x Bucks Herald, 4 January 1845, Thomas Element and Ann Element acquitted. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Criminal Registers, [database on-line], Thomas Element and Ann Element, Buckinghamshire, xi Bucks Herald, 25 January 1845,p4, Job Element for stealing. The Oxford Journal, 25 January 1845, p unknown, Job Element for stealing lead. xii Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Criminal Registers, [database on-line], Job Element, Buckinghamshire, The Oxford Journal, 25 January 1845, p unknown, Job Element for stealing lead, ten years. xiii Death Certificate for Rebecca Ellement, Chesham, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. Reg 230/1846. xiv Ancestry.com England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861 xv Passenger list for the Thomas Arbuthnot, January xvi xvii Ibid xviii Public Record Office Victoria, Index to Assisted British Immigration , Disposal list of Exiles for the ship Thomas Arbuthnot, Book 2/3, p270, Job Ellement. xix Return of Gold, Geelong Advertiser & Intelligencer, 5 th January 1853, p1s xx Geelong Rate Books, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, Ballarat Historical Society. Geelong West Rate Books, 1874, 1885, Ballarat Historical Society. xxi Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Marriage record of Job Ellement and Margaret Fearon, Reg 23827/1853. xxii Public Record Office Victoria, Index to Assisted British Immigration , Passenger list for Bourneuf showing Margaret Fearon, p29. xxiii Ibid xxiv Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Margaret Ellerment, Reg 771/1853. Geelong Cemeteries Trust, Deceased Search for Margaret Ellement, service date 21 March 1852, Location EAS-COE- OLD-X-825-X, Geelong Eastern Cemetery. xxv Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Marriage record of Job Ellement and Eliza Griffiths, Reg 23927/1853. xxvi Jersey Family History Society, Transcriptions of Baptisms, St Saviours Parish, Elizabeth Jersey Griffiths, bap 28 Aug Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Eliza Ellement, Reg 173/1875. Geelong. xxvii Public Record Office Victoria, Index to Assisted British Immigration , Passenger list for Runnymede showing Eliza Griffiths, p79. xxviii Ibid xxix. Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Eliza Ellement, Reg 173/1875, Geelong... Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Job Ellement, Reg 486/1898, Geelong. xxx General Register Office, London, Death Cert for Ann Element, Amersham, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, Reg 133/1863. xxxi Ancestry.com. Australia, Death Index, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Death index record of Augustus Job Ellement, Reg 4049,1865, Victoria. Geelong Cemeteries Trust, Deceased Search for Augustus Job Ellement, service date 28 April 1865, Location WST- COE , Geelong Western Public Cemetery. Police report from Kildare Police Station, 27 April 1865, request for burial of child, Augustus Job Ellement. xxxii. FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006, Elizabeth Ellement, death index record March Qtr 1866, Buckinghamshire, Vol 3A, p277. xxxiii Police report from Kildare Police Station, 27 April 1865, request for burial of child, Augustus Job Ellement My Immigrant was an Exile

11 xxxiv Ancestry.com England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871 for John James Ellement, Amersham, Buckinghamshire. xxxv Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Eliza Ellement, Reg 173/1875, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. xxxvixxxvi Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Edwin George Ellement, Reg 5241/1861, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. xxxvii Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Death record of Job Ellement, Reg 486/1898, Geelong, Victoria, Australia xxxviii Geelong Cemeteries Trust, Deceased Search for Job Ellement, service date 10 December 1898, Location EWST-COE , Geelong Western Public. Cemetery. Geelong Cemeteries Trust, Deceased Search for Eliza Ellement, service date 5 Mar 1875, Location WST-COE , Geelong Western Public Cemetery. Geelong Cemeteries Trust, Deceased Search for Edward George Ellement, service date 23 May 1883, Location EWST-COE , Geelong Western Public Cemetery My Immigrant was an Exile

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13 A Serial Immigrant In The Family Genealogically speaking, each family generation becomes a link in an ancestral chain that has been shaped over time by the actions taken and decisions made by our ancestors in response to events that they faced during their lives. To really know an ancestor, you need to build an identity profile that should, ideally, include information about the family members who were part of their daily life (family identity), information in relation to what your ancestor did for a living (occupational identity) and information regarding where they lived (geographical identity). To gather this background material requires a researcher to travel back through time, searching for key information footprints. Although these information footprints, can at times be very faint, they, nevertheless, can help shine a light on the life of your ancestor. My immigrant s story is about my maternal great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens, and touches on all three aspects of his life his family, occupational and geographical identities. Starting with the family identity aspect of his life, Friedrich was born on the 8 March, in the village of Uetersen, 2 in the Duchy of Holstein (now part of modern Northern Germany) his parents being Johann Diedrich Ahrens and Auguste Charlotte Henriette Ahrens née Flechtner. 3 In May 1862, Friedrich married Margaretha Maria Louise Flechtner, 4 the daughter of Johann Friedrich Magnus Flechtner and Margaretha Catharina Friederike Flechtner nee Staats. 5 In 1863, Dietrich Ahrens, a son, was born in Uetersen, in the Duchy of Holstein. 6 Other children of the marriage included Frederick Augustus, born in January 1865, in Queensland, Australia, 7 twins born in Hokitika, New Zealand in and a daughter Emma who was born at Ross, New Zealand in My great-great-grandfather Leopold was born at Ross in and another daughter, Lily Mabel was born in Hokitika in All in all, Friedrich and Margaretha had seven children, of whom six died in childhood. My great-great-grandfather Leopold was the only child to live to adulthood. During his lifetime, Friedrich married three times. His first wife, Margaretha Flechtner, who he married in Holstein in 1862, died in Friedrich married again in 1896, 13 he was widowed in and he married for the third time in Moving to the occupational identity aspect of Friedrich s life, at the time of Friedrich s birth in 1836, the Duchy of Holstein was under the Danish rule of King Frederick VI, who was also the Duke of Holstein. Friedrich, during his time in the Duchy of Holstein, lived life as a German speaking Danish subject and became a Schlachter or butcher by trade. 16 In March 1854, Great Britain and France entered the Crimean War in support of Turkey which, at the time, was at war with Russia. The British army experienced great difficulty in recruiting troops for this war and after much debate, the British A Serial Immigrant in the Family

14 government authorised the recruitment of mercenary foreign legion soldiers to fight alongside British troops in the Crimea. 17 In May 1855, agents acting on behalf of Great Britain began recruiting soldiers in Hamburg. 18 Friedrich signed up as a soldier for military service with the mercenary British German Legion (BGL) and was allocated to the BGL 2 nd Light Infantry 19 which was sent to England for training. 20 The BGL 2 nd Light Infantry, subsequently arrived at Scutari, 21 on the Crimean peninsula in November 1855 but never saw frontline service, as the Crimea War ended in early After the BGL 2 nd Light Infantry returned to England, it was demobilised and Friedrich returned home to Holstein and resumed his trade of butcher a trade calling he was to follow for the rest of his life. Moving on to the geographical identity aspect of Friedrich s life, as stated earlier, Friedrich and Margaretha s first child, Dietrich Ahrens, was born in 1863 in Uetersen, Holstein. At that time, the region was teetering on the brink of war as a consequence of Denmark s unilateral action of trying to change the constitutions of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein - an action which was bitterly opposed by both Prussia and Austria. 22 As it so happened, the appearance of agents in Hamburg once again was to impact on the life of Friedrich Ahrens. This time, the agents were immigration agents, acting on behalf of the Queensland government in Australia. These agents were offering free passages and land to people from the German states who wished to immigrate to Queensland. 23 The decision to immigrate from one country to live permanently in another country is a difficult lifestyle decision to make as it involves the cutting of ties to family, community and customs. It also requires that a person give up their identity in a world that is known and familiar to them and establish a new identity in a world of the unknown and unfamiliar. Friedrich and Margaretha made the decision to immigrate and with their son Dietrich, left Hamburg on the ship San Francisco on 8 August 1863 bound for Moreton Bay, Queensland. 24 Some time after arriving in Moreton Bay on 30 November 1863, Friedrich and his family moved to Cleveland, a township, which was situated close to Brisbane. 25 By 1865, both Friedrich and Margaretha had anglicised their names to John Frederick Ahrens and Margaret Ahrens respectively. 26 At this point in most immigrant stories, the storytelling focus would normally shift to detailing how the immigrant ancestor adapted to life in their new country. My immigrant story takes a different direction as my great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens now known as John Frederick Ahrens, was, in fact, a serial immigrant in that, having immigrated once, he then repeated the experience no less than three more times during his lifetime! Sometime during 1866 and 1867, John Frederick and Margaret Ahrens made the decision to leave the quiet backwater of Cleveland in Queensland and immigrate to the West Coast gold rush town of Hokitika in New Zealand. John Frederick continued to work as a butcher in Hokitika and the neighbouring town of Ross for over 14 years. In November 1882, John Frederick and Margaret sold their house at Hokitika 27 and moved east to the town of Nelson where they lived until late Again, John Frederick and his wife, Margaret decided to immigrate, this time taking with them their only living child, my great-great-grandfather, Leopold, who would have been about thirteen years of age at the time A Serial Immigrant in the Family

15 The Ahrens family arrived in Sydney, Australia, around 1885 and settled in the suburb of Balmain.28 John Frederick continued his trade as a butcher whilst in Sydney. My great-great-grandfather, Leopold married my great-great-grandmother, Catherine Jane Mitchell Moir, in early In 1894, after living for almost nine years in Sydney, John Frederick and Margaret decided to immigrate again this time back to New Zealand! They travelled on the ship Tasmania arriving in Auckland, New Zealand on 30 April Margaret died just five months after returning to New Zealand in John Frederick bought a butcher business in Auckland in and continued in the butcher trade in Auckland until 1902 when he decided to retire from business due to ill health.33 During this time, he became a naturalised British subject on 15 July The life of my immigrant ancestor, Friedrich aka John Frederick Ahrens came to a newsworthy end in Auckland on Empire Day the 25th May John Frederick, a member of the Auckland Empire Veteran s Association,35 paraded with other war veterans at Government House he is the person who is third from the left in the front row in the photograph below. Veterans Parade Empire Day 1903 Auckland 36 After the parade, the war veterans were transported to the foundation stone laying ceremony at the newly built Veterans Home. It was during the journey home from the ceremony that John Frederick Ahrens suffered a heart attack and died.37 The Auckland Star newspaper, in reporting his death the same day, also provided a brief obituary. They wrote that Ahrens was well known on the West Coast in bygone days, For a number of years Ahrens vended pork sausages about the city, but latterly has been living quietly at Mount Albert. He bore an excellent character, and his sudden death under such circumstances will be deeply regretted A Serial Immigrant in the Family

16 When my great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens, stepped off the wharf in Hamburg in 1863 and boarded the ship San Francisco to immigrate to Queensland in Australia, he left behind his identity as a Holsteiner. Almost forty years later, he was buried in Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland 39 as a naturalised British subject of New Zealand, in a coffin covered with a beautiful floral cross entwined with red and white flowers and blue ribbons sent by His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand with kind expressions of sympathy. 40 To add to the occasion, some 50 members of the Veterans' Association attending his funeral marched behind the hearse containing his coffin. 41 A fitting finale for a person who, as a serial immigrant, had spent a great part of his life seeking a place to call home. 1 Emigration out of Schleswig-Holstein, 19th century, Rootdigger Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein, online, < A-file.doc page 12> accessed 20 April Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Friedrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Rootdigger, op. cit., online, < A-file.doc page 12> 4 Ibid., online, < F-file.doc page 43> accessed 20 April Ibid. 6 Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line], op. cit., Dietrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Certified copy of birth certificate for Frederick Augustus Ahrens, Registration Number 1865/B3506, Queensland State Archives, issued at Brisbane 25 February New Zealand Birth Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online, < %3dbirths>, Birth certificate entries for unnamed Ahrens twins - Registration Numbers 1868/22994 and 1868/22997 respectively accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1870/26008 accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1872/26477 accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1880/10444 accessed 17 July Non Certified copy of death certificate for Margaret Ahrens, Registration Number 1894/3883, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, issued at Wellington 10 April New Zealand Marriage Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online < e%3dmarriages >Marriage certificate entry for John Frederick Ahrens - Registration Number 1896/409 accessed 17 July New Zealand Death Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online %3Ddeaths Death certificate entry for Margaret Ahrens - Registration Number 1901/3856 accessed 17 July New Zealand Marriage Certificate Index, op. cit., Marriage certificate entry for John Frederick Ahrens - Registration Number 1902/2284 accessed 17 July Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line] op. cit., Friedrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Emrys Wynn Jones, A Leaf On a Turbulent River : Ensign Simner and the British German Legion, , South African Military History Society, Military History Journal Vol 13 No 2 (December 2004), online < accessed 11 January Ibid. 19 Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 134, 7 June 1900, Page 6, Queens Birthday, online, available from < > accessed 11 February A Serial Immigrant in the Family

17 20 Emrys Wynn Jones, op. cit. 21 Frederick Ernest Whitton, History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 1, (Luton : Andrews UK, 2012), p Jonathan Martin Kolkey, Germany on the March : a reinterpretation of war and domestic politics over the past two centuries, (Lanham : University Press of America, 1995), pp provides some background to the political situation in Holstein in Queensland. Queensland Government Gazette 1861 Volume 2, online, available from < > pp 15-19, accessed 19 April Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line] op. cit., Frederich and Margaretha Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Certified copy of birth certificate for Frederick Augustus Ahrens, Registration Number 1865/B3506, op. cit. 26 Ibid. 27 West Coast Times, Issue 4233, 11 November 1882, Page 3 Advertisements Column 2, online, available from < > accessed 5 April W F Pascoe Ltd, Sands Sydney, Suburban and Country Commercial Directory, online, < > <Select 1887-part5.pdf > p14 by City of Sydney Library accessed 2 March Certified copy of marriage certificate for Leopold Ahrens and Catherine Jane Mitchell Moir, Registration Number 206/1893, New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry, issued at Sydney 4 March "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, ," index and images, Family Search < Ahrens, 30 Apr 1894; citing Tasmania, Ship, Arrival Port, National Archives, Wellington; FHL microfilm accessed 5 January Non Certified copy of death certificate - Margaret Ahrens, Registration Number 1894/3883, op. cit. 32 New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9787, 6 April Page 1 Advertisements Column 5, online, available from < > accessed 15 May Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 98, 26 April 1902, Page 8 Advertisements Column 7, online, available from < > accessed 19 November Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Naturalisations, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, John Frederick Ahrens data downloaded 1 September Empire Veterans' Association. District of Auckland (N.Z.), Rules of the Empire Veterans Association, District of Auckland, N.Z.: with list of members, Auckland, N.Z. : Scott Printing Co., J F Ahrens entry in Alphabetical list of members. 36 NZ Graphic, 06 June 1903, p1581, online, available from Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, < Type <NZG > into ID selection row on page accessed 2 March New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12281, 27 May 1903, Page 5, Local And General News, online, available from < > accessed 9 October Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 123, 25 May 1903, Page 5, online, available from < > accessed 9 October In one final twist to the story of Friedrich aka John Frederick Ahrens, his burial record for the 27 May 1903 shows that he was buried under the name of Herman Ahrens in Waikumete cemetery. This would have been the result of his widow, Honora supplying this name to the burial authorities. Given that the official record for his death certificate shows his name as John Frederick Ahrens, I do not know why his widow had him buried under the name of Herman Ahrens or why she informed the newspapers that his name was Herman Ahrens. 40 Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 126, 28 May 1903, Page 4, Column 8, Untitled, online, available from < > accessed 14 March Ibid A Serial Immigrant in the Family

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19 Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst In many respects Frederick Francis Fowler s story is typical of a thousand tales that could be told about intrepid, and sometimes foolhardy, working class immigrants who risked everything to find way out of the poverty and rigid class structure of nineteenth century England. In the absence of a birth or baptism record, it is difficult to know exactly when Frederick was born. Over the course of his long life he gave conflicting accounts of his age in official records, and it seems that he was somewhat creative in this regard sometimes representing himself as older, and sometimes younger, whenever it was convenient to do so. He was certainly born in Exeter, Devon, probably around On 16 May 1844 Frederick married 19-year-old Caroline Webb in the parish church at Bothenhampton, Dorset. 1 Frederick was employed as a groom and he claimed to be of full age although this is unlikely. Caroline and Frederick had three children; Ann, born in 1845 in Bridport, Dorset, 2 Frederick John born in 1848 in Dorchester, 3 and Harry born in 1850 in Weymouth. 4 Tragically Caroline died soon after Harry s birth from puerperal mania, 5 a rare acute mood disorder associated with childbirth. 6 A month later Frederick was in the village of Bothenhampton visiting friends. 7 His 5- year-old daughter Ann was with him, but two-year-old Frederick John was living with his maternal grandparents in Honiton 8 and four-month-old Harry was with another relative in Ottery St Mary. 9 Frederick Fowler met Mary Ann Giles on a visit to St Peter Port, Guernsey in They were married on 13 August 1854 at St Peter Port, and on this occasion Frederick stated (probably truthfully) that he was 28 years old. 10 Later that year Frederick and Mary Ann immigrated to Australia as assisted immigrants on the Queen of England, arriving in Sydney on 9th January Accompanying them was Frederick s elder son, Frederick John, now 6 years old. Frederick Francis Fowler is described in the List of Immigrants as a 28-year-old groom and coachman who could both read and write, unusual accomplishments for a man of his background at the time. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the arrival of the Queen of England that the passage had taken 100 days from Southampton carrying 374 Government immigrants, and the commander of the ship, Captain Pearson, was one of ten people who had died on the voyage. The immigrants were nearly all English and the greater portion of them are mechanics, 12 a term used to describe a person fully qualified in one of the lower forms of handicraft, but not yet a master tradesperson. 13 The following year Frederick s daughter Ann, now eleven years old, travelled unaccompanied to Sydney aboard the Edward Oliver. 14 Harry, his youngest child from his first marriage, never made the journey to Australia and continued to live in England until his death in Mary Ann and Frederick had five children, all born in Sydney; Richard (1856), 15 Eliza (1858), 16 Henrietta (1859), 17 Archibald (1862) 18 and Emma (born and died 1864) Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst

20 For his first few years in the colony Frederick lived in Duke Street, Sydney and worked as a coachman. 20 Then in 1862 he secured a position as a prison warder at Darlinghurst Gaol, and so began his career in the Civil Service of New South Wales. 21 During the 1860s there was a great deal of controversy generated in the colony by the practice of incarcerating people with mental health problems in prisons because of the lack of any other suitable place to keep them from harm. 22 An Act 23 was subsequently passed to enable the establishment of the Lunatic Reception House at Darlinghurst, an unattractive name for the lovely stone building that was completed in This listed building, situated on a triangle of land bordered by Bourke, Forbes and Burton Streets, eventually became the Caritas Centre, an annex of St Vincent s Hospital. It suffered from some unsympathetic renovations and additions over the years and more recently was sold and incorporated into a residential development. On 1 July 1868 Frederick Francis Fowler was appointed as the first Superintendent of the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst and Mary Ann Fowler was appointed Matron. 24 The following are extracts from a lengthy report in The Sydney Morning Herald written soon after the Reception House was opened: The Receiving House, now complete, is an erection of an ornate character, substantially built of Pyrmont stone, the external appearance being calculated to produce anything but a depressing effect upon the minds of those unfortunates who may have occasion to be brought within the gates (It) does not bear the outward aspect of a gaol, and contrasts strongly with the long, gloomy walls and massive gate of the Darlinghurst prison opposite. 25 The article goes on to praise the efficiency, cleanliness and good order maintained by Frederick Fowler and his wife, and applauds the fact that the staff appeared to be looked upon as friends by the inmates. Another article written three years after the opening of the Lunatic Reception House says, Mr Fowler has the constant superintendence, for which he has ably qualified himself in the course of many years performance of similar duties, under very great disadvantages, within the walls of the gaol. 26 In his annual report of 1877, the Inspector of the Insane, Dr Frederick Norton Manning, also describes the structure that Frederick Fowler lived and worked in: The building is pleasing exteriorly, is complete as regards accessories and offices, and the details of construction have been most carefully studied, so as to conduce to the safety of the patients without any appearance of restraint. It contains rooms for eight male and eight female patients with suitable accommodation for the Superintendent and staff... The dormitory accommodation provided for each sex is as follows: 1 room for 3 patients, 1 room for 5 patients, 1 room for 1 patient. The latter is padded and is the only room in which violent cases can be placed Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst

21 In 1871 Frederick Fowler s annual salary was 100 and Mary Ann was paid 60. They lived in the Reception House building and were allowed rations of provisions, fuel and light. 28 The following year Frederick s salary was increased to 140, although the Matron s salary did not change. 29 The Lunatic Receiving House Darlinghurst, circa Mary Ann Fowler died from chronic stomach and liver disease in May 1871, aged Annie, Frederick s daughter from his first marriage, immediately took over the duties of Matron, 32 a position that she held until her father remarried an Irish widow named Eliza Ann Douglas on 9 March 1872 in St Barnabas Church of England, Sydney. 33 Frederick s new wife then took over as Matron of the Receiving House on 1 April Frederick and Eliza Fowler remained Superintendent and Matron of the Reception House for the next 20 years. A major reform to the NSW Lunacy Act of 1878 occurred in 1881 enabling magistrates to remand a suspected lunatic to the Reception House for observation for up to fourteen days without certification, after which they were to be committed to an asylum or discharged. 35 Over the years the Reception House has been the temporary home of some well-known Australians, including Henry Lawson and Captain de Groot. 36 On 30 September 1892 Frederick and Eliza Fowler retired as Superintendent and Matron of what was now known as the Reception-House for the Insane, a name that some bright government official must have thought was an improvement. At the time of their retirement Frederick was receiving an annual salary of 240 and Eliza was receiving Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst

22 Frederick s 30 years of government service qualified him for a pension 38 and he retired to 83 Victoria Street, Petersham 39. After his third wife, Eliza, died in he moved to Melbourne where he continued to receive his pension, which in 1907 was per annum. 41 Apparently undeterred by the death of three wives, Frederick married for the fourth time in He was living in East Brunswick and claimed to be 67 years old although, in fact, he was at least 86. His new wife was a 45-year-old spinster named Mary Ryan from County Clare who was living at his address and was probably his housekeeper. 42 Frederick Francis Fowler s story ends with his death in the Melbourne Hospital on 8 April 1914 at the age of The groom and coachman from the lower classes of English society had taken his chances in the colonies and transformed himself into a respected and successful civil servant. He was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton and his grave slab, although tidy, is now barely legible and surrounded by a low rusted and broken wrought iron railing. He was survived by only three of his eight children Frederick, Eliza and Henrietta although he is the ancestor of many subsequent generations of Australians. 1 Marriage Certificate of Frederick Fowler and Caroline Webb, 16 May GRO Birth Index, Ann Elizabeth Fowler, accessed 8 May Birth Certificate of Frederick John Fowler, 10 August England Census, Harry Fowler, Ottery St Mary, Devon, Class RG 9, Piece 1477, Folio 14, p. 21, GSU roll Death Certificate of Caroline Fowler, 9 March Puerperal Mania, accessed 27 April England Census, Frederick Fowlor, PRO Reference HO107; Piece: 1861; Folio: 154; Page: 7; GSU roll: England Census, Frederick Fowler, PRO Reference HO107; Piece: 1863; Folio: 132; Page: 23; GSU roll: England Census, Harry Fowler, Ottery St Mary, Devon, Class RG 9, Piece 1477, Folio 14, p. 21, GSU roll Letter from JW Foster, Dean of Guernsey to Mr FR Young, Arncliffe dated 1 October The State Records Authority of NSW, accessed 8 May The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 January 1855, p. 4, accessed 22 April Hall Genealogy website Old Occupation Names, accessed 9 May The State Records Authority of NSW, accessed 9 May NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Birth Registration No. 423/1856 Fowler, Richard F 16 NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Birth Registration No. 448/1858, Fowler, Eliza A 17 NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Birth Registration No. 2346/1859, Fowler, Henrietta 18 NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Birth Registration No. 470/1862, Fowler, Archibald 19 NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Birth Registration No. 2891/1864, Fowler Emma M; NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Death Registration No. 1975/1864, Fowler, Emma M 20 Sands Directory: Sydney and New South Wales 1861 p New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1871, published 1872, Sydney 22 Wallace, D, A History of the Lunatic Reception House, Darlinghurst, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 1992; 26: Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst

23 23 Act of Council 31 Victoria No. 19 to amend the Law for the Care and Treatment for the Insane 24 New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1871, published 1872, Sydney 25 The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 November 1868, p.5, accessed 24 April Oliver, TJ, The Lunatic Reception House at Darlinghurst, NSW Medical Gazette, October 1871, pp Manning, FN, Inspector of the Insane, Report for 1876, NSW. 28 New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1871, p. 32, published 1872, Sydney 29 New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1872, p. 35, published 1873, Sydney 30 State Library of New South Wales, d1_ Death Certificate of Mary Ann Fowler, 12 May New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1871, p. 32, published 1872, Sydney 33 Marriage Certificate of Frederick Francis Fowler and Eliza Anne Douglas, 9 March New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1872, p. 35, published 1873, Sydney 35 Wallace, D, A History of the Lunatic Reception House, Darlinghurst, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 1992; 26:pp Wallace, D, A History of the Lunatic Reception House, Darlinghurst, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 1992; 26:pp New South Wales Blue Book for the year 1892, published Sydney 38 Journal of the NSW Legislative Council, Sands Directory: Sydney and New South Wales 1895 p. 593, Fowler, FF 40 NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Death Registration No. 9061/1896, Fowler, Eliza 41 NSW State Pensioners list of 1906/07 42 Extract of Marriages Solemnized in the District of Richmond, Melbourne No. 1299, Frederick Fowler and Mary Ryan, 3 October Extract of Deaths in the District of Melbourne East No. 6362, Frederick Fowler, 8 April Frederick Francis Fowler and the Lunatic Reception House Darlinghurst

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25 My Immigrant Family My Immigrant Family In the 1800s the various German States experienced great social turbulence as they transitioned into a unified Germany. Convinced that peace would never be restored, many citizens chose to leave their homeland 1. During the late 1840s, a group of landholders in the Hunter Valley petitioned the British Government to grant assisted passage for a selection of European skilled workers. In particular the local wine industry was in need of the services of vintners, and reluctantly Britain finally agreed to allow suitable married migrants with their families to be recruited, providing that the skills involved could not be supplied by British citizens 2. In 1848, Karl Ludwig (William) Kirchner 3, Immigration Agent for the NSW Government, travelled to Frankfurt, Germany from where in he contracted a large number of Germans vineyard workers with their families to accept assisted passage to the Colony, travelling on three vessels, the Beulah, Parland and Harmony 4. Passengers on board the third vessel included a small contingent of vintners and families, together with an unlisted group of 44 German citizens who paid their own passage. This last group included my greatgrandfather, George Peter Engel, a carpenter by trade, whose arrival on the Harmony in September 1849 was later recorded by him on his application for naturalisation in December George Peter ( ) was a member of the family of Johann Ludwig Engel ( ), a spice merchant, his wife Anna Clara Kissner (Kißner) ( ) and their eight children, the eldest of whom died as an infant. The family resided in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany where Johann Ludwig had established his business. About six months after George Peter s arrival, three of his siblings, with others, sailed on the Midlothian from the Port of London in March 1850, terminating in Port Adelaide in June The group then continued their journey on to Sydney at a later date. The party included George Peter s brother, Johann Alexander, his two sisters, Anna Catherina and Dorothea Catharin, the husband of Anna, William Richardson Miller, and a young lady, Josephine Louise Diehl, who hailed from Strasbourg, France. The circumstances which prompted this large family migration are not recorded. Possibly the death of their father, less than a year after their departure, may have been a contributing economic factor. The new arrivals moved quickly into local life. Johann Alexander set up a printing business, Dorothea opened a Fancy Goods store, with Josephine as an assistant, and Anna Catherina with her husband commenced farming in the Smithfield region. In January 1852, George Peter married Josephine Diehl in the German Evangelical Church, Goulburn Street, Sydney. The ceremony was conducted in German by Matthias Goethe. The couple lived in a house in The Rocks end of Harrington Street, Sydney, where their first son was born in March George was working as a carpenter for the Colony, building bridges and all went well until all his assistants abandoned him during the 1852 gold rush. Unable to

26 continue the heavy work alone, not many years passed before their funds were exhausted and he was declared bankrupt, the sequestration order being issued on 11 September Faced with this dilemma, the family decided to leave Sydney and settle on a small land holding located on the east bank of the Myall River, Port Stephens, NSW, on land which had been released from the original land grant of the Australian Agricultural Company (A.A. Co.). In the absence of any land transport, it is presumed that the family chose this isolated locality because it was accessible via the A.A. Co. ships which plied regularly between Sydney, Newcastle and the Port Stephens Estate. George Peter built a family home, The Fens, and attempted to be self-sufficient with locally grown produce in very poor sandy soil, totally unsuited to such a venture. In the ensuing years, the family increased to five boys, all of whom initially lived on the property in accommodation built by their father. To provide an income the family turned to raising cattle which they processed in their own abattoir on the banks of the Myall River. From there they delivered meat to the inhabitants of the Myall Lakes, Myall River and Port Stephens areas using rowing boats as the only means of transport over long distances. As the boys married and began their own families, the income proved to be too small to support them all. Four of the boys relocated to other areas where they took up a variety of different occupations. Only one son remained at the parents home until he moved his family to nearby Tea Gardens where he operated a very successful butchery and later a Universal General Store. The core service of this business consisted of a series of floating shops or storeboats which regularly plied the waterways of the Myall and Port Stephens regions providing a regular, twice-weekly lifeline for the widely scattered inhabitants. George Peter and Josephine Louise continued to live at The Fens after their family departed. Josephine died in October 1883 and was buried in the small cemetery located mid-way between Carrington and Tahlee House on A.A. Co. land. George Peter remained alone at the family home until ill-health forced him to move in with one of his sons in Hawks Nest. He died at the age of 80 years in February 1900 and was buried alongside his wife s remains 9. Johann Alexander Engel ( ) settled in Sydney where in 1854 he married Maria Catharina Wingender (1831?-1902) in St Andrew s Cathedral in Sydney. Maria migrated from Fachingen, Nassau, Germany in August Johann (John) established a lithographic printing and publishing office called Gutenberg Printing Office at 109 York Street, Sydney (later 103 York St). His lithographic work was highly acclaimed in the community. John, in collaboration with his partner, commenced publishing a weekly German newspaper, Die Sydney Deutsche Presse in July By 1875 he was operating three printing presses, two lithographic presses and one copperplate press, all of which were smashed to pieces when a wall of the adjacent building collapsed on his shop My Immigrant Family

27 In other ways, John was very active in the community, strongly supporting the German Evangelical Church for which he published the hymn books 12. He died in Gladesville in 1883 of a stroke, following deteriorating health possibly caused by lead poisoning, ingested from the use of hot metal type. Anna Catherina Engel married William Richardson Miller in the brief interval between the group s arrival in the Port of London and their departure from England. On arrival in Sydney, the couple settled in Smithfield where William took up farming. The family grew with the arrival of five children before they moved back to the city where William became a publican in the renamed, Parker s Family Hotel Being overly generous, he was declared insolvent in February 1861 and left the hotel business to operate a boarding house at 174 Cumberland Street 15. He died in June 1869 after which Anna moved in with her married daughter before she died in May One of their children was Gustave (Gus) Miller who served as the Cooma representative in the NSW Legislative Assembly for 29 years. While bankruptcies seem to have stalked the Engel family, Dorothea suffered a series of misfortunes far more serious than any of her siblings. On her arrival in Sydney, she opened a fancy goods business at 22 Hunter Street which she named the Berlin Wool and Ladies Outfitting Establishment, reflecting a large assortment of imported goods. At 33 years of age she married a widower, John Wenzel, who was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. The marriage was conducted by Rev. Dr Lang in the Scots Presbyterian Church, following which she closed down the shop to take up married life in Enfield/Burwood The couple established a family of four daughters of whom two died as teenagers and a third died later as a small child. John was not a capable manager of his business and was soon declared bankrupt. As a result, before the fourth daughter was born, he had a mental breakdown and spent a year in a NSW Asylum before relocating to Brisbane, Queensland. Left almost destitute, Dorothea placed her two youngest daughters, aged 4 and 6 years, in the Institute for Destitute Children in Randwick. In 1867 this was the site of a whooping cough epidemic which resulted in the death of 63 children, including Dorothea s youngest daughter. She quickly withdrew her remaining daughter who was to be the only member of this Wenzel family to survive 18. In Brisbane, John again established a gardening business with the same inevitable outcome. In 1876 he was employed near Townsville where he was involved in a dispute with his coworkers, one of whom he killed by stabbing. On the basis of the victim s statement John was tried for murder in 1876 and was hanged in Brisbane Gaol on 29 August My Immigrant Family

28 References: Engel, Brian & Butler, Geoffrey Tea Gardens and the Engel Family: Pioneer settlers in the Port Stephens Myall Region, NSW, 250 pp. ISBN Engel, Brian & Lemaire, Heather Descendants of Johann Daniel Engel: Immigrants to England and Australia, 122 pp. ISBN Endnotes: 1 German Revolution Nadel, George Letters from German immigrants in New South Wales. Royal Australian Historical Society, Journal & Proceedings, Vol. 39, pp Kirchner, Karl Ludwig Wilhelm, Immigration Agent for Sydney Paterson, Jenny: German Immigrant Ships to Eastern Australia - Resources and Problems: Burwood & District Family History Group s journal Ances-tree. Part 1: Beulah 1849, vol.16 no.1 Mar 2003; Part 2: Parland 1849, vol.16 no.2 Jul 2003.; Part 3: Harmony 1849 and Balmoral 1850, vol.16 no.3 Nov (London to Sydney). 5 Naturalisation: George Peter Engel, Native Place: Frankfort on the Main, Date of Certificate: 14 Dec 1858, Register 2, page 501, Item [4/1201], Reel Arrival of Johann Alexander, Anna Catharina, Dorothea Engel and Josephine Louise Diehl in London: Alien Arrivals The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO) Class HO 2 Home Office: Aliens Act 1836: Certificates of Arrival of Aliens. 7 First Insolvency George Engel, Harrington St, Sydney; Occupation Builder; Sequestration Order dated 11/09/1855. State Records Insolvency Index, Film No Second Insolvency George Engel, Occupation Carpenter; Sequestration Order dated 31/10/1863.; Certificate Issued on 05/07/1864 at Raymond Terrace. NSW State Records Insolvency Index, Film No Carrington Tahlee Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions. Maitland Family History Circle Inc. 2002, pp Passenger List for Maria Catharina Wingender leaving Hamburg, Germany in 1852: Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume: I, VIII A 1 Band 004; Page: 175; Microfilm No: K_ Damage to Engel premises. The Sydney Morning Herald 5 August Publication of German Church s Hymn Book: By A. L. Heyde, the current preacher of the congregation 1866 Printing and Publishing Johann Alexander Engel - Gutenberg Printing Office, 109 York St Sydney]. 13 Parker s Family Hotel Licence Issued 21 May 1858 : State Records Publican Licence No. 1413, NRS [7/1511]; Reel William Miller Insolvency 1860: NSW State Records Insolvency 05055; Sydney Morning Herald 13 Feb William Richardson Miller, boarding house: Sands Directory, 1863 p Clearance Sale of Fancy Goods and Berlin Work, at reduced prices.-miss ENGEL, intending to give up business, invites her friends and the public to inspect her remaining stock of most select goods in the above line. 22 Hunter-street. The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: ), Saturday, 18 August 1860, p.3 17 Wenzel-Engel - At the Scots Church, by the Rev. Dr Lang, M.P., on Monday, the 13th August. Empire (Sydney, NSW : ) Wednesday, 15 August 1860, p.1 18 Randwick Destitute Children s Asylum Deaths & Burials Compiled by Beverley Smith, Cape Banks Family History Society Inc. pp Lengthy Report of Stabbing -Toowoomba. The Queenslander, Saturday, 18 March p.7 20 Report on Hanging - The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld) Saturday, 9 September 1876, p The Case of Wenzel. To the Editor of the Telegraph. The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld. : ), Wednesday, 23 August 1876, p My Immigrant Family

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30 Abraham s Journey Abraham s Journey London, England, 1841 is a seething mass of humanity. Amongst the throng is Abraham Marks, my great-great grandfather. He is from Strzelno, Posen, (Poland) 1 and he is a refugee - a Jew. From the beginnings of Prussian rule...poles were subject to a series of measures aimed against them and their culture.. They were portrayed as backward Slavs by Prussian officials who wanted to spread German language and culture. 2 Abraham has come here, to London, hoping to escape the religious and political unrest of his own land. There are 18,000 Jews already in London. 3 Abraham, a hawker, has found accommodation in a coffee-house run by Joseph Fountain in Aldgate, with several other young men from foreign parts, 4 selling watches, gold and silver pencil cases, eye-glasses...jewellery...thermometers, barometers, telescopes, and microscopes. 5 Others sell sponges and combs, nuts and oranges, pencils, sealing wax and old clothes. The Jews are not well-liked. They have a reputation for miserliness, for cheating, for being receivers of stolen goods. Abraham feels as much an outcast here as he did at home. But he has an ally. Her name is Emily Whitaker and she lives nearby. Her parents, too, have a coffee-house but her father, Charles, is in the Debtors Prison. 6 She helps her mother, Martha, and grandmother, Ann, in the coffee-house 7 and it is here that she and Abraham make plans for a future together in the new colony of Australia that they have heard so much about. So it is that, sometime before 1850, Abraham arrives in Van Diemen s Land to prepare for their new life. Hobart, in the new colony of Van Diemen s Land, has become home to many Jews. In 1845, just a few years before Abraham arrives, the Jewish population raise and consecrate a Synagogue on land donated by Judah Solomon who, with his brother Joseph, had been transported from London in 1820 on the Castle Forbes for receiving stolen goods. They eventually were able to engage in business and prosper. 8 Abraham thinks that he, too, has a chance to prosper here and in 1850 he is already a partner with Henry Horwitz from Germany, 9 in an import-export business. They are also pawnbrokers and general merchants, eventually trading in everything from vests and trowsers (sic), 10 tea, coffee and tobacco, to wine, spirits and canary seed. 11 Names such as Solomon, Abrahams, Levy and Cohen are commonplace among the merchants of Hobart. Quite a few are ex-convicts who are managing to eke out a living. Things are going well for Abraham and in July 1850 he marries a Rebecca Abrahams in a Jewish ceremony in his Hobart residence. 12 What, then, has become of Emily? Has she been left behind in London to help in the coffee-house? Has she met someone else? Have their dreams and plans to be together come to nothing? In February 1852 a son, Lewis, is born to Rebecca and Abraham, 13 but six weeks later a notice in the newspaper advertises for a wet-

31 nurse, wanted immediately, at the Marks residence, 14 suggesting, perhaps, that Rebecca is ill and unable to nurse her baby, or, tragically, has died. However, there seems to be no record of Rebecca s death, or of her leaving the colony, or even of her admission to an asylum. Happily though, baby Lewis survives and eventually fathers a child of his own, a daughter, Emily Clara. 15 In January 1853, just eleven months after the birth of Lewis, another son, Charles Whitaker Marks, my great-grandfather, is born, but it is Emily Whitaker who is recorded as the mother. 16 No record of a marriage between Abraham and Emily can be found. The mystery of the missing Rebecca deepens. Over the next twelve years another seven children are born to Abraham and Emily, 17 the last three, Henry, Sarah and Percy, dying in infancy. 18 By 1856 the firm of Horwitz and Marks is doing well, operating out of Melbourne as well as Hobart. The papers of the day regularly report on the ships cargoes coming and going. It is from Melbourne that the firm, Horwitz and Marks, ships gold from the booming gold-fields of Victoria to Hobart, but their luck runs out when they are caught red-handed smuggling gold under three hundred sheep in the hold of the vessel Tasmania ounces of gold worth 7300 pounds is seized, upon which the duty amounting to 250 pounds was not paid. They receive a fine of 100 pounds which is considered extremely lenient for such a serious crime and much is made in the newspapers of The Extensive Seizure of Gold. 19 Someone, perhaps with a grudge, under the pseudonym Pleeseman X (sic), (Policeman X), has even written a lengthy poem about it called The Smugglers Bold. It first appears in the Melbourne Punch and mimics the strong Jewish accent. It begins: I ve a tale of bold adwenture, Vich all may hear as chews,- An owdacious case of smuggling By a pare of upright Jews... (sic) 20 ( I ve a tale of bold adventure, Which all may hear as choose,- An audacious case of smuggling By a pair of upright Jews. ) Abraham, in the meantime, has become a member of the Hobart Synagogue. He contributes to the funds 21 and in 1860, notwithstanding his recent scandalous brush with the law, he is elected Treasurer of the Synagogue, 22 and in February, 1862, he is on the committee of the new Hobart Town Hebrew Proprietary School. 23 In 1862 he is also naturalised, 24 allowing him the rights of a British subject. At 2 o clock on September 25 th, 1863, Abraham is driving seven children, including four of his own, in a horse-drawn carriage when the horse bolts and Abraham and the children are thrown out violently and are picked up insensible. They sustain serious injuries being much bruised and cut about the face, one child in a very precarious position suffering Abraham s Journey

32 severe concussion. Abraham is badly bruised but his injuries are not of a dangerous character. They are treated immediately by Dr Hall, and then at their respective homes by Dr Crowther. 25 Abraham remains Treasurer of the Synagogue until 1866 when, in his farewell speech, he says, the great commercial depression of this beautiful colony caused me necessarily to seek out a new field of enterprise. He is given a special presentation in the Synagogue, the president Mr P. Levy addressing him in glowing terms, saying that his valuable services will be long held in pleasing remembrance by every member of the congregation. The Rev. J. Goldreich briefly addressed Mr Marks, expressing...his sincere esteem for him, both as an office-bearer and a firm and faithful friend. 26 The partnership of Horwitz and Marks is dissolved by mutual consent, Mr Marks retiring from the business. 27 Abraham and his family head for prosperous Ballaarat 28 in the Victorian gold-fields. Here, he and his sons have a clothier s shop 29 as well as a money-lending and gold-broking business. 30 One night a fire breaks out in the shop. No-one is injured but Abraham says he stands to lose 200 pounds by the fire, as he is not fully insured. An enquiry into the cause of the fire is held and the jury returns the verdict-...how or by what means the said fire was caused or originated there is not any evidence before us to prove. 31 Then, sadly, their twelve year old daughter, Clara, dies. 32 Abraham and Emily have now lost four of their children. By 1875 Abraham has had quite a journey, fleeing from persecution and strife to an unfamiliar country across the seas, to make a new life. He has been a refugee, hawker, gold smuggler, Treasurer, pawnbroker and gold buyer. Now he faces another court case, this time charged with buying a 12 ounce gold nugget stolen by two brothers named Wallis, from the Queen Company mine for which they worked. The brothers are found guilty, each sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment with hard labour pounds is sought from Abraham for the value of the stolen property. 34 His death seven months later from an apparent heart attack may have been accelerated by anxiety in reference to the recent lawsuit for recovery of stolen gold. He dies on a train returning from Melbourne where he had taken with him some pot plants to distribute amongst his friends. 35 Abraham is buried next to Clara in the Old Ballarat Cemetery. 36 Emily died in Hobart in 1876 and is buried in the Jewish section of the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. 37 Finding the elusive Rebecca proved difficult. After intensive research and deliberation, I came to the conclusion that Rebecca was Emily. Having come across articles on the Internet regarding similar searches, I discovered that it was quite common for a gentile woman to take a Jewish name in order to marry into the faith, Rebecca Abrahams an obvious choice. This conclusion was eventually proven by finding the Jewish burial records of two of the Abraham s Journey

33 babies, Henry (died 1863), and Sarah (died 1865), with their mother s name as Rebecca instead of Emily. 38 It has been for me a most rewarding journey. 1 LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Naturalisations, Wikipedia: Greater Poland Uprising (1848) 3 Mayhew, Henry: London Labour and the London Poor : London: Griffin, Bohn and Co Ancestry.com:1841 London Census 5 Mayhew, Henry: London Labour and the London Poor : London: Griffin, Bohn and Co Ancestry.com: 1841 London Census 7 Ancestry.com: 1841 London Census 8 Judah and the Building of the Hobart Synagogue : Tasmanian Geographic: August 15, Ancestry.com: England, Alien Arrivals, , Trove: The Courier (Hobart, Tas: ), September 27,1853 p.3 11 Trove: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas: ), January 26, 1864 p.1 12 LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Marriages, 1850 Trove: Launceston Examiner(Tas: ), July 31, 1850 p.6 13 LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Births, Trove: Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas: ), March 12, 1852 p.3 15 NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages 16 LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Births, LincTAsmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Births, 1855, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1862, 1864, LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Deaths, 1863, 1865, Trove: The Extensive Seizure of Smuggled Gold : The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas: ), March 12, 1856 p.5 20 Trove: The Smugglers Bold : Melbourne Punch: March 6, 1856 p.6 21 Trove: To the Honorable... : The Courier (Hobart, Tas: ), October 26, 1854 p.3 22 Trove: Levy and Others v. Lazarus : The Mercury (Hobart, Tas: ), February 13, 1863 p.2 23 Trove: Hobart Town Proprietary School : The Mercury (Hobart, Tas: ), February 18, 1862 p.1 24 LincTasmania: Tasmanian Names Index: Naturalisations, Trove: Serious Accident : The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, ), September 26, 1863 p.3 26 Trove: Presentation to A. Marks, Esq. : The Mercury (Hobart, Tas: , September 26, 1866 p.3 27 Trove: Dissolution of Partnership : The Argus (Melbourne, Vic: ), May 29, 1869 p.7 28 Wikipedia: Ballarat 29 Trove: The Late Fire in Bridge Street : The Ballarat Star (Vic: , ), August 20,1869 p.3 30 Trove: Gold Stealing at Ballarat : The Argus (Melbourne, Vic: ), March 17, 1875 p.7 31 Trove: The Late Fire in Bridge Street : The Ballarat Star (Vic: , ),August 20, 1869 p.3 32 Billion graves ballaarat old cemetery 33 Trove: Gold Stealing at Ballarat : The Argus (Melbourne, Vic: ), March 17, 1875 p.7 34 Trove: Town News : The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.: ), May 1, 1875 p Trove: Sudden Death in a Railway Train : Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.: ), October 13, 1875 p.3 36 billiongraves.com: Ballarat Old Cemetery, Victoria 37 millingtons.com.au: Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Tasmania 38 The BD-BD (Beverley Davis Burial Data) Abraham s Journey

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35 FOR THE LOVE OF FAMILY She sat bolt upright in the spa. She had consumed a few wines but there was definitely a man standing on the deck in front of her. He was a ghostly figure, about 40 wearing old fashioned clothes. My immigrant s story has revealed many interesting characters along the way. Men and women of great courage and strength have been discovered in every generation. They have seen tough times and survived many hardships. They have lived and loved hard. My immigrant Patrick was formidable against the many setbacks he encountered and was driven by the love of family. Patrick was born around 1840 near Kilfenora, County Clare, Ireland. 1 He was the 5 th of 7 known children of Patrick Senior and Honora Hearn. Patrick lived with his large family in a small cottage. They worked a tenement farm paying rent to the land owner. They lived a hard life in Ireland being close to the bottom rung of society. 2 Patrick was only a young child when the potato famine struck and would have remembered most of his childhood as a time of hunger, poverty and siblings leaving home. The Great Potato Famine began in 1845 when Patrick was 5 years old. For the family, like half the Irish population, potato was the main food source. The potato crop failed again and again for the next five years as a result of a disease known as blight which destroyed the whole potato plant leaving it to rot in the ground. The Irish people were left vulnerable to famine and destitution. There was mass starvation and disease as a result. Many were left without a source of income unable to pay their rents and were evicted from their homes. Around one million people died and at least two million left the country. 3 During the time of the famine and the slow recovery period afterwards Patrick Senior and Honora saw six of their seven children leave home to start a new life in Australia. They did not have funds for the whole family to go so struggled to find the fare for the older girls Mary and Margaret to emigrate in The others relied on these young women to get settled in Australia and send home money for their passage. Brothers Michael and Martin followed their sisters in The final two, Patrick and Susan left 10 years after the first two girls. Patrick s opportunity for a better life finally came when he applied for passage to Australia on 12 th May His fare cost 4 and he had a reference from the Parish Priest in Kilfenora. 5 Like their older brothers and sisters Patrick and his sister Susan said a very sad goodbye to their parents and younger brother and began the long walk south to the port of Queenstown in Cork. The walk took them through Ennis and Limerick and many other smaller villages. It could easily have taken them a week or more to walk nearly 200kms. They survived on rations they bought with them and when they could not find shelter slept out in the open. Patrick and Susan sailed from Queenstown, Cork, Ireland to Liverpool in England to wait for passage to Sydney. Their passage was booked on the 1292 ton ship Herald of the Morning. The ship left Liverpool on the 10 th March On board were 441 registered passengers - 65 married males, 65 married females, 113 single males over 14, 118 single females over 14 and 80 children under 14. There were many more unregistered as well as the ship s crew. 22 of the registered passengers were from County Clare. 6 After a long and harsh three months For the Love of Family

36 the ship arrived in Sydney on 23 rd June Patrick s age was recorded on arrival as 18 and his sister s as 17. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the arrival of the ship listing the registered passengers and announcing to friends and family that passengers would be ready to meet at 4pm on Friday 25 th June During the next two years Patrick made his way to Maitland in the Hunter Valley where he settled on a piece of land in Rosebrook on the Hunter River about 15km north of Maitland. He married Mary Long on 16 th October 1860 in Rosebrook 8 and over the next 15 years Patrick and Mary s family grew rapidly. Mary gave birth to three daughters and six sons. Sadly two of the boys died as infants. Patrick farmed the land and worked on building roads in the area to supplement his income and help feed and clothe his large family. He worked through the long hot hours of a Maitland summer and rose early on the cold crisp mornings of winter. The Hunter weather, the droughts and the floods would have been a stark contrast to the conditions in his Irish home. Disastrous floods in June 1867 severely affected the settlers in the Rosebrook area. For 48 hours they worked helping each other shift cattle, furniture and crops to safer places. Many farmers lost crops still in the ground with Patrick losing 250 bushels of corn and 500 dozen pumpkins. 9 Two years later Patrick received news from home. His father, Patrick Senior, had passed away in May at the age of 70. Patrick Senior was still working as a herdsman until he was taken by a visitation of God however would be the year of greatest tragedy for Patrick, Mary and their children. In March 1875 the current baby of the family, 19 month old Andrew, fell sick. It developed into acute croup and he died in Mary s arms 14 days later. He was buried with his brother Thomas who had died as a baby ten years before. 11 Mary fell pregnant with her ninth child a few months later. Later in the year Patrick was employed on the roads at Hillsborough not far from his home. He rode to and from work on horseback. On the first Saturday in October he left work around 4pm in the evening and called at Mr Drinan s store across the river. He shared three or four large glasses of wine with a few local farmers and was under the influence when they all left around sundown. Mr Drinan put them in the boat to cross the river and watched as they crossed to the other side and ascended the bank to head home. 12 Patrick collected his horse and the farmers went their separate ways. He headed along the river bank towards his home but had only walked about 10 metres when he inadvertently walked too near the edge and was thrown into the river when the bank gave way under his feet. 13 Mary grew increasingly worried when Patrick did not return home. Early the next morning she sent one of the older boys to alert her brother Thomas and they began searching for Patrick. His horse was found grazing by the river and his coat was found on the ground nearby. The searchers examined the river bank and found that a portion of the bank had fallen away. 14 They frantically searched the river bank to no avail. The river was dragged and after a short time Patrick s body was found not far from where the bank had fallen in. 15 Ironically our family only discovered my immigrant Patrick s story after we had purchased a property on the Hunter River. We made the startling discovery that Patrick had drowned only a few kilometres down the river from our much loved farm. Patrick and his beloved family For the Love of Family

37 had settled across the river from our property. Whenever we or any of our extended family visits the property we feel a great sense of peace and of home. Patrick was 35 when he drowned in the Hunter River. 16 Mary buried her beloved husband a few days later before facing the reality of being left alone with six young children and another on the way. My immigrant s story shows a character of great strength and determination driven by the love of his family. It was the love of his parents and older siblings that enabled him to pursue a better life in Australia. It was for the love of his wife and children that he worked hard to support them against the odds. However it looks as though it is for the love of his descendants that Patrick s ghostly figure might still be here looking out for his family! 1 Death Certificate of Patrick X died 2 nd October 1875 Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, A Family History of The X Family of County Clare compiled by the Clare Heritage Centre, Corofin, County Clare, Ireland, January Encyclopaedia Britannica: Irish Potato Famine < Potato-Famine> accessed 13 th February Martin and Michael X Immigration Record 27 th November 1855, State Records of NSW. 5 A Family History of The X Family of County Clare compiled by the Clare Heritage Centre, Corofin, County Clare, Ireland, January The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 25 th June The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 25 th June Marriage Certificate of Patrick X and Mary Long married 16 th October 1860 Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Thursday 27 th June A Family History of The X Family of County Clare compiled by the Clare Heritage Centre, Corofin, County Clare, Ireland, January Death Certificate of Andrew Timothy X died 23 rd March 1875 Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Thursday 7 th October 1875 Coroner s Report. 13 The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Tuesday 5 th October The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Tuesday 5 th October The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Tuesday 5 th October Death Certificate of Patrick X died 2 nd October 1875 Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, *To avoid revealing the name of the author the family name has been replaced by the letter X in the endnotes For the Love of Family

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39 ISLE OF SKYE TO OZ Roderick and Ann McLean From the lush fertile rain-soaked lands of Scotland s Isle of Skye (the Gaelic being An t- Eilean Sgitheanach or Eilean a' Cheò), to the bustling new settlement of Sydney and then on to the open arid plains of the Goulburn/Bathurst region. What a major culture shock that must have been! My Granny always knew that her ancestors were from the Isle of Skye and, in fact, had spent many hours on her travels around Scotland scouring the graveyards on Skye looking for evidence of her family. She never did find anything significant and what she possibly didn t know at the time was that her great grandfather and his family (including her own grandfather) had left Skye as Government Bounty Emigrants. She would be terribly excited by what I have now uncovered through the wonders of the modern internet world. On my own visit to Scotland in 2009, I also visited the Isle of Skye and was able to pinpoint the estate on which my 3xgreat grandfather worked. I also walked around the ruins of the estate homestead which was on Old Corry Road in the Corry/Broadford district. I have made contact with the current land owner, Mr D.J. MacLennan, who has given me additional information regarding the estate and the local area which has helped in my research 1. Roderick (Rory) McLean was born 1794 on Isle of Skye to John McLean (farmer) and Mary Robinson 2. Roderick married Ann (Nancy) Kinghorn on 11 June 1824 in Corry, Strath, Isle of Skye 3. Ann was the daughter of Abraham Kinghorn (farmer) and Margaret McNab 4. Roderick and Ann lived in Corry, a village just north of Broadford in the Parish of Strath. At this time, the whole area around Corry was worked as a tack or large farm by the MacKinnons and there would have been many people working on the estate. Roderick was working as a shepherd on the estate and possibly lived in a hut in the hills overlooking the main estate house 5. In 1825 Roderick and Ann started their large family with the birth of Farquhar on 15 th June in Corry, then on 4 th June 1827 John was born at Shien (christened 13 June), William born on 19 April 1831, Mary was born on 11 th May 1833 (christened 2 October) and Abraham born on 17 th January Mr MacLennan told me that Shien is almost certainly from a place called Sithean or Fairy Knoll which is directly opposite the old estate ruins, on the Broadford to Elgol Road. Abraham is my great great grandfather. In the early 18 th Century, Scotland was in the grips of the Jacobite uprising which saw the Clan system and their lands being broken up. The Highland Clearances saw many families leave their homeland for new Lands. The whole Hebrides at this time was also famine-stricken. In the 1830s-1850s, the British Government started the Bounty Scheme where they commissioned ships for the Emigration of Settlers to new Lands. Some were Government assisted passengers, others assisted by Supporters. On 1 st June 1837 the William Nicol was commissioned in Greenock to transport emigrants to Australia. Dr Boynter, a Government agent for emigration, was sent to the Highlands of Scotland by the Right Honorable Lord Glenelg to select individuals of a description and character who would prove both an acquisition to the Colony and a benefit to themselves 7. With the prevailing conditions in Scotland, Boynter had no trouble finding Isle of Skye to OZ Roderick and Ann McLean

40 willing families to migrate to Australia. On 6 th July 1837 the William Nicol set sail from the Isle of Skye, Captained by John McAlphen with 321 emigrants on board. Many of those on board were crofters, shepherds and there were also some craftsmen who would be well utilised in the new Colony 8. Roderick McLean was listed on the Passenger List as a shepherd, aged 35, with his wife and 5 children although Roderick was actually 43 at the time of emigration! He must have taken some years off his actual age at the time of emigration to make himself appear younger and therefore more appealing for emigration. Roderick was indented to L. McAlister Esq. at 20 per annum plus rations at Brisbane Grove which is in the Goulburn district. His wife and children were included in this agreement. Also on board the William Nicol were Ann s mother Margaret, sister Betsey and brother James and his wife Isabella and their children 9. The William Nicol was described as being fitted in the most commodious manner possible and all who visited her were satisfied that the comforts of all the emigrants had been minutely attended to. She was furnished to accommodate 250 adult passengers, each being allowed 18 inches width to sleep in! 10 The majority of the emigrants were Gaelic speaking which made it difficult for the surgeon on board to communicate with those who needed treatment. The Surgeon s remarks on the journey shows that the trip was very hard, particularly on the women and younger children, as they sailed through the tropics and many suffered severe bowel complaints and diarrhoea. During the day, when conditions allowed, the passengers were on the deck and the ship was ventilated and air circulated to allow for better conditions below decks. Unfortunately, there were 19 deaths during the voyage with 17 being children under the age of six and 2 women who died after childbirth. The men in general were in good health. The surgeon reported that on arrival in Port Jackson, the emigrants were in perfect health. 11 The William Nicol arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney on 27 th October , after 114 days at sea, the McLean family and other indented emigrants, would have been put on a bullock dray for transport to the large McAlister estate of Brisbane Grove 13. The journey southwest from Sydney to Goulburn was approximately 195km and would have taken many weeks as the Great South Road was a primitive scarcely formed bullock track and many drays got stuck in the mud if it rained. By comparison, the trip today is by car on the dual carriageway Hume Highway and takes approximately 2 hours. As Bounty Emigrants were only required to work for their sponsors for twelve months, we are unsure just how long Roderick and Ann stayed either on the McAlister estate or indeed in the Goulburn area although they were settlers at Brisbane Grove in However, we do know that by 1849 they were living at Black Horse Square, George s Plains approximately 12km south of Bathurst 15. Roderick and Ann had another 7 children: Alexander (born c1838), James (born 1841), Rodrick (born 1846), Charles (born 1849), Margaret, and Anne (born 1844) and one other although no registration of a birth has been found. The trip to Bathurst would have taken the family through the south-west reaches of what is now known as the Blue Mountains National Park South. The narrow track wound its way between various ranges, through Rockley and on to George s Plains. We have driven this Isle of Skye to OZ Roderick and Ann McLean

41 Goulburn-Taralga-Oberon Road and found it to be a quite inhospitable mountainous road which must have been quite dangerous as it would have been a perfect stronghold for the bushrangers who lived in the area during this time. The Bathurst area was in drought by 1836 which lasted for more than three years with the country turning into a dust bowl. Thereafter, an economic depression set in for six years. 16 These were harsh times and Roderick must have wondered what he was doing in Australia with these conditions! The farming would have been completely foreign to anyone coming from the rain soaked Skye. Roderick McLean died on 17 th September , at Burwood, aged 95. The cause of death was Natural Decay accelerated by shock from fracture of right head femur. He still had 5 sons and 3 daughters living. Ann McLean died on 23 rd April at Burwood at the residence of her son-in-law on Broughton Street, Concord 19, in her 87 th year. They are both buried at Rookwood Cemetery. Roderick and Ann McLean emigrated from the beautiful green mountainous Isle of Skye to the arid plains of Goulburn/Bathurst. They left a fertile land that has a yearly rainfall of approximately 1350mm to the much drier Goulburn area which has a yearly rainfall of approximately mm 20 so they had to learn how to farm in drought prone areas. They also had to learn a new language. But they certainly seemed to have prospered in their adopted country. They both lived to a very old age and they left quite a McLean legacy in the Bathurst/Orange region with their children living full and active lives in this area 21. My Granny would be very proud of her diligent hardworking ancestors and I have enjoyed following in their footsteps from Skye to Goulburn and then around the Bathurst region. 1 Letter from D.J. MacLennan of 1 Old Corry, Broadford, Isle of Skye 2 NSW BDM Death Certificate Registration No. 1889/ for Roderick McLean which stated he was 95 on his death 3 FamilySearch IGI Record of Marriage for Roderick MacLean and Ann Kinghorn, Batch No , Sheet 59, Source Call No NSW BDM Death Certificate Registration No. 1894/3883 for Ann McLean 5 On a visit to Isle of Skye, I was able to find the ruins of the MacKinnon Estate and saw myself the huts on the hills overlooking the estate. 6 FamilySearch IGI Records - Birth Registrations in Strath, Inverness, Scotland 7 Letter from David Boytner RN Dr to Edward Dea Thomson Esq, Colonial Secretary dated 5 July Port Philip Immigration Registers for Ships Sailing from Scotland with Bounty Emigrants under the Government System, Passenger list for the William Nicol 10 Edinburgh Courier 10 July 1837 reporting on the embarkation of the William Nicol at Ornsay, Isle of Skye 11 Remarks by George Roberts, Surgeon Superintendent, William Nicol 12 Medical and Surgical Journal of the William Nicol Emigrant Ship by G. Roberts 13 Dixon s Map of NSW 1837 showing the Goulburn Plains, which forms the core of the study area, the Goulburn Mulwaree Local Government Area (Engraves by J. & C. Walker. SR Map 4617). Notes on the map is L. McAlister, 16,300 Acres Strathaird as well as a smaller lot to the west. 14 NSW BDM Baptism of son, James, born 1841 in the Parish of Bathurst Registration No 8513 Vol: 45C 15 NSW BDM Baptism Transcription (Early Church Records) of son Charles McLean Ref No. Vol50 No Extract from a History of Bathurst copy of pages sent to me by the Bathurst City Library 17 NSW BDM Registration No. 2864/1889 in Burwood 18 NSW BDM Registration No. 3883/1894 in Burwood 19 Sydney Morning Herald Death Notice of 24/4/ Isle of Skye to OZ Roderick and Ann McLean

42 20 and Australia.gov.au, The Australian Bureau of Statistics abs.gov.au as well as 21 Various articles in the newspapers of the time sourced from the online Trove Digital Newspapers Isle of Skye to OZ Roderick and Ann McLean

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44 BROKEN PROMISES James Boxshall was born on 29 June 1807 at Dorking, Surrey, England, the son of a farmer, William Boxshall and his wife Elizabeth Knight 1. He became an agricultural labourer, managing the Whitmuir Farm which was owned by Henry Dendy, the man who was to shape James future. After marrying Jane Razzell on 13 April , James and his bride lived in Back Lane, Dorking, and six children were born to them. Their third child, Anne, was seven years old when she died of typhoid fever. To give insight into the reason that James and his family emigrated, it is necessary to understand the decision taken by Henry Dendy, James boss. Dendy had become interested in the colonies when an offer was made by Her Majesty s Government for the purchase of eight square miles of land in the Port Phillip district of the then Territory of New South Wales (now known as Victoria) which had been made available as a system of selection of sections of 320 acres at a flat rate of 1 per acre. Dendy put up his 5,120 by selling his farms and using his wife s dowry, and arrived in the colony on 5 February 1841 with his wife, young son and three servants. The land regulations under which Dendy acquired his Land Order allowed for every purchaser, within six months to name a number of persons of the labouring class for a free passage to the Colony, in proportions to the amount of the purchase money which had been paid. The emigrants must belong to the class of mechanics and handcraftsmen, agricultural labourers, or useful domestic servants. All the adults had to be capable of labour and emigrate with the intention of working for wages after their arrival 3. A year after young Anne s death, and at the age of 34, James, together with Jane and their young family, left England on 12 February 1842 on the Earl of Durham. Jane was about five months pregnant at the time. They arrived at Port Phillip on 18 June 1842 after a voyage of 126 days 4. The ship finally entered Hobsons Bay off Williamstown, where the passengers and cargo were discharged. Jane gave birth to their seventh child, John, en route, about three weeks before their arrival in Australia. Accompanying them on the voyage was James brother William, with his wife (also named Jane) and their young family. They were part of the group of emigrants from Surrey and Sussex given free passage to Australia in return for their farming skills, to work at Dendy s property. The eight square miles of undulating property, comprising open forest land timbered with gum, oak, cherry and honeysuckle, with a bay frontage, was situated five miles from Melbourne and was firstly named Waterville, then Dendy s Brighton Estate, and finally Brighton, the name still retained today although the boundaries have changed considerably. However, Dendy had arrived in the colony in the midst of a serious financial depression and by the time the emigrants ship had arrived in Port Phillip Bay, Dendy had abandoned all ideas of an agricultural estate, he was no longer the sole owner of the Brighton Estate having been forced to sell a good portion of the land to Were Bros. & Co., and he was fast running out of ready money. His plans of an agricultural estate had been turned into plans for a township surrounded by farming allotments 5. We can only imagine the emigrants feelings of excitement and anticipation turning to shock and despair upon arrival, as they were greeted on board by Dendy and told that there was no employment after all. With their plans in disarray, James and many of the Dendy emigrants made their way to Brighton anyway, some in bullock carts and many walking the miles along roughly formed tracks. Once there, with five children and a new-born baby to support, James constructed a 1509 Broken Promises

45 mud hut and a bed of saplings on land now at the corner of Bay Street and St Kilda Street. He and Jane and their children remained there for nine months. With no furniture, James set about making a stool for his wife and whilst he was cutting the slab for the top, he sent his eldest son Thomas, then aged 13, to find material suitable for the legs. Thomas cut the sticks for the legs from green wattle, then James trimmed the top and set the legs in position. The little stool shows marks of where kindling was split on it for the fire. Jane had a travelling artist paint a portrait of her sitting on the stool and she sent the portrait back home to her parents in Dorking. Thomas was very attached to the stool, having had a hand in its construction, and passed it on to his son Henry John Boxshall. In 1965 Henry donated it to the Brighton Historical Society, situated so close to where it was first constructed. It is now one of the Society s most treasured possessions and regarded as a most valuable antique 6. Pioneer peg stool that James made for his wife Jane is now housed at the Brighton Historical Society headquarters in the Old Brighton Town Hall A strong bond of friendship was formed between the Dendy emigrants and streets in Brighton were named after four of them one being Boxshall Street. Early in 1843, James purchased from Henry Dendy two acres of land at the corner of St. Andrews Street and Boxshall Street, and built a slab hut. He paid twenty pounds an acre for the land and subsequently purchased the adjoining acre from Mr Were for ten pounds. The slab hut was removed in Within a few years of their arrival, Brighton had become one of the most important villages around Melbourne. Henry Dendy, however, had no head for business and lost his home and land in Brighton, attempted other business ventures without success, and finally died a pauper at Walhalla in Gippsland in 1881, where he was searching for gold. By poor management he had lost his entire fortune 7. Jane gave birth to three more children in Brighton but James lost his wife to cancer when she was only Almost a year later, James married a farmer s daughter, Rachel Tattersall 9, who was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England in 1818, and was 11 years younger than James. However, he and Rachel parted company after a very short time and there is no further trace of her in the Victorian records Broken Promises

46 Although he could not read or write, James was an extremely industrious person, working very hard to improve conditions for his wife and family. He had a good business head, and later bought five acres of land from Mr John Shatton and obtained 81 bushels of wheat from three acres. He gave one acre each to two sons, and exchanged the remainder to another son for twelve acres at South Brighton. He afterwards re-purchased the latter son s block for two hundred pounds and sold it again for eight hundred and fifty pounds 10. After leaving the farm, calling upon his experience as a teamster back in Surrey, James drove a bullock team, conveying goods along the old tracks between Brighton and Melbourne 11. In his old age James became very bent, owing to curvature of the spine, and used to walk with two sticks, but he was very active. His grandson Henry John wrote As I was watching him weed (a bed of carrots), he looked up at me with a grin and said, You know Harry, it doesn t bother me a bit having a curved spine, I can weed carrots all day and never get a backache. He was a fine old man, he liked his pot of beer at the Town Hall Hotel where he used to visit two or three days a week, but he never over indulged. They were reared on home brew back in Surrey, where one branch of the family were involved with the Boxall Brewery in Mills Lane, Dorking, and they hardly knew what tea was until they came to the colonies 12. James spent his last years working as a gardener and lived at the home of his youngest son Charles in William Street, Brighton. One day in early November 1903, James took it upon himself to chop some wood out the back of the house. The axe glanced off the block of wood and struck him across the foot, cutting through his shoe and his big toe on his right foot. No treatment was able to save the wound from becoming infected. It turned gangrenous and James passed away two months later. At the time of his death on 7 January 1904 at the age of 96 13, James was the oldest resident in Brighton 14 and had lived there for almost 62 years. Of his ten children, only three were still alive Thomas aged 74, John aged 62 and Charles aged 54. NOTES: 1. Family Search IGI 2. Parish Register St. Martins, Dorking, England 1828 No Beryl Nice, late of Rosebud, Victoria, descendant of James and Jane Boxshall 4. Persons on bounty ships arriving at Port Phillip , original located at 4/ Kingston Historical Society 6. Brighton Historical Society 7. Henry Dendy and his Emigrants by Leslie A. Schumer Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne District of Brighton No Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne District of Bourke No The Argus, Melbourne, 9 January The Argus, Melbourne, 9 January Beryl Nice, late of Rosebud, Victoria, descendant of James and Jane Boxshall 13. Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne District of Brighton No The Argus, Melbourne, 9 January Broken Promises

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48 MY IMMIGRANT - JOHN CYRIL SYDNEY HUNT - ENGLAND TO BRISBANE I WONDER WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LITTLE JACKIE HUNT was the question my mother often asked over the years from 1930 till her death in the year She had kept a letter from Marion Hunt written in October 1930 i, part of which I will quote as follows: I had Jack s throat and nose done last Saturday morning. Dad knew nothing about it until after he came home and found it all over, but it was a fearful strain doing it all without letting him know and thought I would never get him out of the house in the morning as I had to have the breakfast room all ready by The Dr said my breakfast room made a splendid operating theatre and said he was sure I would not mind him borrowing it occasionally, I don t think, especially if they leave all the muck behind. Mr. W came over while it was being done and I don t know whatever I should have done without him. I did not know he was coming and I shudder to think how I would have managed alone. He got there just before the doctor came and stayed all through and then waited till Jack came home and broke the news.. The prelude to this letter written by Marion ii was that her husband John Cyril Sydney Hunt iii was a second cousin of my mother Eva Marguerite Dempsey iv (nee Bull) both of them being a descendant of Oliver v and Susannah vi Bull of Fordham Essex England. Oliver vii and Susannah Bull had a number of children, two of them being called Jabez Bull viii (born 1849 Fordham Essex) and the youngest child Mary Bull ix ( born 1858 Lexden Essex). Jabez Bull married Mary Ann Edith Rolfe x of Great Baddow on the 21 Dec 1871 and two of their sons Victor Rolfe Bull xi (born Dec 1874 Braintree) and Ernest Jabez Bull xii (born 22 Dec 1881) both migrated to Australia. Mary Bull xiii married John Samuel Hunt xiv (born 1859) in September 1882 at Lexden. Their eldest son John Cyril Sydney Hunt was born in 1883 at Lexden, married Marion Davis at West Ham in 1910,and they migrated to Australia in 1913 aboard the SS Perthshire xv and settled in Brisbane. Ernest Jabez Bull xvi, his wife and 2 girls travelled to Australia on the SS Salamis xvii departing England 1/10/1910 and arrived in Melbourne - 11/11/1910, with accommodation arranged beforehand. Ernest began work as a carpenter... Victor Rolfe Bull xviii his wife and 2 children, one of whom was my mother, Eva Bull, came to Australia on the SS Devon xix in They boarded with friends on arrival in Toowoomba, where Victor s trade as a harness maker had been arranged Over the following years the Bulls in Toowoomba and the Hunts in Brisbane had contact, travelling up and down by train. In the mid-twenties, they arrived with a small child, named little Jackie, whose real name was John Francis Hunt, whom they had adopted. Eva was then older and felt that her two relatives did not have many clues on child rearing, they being much older to bring up a small child. From then until she married in 1929, she saw little Jackie a few times and was concerned for his welfare, as she was unimpressed with the way his father was dealing with him. He seemed to resent the little boy, but this was compensated somewhat by the love of his mother Marion. From the date Eva received that letter from Marion in October, 1930 nothing was ever heard again from the Hunts in Brisbane My Immigrant - John Cyril Sydney Hunt - England to Brisbane

49 When I became interested in researching my family history Mum was keen for me to try to find what happened to little Jackie. She had a lasting feeling of affection for him. I then commenced my research. I went off in the wrong direction at first looking for a Marion Hunt in the Qld Electoral Rolls at State Library. I found I had the wrong Marion Hunt. Now to the BDM s from Qld, which had been computerised. Previously it was a hassle to find fisch for Qld and harder to obtain copies of certificates. The records showed that a Marion Frances Hunt xx had died in December, 1930 and further more that a John Cyril Sydney Hunt xxi died in Now we knew why Eva and the Bull family had heard no more from the Brisbane relatives. I then felt compelled to try to find out what happened to little Jackie. At the beginning of last year, I rechecked the Qld system of BDM s and found it had been changed and if a certificate was required, you could apply through the system and pay by Credit Card and a copy of the original certificate would be e mailed to you. The information in the certificates came as a shock to me. Just over 2months following her letter Marion died in the Brisbane General Hospital on the 23 rd December 1930 xxii from Toxic Nephritis, Toxic Perpura and Haemorrhagic Syncope. She was 41 yrs old, informant was her husband JCS Hunt She left one child John Francis Hunt -5 years. She was buried in Toowong Cemetery on 24 Dec xxiii The 1936 copy of Death Certificate of John Hunt xxiv showed he died on the 15 th March, 1936 from Coronary Heart Disease. The informant of his death was his wife Ethel May Hunt, who lived at Kedron Avenue, Mitchelton, his living children were John Francis Hunt -11 years and Catherine Mary Edith Hunt 1 year. Realising he had married again,i purchased a copy of Certificate of Marriage xxv, which showed he married Ethel May Thomas on the 31 st December, 1931 at our Lady of Dolour s Church Mitchelton Qld. He was 47 and she was 22 years old. Little Jackie had been left with a step-mother and a half sister, so where could he be? Then I had a flash of inspiration in 1943 he would be 18 years old, could he have joined the Defence Force. I entered his name and probable birth date into the computer -National Archives/Nominal Roll xxvi for WW2 and it showed records for a John Francis Hunt which tallied with the information I had already. He had joined the Royal Australian Naval Reserve his official number B/4114. He commenced duty on the 26 November, 1942 with the Rank of Ordinary Seaman 11 CB (N.T Seniority 30 th September, 1942 and was allocated on mobilisation to the HMAS Cerberus. He was discharged on the 20 th May 1946 with the rank of TELEG 11 from the HMAS Rushcutter. I was progressing, but where did he go after leaving the Navy? Hurstville Library xxvii has access to Ancestry.Com My effort was rewarded almost immediately, as I typed in John Francis Hunt and up came a large amount of details of a J.F Hunt whose ancestors were Oliver and Susannah Bull. My mother s little Jackie Hunt had become Dr. John Francis Hunt. The University of Sydney Medical School Alumni 1955 xxviii recorded John Francis Hunt graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Electoral rolls xxix recorded that he had lived at Miranda and Cronulla and had died at Cronulla on 23 Sept He was married to Lillian Moss Rougvie at St Josephs Church, Neutral Bay in My Immigrant - John Cyril Sydney Hunt - England to Brisbane

50 Sydney Morning Herald Death Notice xxx was as follows:- HUNT Dr John Francis, September23rd 2006, late of Cronulla. Loving husband of Moss, Devoted father, father-inlaw of Peter, David and Jenny. Beloved grandfather of Catherine, John, Pat, Sarah and Duncan. Dear brother of Joy. He was buried at Woronora Cemetery in the General Lawn Jacaranda Monumental Lawn xxxi. His wife Lillian Moss Hunt died on the 20 th February 2009 at the Sir James Nursing xxxii Home, Dalmeny, formerly of Cronulla, notice of which I found in The Ryerson Index. Her ashes had then been placed in the grave site of her late husband. I have been able to contact a family member who gave me more information about little Jackie in later years, he was a G.P. in the Sutherland Shire region and then did further training to become an anaesthetist and worked at the Sutherland Hospital till he retired. Earlier this year I visited Toowong Cemetery to search for graves of relatives. Thanks to the assistance of Toowong Cemetery office, my nephew was able to pin point the exact location of the grave site of John and Marion Hunt. It was unmarked and had no borders, but it looked very peaceful as it was covered in a thick carpet of beautiful leaves. The question remains which relative may be able to erect a plaque to remember them? With regard to the headstone of their son Dr John Frances Hunt, it mentions his sister Joy, but her Christian name on their father s death certificate was Catherine Mary Edith. My immigrants daughter is yet to be found. RIP John Hunt, Marion Hunt, Dr John Hunt and Lillian Hunt. i Original copy of typed letter from Marion Hunt (nee Davis) to Eva and Bernie Dempsey dated 1 st October, Address being Cr. Foch & Haig St. Ashgrove, Brisbane. ii Marion Davis Free BMD s Births September, 1889 District of West Ham vol.4a Page 226. iii England and Wales, Birth Registration Index, John Cyril Sydney Hunt Births Registered in April, May, June 1883, Lexden, Essex Vol 4a Page 428. Marion Davis married John Cyril Sydney Hunt in June 1910 in the District of West Ham Vol 4a Page 540. Free BMD England and Wales Marriage Registration Index iv Eva Marguerite Bull Certified copy of an entry of birth, given at the General Register Office Registration District West Ham 1903 Birth in the Sub-District of North East Ham in the County of Essex. BXBZ General Register Office, England 17 th June, v Oliver Bull Christening 17 th May 1818, Grand Tey, Essex England England Births and Christenings, Familysearch.org vi Susannah Ratcliffe birth about 1819, West Bergholt, Essex England. England Births and Christenings, Familysearch.org. vii Oliver and Susannah Bull - M.Oct 1839 England and Wales Free BMD Marriage Index viii Jabez Bull English and Wales Birth Registration Index Born Fordham, Essex, England England, Essex Parish Registers ix Mary Bull England and Wales Birth Registration Index born Lexden, Essex England, Jan-Feb-Mar 1858 Vol.4A Page 268 Line number 32. Family search. Org 1510 My Immigrant - John Cyril Sydney Hunt - England to Brisbane

51 x Jabez Bull Marriage 21 December, 1871, Great Baddow, Essex England. Spouse - Mary Ann Edith Rolfe England and Wales Birth Registration Index Born March Qtr 1850 Braintree District 350 Vol 12 Page 21 England and Wales Death Registration Index Death 1898 Braintree, Essex, England. Familysearch.org. xi Victor Rolfe Bull born 1 st December, 1874 Braintree Essex Vol 4a 393 xii Ernest Jabez Bull was born on 22 Dec 1881, Bocking Essex England. Mar Qtr births 1881 Braintree Free BMD UK Vol 4a P514 Free BMD UK England and Wales births Registration Index xiii Mary Bull married John Samuel Hunt at Lexden, Essex in 1882 July, Aug, Sept Qtr Vol 4A Page 575 Line Free BMD UK England and Wales Marriage Registration Index xiv Her spouse John Samuel Hunt was born in Sept 1859 in the District of Lexden Vol 4a Page 260 Free BMD England and Wales Birth Registration Index xv Immigrants on the SS Perthshire The Brisbane Courier (Qld ) Saturday 20 December 1913, page 4 (National Library of Australia) article xvi Ernest married Lilian Elizabeth Double in 1906 in the Chelmsford District Vol 4a Page 590 Free BMD UK England and Wales Marriage Registration Index Spouse Lilian Elizabeth Double was born in Mar 1885 in the District of Chelmsford Vol 4a Page 402 Free BMD Index. xvii Copy of THE ABERDEEN LINE NO 91 - PASSENGERS CONTRACT TICKET Steam Ship SALAMIS OF 4,700 tons Register to take in Passengers at the PORT OF LONDON FOR AUSTRALIA on the 1 st October 1910, and shall be landed at the PORT OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA ETC xviii Victor married Eva Nellie Dow on the 15 April 1899 Braintree Essex 4a Free BMD UK England and Wales Marriage Registration Index Spouse Eva Nellie Dow was born 9 April Births Jun 1875 in the district of Witham Vol 4a Page383 Free BMD UK England and Wales Births Registration Index xix Copy of Port of BRISBANE (INWARDS) Queensland Passengers that have arrived on the S.S. DEVON from LONDON - Agents BRITISH INDIA & QUEENSLAND AGENCY CO. LTD arrived on the 27 th day of August, xx Queensland historical deaths for Marion Frances Hunt read as follows: Year 1930 Reg# B First Name(s) Marion Frances Last Name : HUNT Father:.Davis - Mother born Essex, England. xxi Queensland historical deaths for John Cyril Sydney HUNT read as follows: Year 1936 Regn#B30921 First Names(s) John Cyril Sydney Last name: HUNT Father : John Mother: Mary BULL xxii Copy of 1930 Deaths in the District of BRISBANE in the State of QUEENSLAND, Registered by Register General rd December Brisbane Hospital Marion Frances HUNT - 41 years. xxiii Brisbane City Council Online Services Grave Location Search HUNT, John Cyril Sydney and HUNT, Marion Frances - Burial Toowong Cemetery, Portion 27, Section 4, Grave Number 19. xxiv Copy of 1936 Deaths in the District of BRISBANE in the State of QUEENSLAND, Registered by Deputy Registrar General th March 1936 Kedron Avenue, Michelton John Cyril Sydney HUNT - 51 years. xxv QUEENSLAND - MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE Certified copy Registration No.1932/ Name and Surname John Cyril Sydney Hunt (Bridegroom) and Ethel May Thomas (Bride) When and where married 31 st December, Our Lady of Dolour s Church. Michelton, Qld 1510 My Immigrant - John Cyril Sydney Hunt - England to Brisbane

52 xxvi National Archives of Australia -Nominal Roll for WW2 ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVAL RESERVE Record of Mobilised Service - HUNT John Francis Official Number B/4114. xxvii Ancestry.com at Hurstville Library with basic details of a Dr John Francis HUNT whose ancestors were Oliver and Susannah BULL England. xxviii THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY SYDNEY MEDICAL SCHOOL OUR PEOPLE - HUNT JOHN FRANCIS Graduated Year 1955 with a Degree of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Links Graduating class. University of Sydney web site.\ xxix Electoral rolls obtained from Ancestry.com website. xxx The Sydney Morning Herald smh.com.au/notices Sept 26 th Death notice of Dr John Francis HUNT 23 Sept xxxi Australian Cemeteries Index Woronora Cemetery.org.au Burial General Lawn Jacaranda Monumental Lawn 0559 Dr John Francis HUNT xxxii The Ryerson Index - Sydney Morning Herald 24 Feb HUNT Lillian Moss (Moss) 20FEB 2009 Death at Sir James Nursing Home, Dalmeny, formerly of Cronulla. Her ashes were interred in the grave of her late husband J F Hunt on 29 April 2009, Woronora Cemetery My Immigrant - John Cyril Sydney Hunt - England to Brisbane

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54 Granny Knott According to her granddaughter, Eliza Bella, Granny Knott was a bit of a character and everyone was scared of her. Apart from this description, her descendants know nothing about her except basic facts no physical description, no photographs and no insights into her likes, dislikes or outlook on life. Like many women in the 18 th and 19 th centuries she was invisible except as daughter, wife, mother and grandmother. However, by crossing the world in her early forties she became a founding immigrant for at least 30 Australian grandchildren and many more great-grandchildren and their descendants. Eliza Bella s description suggests that her grandmother was a strong woman with an instinct for survival good qualities for managing the ups and downs of life. Mary Ann Smith, only child of John Smith and Susannah Warnes, was born in Oulton, Norfolk, in March John Smith was a labourer who probably did not venture far from Oulton, a village about 25 km north-west of Norwich, in his whole life. His daughter would have a very different existence. Susannah was in her mid-thirties when Mary Ann was born and she died when her daughter was only Mary Ann probably looked after her father or went into domestic service in the years before her marriage, at age 24, to John Neale 3, three years older and also born 4 and bred in Oulton. Mary Ann and John had three children William in , John in and Susanna in When Susanna was only 14 months old Mary Ann s life changed for ever, as John Neale died. 8 His wages as a labourer would have died with him. How Mary Ann managed in the next few years is not known, but at some stage she met a younger man, Robert Knott, a gardener from Strood in Kent. 9 A man eight years her junior with a recognised trade probably seemed like good insurance for the future care of herself and her children. Mary Neal and Robert Knott married in Norwich in mid Both are noted in the marriage record as being single, even though Mary Ann was a widow. Presumably her children were nowhere to be seen. Sometime after their marriage Mary Ann and Robert moved to Kent, almost certainly to his birthplace of Strood. It was from there that the Knott/Neal family travelled to Deptford, on the south bank of the River Thames, in late April 1838 to start a new life in New South Wales. By then Mary Ann and Robert had two children Isabella born in and Robert in , so it was a family group of seven which embarked on the Woodbridge for the voyage to Sydney. There were nearly 300 people aboard the Woodbridge who, apart from the crew, were assisted (bounty) immigrants consisting of 51 family groups and a small number of single men and women. 13 At the time, bounty immigrants were supposed to be aged not more than 40. Mary Ann was 42 when she left England so put her age down a couple of years to qualify. The Woodbridge took four and a half months to sail from England to Sydney with only one landfall. At the insistence of the surgeon on board, a stop was made at the Cape of Good Hope to obtain fresh food (but unfortunately no fruit) as quite a few passengers were ill including some showing early symptoms of scurvy. 14 The voyage was regarded as relatively healthy with only 10 deaths, fortunately none of them from Mary Ann s family Granny Knott

55 Within days of arriving in Sydney in September 1838, Robert Knott and both his step-sons were engaged as gardeners by John Blaxland of Newington House on the Parramatta River. 15 Mary Ann had somewhere to live and a known family income for at least her first year in Australia as Robert was to be paid 30 pounds per year, William 15 pounds and John 14 pounds, all with rations. By the early 1840s Mary Ann and Robert Knott and their family had moved further west to Mulgoa. John Neal worked for George Cox on his property Winbourne at Mulgoa and some family notes say that William Neal was a coachman for one of the Cox family, several of whom had properties in the Mulgoa Valley. It is most likely that Robert Knott worked somewhere in the Mulgoa Valley too. Robert died in September , so at the age of 47 Mary Ann was widowed for a second time. At least this time she had adult or near adult children to look after her and her younger children. She became Granny Knott on 1 June 1852, with the birth of Eliza Bella, daughter of her son William and his wife Isabella Campbell. 17 During the next 30 years at least 28 more grandchildren were born twelve more to William and Isabella 18, five to John and his wife Eliza Knight (née Raynor) 19, nine to her daughter Isabella and husband George Glover 20, and two to Robert Knott jnr and his wife Elizabeth White. 21 Descendants of her daughter Susanna have not been traced but it is likely that Susanna married and had children. 22 William s elder children would have known their granny quite well. She was living with William and his family when she died, and had possibly lived with them for some years. However for most of her grandchildren, Granny Knott would just have been a name as fewer than half of them were aged five or more at the time of her death and five were born after her death. Mary Ann lived to the age of 75 and saw her sons established in their own businesses or good long-term employment, probably doing better than they would have in England. William Neal married at Cobbitty in and remained in the area just west of Sydney during his mother s lifetime. At some stage he gave up his earlier occupations and become a blacksmith, possibly working for a few years with his father-in-law Sweyn Campbell, a blacksmith at Cobbitty. By the beginning of the 1860s he had his own business at Bringelly general store, post office, smithy and pound. In early 1874 William transferred the business at Bringelly to his newly-married eldest daughter and her husband and moved to Shaw near Carcoar to become a farmer. The early 1860s saw Mary Ann s other children move away from the Mulgoa area where they had spent most of their first years in Australia. John Neal and his family went from Winbourne to Burrundulla at Mudgee, another property owned by the Cox family. He remained near Mudgee for the rest of his life, eventually leaving the employ of George Henry Cox and having his own farm which he named Nealton. Isabella Knott married in and a few years later moved to the Central Coast and then to Maitland where she lived to the ripe old age of 93. Robert Knott jnr became a bootmaker and moved west to Bathurst where he married in About 1882 he settled in Blayney, close to where William and family were then living Granny Knott

56 Mary Ann Knott died at Bringelly in July 1871 and was buried in the churchyard of St Thomas, Mulgoa, 26 beside her husband. Her family put up a gravestone which is now very worn so the inscription is hard to read, but it was recorded some years ago as: Sacred to the Memory of Mary Ann Knott born March died July Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ And ye shalt be saved The marriage records of Mary Ann and both husbands indicate that none of them could write (they made their marks). Mary Ann must have seen this as holding her back and somehow she gained at least basic literacy so that when she came to Australia she was recorded as being able to both read and write. 27 Widespread illiteracy in rural England well into the 19 th century means that Mary Ann s descendants from her first marriage are not certain whether they should spell their surname as NEAL or NEALE (they use NEAL). The records for the family s travel to Australia and initial employment on arrival are no help as the surname is variously written as NEAL, NEIL 28 and NEILL 29. Church records for her first husband and members of his family have both NEAL and NEALE 30, equally common spellings throughout Norfolk, presumably at the whim of whoever made the entries in the parish registers. In the lottery of family life, Mary Ann had two daughters and a lot of granddaughters, great-granddaughters and great-great granddaughters. Her first husband s name lives on in relatively few descendants with the surname of Neal and some others with Neal as one of their given names. She has no living descendants with the surname of Knott as her son Robert had one daughter who did not marry 31 and one son who did not survive. 32 Unless one of her female descendants marries a Mr Knott there will never be another Granny Knott in her family. 1 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), baptism of Mary Ann Smith (born 16 March 1796), daughter of John Smith and Susannah Warnes, on 20 March Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), burial of Susan Smith, aged 44, wife of John Smith, on 11 April Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), marriage of John Neale and Mary Smith on 20 November 1820 at St Peter and St Paul, Oulton. 4 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), baptism of John Neal, son of William Neal and Ann Taylor, on 2 June Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), baptism of William Neale, son of John and Mary Neale, on 9 September Records from the Woodbridge give his birth date as 5 September. 6 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), baptism of John Neale, son of John and Mary Neale, on 23 March Records from the Woodbridge give his birth date as 22 March. 7 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), baptism of Susanna Neale, daughter of John and Mary Neale, on 1 May Records from the Woodbridge give her birth date as 15 April. 8 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line), burial of John Neale, aged 33, on 2 July Granny Knott

57 9 BMDregisters.co.uk, Register of Births and Baptisms at Zoar Independent Chapel at the High Street in the Parish of Strood, Kent from 1785 to 1837, Reference RG4/Piece 1189/Folio 30, baptism of Robert Knott (born 23 May 1804) son of William Robert and Ann Knott, on 17 June Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of Norwich, Norfolk (database on-line), marriage of Robert Knott and Mary Neal on 20 June 1831 at St Michael Coslany, Norwick. 11 No birth or baptism record located but records from the Woodbridge indicate a birth date of 30 December Freebmd.org.uk, Index of Births, Sep Quarter 1837, North Aylesford, Kent, Vol 5, Page 245. Records from the Woodbridge give his birth date as 2 July. 13 State Records NSW: NRS 5313 Persons on government ships, Aug , [4/4780] 14 xroyvision.com.au/andrews/history/hist4.htm, Log of the ship Woodbridge by Alexander Stewart MD RN, transcribed by Peter Charles Andrews, accessed April SRNSW: NRS 5313 Persons on government ships, Aug , [4/4780] 16 NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, death of Robert Knott, V B 17 NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, birth of Eliza Bella Neale, V A 18 NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, births V ; V A; 5709/1857;6222/1859; 11607/1861; 12476/1862; 13745/1865; 7891/1867; 16818/1869; 16158/1871; 9278/1874; 9912/ NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, births 11047/1858; 11064/1860; 11475/1865; 14137/1869. No birth record has been located for the daughter born about NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, births 10944/1860; 11084/1861; 6298/1863; 10772/1865; 11405/1867; 13193/1869; 12507/1871; 12887/1873; 14085/ NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, births 6361/1871; 9602/ Mary Ann s death record shows daughter Susannah aged 45 and there are no death records for Susan/Susanna/Susannah in any variation of Neal. 23 NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, marriage of William Neal and Isabella Campbell, V B. The marriage was at St Paul, Cobbitty, on 7 July NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, marriage of George Glover and Isabella Knott, 2734/ NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, marriage of Robert Knott and Elizabeth White, 1488/ NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, death of Mary Ann Knott, 5435/ SRNSW: NRS 5314 Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Government Ships [4/4836] 28 SRNSW: NRS 5314 Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Government Ships [4/4836] has Neal and Neil. 29 SRNSW: NRS 5313 Persons on government ships, Aug , [4/4780] has Neill. 30 Freereg.org.uk, Parish records of St Peter and St Paul, Oulton, Norfolk (database on-line). 31 NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, death of Myrah Mary Elizabeth Knott, 5736/ NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, death of Robert Knott, 4348/1879 (birth record 9602/1879) Granny Knott

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59 Overcoming Impossible Odds - Lydia Moss Migrants making long and dangerous sea voyages to this country need luck and courage. This is as true today as it was in the early years of the colony. Fortunately, my ancestor Lydia Moss had both. She was one of a tiny minority of convict wives granted permission to accompany her husband to the new colony. She was also able to take her three children. But in making the long sea voyage the family's lives were placed in jeopardy. Typhus, the 'gaol fever' threatened all on board. Luck and courage but not much choice. Not to have petitioned the government for a passage, not to have made that voyage, to be left behind without her husband and with three small sons to support, would have placed Lydia in a desperate situation. Her husband Isaac had been caught with 40 shillings worth of printed muslin. As a receiver of stolen goods, a 'fencer', his sentence of 14 years transportation reflected the seriousness of the crime at the end of the eighteenth century. Finding herself without breadwinner and already in marginal financial circumstances Lydia faced a bleak future. She would have found work difficult to come by with her youngest child just just a few months old, and without work she would have had to rely on the local parish for support. Assistance from the parish was so critical that if, for any reason a woman was unable to return to her local parish, her situation became desperate, so much so that some families faced destitution and sometimes starvation. 1 Many wives petitioned the government to grant them a passage but the British government showed little concern for their predicament. The success or failure of a petition for a passage to accompany a spouse was unpredictable and was considered an indulgence. 2 Most married convicts simply left their families behind. Only after the 1820s did the number of wives increase with every transport. 3 Lydia was given permission to travel on the 1800 voyage of the Royal Admiral, a rarity in the early years of the colony. In 1791 five convict ships carried just over 1,000 convicted men who were accompanied by seven convict wives, one of whom died on the voyage. 4 The Hillsborough, which arrived at Port Jackson the year before the Royal Admiral, embarked 300 male convicts with six convict wives. 5 Lydia was one of six convict wives on board the Royal Admiral with 300 male convicts. 6 While most convicts were single, about a quarter of the men were married. 7 These small numbers of convict wives given approval to travel were typical for the first 20 years of the colony. 8 With passages secured for herself and her children Lydia needed courage to face the long voyage ahead. As it was, she embarked on one of the worst voyages in terms of mortality. The voyages of transportation up to 1800 recorded the highest death rates when an average of one in nine male convicts died (and one in 30 female convicts). 9 The death toll on the voyage of the Royal Admiral in 1800 was one in seven. 10 Dysentery, cholera and scurvy were all common diseases of the time but the greatest threat to the lives of those on board the transports was typhus, (a lice borne illness spread when a person scratches and lice faeces enters the wound). 11 Lydia may not have been aware of the extent of the illness and mortality on the voyages to New South Wales but she would have known that the voyage she was about to undertake was risky. Nor would it have been long before she realised the extent of the risk. At the initial embarkation of 191 convicts the captain reported they were all in good health. 12 Twenty days later the next group of prisoners boarded at Langstone Harbour where the typhus epidemic had been a problem for some time. Those embarked were in such a pitiful state that five were ordered off the ship while others died before the ship sailed Overcoming Impossible Odds - Lydia Moss

60 By the time the ship reached Torbay, the ship s last English landfall four weeks later, the carpenter s wife, three convicts and the surgeon, Samuel Turner had lost their lives. 14 All those on board must have shared the concern of the passenger, James Wilshire who noted 30 convicts were bad and some of the Ship's company.. with every one being at a loss considering his own safety, particular as the Fever began its rapid progress so early in our Voyage. 15 At the end of the six month voyage fifty-two people had lost their lives: forty-three convicts, the surgeon, a missionary Stephen Morris, four seamen and the carpenter s wife. Half of the six convict families on board lost one of its members: George Howe's wife Mary who was pregnant and had a young son on board, Ann Cook's husband (she was also travelling with a child) and the child of Ann and William Holdness who died just a week before arriving at Port Jackson. 16 Almost all the survivors required medical treatment on arrival at Port Jackson and four months later Governor King reported that the prisoners were still very weak. A year and a half later, on October 30, 1802 he declared that many remained in a state of debility and would never recover the strength of men. 17 Isaac was not one of them and, as luck would have it, was granted a conditional pardon in order to serve on board the surveying ship the Lady Nelson just eight weeks after he had arrived in the colony. 18 With the odds against them the family had survived and arrived in reasonable health. Isaac's fitness and a shortage of men needed to crew the Lady Nelson contributed to his receiving a conditional pardon. He was fortunate to arrive in the colony when he did. Although the conditions were primitive and difficult the small numbers of convicts between 1788 and 1810 (seven percent of those eventually to come), and very few settlers, made labour scarce and valuable. 19 Nevertheless, Isaac and those pardoned with him represent a very small proportion of the population that was presumably eligible. Seventeen were pardoned that day in January, 1801 when hundreds missed out. The number of male convicts living in Sydney then was 1,291 and if those living and working at Toongabbie, Parramatta and the Hawkesbury are included the total becomes 1,895. In other words, the numbers pardoned were 1.3 percent of the Sydney men or 0.89 percent of the total. 20 In just under three years Lydia had seen her husband receive the forbidding sentence of 14 years transportation 'beyond the seas' to be given virtual freedom. The only constraints under the terms of his conditional pardon being that he serve on board the Lady Nelson 21 which went on to survey much of the eastern coastline of New South Wales, Bass Strait, Tasmania and parts of New Zealand. 22 Lydia and Isaac built on their good fortune and by work and enterprise established themselves in colonial society. Lydia became one of the few female publicans in the colony and Isaac also became a publican after his absolute pardon in They ran the Fox and Hounds and Cherry Tree Hotels, received land grants and acquired houses in Phillip and King Streets and by the waterside. 24 Compared to the days of fencing in London, their financial situation was secure. From her humble beginnings Lydia must have felt satisfied when D'Arcy Wentworth, the Superintendent of Police stood up for her and a number of others who had missed out on receiving wine and spirit licences when Governor Macquarie wanted to reduce the number of public houses. He pointed out at the Bigge Royal Commission in 1819 that some of the most respectable people missed out on their licences and had suffered very great injury. Lydia Moss was among those named Overcoming Impossible Odds - Lydia Moss

61 The impression from reading advertisements placed in the Sydney newspapers suggest a confident woman: in 1809 offering to communicate answers to letters and messages which she had brought back from her trip to England (a trip she made without her husband); in 1817 insisting that unless items of wearing apparel be removed from her house in Castlereagh Street immediately they would be sold at auction; and in 1822 offering a 40 acre farm for sale at Botany Bay, with the applicants to apply to her. 26 Perhaps the woman who sailed from England on the Royal Admiral that day in May 1800 never lacked confidence. It may have been the basis for her courage to take a hazardous voyage half way across the world with her husband and children to live in a penal colony. Whatever drove her affection for her husband and desire to keep the family together, or fear of destitution if left behind - took courage. Her story also illustrates how dramatically the course of a person's life can be affected by luck. Luck and courage what would have become of the family without them? References 1.Robinson, Portia. The Women of Botany Bay. Macquarie Library; 1988, pp Ibid, p Ibid, p Ibid, p Noah, William. Voyage to Sydney in the Hillsborough, , Library of Australian History, Sydney. p.15, Bateson, Charles. The Convict Ships: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Glasgow, 1985, p Wilson, William. Captain s Log, Royal Admiral ,. (ML AJCP ref: Reel M1620), p.3. Bateson, op. Cit. p Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. The Harvill Press, 1996, p Robinson, op.cit., p Shaw, AGL. Convicts and the Colonies. Faber and Faber, London, 1966, p Bateson, op cit, p Liu Y et al, Historic louse borne typhus vaccine strain. US Library of Medicine, 2014, Nob 30; 9 (11). 12. Wilson, op cit, p Historical Records NSW, 4, pp Souter, Gavin. An unspeakable journey to remember next Tuesday. pp.38-39; Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Jan 1982, p. 38; Wilshire, James. Journal kept on board the Royal Admiral from England to New South Wales. 5 May 16 July, p.6 (ML ref: MSS. 1296, Reel CY1389). 15. Wilshire, op cit, p, Bateson, op cit, p.170; London Missionary Society. Journal of the Missionaries from Portsmouth to Rio de Janeiro. 9 May p.400. ML ref: Reel CY933; Elder, James. Memorial to Sir Thomas Brisbane, 29 April, In: Selkirk H, Life of James Elder, Journal & Proceedings, Parramatta and District Historical Society. Vol III, 1926, pp Bateson, op cit, p Colonial Secretary, Folio 63 (SRNSW ref: Reel 1913). 19. Hughes, op cit, p In June 1799, there were 640 male convicts in Sydney. Add 738 male convict arrivals since June, 1799 making 1,378. Deduct 87 colonial, conditional and absolute pardons in that time equals 1,291. Mutch, Thomas Davies. Mutch Index of Colonial pardons, , Conditional pardons, and and Absolute Pardons, ML ref: Reel CY1680); Historical Records NSW 1, 3, pp Colonial Secretary. Register of Absolute Pardons and Conditional Pardons, (SRNSW ref: Reel AO1913), Register of Conditional Pardons , p13, Item No Lee, Ida. The 'Logbooks of the Lady Nelson'. Grafton & Co, London, Sydney Gazette, 7 Aug Sydney Gazette 24 Feb 1821; Sydney Gazette 22 Mar 1822; Australian 8 Apr 1822; Sydney Gazette 12 Jun 1813; Sydney Gazette 5 Jul 1822; Sydney Gazette 2 May 1821; Sydney Gazette 20 Aug Bigge Evidence-Police, , from James Bonwick Transcripts, pp Nov 1819; ML ref: CY Reel Sydney Gazette 5 Feb 1809; Sydney Gazette 19 Jul 1817; Australian 8 Apr Overcoming Impossible Odds - Lydia Moss

62 Overcoming Impossible Odds - Lydia Moss

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64 SHE CALLED THREE COUNTRIES HOME. The plaque on my mother Marjorie s headstone in Sydney reads: "She called three countries home. " My sister and I chose this inscription as our mother, Marjorie Robinson (nee Weekes) had a deep and abiding love of three lands: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where she was born, England, which was always called "Home by British expatriates around the world and her adopted home Australia. Marjorie was the only child of Thomas Earle Weekes, (an Irish-born tea planter) and Jeannette Isabella Egan, whose own parents, Henry Lumsden Egan and Eliza Palmer were Ceylon tea-planters. Marjorie s mother was nicknamed Queenie and was reputedly a great beauty. She married Earle (as he was known) in 1901 at St Margaret's, Forest Creek. My mother, Marjorie, was born there in One year later, while the family was holidaying at Bentota Beach on the west coast Earle tragically drowned. Contemporary newspaper accounts from 1905 describe how he was trying "to save a lady "(who survived ) and that attempts to resuscitate were in vain. He was buried next day, as was the custom, at Kanatta cemetery, Colombo i. The widowed Jeannette married another tea planter a few years later in London and returned to Ceylon to live on the tea plantation Stockholm Estate. The bungalow s simply-furnished rooms had fireplaces set for cool evenings and polished concrete floors, essential in that humid tropical climate. However, children were sent "Home " to boarding schools in those days, often at a tender age, so Marjorie s idyllic childhood ended. As a schoolgirl in Britain from about 1913, she spent summer holidays at "Everton ", Carlow, Ireland, the home of her great-aunt Janie Fitzmaurice and her husband, Edward. Young Marjorie would be taken to visit the neighbours in a three-wheel dogcart and she soon acquired a thick Irish brogue. My mother always told me that Everton house, a grand mansion (resembling a French chateau) had an interesting history, and that it had later had been burnt down by the radical political group Sinn Fein and that Aunt Janie had "died of the shock". So I was surprised to learn, from a Carlow researcher, just five years ago, that the house was still standing, in fine condition, and that Aunt Janie had lived to a ripe old age. This revelation led to my correspondence with the current owners and an invitation to visit "Everton " in 2012 on a beautiful summer day and a meal outside of barbecued chicken and salads garnished with blue chive flowers from the garden She called Three Countries Home

65 Everton, Carlow, Ireland, ca.1909 Marjorie often spent some boarding school holidays at the country home of her close friend Joan. The two girls would gather flowers from the fields, pack them in attractive boxes, and send them to sick children in London s hospitals. Marjorie's education came to an abrupt halt when the school headmistress curtly informed her that her mother had died at the age of forty-one. Aged only sixteen Marjorie caught the first available ship back to Colombo, a voyage of several weeks to be with her adored step-father, Ted Mellersh. She took on the role of mistress of Stockholm Estate homestead. In her mid-twenties she travelled to England and on board ship she met a fellow passenger, Maurice Hugh Robinson. Maurice had been born in India to British parents, educated in England, and then packed off to Ceylon to learn the tea trade, as his parents wanted to remove him from his older brother s bad influence. In those days their shipboard romance was considered shocking and my father's elder sister castigated her for being "fast". Nevertheless, Maurice and Marjorie married at Holy Trinity, Nuwara Eliya in Ceylon s high tea country, the bride carrying a handkerchief with (the auspicious date of the wedding) embroidered in the corner. They made a handsome couple. Marjorie had ordered a full-length cream satin wedding dress from London, but it arrived with the shorter shin-length that was fashionable in London at the time. She decided to be daring and wear it, which scandalized some of the ladies of the Maskeliya Tennis Club. For their honeymoon Maurice and Marjorie drove across the island on poor roads to Batticaloa on the east coast, famous for its lagoons and "singing fish " which some believe was caused by the sound of water gurgling over coral reefs. My father spent a lot of time shooting snipe, a common British pastime in those days. I was born in 1931, my sister Hilary in When she contracted polio in those Salkvaccine-free days, she became unable to walk at the age of three. We learned of a Sister Kenny in Sydney, who had a reputation for curing this disease, so the three of us left our beloved home in Ceylon and came by ship to Sydney, in 1937, and immediately succumbed to chickenpox. My father, Maurice remained in Ceylon for work, but visited us in Sydney on leave. Life in Sydney was a dramatic change for Marjorie. She had had servants all her life but she had to quickly learn how to boil a copper, starch the clothes, put them through a mangle, iron and cook meals, things she had never done before. Luckily we boarded

66 at first with a capable woman, Rene, a piano graduate of Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and a bushwalker, who taught Marjorie household skills and remained a life long friend. I remember them setting off for the station in long summery evening dresses and fur capes to go to orchestral concerts at Sydney Town Hall. Later, Marjorie bought a secondhand Morris car with yellowy mica windows which cracked easily. Fortunately she was expert at replacing spark plugs, and changing the oil and tyres, skills she'd acquired from her stepfather on a remote hill station. This was the start of a series of long camping trips, in my school holidays, during which Rene would instruct us in camping and bushwalking while Marjorie drove. War had broken out and I remember passing soldiers route marching and we'd toss them oranges. In 1941, when a Japanese invasion of Australia looked likely in , my sister's hospital at Darling Point, on the waterfront of Sydney Harbour, was evacuated to Fairbridge Farm outside Molong, N.S.W. My mother, Rene and I also decamped to Molong and rented a cottage.and took up country-like pursuits such as spinning. There were wide streets, a huge peppercorn tree opposite and over the bath a terrifying chip heater which produced a dribble of scalding water while threatening to explode. We saw frost for the first time. Petrol was rationed so Marjorie bought a horse and sulky and taught herself, with some help from the next-door neighbour, to drive it. This was our only way to reach the farm to visit my sister on weekends. The mare, Jinny, meandered reluctantly on the five mile outward journey but cantered home dangerously fast on the return, anticipating her feed. The family dog often accompanied us, but continuously fell off the side-less sulky, so my mother had to keep stopping to collect him. Later that year, a Japanese midget submarine fired a torpedo in Sydney Harbour, landing harmlessly at the waterfront where the hospital had been. However, another torpedo sank HMS Kuttabul on which young sailors were berthed, and some were killed. After a year in Molong, we returned to Sydney and started school afresh, Marjorie driving us there each morning in her newly-acquired Vauxhall. When my sister started a millinery apprenticeship in the city a few years later Marjorie drove her there and back several days a week. Driving in Ceylon on poor, winding roads had been a different story altogether. We underwent two more house moves and finally my father retired from Sri Lanka, to join us permanently, Ceylon having gained its independence from British rule. This required some adjustment as Marjorie was not accustomed to having "a man about the house". However Maurice learned to wash dishes, and he shared Marjorie s love of gardening. Although as ex-pats they were more British than the British, in one sense they were ahead of their times, turning their tennis court into a productive orchard and vegetable patch, and a beautiful flower garden. They never travelled overseas again and settled down to a more mundane existence in suburbia. Marjorie made many friends through her local church and flower club, and was very proud to help arrange flowers for the opening of the Opera House by Queen Elizabeth.

67 Marjorie was a woman of strong opinions who survived for many years as a capable single mother, after emigrating to a foreign country. She was deeply loved by her daughters and grand-children, who remember her kindness and thoughtfulness. On a hot summer evening in 1994, at the age of ninety, surrounded by her daughters and granddaughter, she died in her bed at home, having decided earlier that day that it was "time to go". i Times of Ceylon, 5 December 1905.

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69 REBECCA TIPPING a life on the move. Many of us begin and end our lives in the same place. The lives of others begin in one part of the world and end half a world away. Rebecca Tipping was one such individual. Born in India, raised in industrial England, married in Wilcannia NSW, she ended her days in Sydney. Rebecca was born 9 December, 1860, and baptised 25 February, 1861 at Poonamallee, India. Her parents were Richard and Ellen Tipping, her father a Private in H.M. 68th Regiment stationed in Madras. i He left the army shortly afterwards. The 1871 UK Census for Wolverhampton shows the Tipping family at 143 Lower Stafford St. with Richard a general labourer, aged 45, born Wales, and all the children born in Wolverhampton with the exception of Rebecca, born India. In 1881 the information is much the same, except that Rebecca is missing. She had emigrated to South Australia in Rebecca Tipping, aged 18, arrived in South Australia, 12 May 1879, on Star of India as one of many domestic servants. ii They could be hired from the Servants Home. A newspaper report, with an illustration of the commotion around the home when a boatload of domestic servants arrived, explains how the new arrivals were besieged with prospective employers, offering every benefit and condition imaginable, as the colony was desperately short of both male and female labour. iii One story of her arrival is that she came to join her brother who was in the horsebreaking business. He met her in Adelaide when she arrived and went back upcountry for more horses. He was accidentally killed and his partner, Timothy Roy, went to Adelaide to tell her what had happened. She fell in love with Timothy and he took her to Milparinka, travelling by coach to Echuca, then riverboat up the Darling to Wilcannia and then by wagon to Mt Browne. iv Timothy, born in 1857, near Dungog, came from family with Scottish ancestry. v Family stories tell of him catching wild horses for a living out on the Darling River, and taking them to South Australia to be sold to the army in India. He had left home as soon as he could because of his father s drinking, and monetary demands on his children. Timothy Roy married Rebecca Tipping at Wilcannia, 6 September, Both bride and groom gave their usual place of residence as Mount Browne, Milparinka, over 100 miles from Wilcannia, in far western NSW. vi Mt Browne is a sheep station which had been grazed before the goldrushes of the 1880 s. The Albert Goldfield was proclaimed there in February 1881, and it would seem that Timothy was a gold miner involved in the rushes around Easter He gave his occupation as miner on his marriage certificate. In 1882, Rebecca and Timothy had the first of their fourteen registered children Rebecca Tipping a Life on the Move

70 Baby Charles was born 13 April, 1882, at Warratta Creek, Albert Goldfield, Milparinka. vii He died 3 ½ weeks later of general debility since birth. There was a severe drought at the time and I can t imagine what it was like for poor Rebecca being pregnant through the heat of a Milparinka summer, and then to have the baby die. viii Not only was lack of water a problem, food was difficult to obtain. Scurvy and typhoid outbreaks occurred frequently. The diggers fate depended on finding goldbearing dirt and then having enough water to wash out the gold. ix Rebecca spent the first 19 years of her married life almost continually pregnant. She had 14 children registered, including twins, in 19 years, the last one born in Seven sons and three daughters survived infancy. The first seven were born in the Milparinka area, where Timothy worked as a miner and drover on long cattle drives. By 1886 favourable seasons had returned and Milparinka was a permanent town with 3 hotels, 4 stores, boarding houses, a newspaper, photographer, blacksmith, saddler and 2 butchers. In 1891, Rebecca is at Warratta Creek, the head of the household. Her husband is away again. x By September 1892, the family was in Taree. Charles William s birth is recorded there. Family lore tells us that Timothy was ill and he and Timothy Junior, aged nine, came to Sydney from Tibooburra on horseback, then by train, while Rebecca followed with the rest of the family by dray. What a journey it must have been! It is hard to imagine a woman alone with five small children, aged from one to seven years, making such a journey. The logistics seem almost impossible. The family moved to Sydney. The next 6 children were registered at Erskineville, St Peters and Leichhardt. Those children who were at school went to Annandale Public School. Timothy was working and his illness improved slightly. In December 1895, the newspapers reported a blasting accident where men working on the western Suburbs Sewerage system were injured in an accident at Stanmore. Timothy Roy was one of the workmen but he was not injured. xi Timothy s illness became worse and he was in Bathurst in December 1901, staying at the manse, presumably for the climate. This we know from a letter he wrote to Dear Beccy, who had returned to Sydney. It is a simple letter of great fondness. He wanted to come home. On 29 January 1903, Timothy Roy died aged 45. The cause of death was given as Phthisis. He was buried at Rookwood. xii Phthisis was a term used for various illnesses. It could indicate a wasting disease, perhaps with respiratory symptoms, but not necessarily TB. xiii 1514 Rebecca Tipping a Life on the Move

71 In the history of the Tibooburra area, it is of interest to note that the only successful mining company closed down in 1891, about the same time as the Roy family left the area. The rock drill had been used there, as well as the mining method of dry blowing, something we know today as a sure recipe for lung disease. The First World War began and four of Rebecca s seven sons enlisted. She opened her home to other young soldiers. We know about two of them - Ben Kuscov and Fred Pickering, whom she regarded as her foster sons. We have three of Rebecca s scrapbooks, full of photos of the family, news cuttings and greeting cards. She also noted in them when she put eggs under a clucky chook! The photos date from around 1900 to the Second World War. There are pictures of her children, their friends and activities. There are many wedding groups and lots of people in fancy costumes, as if for plays or concerts, in traditional Scottish kilts, and military uniforms. The cards scattered through tell of Christmases, birthdays and Mothers Days, written by adoring adults and children to Mother or Grandma. The newscuttings provide a wealth of information about the family. There is one about the four sons who enlisted for the First World War Charles who was killed in action and Lesley who gained the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery during the fighting at Menin Road September 20, 1917, during which he suffered damage to one eye. Bob was at the evacuation of Gallipoli, and at The Somme, where he was wounded and contracted shell shock, in June Stan was barely 18 when he enlisted, but he did not embark due to the signing of the Armistice. There is a report of the funeral of Charles William Roy (b 1892), in Rouen, telling the circumstances of his death. Charlie died from a gun shot wound to the neck at Bullecourt. His death deeply affected the whole family and seemed to subsume Rebecca s life until her death. Both Les and Bob were discharged as medically unfit. xiv The older Roy sons went to Lithgow as coal miners. Campbell became Mayor and was a representative on the Joint Coal Board during WW 2. There are many clippings which mention Campbell or his brother Sam. They were foundation members of one of the Miners Lodges and were involved with local football teams and other sporting activities. There are pictures of them with the Oakey Park Colliery Tug of War Team. The collection included several reports of multiple births such as quads, quins and Siamese twins, and photos of Dame Sybil Thorndyke, and her performance as Joan of Arc, the Maid of Rouen. Perhaps because it was about Rouen, where Charlie was buried, made Rebecca keep it. Between 1918 and 1940 Rebecca and Bob moved around - Leichhardt 1918, Haberfield in 1920 where she lived with Bob, Fred Pickering and her daughter and son in law, Ethel and Sydney Crane, Lithgow in By 1940 Rebecca and Bob had moved to Granville and then to Guildford. xv 1514 Rebecca Tipping a Life on the Move

72 Rebecca died at her modest home at Guildford, 10 October, 1949 and is buried at Rookwood. Her son Charles is commemorated on her headstone. xvi Rebecca did not achieve any academic or social status. She left no large estate, but left a legacy of compassion and patriotism, a large closeknit family and many stories still to be told. i Baptismal Certificate Rebecca Tipping Vol N/2/42 Folio 63 India Office Library, 197 Blackfriars Rd, London. ii Microfiche Index of S.A. Arrivals No 313 SAG. iii Fearson s Weekly 22Mar 1879 p42. iv Myrtle Mackay, grand daughter of Rebecca, 25 Jan 1992 at Lithgow Reunion of Roy Family. v NSW Birth Timothy Charles Roy 1857 #6424 vi NSW Marriage certificate Timothy Roy and Rebecca Tipping 1881 # vii NSW BDM Birth 1882 # viii NSW BDM Death Charles Roy 1882 # ix NSW National Parks and Wildlife Leaflet Historic Milparinka. x 1891 census for NSW Tibooburra via Ancestry.com.au. xi SMH 11 Dec 1895 page 7. xii Independent section grave 5c/560. xiii Guidelines in the Interpretations of Certified Causes of Death. Brian Gandevia, published in Journal of the Society of Australian Genealogists Descent Sept xiv Military record Robert McMillan Roy, Lesley Angus Roy and Charles William Roy. Australian Archives. xv NSW Electoral Rolls xvi Independent Section Grave 5c/ Rebecca Tipping a Life on the Move

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74 THE SHIPWRECKED LAWYER AND HIS LADY On 14 July 1847, among those attending a Fancy Ball in Sydney were Mr. Billyard, a Shipwrecked Lawyer and Mrs. Billyard, a Spanish Lady. Billyard s costume displayed a sense of humour, for only that January he and his wife had been shipwrecked off the north-east coast of Australia, rescued in February, and returned to Sydney in May. They had been in Australia for less than year. 1 William Whaley Billyard descended from Nottinghamshire yeomen latterly settled at Fledborough, on the river Trent. Born in his mother s parish of Saundby on 8 March 1815, he was named for her father, an opulent farmer. 2 William s parents, John Billyard and Mary Whaley, married late (at 53 and 43), and both died before he was eleven, leaving him and his sister Mary to the care of his uncle William Billyard and aunt Elizabeth Whaley, but with a comfortable inheritance. 3 He was at school for six years, probably at nearby Ollerton and in Doncaster, Yorkshire, and in June 1829, Young Wm. Billyard received his first Latin lesson from Mr. Penrose, Fledborough s rector. In 1831, aged sixteen, he was articled to Thomas Bigsby, lawyer of East Retford. 4 A literary diary he kept between lists the books he read: legal, religious, historical (Life of Hernán Cortés) and Miscellaneous (Walter Scott s Waverley). His 1833 Annual Retrospect finishes, With Gratitude to God, I am constrained to remark that many circumstances during the past year have been very auspicious to my studies, (among others) a continuation of good health, private accommodation from my friends, and a liberal allowance of time from office business. 5 After completing his articles Billyard was admitted in 1837 as a solicitor of the Queen s Bench, and one of the Masters Extraordinary in Chancery. He worked with Thomas Jarman, barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, London, and author of notable legal textbooks, and then joined Phillip Richard Falkner as attorneys in the market town of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. 6 Here in 1842 he married Elizabeth, third daughter of the Reverend Dr. Joseph Cooke, Master of Magnus Grammar School, Newark. 7 Two sons followed, Thomas de Kirketon and William Whaley junior. 8 Then a chest infection caused Billyard to cease active work, apart from some legal drafting for Jarman and in 1845 the family moved south to East Budleigh, Devon, where a third son was born, Philip Saint George. 9 Billyard was advised to try a voyage to Australia for his health, and coincidently Newark s member of Parliament, William Ewart Gladstone, had just been re-appointed Secretary for the Colonies, and was thereby a source of patronage. They met in April 1846 at the Colonial Office, probably to finalise matters, for when Letters Patent for the colony of North Australia were issued in May, W.W. Billyard was gazetted as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, to act as both Civil and Criminal Judge. This colony would be based at Port Curtis (now Gladstone), north of present-day Brisbane, Queensland. 10 Two weeks later Billyard, his wife, three sons and a female servant left England and arrived that September in Sydney on the William Hyde. 11 In January 1847 the new colony s official party, including Billyard, his wife and two sons, Thomas and Philip, embarked on the Lord Auckland for Port Curtis although curiously the newspapers only record Billyard s departure. Possibly William junior was frail, and it was undecided if the whole family would sail. 12 One passenger noted 1515 The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

75 on 20 January in his journal, extracts of which were later published, Young Billyard, a hopeful youth, being snubbed by his father, the Judge, walked deliberately over the tea-tray. But five days later, within sight of Port Curtis, the ship struck a sandbank and ran aground on Facing Island. Alleged favouritism in landing the passengers luggage, Billyard and others standing waist-high in water, led to squabbling. When William tried to send bedding onshore for his wife and her sickly baby, it was refused, whereupon the learned gentleman made some cogent remarks upon the ineradicable principle of selfishness. Later this diarist recorded that Mrs. Billyard s general deportment was courage and forbearance, combined with contentment; all this, too, under the trying case of her baby dying in her arms. The passengers had to contend with heat, rain and mosquitoes, together with rationing. 13 Family tradition recalls that stores ran so low the bran stuffing in a pincushion was made into a damper. When rescue eventually arrived, with it came news that due to a change of government in Britain the scheme was abandoned. Most colonists, including the Billyards, arrived back in Sydney in May on the Thomas Lowry. 14 Here William and Elizabeth decided to remain, not as a government official and his wife, but as immigrants. Their earlier stay in Sydney had persuaded them that the colony provided better prospects, not just for a lawyer but in business opportunities and social advancement, rather than return to an English provincial town. Billyard was admitted as an attorney of the NSW Supreme Court in July 1847 and set up as a successful solicitor, 15 while he lobbied for recompense for loss of what he considered a permanent office in the abortive colony. Despite opposition within the Legislative Council who argued that home patronage towards a recent arrival was unfair to the colony s long previously-settled inhabitants, he was granted the post of Civil Crown Solicitor from 1850 until 1857, with the right to continue in private practice. 16 Billyard became friends with many early eminent colonists, and also acted as an agent for English investors. 17 He was energetic himself in mining and land speculation and in commercial enterprises such as a wharf and bone-dust factory at Pyrmont, and plantations in Fiji. 18 Inevitably Elizabeth Billyard remains in the background, but Sydney s newspapers portray her as a lively, social wife and mother, active in charitable works. 19 Between she produced another seven children: Josephine Harriet, Farquhar Sydney, Elizabeth Anna Lily, Mary Alice, Beatrice Ida, Charles Arthur Moresby, and Blanche Frances. 20 The family lived firstly at Rushcutters Bay and Woolloomooloo, then rented Waverley Honour, a cottage off Old South Head Road. In Billyard built a mansion house, Kirketon, in Darlinghurst Road, sold in After an interlude in Lady Young Terrace, Bridge Street, the Billyards settled at Parramatta, renting Elizabeth Farm from the Macarthur family between They then lived until 1889 in Ernest Street, St Leonards, Sydney, before moving to Bowral, NSW. 23 Billyard s success meant the fulfilment of the aspiration of both parents for an English education for their sons and finishing schools for their daughters. William junior was apparently the only child to be wholly educated in the colony, at Sydney Grammar School. 24 In 1852 Elizabeth sailed for England with four of her five children, returning in She left behind, with her sister Mary Kirke in Brighton, Sussex, six year-old Harriet, boarded with a French school in Dieppe, and eleven year-old 1515 The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

76 Thomas, sent to Brighton College. They would not return until Farquhar, after six years at Sydney Grammar, went in 1866 to Brighton College. 27 Lily sailed for Paris in 1867 with her aunt Anne Francis, while in 1871 Mary was at school in Switzerland. 28 Elizabeth travelled to England with her three daughters and youngest son in 1872 for Harriet s marriage to Lieutenant Francis Sullivan Delves-Broughton, RN, collecting Mary on her return in Charles, previously at Garroorigang school, Goulburn, remained behind to enrol at Blundell s, Tiverton, Devon in 1875, sailing home in Mrs Billyard visited London briefly with Blanche and Ida in 1878 for the latter s wedding to John Hedges of Ceylon. 31 The following year Blanche returned with her newly-widowed sister Harriet, and married in 1881 the South Seas merchant Thomas de Wolf of Liverpool, England. 32 Tragically, in 1888 Blanche disappeared from her family at Darling Point leaving a note, Goodbye, love. I cannot bear it. I am going to drown myself. Her body was later recovered from Sydney Harbour. 33 William Whaley Billyard, about 1900, Bath Somerset However, prosperity was never certain. Lily Billyard had married Lieutenant Archibald William Hamilton, RN, in 1869 and he took her to grow cotton in Fiji. The venture failed in 1874 and Billyard had to bail out his son-in-law. 34 Billyard and his family then invested, with initial success, in Holmhurst sugar estate, Taviuni Island, Fiji. 35 Meanwhile, his son-in-law Hedges s coffee business in Ceylon was dissolved and that family immigrated to Sydney in Hedges was sent to run Holmhurst plantation and mill, but proved an inept manager. 37 Another son-in-law, and major investor in the business, William Moseley, who married Mary Billyard in 1876, travelled to Taviuni in 1883 to remedy the situation. 38 But family quarrels, avidly reported in Fiji s newspapers, combined with destructive hurricanes, ultimately led to failure in 1886, with considerable pecuniary losses to all The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

77 In October 1899 William and Elizabeth retired to England. There was not just the financial reverses, but he was now deaf and blind. And England was where many of their children and grandchildren now lived since their daughters had all married Englishmen, probably introduced through the Billyards well-known hospitality to visitors. 40 The couple went to Bath, Somerset, where Elizabeth s sister Anne Francis resided. 41 Here William died in 1903 and Elizabeth in Immigration, even after half a century, was thus not necessarily permanent for a well-to-do professional family who had maintained close links with their country of birth. 1 Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter SMH), Friday 16 July 1847, p.2. Australian newspaper items were accessed through the National Library of Australia, Trove, 2 Stamford Mercury (Lincolnshire), 9 April 1813, p.3; William Whaley, bap. Carlton-in-Lindrick, Notts 1738, bur. Saundby 1813, and Mary, daughter of John Sherratt, bap. North Wheatley, Notts 1743, died Saundby 1810, md North Wheatley 1765 (Parish Registers, Nottinghamshire Archives, Nottingham). British newspaper items were accessed through 3 John Billyard bap and bur Fledborough, and Mary Whaley, bap. North Wheatley 1771, bur. Saundby 1821, md Saundby William Billyard of Woodcotes, bap 1773 and bur 1849 Fledborough; and Elizabeth Whaley bap North Wheatley 1767, died East Retford District, Nottinghamshire 1851 (Parish Registers; General Registry Office, England and Wales, Index, 1851 June Quarter, vol. 15/530). 4 Charles F. Maxwell, Australian Men of Mark, 2 vols (Melbourne, ), vol. 2, Appendix pp.1-2 [this work is not always reliable]; A.B. Baldwin, The Penroses of Fledborough Parsonage (Hull, 1953), p.110 (the Rector was John Penrose, ); The National Archives (TNA), London: KB106/16, (Articles of Clerkship, Series II). 5 Literary Diary of W.W. Billyard , p.17, MS. booklet, Author s collection. 6 J M Bennett, A History of Solicitors in New South Wales (Sydney, 1984), pp ; TNA, C202/229/12 (Writs of Dedimus potestam); The Law List in England & Wales (London, 1843): Coun4ry Attorneys; The Law List (London, 1845): Members of Justices Clerks Society; Society of Genealogists, London: Great Card Index,, under Billyard, W.W. Thomas Jarman died in Elizabeth Cooke, born 25 January 1823 and bap. St Michael s, Macclesfield, Cheshire 14 January 1825 (Parish Registers), md St Mary Magdalene, Newark 20 January 1842 (GRO Marriage Certificate); N.G. Jackson, Newark Magnus (Nottingham, 1964), pp , & Thomas de Kirketon, born Lombard Street, Newark 27 December 1842 (GRO Birth Certificate), last heard of in Bourke, NSW, 26 November 1869 as a prospective candidate for the Bogan electorate, Wagga Wagga Advertiser and Riverine Reporter (NSW), 22 December 1869, p.3; William Whaley jnr, bn Newark 1844 (GRO Index, 1844 December Quarter, vol. 15/537), died 20 April 1875aged 30 at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, NSW, SMH, 22 April 1875, p.1. 9 Bennett, History, p.315; Philip Saint George, born East Budleigh, Devon 27 January 1846 (GRO Birth Certificate), died Facing Island c.28/29 January 1847, Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Queensland.) 10 April 1847, p.4; Australian Town & Country Journal, 6 May 1903, p Bennett, History, p.315; The Times (London), 23 April 1846, p.5, accessed at The Times Digital Archive, Web; Raphael Cilento, Triumph in the Tropics (Brisbane, 1959), pp ; SMH, 16 September 1846, p.2 & 19 September 1846, p.2. W.E. Gladstone ( ) was four times prime minister of Great Britain. 11 State Records Authority of New South Wales, Unassisted Arrivals NSW , Reel 2457, p.248; SMH, 16 September 1846, p SMH, 4 January 1847, p The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Queensland.), 10 April 1847, p.4 (North Australia : Extracts from a closely written MS. of 80 pages, the journal of a passenger on the Lord Auckland.); SMH, 14 April 1847, p.2 (Journal of a Passage from Sydney to North Australia, in the Barque "Lord Auckland"); SMH, 10 May 1847, p Cilento, Triumph in the Tropics, p.133; SMH, 10 May 1847, p.2. Henry George Grey, 3 rd Earl Grey ( ) succeeded Gladstone as Colonial Secretary in SMH, 8 July 1847, p.4; Sydney in 1848: from Drawings by Joseph Fowles (Sydney, ), plate 76A; SMH, 21 December 1849, p.1, 3 January 1852, p.7, 5 January 1853, p.4, and 1 September 1858, p.3; Sands Directories between 1858/59 and Billyard s name continued to be included in that of the practice he founded for many years after he ceased to be an active partner The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

78 16 SMH, 14 June 1850, p.2, 15 June 1850, p.2, 4 July 1850, p.3, 6 July 1850, p.2, and 17 July 1850, p.2; NSW Government Blue Books, Returns of the Colony, (Billyard s salary rose from 300 to 650 p.a. over the period); SMH, 1 April 1859, p.4. The then Governor of NSW was Sir Charles Fitzroy, KCH, KCB ( ). 17 Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland), 6 May 1903, p.5; Cobar Herald (NSW), 16 May 1903, p.6; Freeman's Journal (Sydney) 8 July 1893, p.15; W.S. Campbell, Parramatta River and its Vicinity, , Royal Australian Historical Society vol. V (1919) pp ; Empire (Sydney) 21 April 1858, p 4 (Gladesville Estate). 18 Sands Directories, ; SMH, 2 August 1875, p.6, 18 August 1875, p.3 and 11 October 1875, p For social activity, see e.g. SMH, 11 November 1861, p.8, 21 March 1868, p.7, Australian Town & Country Journal, 15 November 1879, p.24, and Evening News (Sydney), 14 September 1895, p.3. For charity, see e.g. the Female School of Industry, Empire, 26 May 1857, p.1, SMH 3 June 1868, p.2 and 19 March 1872, p.4; Evening News, 22 September 1880, p.3; for the Destitute Children s Asylum see SMH, 2 February 1858, p Josephine Harriet born Woolloomooloo, NSW 8 January 1848; Farquhar Sydney (subsequently known as Sydney Farquhar) born Waverley, NSW 4 August 1849; and Elizabeth Anna Lily born Waverley, 31 May 1851; while Mary Alice, 31 January 1855, Beatrice Ida, 7 August 1857, Charles Arthur Moresby, 5 September 1859, and Blanche Francis, 16 May 1863, were all born at Kirketon, Darlinghurst Road, Sydney: SMH, 10 January 1848, p.2, 6 August 1849, p.3, 2 June 1851, p.3, 5 February 1855, p.8, 10 August 1857, p.1, 7 September 1859, p.1 and 20 May 1863, p SMH, 8 July 1847, p. 4; 10 January 1848, p.2; 6 August 1849, p.3; 29 January 1852 p.4; SMH, 10 May 1873 p.7; Sands Directory, 1885; Reminiscences of Mary Alice Moseley, Transcribed and Annotated by James H. Bath (privately printed Sydney, 1986), p.4. Kirketon was sold in 1873 to George Slade, and is illustrated in Helen Ennis and Isobel Crombie, Australian Photographs: A Souvenir Book of Australian Photography in the Australian National Gallery (ANG, 1988), p.15, labelled Residence of Mr George Penkivil Slade, Elizabeth Street, Paddington, Sydney. 22 Sands Directory, 1873; SMH, 2 April 1875, p.1; Reminiscences, p.19; Mitchell Library, Sydney, Macarthur Family Papers: Pyrmont, Parramatta & Taralga Estates : A4244, pp , 263a-b and 264a-c (microfilm CY1719), Letters from Wm.W. Billyard to Sir William Macarthur, dated 20 December 1878 and 7 May 1880, and to J.K. Chisholm, 26 May 1880; SMH, 30 August 1880, p.4; Painting by Robert Ponsonby Staples, At Billiards house, about Xmas 1879, Parramatta, Elizabeth Farm EF92/30; Historic Homesteads of Australia (Australian Council of National Trusts, 1969), p Sands Directories, (for St Leonards); Evening News, 5 February 1896, p.6; SMH, 23 January 1897, p.7; Robertson Advocate, 27 September 1898, p.2; Bowral Free Press (NSW) 2 May 1903 p.2. Their son, Charles Billyard otherwise Billyard-Leake, owned Riversdale, Bowral, between about Sydney Grammar School Archives, School Register, Pupil No. 307, information from James Bath; SMH, 22 December 1859, p.2 and 18 June 1860, p Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 14 January 1852, p.2,and 23 November 1853, p Reminiscences, p.6; Brighton College Register ( ), ed. E.K. Milliken (Brighton, 1922), No. 558; Empire 21 July 1860, p.4. Mary Kirke, née Cooke, born 10 April 1816, baptised Macclesfield, Cheshire, 7 January 1819, md 1stly Reverend St George Kirke, Newark, 6 June 1843 (Parish Registers), md 2ndly Major-General Edward Last, Brighton, 1865, and died Blackheath, Kent 1901 (GRO Index, 1865 June Quarter, Brighton, vol. 2b/295, and 1901 March Quarter, Woolwich, vol. 1d/762). 27 Sydney Grammar School Archives, School Register No. 308; SMH, 2 November 1859, p.2, 15 December 1860, p.2 and 5 February 1861, p.1; Brighton College Register, No Reminiscences, pp.7, 10 and 12-16; SMH, 1 March 1867, p.3; Australian Town and Country Journal, 7 January 1871, p.32. Anne Francis née Cooke ( ) married in 1862 Henry Ralph Francis ( ), NSW District Court Judge , SMH, 13 February 1862, p.1; accessed 12.xii Evening News, 22 April 1872, p.2; Bendigo Avertiser (Victoria), 15 May 1874, p.2. The marriage took place on 14 August 1872 at St Michael s, Belgravia, Middlesex (Parish Register); SMH, 23 Oct 1872, p.1. Ida Billyard was fifteen when she accompanied her mother to England, and was likely to have been sent to school there or in Europe between The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle, Saturday 29 April 1871, p.4; Blundell s School Register (Tiverton, Devon, 1904), No (where the headmaster was Augustus L. Francis, stepson of 1515 The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

79 his aunt Anne Francis); State Records Authority, Passengers Arriving , NRS 13278, reel 434 (ship manifest of Parramatta, p.2); Australian Town and Country Journal, 2 December 1876, p Australian Town & Country Journal, 26 January 1878, p.36 and 21 September 1878, p.35. John Richard Hedges and Beatrice Ida Billyard married 1 June 1878 at St Stephen s, South Kensington, Middlesex, Evening News, 19 June 1878, p.2 [name misprinted as Sledges]; The Pall Mall Gazette (London), 3 June Australian Town & Country Journal, 9 August 1879, p.26; SMH 16 Apr 1878, p.1 (Commander Delves-Broughton died 27 February 1878 at Ilfracombe, Devon). Thomas Andrew de Wolf and Blanche Frances Billyard married 28 February 1881 at St. John's, Parramatta, NSW, SMH, 2 March 1881, p.1; Liverpool Mercury, 12 April 1881, p.7; Doug Munro, Tom de Wolf s Pacific Venture: The Life History of a Commercial Enterprise in Samoa, Pacific Studies, 3 (1980), pp Evening News, 4 September 1888 p.6; SMH, 4 September 1888 p Archibald William Hamilton and Elizabeth Ann Lily Billyard married 17 November 1869 at St John s Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, SMH, 13 November 1869, p.1; Henry Mayers Hyndman, The Record of an Adventurous Life (New York, 1911), pp [ebook and Texts, California Digital Library, accessed 15.xii.2013]; John Young, Sailing to Levuka: Cultural significance of the Island Schooners in the late 19 th Century, Journal of Pacific Studies 28:1 (1993), pp , at p.47; Reminiscences, p.12; Empire, 22 January 1869, p.2. and 31 December 1869, p.4; Fiji Times (Levuka) 22 January 1870, p.2; 10 May 1871; p.8, 3 July 1872, p.6; 19 November 1872, p.3; and 5 April 1873, p.8. For the Fiji Argus (1874-[1883]), Fiji Gazette ( ), Fiji Times ( ), and Suva Times ( ), see State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, microfilms MAV/FM4/4020, RAV/FM4/1093, 1030 and Peter Dyer and Peter Hodge, Cane Train, The Sugar-cane Railways of Fiji (New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc., Wellington, New Zealand, 1988), pp.5-10; SMH, 16 August 1875, p.6; Queenslander (Brisbane), 25 December 1880 p 812; SMH, 17 February 1883, p.7; Australian Town and Country Journal, 12 July 1884, p.33; Mercury (Hobart), 13 February,1886, Supplement, p and.../1867_colpetty_mills.html, accessed 26.v.2013; Mitchell Library, Macarthur Family Papers: A4244, p.264c (microfilm CY1719), Letter from W.W. Billyard to J.K. Chisholm, 26 May 1880; SMH, 30 August 1880, p Fiji Times, 6 November 1880, p.2, 25 May 1881, p October 1882, p.2, 11 November 1882, pp.2 & 3; Suva Times (Fiji), 7 April 1883, p.3; Fiji Times, 23 May 1883, pp.2 & Captain William Henry Moseley, late Captain 60 th Rifles and Mary Alice Billyard married 25 July 1876 at St John s, Parramatta, SMH, 27 July 1876 p.1; Evening News, 25 January 1883 p 2; Fiji Times, 12 April 1884, p.2; The Argus (Melbourne), 7 May 1884 p SMH, 6 May 1884, p.6, SMH, 13 September 1884, p.8; 12 November 1884, p.6; Fiji Times, 27 August 1884, p.2; SMH, 12 November 1884 p 6; Suva Times, 4 March 1885, p.3; Argus, 22 March 1886 p 9; SMH, 15 April 1886 p 6; SMH, 15 September 1894, p SMH, 7 October 1899, p.10; Bowral Free Press (NSW) 2 May 1903 p 2; Reminiscences, pp.18-19; The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People (Sydney), 4 March 1905 p.13. Mary and Ida resided in Sydney while Lily, Harriet and Sydney Farquhar were in England as was his son-in-law Thomas de Wolf, and Charles divided his time between Australia and Britain England Census, TNA: RG13/2336 fo.26, p.9, when the Billyards were of 29 Pulteney Street, Bath; London: Principal Probate Registry, England & Wales, Will of Anne Francis of 9 Pulteney Street, Bath, SMH, 1 May 1903, p.6 and 27 February 1905, p.6. William s estate was sworn in 1903 at Nil in Australia, State Records Authority, NSW Will Books, NRS/13661, No , and in 1906 at 1,573.2s.7d (Trust property only) in England, Principal Probate Registry, Will; Elizabeth s estate was sworn in 1905 at s.8d. in England, Principal Probate Registry, Administration The Shipwrecked Lawyer and His Lady

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81 My immigrant ancestor s story is actually two stories, the fantasy and the reality. Caroline Greenhalgh, known in her latter years as Granny Greenhalgh, was, by all accounts, especially her own, a most remarkable woman. So strong was the force of her personality that she was believed to be 108 years old when she died (not true), and more than three decades later her descendants were fighting over the inheritance of a fortune that had never existed anywhere except in Caroline s imagination. Caroline invented a whole fantastical background for herself, but her achievements were real enough as an early settler and pioneer in the north of the colony of New South Wales, where she earned a reputation as the smartest cedar dealer on the Richmond River. 1 In the fantasy version of her life, Caroline was born in 1804, the daughter of Lord Panton of Kent, and a relation of the Duke of Wellington. When she was young her father died at the great age of 114, and her mother was remarried to the wealthy John Coats, of the cotton manufacturing family. In 1815, at the age of 11, Caroline witnessed troops passing over London Bridge, having been despatched to fight the French at Waterloo. 2 She ran away from home due to disagreements with her stepfather and became a nursemaid to the young Princess (later Queen) Victoria. She once borrowed the Princess jewels when going to a dance, and got into trouble for it. 3 In 1822, at age 18, Caroline sailed on the ship Red Rover in one of the first batches of free immigrants to the colony of New South Wales, accompanied by her friend, the famous philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts. Caroline had secured a position as a lady companion to Governor Brisbane s wife, but on the voyage out she met Joseph Greenhalgh, another free settler, and they were married on arrival in Sydney. By 1837 Caroline and Joseph had a large family, and she was 33 years old. That year they travelled north to the Richmond River, and were the first white settlers in the district. 4 Such is Caroline s account of her early years and her advent to the Richmond, and she apparently told her children as they grew up that she had a claim on the fortune of the Coats family. 5 In the real, and more prosaic version of her life, Caroline was born on 4 January 1822 in Whitechapel, 6 the daughter of Joseph Panting, a carpenter. At the age of 18 she was brought out to New South Wales as a Bounty immigrant by one John Marshall, and she arrived in Sydney on the ship Lady McNaughton on 16 December Soon after, on 8 March 1841, Caroline married Joseph Greenhalgh, 8 an exconvict, 9 at St. Andrew s Presbyterian Church. Twins were born to Caroline and Joseph in Sydney, but died in infancy. 10 In 1843 they travelled to the Richmond River in a small schooner, and joined the sawyers camp at Gundurimba, which was the centre of the cedar trade on the Richmond. 11 Situated near the confluence of two tributary creeks, which flowed through hundreds of acres of thickly wooded hill country, the site gave access to the best cedar in the north. Huts were built and the women and children lived there while the men worked up the tributaries cutting cedar. 12 In those early days on the Richmond there were no bullocks for hauling timber and rowing boats were the only means of transport. Cedar was felled and rolled onto sawpits, where it was cut into flitches with pitsaws, then tipped into the river and flooded to the boats. It was customary for the sawyers, when working in the hills, to stack the cedar logs they had cut on the bank of some distant creek and then return home to wait for the next flood 1516 Granny Greenhalgh

82 to carry them down to the river. 13 Great torrents of water swept down from the mountains three or four times a year. With the first drop of rain the excitement in the cedar camps rose as the sawyers got ready for the running out. Dampers were cooked, beef was boiled and the men started out on their long walk to the hills. When the flood came down with a roar they sprang to life and, shoving the logs into the swift-flowing current, they plunged in afterwards to guide them downstream. Clinging to the branches on the banks or riding astride the logs, they eased them over the snags or pushed them out from the overhanging vines. It was dangerous work following the logs down to the stop, or chain, which was placed at the mouth of the creek, and many men were drowned. 14 Caroline and Joseph s next seven children were born at the Richmond River between 1847 and 1864, 15 and the family moved about where the cedar trade took them. Once they had a fire they never allowed it to go out, and when shifting their camp from place to place carried a lighted booyong stick which smouldered all the time. Times were very hard in those days and Caroline and her family often went a week without any regular food. Others were even more hard up. Many could not afford to buy clothes and wore trousers made of cornsacks. 16 While Joseph worked as a cedar getter, Caroline acted as the unofficial doctor and midwife to the settlers on the Richmond River. 17 In 1874 Joseph died, leaving Caroline a widow. 18 In order to support her family, she put her accumulated knowledge of the cedar trade to use and became a cedar dealer. Cedar dealers performed an important service for those engaged in the industry. They bought the logs for cash, so that the cedar getters did not have to wait for them to be shipped to Sydney to get their money. Caroline, now known as Granny Greenhalgh, soon earned a reputation as the smartest dealer on the river. Whenever a schooner came up the river laden with logs she was often to be seen there, looking for flaws and picking out the best cedar she could find for a Sydney or Melbourne buyer. 19 When her children had grown up and were no longer reliant on her to support them, Caroline retired from the cedar trade and was employed as caretaker of the Lismore Council Chambers in She held this position for the next quarter of a century, finally being forced to retire in 1904 due to the infirmities of her age. Fiercely independent, she refused to accept the old age pension and continued to earn her own living by sewing and making paper ornaments and other articles. Despite failing hearing and memory she still wheeled a small handcart to town almost every day with unfaltering step. She also kept various pets, including a few Skye terriers, a monkey, a cat, two possums and several parrots. She disliked publicity, and on the occasion of the visit of the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Harry Rawson, to Lismore she refused to sit for a photograph when His Excellency requested one after a brief conversation with her. 20 In her latter years Caroline moved to a little cottage close to St. Mary s Convent, where she resided by herself. Despite all the entreaties of her sons and daughters to live with them, she was determined to do for herself. She said was quite happy under the care of the good Sisters of the Convent, and many times her daughters would 1516 Granny Greenhalgh

83 come away crying because she would not let them do anything for her. 21 On the night of 3 August 1913 a kerosene lamp in Caroline s cottage exploded and set her on fire. Her neighbours ran to her cottage and extinguished the fire. Finding her burnt from head to foot, they wrapped her in a blanket, and sent for a doctor and her relatives, who arrived soon afterwards. The doctor ordered her immediate removal to hospital. Caroline was perfectly conscious, and, in spite of her terrible injuries, protested against being removed from her house. Even when she had been prevailed upon to be taken away she carefully instructed her daughter to see that her house was properly locked up. She was taken to hospital, where she died several hours later, 22 aged 91. Caroline was thought to be 108 years old, and that age was recorded on her death certificate 23 and inscribed on her tombstone. 24 In a bizarre sequel to the fantasies Caroline spun around her life, a dispute erupted in 1949 between several of her descendants as to which of them was the true heir to her fortune. This was believed to consist of 15,000,000, and supposedly devolved on the descendants of Caroline, as step-daughter of John Coats. 25 Of course the argument was entirely academic and no one actually inherited this fortune, since Caroline s claim to it was entirely fictitious. The strength of people s belief in these tales over so many years however, stands as testimony to the remarkable immigrant, pioneer and story-teller known as Granny Greenhalgh Daley, Louise Tiffany, Men and a River: A History of the Richmond River District , Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1968, p. 38. Woman s world a remarkable centenarian, The Brisbane Courier, 14 May Told to the author in 1992 by his grandmother, Mrs Rose Wright, a great granddaughter of Granny Greenhalgh. Letter from Mrs Rita Torenbeek to the author dated 2 July Involved tale of 15M, The Northern Star, 17 March Caroline Amelia Elizabeth Greenhalgh, Richmond River Historical Society Inc., provided to the author on 3 March 1996, p. 5 State Records NSW, Index to Bounty Immigrants, , Ship Lady McNaughton, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth Panting, 16 December 1840, Vol 32, p. 875, Reel 416. NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Marriage Certificate, Joseph Greenhalgh & Caroline Panton, 8 March 1841, No. 3496, issued on 28 July State Records NSW, Joseph Greenhalgh, Guildford, 1827, No 33/1180, 29 October 1833, Certificate of Freedom, [4/4318], Reel 991. Burning fatality: Granny Greenhalgh succumbs to her injuries a very long life sadly terminated, The Northern Star, 4 August Pioneer history: Trials and tribulations hominy and treacle, The Northern Star, 6 August Daley, Louise Tiffany, Men and a River, op. cit., p. 33. Ibid, p. 37. Ibid. Caroline Granny Greenhalgh early cedar dealer in Lismore, Richmond River Historical Society Inc., provided to the author on 3 March 1996, p. 5. These were Mary Ann, born 1847, Joseph, born 1849, Matthew, born 1852, John, born 1854, Rosetta, born 1855, Caroline, born 1858, Vincent, born 1859, Louisa, born 1862, and Ellen, born Pioneer history: Trials and tribulations hominy and treacle, The Northern Star, 6 August Letter from Mrs Rita Torenbeek to the author dated 2 July NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Death Certificate, Joseph Greenhalgh, 9 September 1874, No. 468, issued on 2 October Daley, Louise Tiffany, Men and a River, op. cit., p Granny Greenhalgh

84 Woman s world a remarkable centenarian, The Brisbane Courier, 14 May Burning fatality: Granny Greenhalgh succumbs to her injuries a very long life sadly terminated, The Northern Star, 4 August Ibid. NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Death Certificate, Caroline Greenhalgh, 3 August 1913, No. 472, issued on 5 October Letter from Mrs Rita Torenbeek to the author dated 2 July Involved tale of 15M, The Northern Star, 17 March Granny Greenhalgh

85

86 Looks like hopelessness To misquote Oscar Wilde s Lady Bracknell, to emigrate once may reveal initiative; to emigrate twice looks like hopelessness 1. In 1883, Charles Fleming took his family from Scotland to Australia in order to escape poverty, pollution, disease and premature death. But why, having established a good life in Sydney, did he uproot his large family twenty years later to move to New Zealand? Born on 10 February 1854 at Coatbridge, Scotland 2, Charles Fleming was the second of four sons and a daughter born to Elizabeth (nee Taylor) and Angus Fleming, a waggoner. Coatbridge was then the most polluted town in the United Kingdom because it was at the very centre of the fast-growing coal, iron and steel industries of Glasgow 3. Living conditions were notoriously bad 4, with overcrowding and a high incidence of infant mortality. As David Bremner wrote 5 in 1869: Though Coatbridge is a most interesting seat of industry, it is anything but beautiful. Dense clouds of smoke roll over it incessantly and impart to all buildings a peculiarly dingy aspect. A coat of black dust overlies everything. From the steeple of the parish church the flames of no fewer than fifty blast furnaces may be seen. Apart from the adverse effect that this must have caused to the residents physical health, it may also have had a depressing effect on their mental health, including that of Angus Fleming and his son Charles. Angus had to compete against other waggoners for haulage contracts with the large Glasgow industries. His income would therefore have been low and unreliable 6. When his second son William was born in 1859, Angus was a sawyer, having given up his haulage work. Presumably, this new profession paid regular and reliable wages. When Charles was 11 years old, his youngest sibling (Matthew) was born 7. By this time his father had left the family home, never to return 8. Charles mother Elizabeth was left to raise her surviving children alone. She was fortunate to receive assistance from her brother, Matthew Taylor. Despite the family s poor circumstances, Charles received a good elementary education and was ultimately apprenticed as an iron moulder 9, his lifelong profession. His younger brothers William and Angus were similarly apprenticed as a riveter and an iron moulder respectively 10. When he was 23 years old, Charles married Margaret Scott Ballentyne who was a year younger 11. Their eldest son, Charles Taylor Fleming, was born exactly a year after the wedding 12. Two years later a second son, Thomas, was born. In 1881, the following year, Charles mother died and he became head of his extended family 13. Unfortunately, his infant son Thomas died a few months later 14. It is likely that his father died about this time too Looks like Hopelessness

87 Emigration appealed to Charles and Maggie as a way to a better life 16, so they emigrated to Australia in Charles brother Angus and sister Jane followed soon afterwards 17. Charles, Maggie and their surviving son boarded Eastern Monarch (Captain White 18 ) on Friday 20 July 1883 bound for Townsville. The ship carried 534 emigrants 19 and a cargo of steel rails for the Queensland railways. Charles kept a daily diary 20 during the action-packed voyage. On day 25 as the ship neared the equator he had the pleasure of recording the birth of his third son William. On day 3 the ship had missed being wrecked on a hidden rock by just one boat length. Some weeks later it endured a furious gale in the Atlantic Ocean. The cargo of steel rails eventually shifted and, with every roll of the ship, threatened to smash the hull apart. had it not been for the brave men below who mannaged to a certain extent to jam and bind (the rails) down nothing could have saved us from a watery grave. 20 Some of the passengers expressed a desire to call at a port in order to better secure the cargo. The drunken captain replied that he would land us in townsville or hell! On day 94, as Eastern Monarch sailed serenely up the eastern coast of Australia, sickness broke out. at a quarter to 6 oclock this morning a little girl died she was berried at 9 this morning and shortly after the funeral another little boy was brought on deck for air and layed in a sling bed and at 10 oclock as i was passing i saw him die his poor mother fell back into my arms in a faint and in the evening another little girl died about 9 oclock 20. In all, ten children died of measles and typhoid fever. Fortunately, young Charles and infant William were unaffected. Perhaps Charles had developed natural immunity from close contact with his brother Thomas who had died two years earlier. The next day the ship entered Townsville s Cleveland Bay but due to the sickness on board the health officer (Doctor Ahearne) refused to grant pratique 21. The whole ship s company was forced into quarantine on nearby Magnetic Island for a week. For the Fleming family, mercifully spared from illness, the days under canvas on the warm island beach provided a welcome distraction. It allowed them to become somewhat familiar with their new homeland before the business of finding work and accommodation had to be tackled. this is a wild looking place with great hills covered from head to foot with stones the half size of the Eastern Monarch and the trees growing out from between them, i have walked over a good bit of the iland and i have seen a good many coketoes and other beautiful birds but no monkeys 20. After unsuccessful attempts to find a job in Queensland, Charles eventually found employment at Mort s iron foundry in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. Recognising his outstanding skills as an iron moulder, his employer soon allocated to Charles the iron foundry s most unusual and difficult projects. He was very proud, therefore, to be chosen to make the mould that was used to cast the figurehead for the new Sydney Harbour pilot vessel 1517 Looks like Hopelessness

88 Captain Cook in Sculpted by Sydney artist Nelson Illingworth, the figurehead portrays Captain Cook shading his eyes with his right hand while staring resolutely ahead, with his telescope tucked under his left arm. The great seafarer s body morphs at the waist into intricate iron filigree work along the bow of the vessel. The Sydney Morning Herald reported 22 : The bow will be surmounted by a bronze figure-head of the great navigator Captain Cook, after whom the vessel is named. The figure was cast by the contractors in one piece with great success. It is the first attempt that has been made in statuary founding in the colonies. Charles Fleming s figurehead on Captain Cook, Sydney Harbour Picture: Searle, E.W. (Edward William) Source: National Library of Australia: According to Fleming family lore 23, Charles expected to get some recognition from his employer for the successful cast of the figurehead and, when that recognition was not forthcoming, he resigned his job and emigrated to New Zealand. The truth, however, is more complex. In fact Charles emigration to New Zealand occurred more than 11 years later. It seems that, while Charles was peeved at the lack of recognition he received in 1892, it was another incident in 1901 that sparked his decision to emigrate a second time. The Sydney Morning Herald reported: An Important Invention An invention that is claiming a large amount of interest just now from the shipping community has been turned out at Mort s Dock and Engineering Works at Balmain by Mr Charles Fleming, the foreman ironmoulder For years he has worked on the experiment, and recently he joined (a body of brass to another body of cast iron) in such a manner that it is said to be impossible to separate them The inventor, in conjunction with Mr Thomas, late manager of the Atlas Works, has taken out a patent in the United Kingdom Looks like Hopelessness