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|
Immigrant Ancestor |
Arrived in Australia,
at Age |
From |
Background |
For more
information see |
|
W1 |
Alfred Beckett
1828-1913 |
1853
25yrs |
Wakefield, Yorkshire, via Dearborn County, Indiana, USA. |
In 1841
William Beckett, a draper from Wakefield, Yorkshire, sailed to New York with
his wife, two servants and eight of his eleven children including 12 year
old Alfred. They moved west and settled on a farm in Indiana. Later, Alfred
joined the gold rush to California and in 1853 he sailed for Melbourne on the
Bothnia, to join the Victorian gold rushes. In 1859 he married Selina. They
first lived around Ballarat, where initially Alfred was a successful
prospector but they later lost money in a deep shaft mining venture. In 1866 they
moved with their five daughters to a relatively isolated bush selection at Curdies River, about 40 km east of Warrnambool. |
Alfred Beckett & Selina
Summers |
|
W2 |
Selina Summers
1839-1920 |
1841
2yrs |
Midsomer Norton, Somerset, England |
When Selina
Summers’ father was killed in a coal mining disaster at Radstock, in
Somerset, Selina was fostered by her uncle, James Fussell, a building
tradesman. In 1841, at the age of 2 yrs, she migrated to Melbourne on the
ship “Strathfieldsay” with her adopted parents. In 1847 they were living
just off Bourke Street in central Melbourne. James Fussell was working as a
plasterer. Later they moved to Warrandyte and in 1859, at the age of 19
years, Selina married Alfred Beckett. |
Alfred Beckett & Selina
Summers |
|
W3 |
Oliver Wallace
1831-1916 |
1855
24yrs |
Florence Court, Fermanagh, Ireland. |
At the start
of the 17th Century the traditional Irish landholders (the
O’Neills, the Maguires and others) were expelled from Ulster and their land
was given to English, Scottish and Irish supporters of the Crown. Some time
later, the Wallaces were among those agricultural labourers and tenant
farmers transplanted from Scotland to work the land for the new owners. In
the middle of the 18th Century the Wallaces (and possibly the the
Burleighs) were working on the Cole family’s Florence Court estates in
County Fermanagh. In 1855 Oliver Wallace, his brother Thomas, his
sister Catherine, William Burleigh, and William's sister Eliza, emigrated to
Australia on the clipper ship “Cairngorm”. Their parents were tenant
farmers. The five young immigrants landed at Portland then transferred to
Port Fairy (Belfast). They worked in the district for about 12 years. In 1866,
Thomas and Oliver Wallace selected and leased bushland farms east of
Warrnambool. |
Wallaces & Burleighs |
|
W4 |
John Gall
1803-1880 |
1828
25yrs |
Brechin, Scotland |
Son of a Scottish farmer, John Gall worked as
a “cattleman” near Brechin. When he was 24 years old, he was found guilty
of stealing seven cattle. Although he had no previous convictions, he was
sentenced .. “to be transported beyond the seas for the period of his
natural life .... if he should be afterwards found at large within any part
of his Majesty’s Dominions without some lawful cause before the expiration
of his term … he shall suffer death as a felon”...
Separated from his three children and his
young, pregnant wife, he spent about four months on a prison hulk on the
river Thames at Woolwich. He was transported to Tasmania on the convict ship “William Miles”,
arriving in July 1828.
Thirteen years
later he received a conditional pardon. Having remarried in 1837, he worked
on farms near Launceston until moving to Victoria with his wife and three
daughters in 1846. In 1849, John Gall was working as a shepherd in Western
Victoria. |
John Gall
& Anne Radford |
|
W5 |
Anne Radford
1814-1908 |
1836
22yrs |
Bristol, England |
Born in
Bristol, England, 22 year old Ann Radford arrived in Launceston, in August
1836. She had emigrated as a single female immigrant on the ship “Amelia
Thompson”. On arrival she was engaged as a cook and housemaid on a farm near
the property “Strathmore” where the assigned convict John Gall was working.
In May 1837 John Gall petitioned the Governor of Tasmania for permission to
marry Ann. Permission was granted on the condition that it was shown that
Gall’s first wife had died. They were married in June 1837. |
John Gall
& Anne Radford |
|
W6 |
William Smith
1814-1868 |
1833
18yrs |
Pensford, Somerset, England |
William Smith was born
on 1/8/1814 to Mary Smith and Joseph Smith, a hatter, of Pensford Somerset.
He had three brothers and one sister. William worked for two years as a
hatter but on arrival in Australia was listed as a farm labourer.
At
the age of 17 years and 11 months (2/7/32) in the Somerset Quarter Sessions
he was convicted of “stealing wool” and sentenced to transportation for 14
years. He had previously been imprisoned for two months for “stealing beef”.
After a few months on a prison hulk he left Plymouth on 14/10/32 as one of
186 convicts on the sailing ship Circassian, arriving in Van Diemen’s Land
(Tasmania) on 16/2/33. On 20/2/33 he was
assigned as a convict slave labourer to Mr E.W. Umphelby of “Lauriston”,just
south of Bothwell and about 40 miles north-northwest of Hobart.
Umphelby was
a city-dweller from Southwark, London who on arrival in Tasmania in March
1831 had been granted land by the government. In October 1834, when Umphelby
was selling his land and goods just before returning to England, 50 year old
Umphelby was living with his widowed daughter in
“ a small
cottage or hut, the walls of which were built of turf and the roof thatched
with grass. It consisted of two small front rooms - a parlour and a bedroom
- with a skillion at the back.”
“There
were twenty to thirty acres enclosed and cultivated, the remainder of the
farm being grazing land”. He had 6 working bullocks, 60 sheep, a milking cow
and heifer and 60 bushels of wheat. After Umphelby left Tasmania, William
Smith was reassigned to a Mr Princept who is thought to have lived near
Westbury, Launceston.
William Smith’s convict record suggests that he
was an independent young man who was not always subservient. For this he was
harshly punished: 31/10/33 – 21 days
solitary confinement on bread and water for “neglect of duty and insolence”;
16/12/33 – reprimand for “neglect of
duty insolence and absent from his quarters on Saturday night”;
9/8/34 – 12 months imprisonment and
hard labour for “ incorrigible insolence and insubordination”;
25/2/35 – 75 lashes for “Instigation of four servants of his master
(Princept) to disobedience of orders and insubordination in shirking work”.
On Queen Victoria’s birthday in May 1839 he was one of a group of convicts
who were granted a ticket of leave. He received a conditional pardon on
24/5/1842. Later in 1842 he moved to Western Victoria.
Almost 10 years later (26/1/52)
William Smith, Roman Catholic, from Stony Ranges, Mount Rouse (Penshurst)
married Eliza Doyle, Roman Catholic, from Belfast (Port Fairy) at the
Catholic school house, Belfast (Port Fairy).
At
the time of the marriage William Smith would have been working as a
labourer, near Penshurst, southeast of Hamilton - probably on a sheep
station.
William Smith, farm labourer, died at Wangoom, east
of Warrnambool on 15/7/1868. He left a widow (Eliza), six sons aged up to 15
yrs, and a one year old daughter.
|
William Smith & Eliza Doyletd>
|
|
W7 |
Eliza Doyle
1835-1905 |
1849
14yrs |
Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland |
Eliza Doyle from Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland was 14 years old when she
emigrated to Australia as part of Earl Grey’s pauper immigration scheme
which was intended to alleviate the problems of overcrowding in Ireland’s
famine filled workhouses while solving Australia’s problems of a shortage of
labour and an imbalance of the sexes. Leaving Plymouth in April 1849 she
arrived at port Phillip (Melbourne) in August 1849 on the ship “New
Liverpool”. She was one of 201 Irish famine girls on the ship. She then
travelled on the brig “Raven” to Portland.
She was employed by
Robert Smith of Belfast (Port Fairy) for an annual wage of £10 and later
married at the age of 16yrs 7mths to William Smith (b. Pensford, England,
shepherd and labourer) at RC Church, Belfast, 26 Jan 1852. They had seven
children. Eliza died at Garvoc, east of Warrnambool, in 1905.
|
William Smith & Eliza Doyle |
|
W8 |
William Burleigh
1835-1876 |
1855
20yrs |
Florence Court, Fermanagh, Ireland. |
Like Oliver Wallace, William Burleigh
was the son of tenant farmers working on the estates of the Earl of Enniskillen
near Florence Court. He married Oliver's sister Catherine just
before emigrating. On arrival, Oliver, William and Catherine worked together
on a farm near Port Fairy. In 1869 William Burleigh leased land at Cudgee,
east of Warrnambool. |
Wallaces & Burleighs |
|
W9 |
Catherine Wallace
1836-1925 |
1855
19yrs |
Florence Court, Fermanagh, Ireland. |
Catherine emigrated with her husband, William Burleigh
(see above), her two brothers,
Thomas & Oliver (see above), and her sister-in-law, Eliza Burleigh. |
Wallaces & Burleighs |
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L1 |
Peter LeMessurier
1815-1876 |
1853
38yrs |
Saint Pierre du Bois, Guernsey |
Peter LeMessurier's father lived
on a small farm in south-west Guernsey. Peter and four of his brothers were
merchant mariners. Captain Peter traded around the world from Guernsey.
Then, for several years he traded out of Adelaide. Returning to Guernsey to
be married, he later emigrated to Adelaide where he started a successful
shipping and trading enterprise. The LeMessurier family had been prominent
citizens of the Saint Pierre de Bois parish, Guernsey, for more than 700
years. The
lineal male ancestors can be traced directly back to 1421. This was about
the time that, as a result of the battle of Agincourt, the parish ceased to
pay tithes to the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel and came under the patronage of
the English Crown. |
Peter LeMessurier & Betsey Lacheur |
|
L2 |
Betsey Lacheur
1819-1871 |
1853
34yrs |
Saint Andrews, Guernsey |
In October 1849 Captain Peter
LeMessurier married Betsey Lacheur of the nearby parish of St Andrews,
Guernsey. It seems that Betsey lived with her sisters on a small farm (Les
Blicqs?) about 4km east of St Pierre du Bois and that her father and brother
were seafarers. After his marriage, Peter continued trading - around the Australian Coast, to S/E
Asia, to Mauritius etc, while Betsey remained in Guernsey. In August 1853,
he and Betsey migrated from Guernsey to Adelaide on the "Fop Smit". Here
they were part of a small expatriate Guernsey community. It is suggested
that Betsey and Peter may have opened a shop, soon after arrival in Adelaide |
Peter LeMessurier & Betsey Lacheur |
|
L3 |
John Chewings
1816-1879 |
1840
24yrs |
North Petherton, Somerset, England |
John Chewings arrived in the ship
"John" in 1840 and after about 10 years of work carting timber and other
goods with bullocks teams he took up grazing land near Burra. He prospered,
becoming one of South Australia's leading pastoral pioneers and eventually owning three
sheep and cattle stations. |
John Chewings,
Sarah Wall & Jeanette Harris |
|
L4 |
Sarah Wall
1822-1893 |
<1850
<28yrs |
Wedmore, Somerset, England |
In 1850, 10 years after he emigrated, John Chewings married Sarah Wall
at Lynfield in the Barossa Valley. This was at about the time that he became
a squatter, north of Burra. |
John Chewings,
Sarah Wall & Jeanette Harris |
|
L5 |
Jeanette Harris
1846-1883 |
1850
4yrs |
St Peter Port Guernsey, Channel Islands |
Peter G Harris migrated with his
family in 1850. He quickly established a trading enterprise but
experienced financial difficulties in 1856. In 1876 his daughter, Jeanette Harris, married
Thomas Chewings, the son of John Chewings and Sarah Wall. |
John Chewings,
Sarah Wall & Jeanette Harris |
|
L6 |
Michael O’Dea
1848-1918 |
1849
1yr |
Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, Ireland |
In 1849, John O'Dea, a 37 year old Irish agricultural labourer, arrived in
Adelaide on the ship "Constance" with his wife Catherine (nee Leyden/Dolan).
Their four children born before emigration were: John (13yrs); James
(11yrs); Mary (6yrs); and Michael (1yr). Michael became a school teacher. In
1882 he married fellow teacher, Florence Henzell, daughter of Thomas Henzell. |
Thomas Henzell, Sarah Ward & Michael O'Dea |
|
L7 |
Thomas Henzell
1829-1867 |
1852?
23?yrs |
Newcastle on Tyne, England |
The de Henzell family migrated
from Lorraine, France to Newcastle to set up a sheet glass works in about
1610. Thomas emigrated from Newcastle to Australia in about 1852. At the
time of his marriage to Sarah Ward in 1858, his occupation was given as
farmer but soon after he was a school teacher. |
Thomas Henzell, Sarah Ward & Michael O'Dea |
|
L8 |
Sarah Ward
1839-1921
|
1853
14yrs |
Toll Gate
Bedfordshire, England |
Sarah migrated to South Australia on the ship "Caucasian" in 1853 with her
father Levi, her stepmother Sarah, and her two brothers. They settled at
Littlehampton near Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills where Levi worked as a
carpenter. |
Thomas Henzell, Sarah Ward & Michael O'Dea |
|
L9 |
Moritz Weidenbach
1816-1858 |
1848
33yrs |
Naumburg, Germany
(originally in Upper Saxony, Naumberg became part of Prussia in 1815) |
Moritz left his job as supervisor
at the Royal Gardens, Dresden in Saxony in 1848 to migrate to South
Australia with his wife and three children. He was the son of the painter
and drawing master, Friedrich August Weidenbach of Naumburg an der
Saale, Upper Saxony. Friedrich had a well educated, and accomplished
artistic family of 8 sons,
3 of whom migrated to South Australia between 1846 and 1850. In 1852
Moritz joined the Ballarat gold-rush with his brother Max who is still
renowned for his contribution to the 1842-45 Royal Prussian Expedition
to Egypt and the Sudan. On their return, they
acquired land and build two fine houses "Glen Coola" and "The Olives" at Glen
Osmond.. |
Moritz
Weidenbach, Diosma Staubke & Minna Bergmann |
|
L10 |
Diosma
Steubecke
1817-1900 |
1848
31yrs |
Merseburg, Germany |
Diosma was the daughter of the
curator of the gardens of the Royal Castle at Merseberg, west of Leipzig.
During emigration with her husband Moritz on the ship "Pauline", east of
Brazil, she gave birth to a daughter, Pauline Oceana Weidenbach. After
Moritz's early death in 1858, she bought and managed major family businesses
and investments. |
Moritz
Weidenbach, Diosma Staubke & Minna Bergmann |
|
L11 |
Minna Bergmann
1861-1930
|
1877
16yrs |
Ziesar
Prussia
100km W
of Berlin
|
Minna married Moritz & Diosma's son, Edwin Weidenbach (27) in 1879, when she
was 17 yrs old. . Minna (16) and her sister Emilie (26) domestic
servants, and their brother Julius (18) "land worker", emigrated on the ship
"Papa" in 1877. Their other brother, Julius (22) agricultural labourer,
arrived at Port Adelaide on the "Eduard" in 1878. |
Moritz
Weidenbach, Diosma Staubke & Minna Bergmann |