Single women storm the colonies

The Rona, formerly the Polly Woodside, considered to be the ship most similar to the Harpley, though the Harpley was smaller by 20%.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. H99.220/4357.

Susan Rochester and George Griffith may well have been on the ocean at the same time, heading towards the same destination where their paths would cross and merge.  Their early lives were quite different.  While George came from the bustling maritime city of Liverpool, Susan was born in the  quiet rural community of Chipstead in Surrey, the daughter of George Rochester, an agricultural labourer and his wife, Elizabeth Killick.

By the 1851 Census the Rochester family unit had dwindled from earlier years, and now consisted of the father George, a 50 year old widower, Edward, 22, also an agricultural labourer, Elizabeth 16, Susan 14 (a scholar), and Henry 9, (also a scholar). Another son, John, was either away on census night or living elsewhere.

St Margaret's Church of England, Chipstead.    The Rochester children were baptised in this church in the 1820s and 1830s. Photo:  Lenore Frost, 1983.

St Margaret's Church and Lytchgate, Chipstead. Photo:  Lenore Frost, 1983

Part of the Lytchgate and graveyard of St Margaret's Church, Chipstead.  Photo:  Lenore Frost 1983.

In later years, censuses show the brothers John and Henry Rochester still in Chipstead and still agricultural labourers.  Edward died in 1853, also still in Chipstead and still an agricultural labourer, but by that time the girls had taken off for Melbourne.

Between 1841 and 1851, the population of Chipstead had declined from 666 persons to 505, for reasons not yet clear to me.   The real rush to the Victorian goldfields didn't get going until 1852, and it is a reasonable assumption that the population continued to decline for the next few years.

In 1853 the English newspapers were full of emigration stories and overpopulation stories reflecting particularly on the difficulties for unmarried women in England who would find it difficult to find a marriage partner as the balance of the sexes was already well out of kilter.  It was being made worse by the exodus of men for the gold rushes.  It was found from the 1851 census that single women outnumbered single men to the tune of 545,742.  It was a bleak prospect for girls in depopulated farming communities who could only hope for farmwork or general servant work for the rest of their lives if they failed to marry, at a rate of pay which would not sustain them without family to support them in their old age.

On the other hand, the emigration stories were mainly about the success of single female emigrants who found work or husbands in Victoria.   Letters from young women mentioned their high wages and several offers of marriage from men with good incomes.  Mrs Caroline Chisholm spoke to a packed audience in Liverpool on emigration in January 1853, and it was reported in newspapers right round the country. 

The discussion everywhere would have been about emigration and gold, and there were incentives for those without the wherewithal to go.  The country wanted them to go.  The mystery is why the Rochester boys stayed.  George was too old to attract a subsidized passage, and Henry too young, but Edward and John might have gone, and Henry in later years, but they didn't. 

How or when the girls applied for an assisted passage I have not discovered, but a notice appeared in  The Cheltenham Chronicle referring to the Harpley being chartered by the Emigration Commissioners to leave from Southampton.  The ship departed Southampton on 9 April, and arrived in Melbourne on 17 July 1853.

The Cheltenham Chronicle and Parish Register and General Advertiser for Gloucester (Cheltenham, England), Thursday, March 03, 1853; pg. 4; Issue 2269. British Library Newspapers, Part IV: 1732-1950.

The vessel carried only families and 137 single women.  In total 45 males, 163 females, and assorted children - 268 souls altogether, which made up 236½ statute adults. The maximum allowable number of passengers for the Harpley was 237, plus crew and captain.

The Salisbury and Winchester Journal (Salisbury, England), Saturday, March 26, 1853; pg. 1. British Library Newspapers, Part III: 1741-1950.

Keith Pescod,  in his publication Good food, bright fires an civility (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2001) on British emigration depots, recorded that the first emigrant ship from Southampton chartered by the government Emigration Board left in January 1853, and continued at the rate of three or four a month thereafter. Private emigration schemes often provided the finance.

Pescod also describes the conditions and rules relating to emigration depots, which basically consisted of large barracks holding several hundred passengers in narrow berths which conditioned them to some extent to the cramped conditions on board an emigrant ship.   The intending emigrants were usually described as cheerful and excited, and we can imagine the Rochester sisters approached this big adventure with mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety.   They may have been travelling in the company of other folk from their village, but the shipping register does not specify a place of origin for the passengers, and there are no known relatives amongst the surnames.

The History and Voyages of the Migrant Ship Harpley 1847-1862 by Rolicker Chandler (the author, 1996), describes in detail the journey of 1848 from Deptford to Adelaide, based on the journal of an ancestor, with mainly details from shipping manifests for the other voyages. The 1848 conditions were not typical of later voyages as regulations were introduced to enforce adequate provisioning for the passengers.   The 1848 trip suffered from a shortage of good food and good water.

The ship was built on the Tamar River in Launceston especially for the emigrant trade, though the the timber they used was poor. For its second voyage it was sheathed in brass.  From the description of the Harpley, Chandler felt that the ship was very similar to the Polly Woodside pictured above, though 20% smaller.  The similarity lay in the three masts using square sails, a bowsprit and no figurehead.  The Polly Woodside was later renamed the Rona and used as a coal hulk for many years before being rescued from the ignominous fate of most hulks (usually sunk), and restored to her glory days as the Polly Woodside, now a National Trust tourist attraction in the Melbourne docks.

Let it be said that the Polly Woodside is by no means a large ship, so conditions on the Harpley must have been very cramped indeed.

After a voyage of 110 days the Harpley entered Hobson's Bay in July 1853, a very great relief for all concerned. The arrival was notified in the Melbourne newspapers which enabled friends and relatives to meet the ship at the dock, and prospective employers to seek servants. The passengers could be employed directly off the ship and over the next few days they accepted offers and moved on to begin their new life.

Susan and Elizabeth were both described in the Harpley 'Register of Assisted Migrants,  Book A Page 209' as Farm Servants, Church of England, could read and write.

The second I find my photocopy of the Register of Assisted Migrants I will be able to report on the contract conditions and how long it took to get it. Check for updates.

Susan took a contract with Dr Hunter of Brighton, and Elizabeth with Mr Livingston of Deep Creek.  For those unfamiliar with these places, Brighton was a seaside village on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay, and Deep Creek fifty kilometres away to the north of Melbourne - a considerable distance apart for two unaccompanied teenage girls in the days of horse (if you were lucky) or foot traffic.

In the next post, 'Susan Gets Her Man'.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE:
I never did find that Register with the contract conditions for Elizabeth and Susan, but of course it is now on Ancestry (never mind scrolling through all that microfilm, then switching to another machine for the photocopy!)

So Elizabeth took employment with Mr Livingston of Deep Creek for £20 per annum for one month with rations.   Susan took employment with Dr Hunter of Brighton for £18 per annum for one month with rations.   It is typical to note that this represented half or less of any male wages.

Phoenix Biscuit Co, Melbourne

Mary Jane's biscuit tin, made by Phoenix Biscuit Co, Melbourne.  The lid.

A side view of Mary Jane's biscuit tin.

The earliest trace of the Phoenix Biscuit Co in Trove is an advertisement for "girls" to do packing and icing of biscuits.

Advertising (1899, January 24). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189688521

The company doesn't appear in the closest Sands & McDougall Directory I have available, 1897, so the advertisement in 1899 is probably close to the beginning of the business.  The next one available, 1904, shows the following entry for the company, with M Condon as the proprietor:

Biscuit & Cake Manufacturers.
PHOENIX BISCUIT CO. (M. Condon),
Wholesale Biscuit & Cake
Manufacturers, Grosvenor street,
Abbotsford. Tel. 2599

The paint on the tin is well worn on the front edge of the lid, and has flaked off all over, but the remaining colours are still bright.  Comparing it with images of biscuit tins on the net, it would appear to date to the period 1910-1920.

Great Grandma Jane was a Vaxxer

 

Mary Jane Eynon's biscuit tin contains two frail certificates of vaccination: Emily Isabel, vaccinated at 6 months in 1882;  and Charlotte Victoria in 1894, the year she was born.  Both took place in Fitzroy;  There was a further "Notice to Parents" that their child Violet Alicia was to be presented for vaccination, either to the Public Vaccinator or to a Medical Practitioner.  Isabel was vaccinated by a medical practitioner, Charlotte by the Public Vaccinator, and there is no further information about Violet's vaccination.

The certificates indicated that vaccination was compulsory for children under the Compulsory Vaccination Act.  The certificates were to be forwarded when vaccinations completed to the district registrar who presumably matched them with births registered.

The only vaccinations available at this time were for smallpox.  Public health was a serious issue for the government with a growing and mobile population.  Outbreaks of smallpox in Australia in the 19th century were common, but in 2015 no cases of small pox have been notified - the disease has been eradicated in Australia.  The last notification of a smallpox case occurred in 1921.

Mary Jane would have heard her mother talk about the two baby brothers who had died in Beechworth in the 1850s, and would have personally remembered the deaths of other small children in the camps around her as she grew older, as well as two siblings who died as young adults.   Mary Jane's children benefited from public health programs.  She lost only one infant of her large family of eight children.

Mementos of Beechworth from 1922

The Gorge Road, Beechworth, Vic. Rose Series, P10559.

Reid's Creek, Beechworth.  Rose Series, P10543.

The Elephant Rock, Beechworth.  No 12.

These three postcards of the Beechworth area come from a biscuit tin in which George Griffith's  daughter  Mary Jane Eynon (who was born in Silver Creek, Beechworth) kept sentimental fragments of letters, cards, receipts, postcards and photographs, mainly from her children. On the back of one of these postcards was written "1922" in pencil, which is a match for the date on the back of a postcard of Camp St, Beechworth posted earlier on this blog.

The writing is hard to identify.  It doesn't appear to be Mary Jane herself - she learnt to write back in the 1860s and her writing is of a distinctive style.   Her children were taught a particular script at school in Fitzroy and the formation of their letters is quite similar, so taking a not-very-wild guess, the postcards were given to Mary Jane by one of her children  in 1922 as a memento of her birthplace. 

Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! April 1855

Camp Buildings Beechworth, A J Stopp, c 1870?  State Library of Victoria Collection http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/68990

ASSEMBLY ROOMS

Dancing ! Dancing! Dancing!

M LANGFORD, proprietor of the Beechworth Hotel, begs to inform the inhabitants of Beechworth and its vicinity, that he has rented the above rooms, with an intention of making it into a  

Dancing and Musical Saloon,

which will be opened on

MONDAY, 9TH APRIL, 1855.

It is being fitted up in the best possible style, Messrs. Griffiths and Co. (Harp and Violin players) are engaged as musicians, and the lovers of really good music singing, and dancing, will have an opportunity afforded them unequalled in the district.

Doors open every evening, from half

past 6 to 12 p.m.

N.B.-There will be an entrance from the Assembly Rooms to the Billiard Room, which will enable persons who are fond of this game likewise to amuse themselves.

Beechworth, March 30, 1855.

Advertising. (1855, April 14). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 -1918), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013315

The Harp player was most likely George Zeplin, who often accompanied George Griffith. 

Reprise at the Salle de Valentino

SALLE DE VALENTINO

Immense Attraction.  

Beechworth Hotel.

MESSRS. LANGFORD & ATKINSON 

beg to acquaint the Public of Beechworth and the vicinity that a

FREE AND EASY

will be held in the above place of amusement

This Evening, and continued every

Saturday Evening.

The Talented Instrumentalists, Messrs. Griffith and Zeplin, will perform 

on the Violin and Harp.

The Chair to be taken at eight, by Mr. Small.

ADMISSION FREE.

Advertising. (1855, April 28). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 -1918), p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013359

 How did I miss this performance?  Thanks to Jenny Coates for drawing it to my attention.

Woolshed Valley, the Benalla letters, and the Kelly Gang

Dry Diggings, Woolshed Creek, 1857, engraved by Frederick Grosse.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.

I have known for some time that the Woolshed Valley had been a haunt of the Kelly Gang in the 1870s.  The Griffiths had departed for Melbourne by then, but I like to think they may have rubbed shoulders there with some of the characters who had a role to play in the great saga of the Kelly 'outbreak.'  Constable Fitzpatrick, for instance, may have been the man who ran foul of Kelly in later years.

As time goes on, more flourishes are added to the Kelly story. A few years ago a "fossicker" found another set of Kelly armour in an old abandoned forge in the Woolshed Valley.  Recently my friend Jenny Coates verified a couple of letters written by a Benalla bank teller, one of which refers to Ned Kelly's horse being seen at the local races.    Jenny's Blog Conversations with Grandma explains her part in the story, and she links to a more detailed news story based on her research, where the reference to the Woolshed Valley forge will also be found.  [This article was withdrawn due to nonsensical harrassment by individuals who considered themselves more expert, and more entitled to the letters than Jenny, so we have them to thank for her research no longer being available.]

Diary of a gold digger

Unidentified man, photographed by William Mariner Bent at Bendigo, circa 1870.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria collection. H2007.44/24

I visited the library of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria on a quiet Friday afternoon to read the 'Diaries of Edward J. Mallandain', which included an account of the voyage of the Panama from London to Melbourne in 1852.   This had been extracted and transcribed by Charles Mallandain.  Whether Charles M had imposed his own construction on the events of the voyage of the Panama is difficult to say ( had he left out all the interesting bits about musical interludes that I was keen to read?) but apparently Edward's on-board preoccupations were largely to do with disagreements  between the other passengers, and noting all the bible services on the poop deck followed by a declaration that he didn't attend.  He mentioned only a few fellow-passengers by name, and even then, usually by initials, and nothing at all about any dance or musical parties.

The difficulties he experienced in getting himself and his goods on shore are nothing short of a disgrace, and it was amazing to see how badly the passengers were treated at the end of the voyage.  It was not explained why this happened, but it was a very lengthy period of over a week after arriving in Hobsons Bay that the ship docked and allowed cargo to be removed - by which time Mallandaine had gone to a lot of trouble and expense to have his unloaded while the ship was still anchored out in the bay.

Mallandaine was certainly prepared to work hard with a pick and shovel, and his efforts with these were mainly rewarded when he got to the goldfields.  On Sunday 19 December 1852 while in camp at Bendigo he "received visits of Bennett, Fielden, Griffith, Clark re Fryers Creek & Co".  He showed his gold to them.

Whether the visitors were all shipmates from the Panama I cannot say  - PROV and its passenger lists is temporarily unavailable this evening - but even if they are, there is no clue to say whether or not that Griffith was my ancestor.

However, I enjoyed reading the manuscript, so I was glad to have spent the time on it.

Blog of Logs

Looking for an account of the voyage of the Panama from London to Melbourne in 1852, I consulted the three volume work Log of Logs by Ian Nicholson. These volumes list the whereabouts of known accounts of ships voyages - logs, diaries, newspaper accounts.

In Volume 2 there is a reference to a voyage by:

Panama
1852   clipper ship, Captain Lane, London 30.6 to Melbourne 12.11.52; +extracts from Edward Mallandaine's diary, *RHSV  MS00065. 

As a member I can consult that record for free.

Ship Panama from London

This ship Panama  is, at 1100 tons, twice the size of the one which sailed from London to Melbourne in 1852.

Now this is embarrassing. I have been caught by the oldest trick in the book.  Assuming that there is only one person, or in this case, one ship, of the same name.  Having previously searched through Trove looking for evidence of a ship called Panama arriving in Melbourne in 1852, I lighted upon a ship of that name which was on the California to Melbourne run BUT!!!  there was another one, at 511 tons, which left London for Melbourne in 1852, and that was the one that carried a George Griffiths.

Fortunately I did actually look at the passenger list for the Panama, and all was revealed.  Well, some of it was revealed.  The bit that was revealed was that the Panama had sailed from London, with the Master T S Thomas and 191 statute adult unassisted passengers.   The George Griffiths, aged 26, occupation clerk and an Englishman, arrived in Melbourne in October 1852.

The bit that was not revealed was whether or not this George was my gt gt grandfather George Griffith, a musician from Liverpool. He usually gave an age on records consistent with him being born in 1824, so by 1852 he should have been aged 28.  I don't necessarily expect to find the occupation of musician on the shipping records, but he was certainly sufficiently well educated to have the position of clerk, and this is the most likely occupation to date of any of the George Griffiths' who arrived in Melbourne around this time.

He may, of course, have come to Melbourne via a different port - too difficult to even contemplate at this stage.   

Was George a 49er?

In the three years since I began this blog I have examined in some detail the movements of George Griffith, and discovered quite a lot more than I knew when I began, but that old conundrum of just when George arrived in Victoria is still unresolved.

I lately drew up a timeline for known movements built up through newspapers and birth and death certificates.  George first came to notice in Beechworth in 1855 when he advertised that he was available for weddings, parties, anything.  He had a child born in Wangaratta that year, and the child died in Wangaratta in 1856.  Later in that year he was at the Woolshed diggings, and in 1857 back in Beechworth.  They lived in Silver Creek in 1857 (and a child died there in 1859), with mentions in Beechworth and Woolshed in the same year.  In 1858 they were in Beechworth, and by 1859 had followed the rush to Indigo, later known as Chiltern.  Although the child died in Silver Creek in 1859, they were still in Chiltern (or back in Chiltern) in 1860.  The last reference to George was in Beechworth in 1863, and by 1865 the family had moved down to the Melbourne suburb on Fitzroy.

But George did not sit quietly in Fitzroy - by 1866 he had followed the goldrush to Hokitika in New Zealand, probably without his family, but had returned to Melbourne by 1868.

Whether the movements in the Ovens goldfields represents constantly moving around, or merely travelling from place to place taking up musical engagements is difficult to say.  Probably a bit of both.

 However, a pattern has emerged from all this, which is that there was a commitment to following the goldrushes, and it finally dawned on me that perhaps I had been too hasty in rejecting one arrival in Victoria in 1852:

"The other 26 year old George Griffiths who arrived by the Panama in 1852 is less likely as the ship appears (from advertising in The Argus) to have been engaged in a run from Australia to San Francisco and return".

Unfortunately there was a very well-known George Griffith who discovered one of the California goldfields, which tends to clutter up search results, but at this stage I think revisiting PROV to check the passenger indent of the Panama is the next item on the list.

I have in the past been unable to pin him down in Liverpool in the 1851 Census (though he may have been anywhere in England), and this would be explained by his taking off to California by 1849. 

'Poses Plastique', 1858

Unidentified man wearing classical costume, from the State Library of Victoria Collection, H88.50/44.

The last story about George Griffith at the Ovens goldfields comes from a very interesting publication called Nobblers and Lushingtons: a History of the Hotels of Beechworth and the Ovens District, by Richard Patterson (Endymion (Australia) Pty Ltd: Beechworth, 2009.)

In this Patterson reports on a violinist called Griffiths (probably George Griffith), who took the licensee of the Telegraph Hotel, Thomas Mooney, to court for unpaid  wages.  Mooney had employed a performer called Donovan who presented a series of tableux - 'Poses Plastique' - based on classical themes at the  Hotel, with Griffith providing a musical accompaniment.  However, Mooney took exception to the tunes selected by Griffith - an Irish jig for a pose as a "Greek Statue", and "Tow Row Row" (which I think is the British Grenadiers March) for a scene depicting the Rape of the Sabine Women. Mooney dismissed Griffith for what might be characterised as a disrespectful choice of music, but Griffith successfully defended himself by saying that as a classical musician and composer, he didn't even know the tune of "Tow Row Row" (though one could point out that he knew the Irish jigs.)

Patterson gives the reference for this story as the Ovens and Murray Advertiser 14 September 1935.

Griffith's reference to himself as a composer is an interesting one, though to date the only evidence of that is a program which advertised a polka called "Beechworth" in a concert  in Beechworth. 

Return to Melbourne, circa 1863-1865

Beechworth, c 1922, showing the Bank of Victoria centre right. From the family collection.

The above photo postcard of Beechworth is annotated on the back with "Taken 66 years after other card 1922".  The two storey stone building to the centre right was built in 1867 for the Bank of Victoria, at 29 Camp St, corner of Ford St.  The Bank of Victoria amalgamated with the CBC in 1927.  Someone made a sentimental return to Beechworth - perhaps Mary Jane, born there in 1857.

The building in the right foreground is interesting.  It has the look of an old hotel, but from Camp Street, when looking via Google Maps, the building has a narrow shop front and the verandah only along the front and Ford Street side. Does anyone know what this building was?


We are almost done with the Ovens goldfields - I am waiting on one more reference.  By 1865 the Griffiths had returned to Melbourne.  They'd spent about ten years in the chaotic life of the goldfields, but now the easy surface gold was gone and deep lead mining was replacing the panning and winnowing of the old days.  Economic times were hard.  The population on the goldfields began to drift back to Melbourne, or buy landholdings and turn their efforts to farming.

George and Susan returned to Melbourne with their three little girls - Mary Jane, Ann Catherine and Louisa -  leaving two little boys in the Beechworth Cemetery, it seems in unmarked graves.   Mary Jane, who turned five in August 1862 had probably started school in 1863.

Did they return to Melbourne with a nice sum in a Bank of Victoria account, or had their fortunes declined with the goldfields?  That is a question that would warrant some investigation.