Elizabeth up a Deep Creek

View to the north from Donnybrook Road, Mickleham.  These fields are currently being developed for housing.  Photo:  Lenore Frost 2014.

Elizabeth Rochester was a teenager of 18, in charge of a younger sister, when she stepped off the boat in Melbourne on 19 July 1853.   If they had hoped to stay together, that hope was dashed.  They were employed separately, Susan by Dr Hunter of Brighton and Elizabeth by Mr Livingston of Deep Creek.

Within five months of her arrival, Elizabeth married James Hitchman of Bristol, England, on 21 December 1853.  In a time and place where marriageable women were in short supply, Elizabeth might have chosen someone who had a greater claim to respectability, but realistically, out at Deep Creek her opportunities might have been as restricted as back home in Chipstead. The husband she chose was a time expired convict from Tasmania with an even larger age gap than that of Susan's choice.  Hitchman was aged about 38 to Elizabeth's 18.  It is interesting that both sisters chose much older men, but they presumably valued a more mature man in a strange place in a time of social turmoil.

The marriage record suggests they met at Deep Creek.  James was a labourer aged about 34 whose 'usual residence' was given as Deep Creek.  Elizabeth was a domestic servant, aged 23 (bit of a fib there) and her 'usual residence' Little Lonsdale Street in Melbourne. She had evidently left her employment at Deep Creek by then. Both James and Elizabeth signed with a mark, casting doubt on the passenger list in which it was suggested that Elizabeth could both read and write.  Most likely she could read a bible.  Writing was an accomplishment not widespread in the working classes of England at the time.

The witnesses also both signed with their mark, Thomas Caufield and Mary Mackay. Neither of those names appear on the passenger list of the Harpley.  Elizabeth and James were married by the Rites and Ceremonies of the Free Church of Scotland  at the Free Church Manse in Swanston Street, Melbourne. Although the minister at this time was William Miller, the ceremony was performed by the Rev Arch Simpson.

Photograph of a drawing of the John Knox Presbyterian Church manse, built for Rev. James Forbes in 1850. It was located in Swanston Street and was a building of eight to ten rooms that later housed some boarders from the John Knox School. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H6695.

It was an unusual choice of religion for their marriage.  Elizabeth had been brought up in the Church of England, and it seems likely that James was also C of E.   The term "Free" in the name of the church did not imply it was free of fees.  It was connected to a schism in the Presbyterian Church.  The purists formed the "Free Church of Scotland".   The John Knox Church, on the corner of Swanston St and Little Lonsdale Street was one of those.

Was it a co-incidence that the day following the wedding a notice appeared in the Argus Missing Friends columns  seeking James Hitchman?

If this should meet the eye of James Hitchman of Keilor, his brother wishes to see him at the Flagstaff Boarding House, King st, Melbourne.
The Argus 22 December 1853. 

One wonders how many times these messages got to the right quarter when the recipients were illiterate and lived out of town?  Whether James Hitchman had ever lived in Keilor is also a mystery.  But was it a co-incidence that ad was placed the day after the wedding?  Had the brother heard something on the grapevine?   All scenarios, both the message being transmitted to James, and the  brother possibly hearing of the marriage, rely on some fairly heavy duty gossiping going on.  Did James ever meet up with his brother in the Flagstaff Boarding House in King Street?

I was very interested in learning more about the Mr Livingston who had employed Elizabeth, and particularly where he lived.  It was was one of the first pieces of family history research I ever did, so perhaps 40 odd years ago I made a beginner's error, and was not able to correct it until fairly recently. That error was assuming that 'Deep Creek' was  the village of 'Bulla Bulla'.   Bulla had indeed been known as Deep Creek in the very early days of settlement. Living in the district, that was well known to me.   BUT (and you all know what I am going to say)  in the early days of settlement, Deep Creek could mean anywhere along the length of the creek (no matter how many miles), and I was not looking far enough afield to find Mr Livingston.  It was only with access to Trove and Ancestry, and a little more experience, and help from a friend that I managed to correct that error.

So forty years ago I could not for the life of me locate a Mr Livingston.  He did not appear in directories, birth, death or marriage indexes, histories of the area, parish maps or any index that I cared to consult.  The lack of a known first name was a problem.  The Mr Livingston conundrum remained in the too hard basket until discussing it a year or so ago with a friend, Christine Laskowski.  Chris commented that there was a Deep Creek in the vicinity of Craigieburn where her ancestors had lived.  The penny dropped with rather a loud clang. It was in fact the same Deep Creek near Craigieburn.  I hadn't been looking far enough. It made sense, because a couple of the Hitchmans' first children were said to have been born at Donnybrook, not too far from Craigieburn.

Trove has become a major resource for family historians, and I went there first.  It took some lengthy searching to locate three relevant items in the papers, which I will discuss in turn, firstly:

Missing since on or about the 25th ultimo Francis Palmer Livingstone, five feet five inches high dark complexion, dark whiskers, stout build, twenty years of age, wore a dark plaid jumper, dark tweed trousers, and white Manila hat. Was riding an iron gray mare, branded H on near shoulder, L on off shoulder, bushy tail, star in forehead Information to Mrs. Livingstone, Oatland's Farm, near the Deep Creek.

Monday 19 March 1855   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4805607

Was Francis Palmer Livingstone the mysterious 'Mr Livingston'?  I presumed 'Mrs Livingstone' to be his wife and went to the BDM indexes to discover her name, but in one of those confusing results one gets, Francis Palmer Livingstone married 'Mary Livingstone' in 1859, four years after the above advertisement.  So who was Mrs Livingstone?  His mother? Turning to Ancestry family trees,  I found she was probably his sister-in-law, and a good 15 years his senior.

Mary's first husband was Gilbert Livingston, but I could not locate a death record for him. Several Livingston trees said he had died in 1853, but that didn't help to find him in the indexes.   However, one researcher had very kindly put the marriage record of Mary Livingstone and Francis Palmer Livingstone (yes, she went on to marry her brother-in-law after his first wife died) on Ancestry as a supporting document, and in this it was stated that her husband had died in 1853, so presumably this was the source of his death date.  The death occurred at the time civil registration was starting in Victoria, and it was not recorded.  He also didn't turn up in cemetery records and the like.  He may have died outside the colony, but no newspaper notices marked the bereavement.

Secondly, with the help of Ancestry trees, I now knew the names of the children, so was able to recognise one of their daughters in a Trove search - Mary Anne Livingstone, born in Tasmania in 1845, but attending the Bulla Bulla National School in 1855.  

BULLA BULLA NATIONAL SCHOOL.

An examination of the pupils attending the Bulla Bulla National School was held on Thursday, the 13th current, when the following patrons were present :-Rawdon Greene, Esq. (chairman) ; Messrs. Cameron, Murray, Forsyth, Patullo, Brannagan, and Massie (secretary). The Rev. Mr. Chapman, of Broadmeadows, was also present, and assisted at the examination.

[The prizes] were awarded as follows : [among many other prizes]

SECOND CLASS.-READING, SPELLING, &c:

Boys.-1st prize, Arthur Pattison.

2nd [ditto], Andrew Pattison.

Girls.-1st [ditto], Juliet Mackintosh.

2nd [ditto], Mary Ann Livingstone.

WRITING.

Boys.-1st prize, Richard Brannagan.

2nd [ditto], John Fawkner.

Girls.-1st [ditto], Agnes Robertson.

2nd [ditto], Mary A. Livingstone.

3rd [ditto], Mary Massie.

BULLA BULLA NATIONAL SCHOOL. (1855, December 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 6. Retrieved October 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4825881

Bulla Bulla National School at first glance seemed to take me back to the old village of Bulla, but looking at the three volume history of the Victorian Education Department, Vision and Realisation, a description of the location of the school placed it further north.

Plan of the Parish of Bulla Bulla, 1856.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/117418

According to Vision and Realisation the Bulla Bulla National school was on an acre of land on the south east corner of Section 11 – in the above parish plan - owned by Crown Grantee J Cameron.   Trustees of the school included Patullo, Young and Cameron, all Crown Grantees in the vicinity. Cameron's 640 acres includes 'Warlaby', an historic property at Oaklands Junction, between Oaklands Rd and St John's Rd.  

See this parish map at the State Library of Victoria to get a better idea of the 

distance from the Bulla village to the National School. It was several kilometres 

north of the village.http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/192312.  

Mary Anne Livingston's presence at the Bulla Bulla National School suggests the Livingstone family was within striking distance of the school buildings at the southeast corner of Section 11 in 1855.

Thirdly, Mary Livingstone remained farming in the area after her husband's death for a little while, which we know from evidence she gave at an inquest in 1854. (Thanks to Christine Laskowski for alerting me to this inquest.)

Mary Livingstone - deceased Robert Smith has been in my employ for last 18 months and he left Flemington yesterday morning driving in  a bullock dray belonging to my brother. I was following in a dray behind and there was another dray in front. I was about ¼ of a mile behind. I saw the two drays ahead til they came over the hill about ½ a mile from this place and on coming over the hill I saw two men looking at something lying in the road and when I got up I found it go be the body of the deceased. He was quite dead. He was lying on his face and there was a great deal of blood on the spot. He was much intoxicated when he left Flemington but during the time he had been in my employ he had not been addicted to the drink. I saw the mark of the wheel of the dray which passed over the shoulders and head. There was above 2 tons on the dray. Mary X Livingstone of the Deep Creek, taken at Travellers Hope, Deep Creek.

 Inquest on SMITH Robert VPRS 24  1854/560  Inquest held at Travellers Hope, Deep Creek

The Travellers Hope Hotel would appear to be the Travellers' Home or the Travellers' Rest Hotel, which was along Bulla Rd, about halfway between 

Parer Rd and Sharp's Rd, Airport West. See Steele Creek and the Lady of the Lake by Christine Laskowski.

Detail from the Parish of Doutta Galla. The Travellers Home was on the 'Main Road' (Bulla Road) in the apex of the triangle of roads between Section 22 C and 22 D. Section 23 is the site of Essendon Airport. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/156280

This route along the Bulla or Deep Creek Road is the one Mary Livingston would take to return to a farm near Oaklands Junction.

Returning to 1853, it is possible that James Hitchman was also working on the Livingstone place, or nearby, at least.  We know in the latter part of 1853 they were both working at Deep Creek, so it seems likely.  In 1853 the farms in the Oaklands Junction area were several hundred acres. Employees at this time most likely lived in mud-brick huts or cottages on the farms.  Some settlers owned several sections, so the area was fairly sparsely settled.  Gilbert Livingston's death evidently occurred between his employing Elizabeth in July 1853 and the end of the year, leaving his wife Mary with five young children.

Looking west on Mickleham Road to the open park-like landscape of the old
Shire of Bulla.  Photo:  Lenore Frost, 2014.

 The landscape was considered significant in the  City of Hume: Heritage Study of the Former Shire of Bulla District, 1998, but time will tell whether the landscape will resist the inroads of developers.  The fine farming land just a little north at Mickleham, as shown in the photo above, is already disappearing under concrete and asphalt roads.

"The landscape is significant at the State level as a rare surviving example - at least as pristine as survives anywhere - of Melbourne’s exceptional and much valued “park-like” natural landscape at the time of European settlement. Partly as a consequence of these natural values, the area also acquired some outstanding cultural associations, evidence of which also survives".

In that curious way that we often cross paths our ancestors trod without realising it, my parents leased a block of land for a time a little north of Bulla on Wildwood Rd, near Oaklands Junction.

The block on Wildwood Rd.  Photo:  Lenore Frost, circa 1966.
The cows were called Leisl and Greta, after a couple of the
children in The Sound of Music, released in 1965.

In the next episode, we will look at how Susan and Elizabeth met up again on the goldfields.

PS   While researching this story a couple of years ago I followed what looked like a lead from Trove about a farm at Oakland, Mickleham in 1876. I drove that way to a cemetery tour of the Donnybrook Cemetery in 2014.  It turned out to be not connected, but having spent so much time on it I decided to write it up for Wikinorthia with the view that it might help someone else. You can read it here: Fellows of Oakland Mickleham  It explains why I have photos of Mickleham on hand and not Oaklands Junction!

Update:   The following paragraph is from an unpublished small history, called "History of Bulla, 1966", by Mary Butler.  A copy is located at the State Library of Victoria. No 42 was the number given to the Bulla Bulla National School in later years. While not sourced, the information would have come from a contemporary government report at the State Library.

"The formation of an Education System, however, provided instruction with the erection of three more schools in the Bulla area [Besides the C of E near the creek] School No 42, consisting of two rooms, had at this time fourteen girl students and twenty-one boy students located on Oaklands Road near Warlaby Stud, or "Narbonne". (page 10)

Susan gets her man

[Brighton Beach] [art original] / Henry Burn, circa 1862.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H301.

Dr Alexander Hunter was a fairly complex character whose private life was picked over in the Melbourne newspapers of the day.   A Scot, he had studied in Edinburgh and arrived in Port Phillip on 19 July 1849 as a Surgeon Superintendent on the "Victory" from Glasgow. He had left behind a wife and son who claimed he had deserted them.  They arrived in Melbourne in 1852 where they found him in practice as a surgeon in Great Collins Street.  Two advertisements in The Argus reveal the nature of his practice, and his inclination to help the poor:

A CARD

DR HUNTER, Consulting and Operating Surgeon - Begs leave to say, that owing to the misconceptions which have repeatedly come to his ear, in reference to his Professional Fees, he feels it his duty, to take this the only means of correcting the error by stating, that according to the rank or position of the patient, the fee of one guinea, entitles to two, three or four consultations, or visits Melbourne, Great Collins-street, East, 5th October, 1850.

Friday 11 October 1850  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4765064

NOTICE.

To the Poorer Classes of Melbourne and its vicinity.

DR HUNTER, Consulting and Operating Surgeon, has made arrangements to devote from 9 to 10 o'clock, every morning, to giving advice free, to all those classes who are anxious to consult him, but who, from circumstances, are unable to pay for it.  62, Great Collins street, Eastern Hill,

Wednesday 5 March 1851  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4776536

In a very long self-vindication, Hunter gave an airing of his private family life at a public meeting, published in The Argus in 1859. The main cause of his difficulties, he claimed, stemmed from his wife's mental infirmities.  I have noted, however, that after Hunter's death Mrs Hunter remarried, to a reverend gentleman, so she cannot have been too obviously deranged.   By 1851 Hunter was an MLA for East Melbourne, serving from 1859 to 1861.  Further troubles caused him to leave for New Zealand in 1862, dying in Hokitika in 1867.  If Hunter had hoped to escape his notoriety by hiding away in New Zealand, it must be noted that George Griffith from Melbourne was also in Hokitika in 1867.   "Why, Dr Hunter!  WHAT a coincidence!"

But to return to the period when Mrs Hunter arrived from Scotland, Dr Hunter closed his practice in Melbourne.

He went to live at Brighton until he realised his property, which was then sufficient to keep him in affluence. He was tempted to build some houses at Brighton, which occupied 10 months, and during that time his house was the theatre of scenes such as no tongue could tell. Mrs. Hunter would, in spite of his servants, make her escape from his house, and rush about the country, saying that he wanted to poison her. He was then wealthy, but suddenly the affairs of the colony began to turn, and through the title to his property being questioned, his houses being unlet, and the loss of a law-suit, he found himself a poor man. There were two courses for him to adopt - to lie down and die, go back to his native country a poor man; or, like a brave man, beat back his difficulties. He felt that in a free country nothing could stand before him. He had lived on bread and water previously, and could do so again. The only drawback was Mrs. Hunter. He returned to Melbourne and again succeeded ; but the seeds of trouble were sown so deep that they afterwards sprang up so as to overwhelm almost to strangle-him.

 It was into this house of discord and confusion that Susan was brought to be a servant when Dr Hunter of Brighton employed her off the boat.   

On 5 April 1854 Dr Hunter announced in the Melbourne papers that he was resuming his practice at his old residence in Great Collins St, East.   It is possible that there is some connection, perhaps only an opportunity, between that announcement on 5 April and one which was placed in The Argus on 21 April 1854:

Ship Harpley.  If this should meet the eye of Elizabeth Rochester, her sister Susan is very anxious to hear from her.  Address Post Office Brighton.

We can deduce from this that Susan did not know that Elizabeth had married in the previous December, and certainly not of her whereabouts. They had presumably not heard from each other since being separated on arrival in July 1853.   We don't know how long it was before Elizabeth heard or saw the ad, if she did at all at this time. 

Another co-incidence can be noted here - in that Dr Hunter's premises were in the same street as Wilkie's Music Saloon where George Griffith had been, or was, working. It was only one block away.  Is this where Susan and George met, somewhere in Collins Street?  The Argus premises, by the way, was also in Collins Street at this time, at number 74, a few doors away from Dr Hunter. In her ad Susan used the Post Office at Brighton as her return address, so presumably at this time she was still residing in Brighton.  She may have left the employ of the Hunters some time earlier and was working for another family, we cannot be sure.   

Collins Street when George and Susan knew it in 1853.  Hand-coloured lithograph by Edmund Thomas, 1853, courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H15480

We don't know where Susan met George Griffith, but a few months after the break-up of the Hunter household at Brighton, around early September 1854, Susan became pregnant.  Susan may have come in to Melbourne to seek work, or perhaps had transferred from the Brighton household to the house in Great Collins Street.  It would have helped enormously if they had married, but it would seem that they did not, and whatever useful information we might have had from such a document,  disappointment is our lot. My suspicion is that the older George had been married in England, or someplace else, but that also remains unresolved.  George was 30, Susan was 16.

The child was born in Wangaratta on 17 April 1855 - 8 days after the second anniversary of the  leaving of Southampton.

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.]