Ann Webb, wife, mother & Convict

 Women have been so often written out of history, even death notices do not give their name sometimes.  They are often referred to as Mrs John Smith or relic of Mr. John Smith.  Ann Webb (as she was born) is even referred to in this way on her grave, although she does have her married name.

A tale of the First, Second and Third convict fleets to Australia

This is a story of three people transported to Australia for reasons that (as many convicts do) relate to being poor.  Contrary to the myth that Australia was settled by murders and criminals, most of the convicts I have come across have been people of their time in England and Ireland where poverty was common, even if you had a job, and life was hard.  They are people who resorted to petty crime, usually theft of something quite small, and in some cases their employer was the victim or perhaps the perpetrator.

Given chances for a productive and good life in Australia most convicts had extensive families and built houses and farms, and this is what happened in this case.

So let's begin with the first fleet,

An engraving of the First Fleet in Botany Bay at voyage's end in 1788, from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. Sirius is in the foreground; convict transports such as Prince of Wales are depicted to the left.

MATHEW JAMES EVERINGHAM.

His place of birth is not certain, however I know from convict records it was in 1768, England.  There is a baptism record for a DOB of 25July, 1768 which may be our Mathew.

We know that Mathew was educated and literate, and by 1784, aged 15,  was a clerk working for a law firm near Temple Bar.   He was brought up to the Old Bailey for Fraud on 7th July 1784 and sentenced to 7 years transportation.  Desperate for money to pay the rent, he had gone to a bookseller falsely claiming his employer wanted to borrow a copy of a law books, which he was duly given. He then proceeded to sell the books for 10 shillings.  Unfortunately for Mathew his employer, Mr Clermont and the bookseller Mr Shepherd were well known to each other, the game was up.  Mathew's defense was "I was in great distress"  meaning he was short of money and desperate, but that was no defense in the 1700's at the dock in London.  

This type of story is told over and over again in convict records, people in England, particularly in cities,  had low wages and barely enough to live on so in desperation turned to petty crime.  In the countryside they were losing jobs and homes and again became desperate to feed their families and survive the conditions in England at the time.

Temple Bar in the Strand, London, Thomas I. Malton. The Courtauld Institute of Art, D.1952.RW.4316. © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London.

Incarceration

The first prisoners ever taken to the hulks were admitted on 15 July 1776, so it seems likely that Mathew spent time on Hulks, and Newgate prison.  No records have been found yet to confirm which ship.  Life on the Hulks was hard, but during the day the prisoners were put to work, mostly as labourers.

Transportation

Mathew James Everingham was transported aboard the Vessel Scarborogh, captained by John Marshal, as part of the first fleet of convicts to Australia.  

Once arrived in Sydney, and being literate and well-educated, he was employed as a clerk to Assistant Commissary Zachariah Clark. Although punished with 25 lashes for "drunkenness and falsehoods," he gave evidence at the trial of Sarah Bellamy, and was moved to Rose Hill to assist Henry Dodd, supervising the "pitt sawyers and the women employed at needlework."  He also did work with a boat builder on the first boat to be built in Australia, called “The Rose Hill Packet”, otherwise known as‘The Lump’, and he worked on the Government farm at Rose Hill (Parramatta).   From this information, we get a picture of Mathew as a hard working and trusted convict.

Marriage

Three months before he became “free by servitude” in 1791, Mathew married Elizabeth Rimes (Rymes) at St Johns Church, Parramatta by Rev. Samuel Marsden.    My family has a strong link to this church in the early days of the colony.  Elizabeth was transported on the 2nd fleet.

St Johns Marriage Banns for Mathew and Elizabeth

Matthew and Elizabeth’s first child, Mary Everingham, was born in December 1791 and tragically died a month later, being one of 33 children who died in the Parramatta area in that same month, from a sudden unknown illness that killed them within 24 hours.  They went on to have 11 children in all.

By mid 1802 Mathew and Elizabeth are recorded on 50 acres at The Ponds cleared, 7 sown in wheat, 6 in maize) owning 14 pigs and holding 20 bushels in maize in store. He was still receiving a public ration, while his wife and 4 children were not.

In the months following the 1802 muster, the family moved to the frontiers of settlement in the Hawkesbury River where a 50 acre grant at Sackville Reach was registered in Matthew's name in April 1803.

Just a year later, in May 1804, the family was attacked by an aboriginal raiding party. Matthew, his wife and their Irish assigned convict worker were said to have suffered spear wounds and their house and barn were robbed and burned. Caves on the farm bore the hand marks and other artwork of the aboriginal people who had lived there for millennia. 

1804 report in Sydney Gazette

 

Recovering from their injuries, the couple worked hard to clear and cultivate the land, and by 1806 they had at least 19 acres cleared in wheat, 6 in maize, 1 in barley, 1 in potatoes, orchard and garden) They held 13 bushels of maize in store and owned 18 pigs, supporting themselves, 6 children, a convict and a free man. (In the 1980s the site of the farm was occupied by the Sackville Ski Gardens on the Tizzana road near the Sackville ferry.)

Matthew's property suffered floods in 1806 and 1909, in which he was brought close to ruin. He let the Sackville farm and moved his family to Green Hills where he was employed by the wealthy emancipate brewer and settler, Andrew Thompson. In Feb 1810 he was granted a wine and spirit license.

1810 Sydney Gazette

After Thompson's death in October 1810 (the same year) the family lived at his West Hill Red House Farm (modern McGraths Hill).   

It appears that Mathew went back to farming.  He was in financial difficulty in 1812 when his property was offered for sale by execution. He failed to sell  the Sackville farm, which was again ravaged by flood in 1811. The property was leased to his son Matthew and finally sold in 1820.

The Final Chapter

Mathew James Everingham died on 25th December, 1817 at Windsor.  The circumstances of his death were revealed at the inquest  By this time Mathew had become a district Constable at Portland Head as well as a farmer.  He appears to have fallen off the ship and  into the river and drowned accidentally.

Mathew James Everingham is buried at Wilberforce Cemetery.

Elizabeth Rimes died in December 1841and was buried on Knights Farm, 24 years later at Cumberland Reach.

Footnote:

The Australian Police History site has some very interesting family stories about Mathew Everingham and Elizabeth Rimes.  Elizabeth was said to have been married 5 times, Mathew was supposedly murdered, and an heir to the Everingham millions back in England.  Like most family stories they are probably an embellishment of the truth.

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More Information? If you are researching

Mathew james Everingham and Elizabeth Rimes

 and would like the sources for this story, 

please contact me or comment below.  I would be happy to collaborate with you.

Memorial to the Governor Elizabeth Rimes

Patrick McGahey b 1802

Elizabeth Rimes aboard the Neptune

Trial of Elizabeth Rimes

Transportation of Mathew James Everingham in the First Fleet

John Donovan b 1776

 Not only a horse thief, and a convict, but a bigamist as well!

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Elizabeth (Mahoney) Donovan and her daughter arrived in Australia on the 14th May 1826  and found that her Irish husband John, transported as a convict, had married another convict in Sydney!

I think that Elizabeth must have been a feisty Irish woman, and a force to be reckoned with!

Elizabeth Mahoney

Born in Cork, Ireland in 1791, Elizabeth was a free settler who came to Australia aboard the Lady Rowena in 1826,  I wish I had known her.  She must have been quite a woman, after arriving with her daughter, Mary Ann aged 5,  and finding that her husband had married another woman, a convict named  Mary McElver, John Donovan appears to immediately be living with Elizabeth.

She immediately petitions the Govenor in 1826 for her husband John to be assigned to her, The family lived in Castle Hill for a time, having another 6 children, all catholic.  By 1834 the family is living at Mangrove Creek, where they seemed to have stayed.

Elizabeth met a terrible death by drowning in 1891, by which time she was 100 years of age.  Drowning was not unusual in the area in those days, the newspaper reports many deaths by drowning, particularly during floods.



Back to Main Story

John Donovan and the vessel Southworth

John Donovan, convict indents 1821

Elizabeth Donovan (Mahoney) Petition to the Govenor

Certificates of Freedom John Donovan - 4

George Murray b 1819

Never believe those family stories.

According to the author of an article in The Northern Times newspaper, the family story of George Murray is:  "It is thought he came to Australia around 1837/38 when he would have been about 20 years old. A story passed down in the family relates that he traveled as a groom, caring for horses belonging to a British lord. At first he worked as a carrier between Sydney and Campbeltown driving a bullock team and wagon, which at the time had its dangers from bushrangers and thieves, but mainly from starving escaped convicts."

Oh no!  This is a perfect example of the family story being incorrect (there have been so many in my family!). George Murray was a farmers boy, convicted of Shop Breaking in Inverness, Scotland,  and sentenced to 7 years, transported as a convict to Australia.  But how times have changed, no one in the family, least of all George, would have wanted it known he was a convict.  Now having a convict in the family is considered quite differently! I have a connection to George through the McKinlay family, also from the Goulburn area.

George Murray (from The Northern Times, 2011)

Scotland

Born in Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland in 1819, George was the son of George Murray and Kate McDonald.  Note:  He may have been born at  Loch Shin near Lairg, Sutherland, and later relocated to Golspie,  his family could have been put out of their home due to the clearances in Scotland.

Aged just 15 years, how must he have felt  on 23rd April, 1835  when he was sentenced for housebreaking, at Inverness Court of Justice, to 7 years transportation.  He was held aboard the hulk Justitia, moored at Woolwich London before departing for Australia aboard the Moffatt on 5th May, 1836.  The journey took 116 days.

There is a book, online through Trove and Google books called "Old Convict Days" by William Derricourt.  Page 27 gives a detailed account of what it was like to be on the Hulk Justitia in London harbour.  I cannot imagine how a 15 years old, it felt to only be referred to as a number during that time.

The arrival of the Moffatt was dangerous and controversial, One of the officers accused the Sydney Pilot of negligence as the Moffatt was caught in a storm off middle head, and nearly lost.  Fortunately when the pilot did come aboard he got the ship safely into the port.

Australia

George Murray is described in his Convict Indent as : 18yrs, Reads, Protestant,  Single, Native of Sutherlandshire, Farmers Boy, Convicted Shop Breaking, Inverness Court of Justaiciary, 23 April 1835, Sentence 7 years no former convictions.  Height:5-10-1/2 inches, Ruddy and freckled, Dark brown hair, grey eyes, Dark red whiskers, mole betwixt the breasts, small mole inside right elbow, another below left elbow.


 It appears that George spent 1837- 1839 attached to  Parramatta Gaol, but probably he was sent out working to various places, as he is in Windsor Gaol from 5th to 11th of February, 1838.  By 1841 he had been in Australia for 5 years, had a ticket of leave and applied to marry Margaret Cameron, a freewoman.  They married at Bungonia, Goulburn, NSW, and in October 1842.

Born about 1821, Margaret Cameron most likely came to Australia with her parents James and Catherine Cameron, and 7 other children, possibly in 1838.  She would have been17 years of age at the time. 

In 1841 Margaret (aged 20)  married George Murray (22) at the Presbyterian church in  Bungonia, (near Goulburn), NSW, AUS. They lived first at Strathaird near Taralga where their first child was born in 1842. Their next eight children are recorded as born at houses, their’s or neighbours’, named Strontian, Cutty Cuttgang (or Cutty Gutty-ang), or Lairg. The last child, Ann, was born in 1861 at Golspie, by now the accepted name of George and Margaret’s farm.

In 1942 George was given a Certificate of Freedom,  (No. 41/1/45), and on that he is listed as a trace labourer.  This probably means he was working with horses, removing the tack, harness and traces from working horses.   So he was given his freedom on 5th October 1842, having served nearly all his 7 years.  

Much of what I know of George Murray's life comes from the Upper Lachlan Shire Heritage Report, completed in 2008 by Dr. Jennifer Lambert Tracey, and as it is oral history, may certainly contain inaccuracies:

 

GOLSPIE 

The following account, with some inaccuracies, was written by Elizabeth Kerr,and published in The Northern Times, 5thMarch 2009. It is included because of its personal approach to finding the history and heritage of Golspie.

I wrote an article on Golspie, NSW, published by the late Jim Henderson sometime between 1992 and 1994 ... of the history of Golspie, NSW, and its direct connections to Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland.

About 1992, we'd been in Sydney about four years or so and always intended to visit Golspie, NSW.... However, on meeting with a local historian, Judith Matthews, the story that unraveled kept us there talking to her and being taken around by her most of the day.

Firstly, we learned how Golspie, NSW, got its name. Judith's ancestor gained his freedom as a convict from Governor Macarthur [read ‘Macquarie’] before Golspie, NSW, existed. George Murray from Golspie, Sutherland, teamed up with this man (it is thought that George Murray came to Australia a free man) and both these men were granted permission by Macarthur to peg out and buy land for sheep farming in the area, which they did for the sum of one British pound per acre of land. The area George Murray and his friend came to near Goulburn – the main sheep/wool centre in NSW then and today – was called ‘Cutty Gutty’, the aboriginal name of a nearby creek. Further down the track, when there were several families established there, a meeting of the community was called to elect a postmaster with the intention of setting up a postal system for the area. Mail was to be transported by horse from Camden. 

At the same time this same person was to choose a new name for the community because there were too many similar sounding aboriginal names. George Murray was chosen as postmaster and he chose the name of his home village in Scotland for the new name of the community – Golspie. All mail for the community was then addressed c/o George

 Murray, Golspie

George Murray's house Golspie

George Murray's old home in New South Wales has the original metal name tag -'Golspie' - on the gate. George married Margaret and they had a very large family,many of whom are still in the area. He died in Golspie, NSW, on 29th December 1906, aged 80 years. The mail service ran from 1st May 1873 to 21st September1990 before it was closed, with all the mail now being handled through the main centre at Goulburn. Judith, who was the last postmistress as well as local historian.

On 38th March 1895 Margaret died, and her  obituary in the Goulburn Herald was as follows:

GOLSPIE.
[From our Correspondent.]
On Saturday last Mrs. George Murray of this place, joined those who have gone before. Mrs. Murray has been a resident of Golspie for some sixty years, and was married to Mr. Murray fifty-three years ago. Her age was seventy-four. For a great number of years Mrs. Murray has been in delicate health, often assuming serious aspects, but rarely compelling her to remain in bed. The last attack extended over three weeks, and I am sorry to
say she experienced much pain and suffering. To comment upon Mrs. Murray's good qualities would almost be out of place. She was indeed a true and faithful friend, a kind and loving mother, and a devoted wife. Mrs. Murray leaves six children and four passed away before her. The most profound sympathy is expressed for Mr. Murray and the family; and we all trust that a knowledge of Mrs. Murray's happiness will assuage their sorrow. Mrs. Murray's name will ever be mentioned by those who knew her with that respect due alone to the noble and good.

Here is the letter of resignation, from his position as postmaster, from George Murray to the Postmaster General in 1898.  (He certainly had lovely handwriting.)

Letter from Australian National Archives.

Goerge's daughter Ann took over the post office after his resignation.

George died on 29th December 1906, and is buried with Margaret at Stonequarry Cemetery, Taralga, NSW, AUS.  Several obituaries were written about him. 

Headstones of George and Margaret Murray

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More Information? If you are researching George Murray or Margaret Cameron and would like the sources for this story, please contact me or comment below.  I would be happy to collaborate with you.

Clan Sutherland - George Murray

Transportation - George Murray

Convict Indent - George Murray