Our Hodgetts Family Saga- The Second Fleet,Anniversary Day

 

Today, 230 years ago, on 28 June 1790 our ancestors, Thomas and Harriet Hodgetts arrived in Sydney on the Second Fleet.

Firstly, let us go back a few weeks previously.

1st June 1790.

The colony at Sydney Cove had been on shortened rations for some months. Little work had been done towards building accommodation for the expected arrival of convicts in the Second Fleet. Morale in the colony was low.

21st June 1790.

Much had happened in the colony in the space of three weeks, including the arrival of the convict transport the Lady Juliana with convict women and stores on 3rd June, and the store-ship Justinian on the 20th June with the much-needed stores for the colony. At long last, there was the expectation that everything could get back to normal in the colony. Most importantly the full weekly ration was ordered to be issued and the ‘drum sounded’ to recall convicts back to labour at 1 pm so the job of erecting accommodation for the newly arrived and expected convicts could get underway.

23rd June 1790.

Early in the morning, a sail was sighted at the look-out on the South Head, but the weather came in quickly and the ship was lost from sight as the gale-force winds pushed her out to sea.

It was not until two days later when the weather had cleared that the ship could finally be seen again as it slowly made its way through the heads. It was the Surprize, a convict transport under Nicholas Antis, who had sailed in company with the transports Neptune and Scarborough.

The scene on arrival of the Surprize was in direct contrast to the arrival of the Lady Juliana some three weeks before, whose female convicts had embarked in good health, having few deaths on the voyage.

The Surprize arrived with more than a hundred of the 218 male convicts on board ill, most with scurvy and dysentery. They were moved to the hospital as soon as possible. Tents had to be erected to take the overflow of the sick.

Later that day the signal flew at the South Head that further ships had been sighted.

These were the convict transports, Neptune and Scarborough, under Captains Trail and Marshall respectively. They too had been blown out to sea with the recent Winter gale.

They finally made their way through the heads and anchored off Garden Island.

The next day the ships warped into Sydney Cove to unload their cargo. The first priority was the human cargo.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Fleet_(Australia)#/media/File:Convict_ship_Neptune00.jpg

Much has been written about the terrible conditions endured by all those who arrived on these ships and the horror of those who witnessed that arrival. Graphic details were given in letters and journals by marines, clergy, government officials, and even convicts.

Our ancestors, Thomas and Harriet Hodgetts arrived on those ships. Thomas as a convict on the Scarborough and Harriet as a free woman on the Neptune.

What was it like for them on the day of arrival?

It was cold, very cold. Everyone was wet, very wet, and had been for weeks. Everyone was hungry, very hungry. They had had little food for weeks and that was mostly hard mouldy ships-biscuits which had been made years before. Washed down with a little water if it was available.

Absolutely terrible! Right? How could this happen?  The masters of the ships had been heartless scoundrels and responsible for the carnage! Some 230 years later everyone knows this. Right?

The truth of the matter was that these ships were in trouble even before they sailed from Portsmouth on the 19th January 1790. The carnage was inevitable with many at fault, from politicians to Admiralty, contractors, government officials, marines, crew, and even the convicts themselves. The domino effect and even the weather conspired and moved towards what we might call the perfect storm.

It was a miracle that the ships arrived at all, although with only two-thirds of their human cargo alive, with many dying after their arrival.

How did Thomas and Harriet survive? What if, we, their descendants, were able to interview them. What would we ask them about the voyage? What might they tell us?

Finding London Ancestors’ Death Records – Bunhill Fields Burial Ground

Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time researching our ancestors who were connected in some way with London. Some migrated there from the counties for economic reasons, but some others made that vast city their home for several generations. I have had many fascinating hours as I traced these ancestors through all kinds of records from ‘the cradle to the grave.’

As family historians, we look for clues for three events in an ancestors life– birth, marriage, and death. Not everyone married, but everyone was born and died.

I found with research in London I could usually find a baptism through church records, but I often couldn’t find a burial record in the area where the family lived. Looking further afield in place and type of records researched was the answer.

In the 14th- 16th Centuries people continued to be buried in the churchyard adjacent to the churches or in the churches themselves. In the larger churches such as St Paul’s Cathedral, the bones were stacked in charnel houses.

In London with plagues sweeping the city came the removal of charnel houses. However many of the ancient churches graveyards were already overcrowded with burials. The rise in non-conformist religions meant if people were not of a particular parish church they were not given permission to be buried in the churchyard anyway.

This led to the rise of ‘burial grounds’ both municipal and private. These were of varying sizes and were scattered throughout the city. I found over the years our families were buried in a number of these burial grounds rather than their parish churchyard.

I always try to find out the history of a record and why it was created. This helps not only to put my ancestor in time and place but often helps me with further clues for research.

I have prepared short histories of many these burial grounds in London to help me with my family research. I hope they help others who are struggling with death and burials in London.

Bunhill Fields: Image from londongardensonline.org.uk retrieved 8 March 2019

Bunhill Fields

Originally the area known as the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in Islington, London was part of the Manor of Finsbury, which was outside the city walls. It was part of what was known as the ‘prebend’ of Halliwell and Findsbury, which belonged to St Paul’s Cathedral and was established in 1104. (A ‘prebend’ is a stipend or sum of money or goods granted to a canon of a cathedral or collegiate church out of its revenue. It can also refer to the land or tithe yielding this.) In Medieval times it included a large area of fen or moorland stretching from the city wall to the rural village of Hoxton. Later this land was granted to Robert Baldock. In 1315 he passed it to the Mayor and citizens of London. Remember at this time only The Crown could ‘own’ and ‘grant’ land, although you might pass the use of such land to others.

In 1498 part of this otherwise open country was enclosed for military exercises particularly archers and later for guns. It became known as the ‘Artillery Ground” by which it is still known today. It belongs to the Honourable Artillery Company whose headquarters Armoury House, overlooks the grounds.

Nearby is the Bunhill Burial Ground. The name is believed to have derived from ‘Bone Hill’ which is possibly a reference to the area having been used by the St Paul’s charnel house. This is a building where skeletal remains are stored and is often associated with large churches and cathedrals. In 1549 the charnel house was demolished and the deposited remains said to have been more than a thousand cart-loads, was moved to the fields outside London near their former estate, and were deposited on the moorlands and covered with a layer of soil. This built up a ‘hill’ across a marshy flat fen.

In keeping with such a tradition in 1665 the City of London Corporation the then ‘owners’ of part of these lands decided to use a portion as a common burial ground for those who had died of the plague and could not be buried in the London churchyards. As time went on the London churchyards were generally running out of room for further burials and Bunhill became the preferred place of burials. The Corporation enclosed the ground with a wall although the area was never consecrated for burial use. A Mr. Tindal then leased the land and he allowed, for a fee, burials of any person of any Christian faith, so it became very popular for non-conformists, including Wesleyan. It appeared on a 1746 map of London as ‘Tindall’s Burying Ground’.

In 1769 an Act of Parliament gave the city of London Corporation the right to take out a 99 years lease on the property and they decided to continue to use it as a burial ground. Although they originally leased it to Tindal, in 1781 they decided to take over the management themselves.

In 1854 the Bunhill Burial Ground was closed, by which date, it was estimated that some 123,000 burials had taken place there.

Bunhill Fields: Image from londongardensonline.org.uk retrieved 8 March 2019

Many had headstones and vaults erected over their graves. It is believed, tens of thousands were erected.  Many of these have been lost due to the ravages of time, however, some two thousand remain today in various states of preservation. Many famous people are buried here.

The Burial Ground registers from 1713-1854 are held by the National Archives at Kew, while other records, such as Interment Order Books (1779-1854) are held at the London Metropolitan Archives. These institutions have now digitized many of their records including the Bunhill Fields Burial Records. They have made these available online through partnerships with The Genealogist and Findmypast.

By using these records I have been able to find the final resting place of many of our 18th and 19th Century London ancestors.

 

Framing History-John McArthur, Officer in the British Marines

In 1745 an attempt was made by Charles Edward Stuart, also known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ to regain the British throne for the exiled house of Stuart of Scotland.

At this time most of the British Army was on the European Continent involved in what was termed the ‘Austrian Succession’.

Making the most of this opportunity, Bonnie Prince Charlie sailed from France for Scotland where he was supported by several highland clans. They were known as the ‘Jacobites’. Under the Stuart banner, they marched south claiming victory at Preston near Edinburgh. Now bold with success, they continued marching southwards over the border into England. They were stopped at Derby when some of the British Army was hurriedly recalled from Europe to defend the realm.

The Jacobites retreated north to Inverness where the British Army caught up with them on the moors of Culloden. Here the Jacobites were defeated with Bonnie Prince Charlie fleeing back to France.

It has been claimed that members of the McArthur family were part of the Jacobite army. Several family members were killed including five out of a family of six brothers. The sixth brother, reportedly one Alexander McArthur returned home to the highlands. Fearing retribution he and his young wife, Catherine, along with several other family members sailed for the Americas.

After a few years, Alexander and Catherine McArthur returned to England. We believe they were involved in the cloth trade in Kent, and there a son was born on 12 January 1752. He was named James, possibly for his Paternal Grandfather, and was baptized 20 January in the Independent Chapel in Canterbury.

We lose sight of the McArthur family for some years but believe they had a large family of both sons and daughters. They possibly remained in the cloth trade and moved around England as the industrial revolution brought big changes in this trade in particular. Their children are believed to have been baptized in some of the many dissenting Presbyterian Churches scattered throughout England.

In the mid-1760’s we know the McArthur family settled in Stoke Dameral a parish of the Plymouth area in Devon. Here they opened a drapery business.  Another son was born in August 1767. There were no Presbyterian Chapels in Stoke Dameral and this son was baptized on 3 September in the parish church of St Andrews. He was named John.

St Andrews, Stoke Dameral, Plymouth, Devon

Two years later another son was born and was baptized in the same church on 27 August 1770. He was given the name William. Sadly he died as an infant and was buried on 24 November 1772.

John was now the youngest surviving son in the family.

John was only ten years of age when his mother Catherine died and was buried in the churchyard on 31 August 1777.

John had a good education, and keeping in mind subsequent events, it would appear he may have attended Plympton Grammar School. This now very famous school was founded from the bequest of Elize Hele, a local landowner and attorney who had been Treasurer to King James I. In his Will, he left all his estate and money for pious uses. His executors built three schools. One at Plympton and two in Exeter. Although it began as a ‘charity’ school the Plympton school had an excellent reputation for scholarship, and many wealthy Devon and Cornwall landed families sent their sons there.

Plympton is not far from Stoke Dameral, and it is highly likely that John spent his early years of education here as he later ‘toyed with the idea of studying law’, which would have necessitated a good grounding in Latin and the Classics. John’s older brother James, and Evan and Nicholas Nepean sons of Nicholas Nepean of Saltash, Cornwall, are also believed to have attended this reputable school.

John would have left school at about aged 14 years. He could have joined his father as an apprentice in the cloth trade, but it is believed John would have none of that. Then his father suggested he should join the Navy or the Marines as a career serviceman. It is believed some of his brothers had already joined the Navy and Marines.

In the Navy, you needed to begin at the bottom and spend many years at sea to earn your way up the promotion ladder and to sit for an extensive examination before you could become a commissioned officer.

However, in the Marines, you could purchase officer positions for a sum of money. John’s father was able to purchase him an Ensign’s commission in the Marines in 1782. He was mustered into Fish’s Corps destined for the American Colonies. They were housed at the newly built Stonehouse Barracks. However, the War of Independence came to an end soon afterward and the newly founded Corps were not needed and disbanded. The officers were put on half-pay and the lower ranks turned out to find their own employment. Several senior officers of this Corps were also from Devon and Cornwall landed gentry and returned to their estates when the corps was disbanded.

John was at a loose end. A few weeks later an incident happened in the streets of Plymouth that set the town’s people against the Marines. A riot erupted between the Town’s Guard (Town Constable and his men), and a party of the 36th Regiment who were stationed at the Stonehouse barracks. It was quelled with the assistance of other marines, but the town’s folk were concerned.

Although not mentioned by name, oral family history suggests that one of John’s senior officers was a landowner at Holsworthy and when the Corps was disbanded he returned to his estates at Holsworthy and took young John with him. John was there several years and learned about running an estate. He is said to have been an excellent horseman and rode with the hounds frequently.

There is little doubt the family hoped John would make a good match with the daughter of landed-gentry to improve his social position and financial prospects, as his older brother, James had done. One of the landed families in Holsworthy was the Kingdon family who was to play a part in John’s life. There were also a number of Linen Drapers who would have been known to John’s family, and two landed attorney’s in the parish who may also have been interested in John clerking for them.

In 1787 John McArthur was employed as a tutor in the Grammar School where Thomas Hockin, the son of the Rev John Kingdon, Vicar of Bridgerule, was being educated. John was invited to visit the Kingdon family at Bridgerule. It was there he met Elizabeth Veale.

To improve his career prospects  John applied to be reinstated as an Ensign in the Marines in a regiment on deployment. The problem was that this was difficult as Britain was at peace and officer positions in the Marines were more difficult to find a placement. He was finally granted an Ensign’s position in the 68th Regiment in April 1788 and returned to Full Pay. At the time this regiment was stationed at Gibraltar and John McArthur was expected to join his regiment immediately. However, he took personal leave and remained in Devon to pay court to Elizabeth Veale.

 

 

Framing History- Elizabeth McArthur, Descendant of Devonshire Landed Gentry-3.

Here we continue the story of Elizabeth Veale, born 1766, and a descendant of Devonshire Gentry. She later married John McArthur and emigrated to Australia on the Second Fleet in 1790.

Elizabeth Veale was about 12 years of age when her mother remarried and moved away from Bridgerule.

It is believed that it was at this time, she moved into the household of the Rev John Kingdon. Although John and Jane Kingdon had several sons, they only had one daughter at this time.

The Rev John Kingdon was also from a landed family of Holsworthy. He was born in 1735, the eldest son of  Roger and Judith Kingdon. He began his education at Holsworthy and later is believed to have attended a Grammar School in Exeter, before going to Exeter College, at Oxford University. In later years, he was well known for his great scholarship.

John Kingdon was appointed Vicar of Bridgerule in 1765 but lived at nearby Holsworthy.

On 25 June 1766, the Rev John Kingdon married, Jane Hockin, of Okehampton, Devonshire.

Bridget Kingdon, their eldest child was born at Holsworthy in 1767 and was baptized there on 21 July.  The family moved into the Bridgerule vicarage, known as East Park, soon afterward. All their subsequent children were born there and baptized at St Bridget’s.

Elizabeth Veale had grown up in the village with Bridget Kingdon, and she was welcomed into the household as a suitable companion.

St Bridget’s Bridgerule, Devon

John Kingdon also believed that girls should be well educated to run the family estates, while their husbands were absent, and so privately tutored his daughter, Bridget, and Elizabeth Veale. Not only to read and write well but also to study literature and sciences. She lived there several years before returning to the Hatherly home.

John Hatherly, Elizabeth Veale’s grandfather is known to have doted on his granddaughter and was preparing her for a ‘good’ marriage. Although Lodgeworthy in Bridgerule, was now in the hands of Edmund Leach, it had prospered and was intended for Elizabeth Veale’s dowry. Life was good on those Devonshire farms as Elizabeth Veale grew into womanhood.

Meanwhile down in Stoke Climsland, Edmund and Grace Leach had also prospered and they had had a daughter, Mary Isabella. She had been born in late 1780 and was baptized at All Saints Parish Church, Stoke Climsland on 14 January 1781.

However, when the American War of Independence ended in 1782, it changed life everywhere including those farming communities in Devon. Depression hit Britain quickly and severely with few markets, failing crops and increasing population by migration and immigration. Over the next five years disaster was to slowly engulf many families in that part of the country.

The result was that Edmund Leach gradually sank into bankruptcy, and had to sell all his property, including Lodgeworthy at Bridgerule, leaving Elizabeth Veale without any means for a dowry.

Elizabeth’s mother, Grace Leach, along with her youngest daughter Mary Isabella, returned to her father, John Hatherly’s home at Bridgerule, on the death of her mother, Grace Hatherly, in 1785. Her husband Edmund Leach remained at Stoke Climsland, where he died a pauper and was buried in All Saints Churchyard on 1 April 1791. His grave is unmarked.

In 1787, Elizabeth Veale was just 21 years of age when she met the dashing John McArthur. He was a tutor at the school where the young Thomas Hockin, a son of the Rev John and Jane Kingdon, was a pupil. He was invited by Thomas’s parents, to visit them at the Bridgerule vicarage. Thomas’s sister, Bridget was a close friend of Elizabeth Veale, and she too was invited to the vicarage to meet the charming young man.

Elizabeth Veale married John McArthur the following year at St Bridget’s, Bridgerule. The McArthurs left the parish soon afterward, and within a short time emigrated to the other side of the world.

Bridgerule, Devon. St Bridget’s on the hill with Vicarage.

In 1792,  shortly before her father’s death, Grace Leach married on 27 March, John Bond, a friend of her father, who had known Grace all her life.  Her father was ill and wanted someone, who could take care of her after he died. He died at Bridgerule and was buried in St Bridget’s Churchyard on 16 August 1792.

Elizabeth McArthur, when she heard her mother had married him, made a comment that leads us to believe that she thought him not socially acceptable, and her mother had married beneath her. Something Elizabeth’s mother thought Elizabeth had done when she married John McArthur.

Elizabeth, by this time, was in New South Wales far away, and no comfort or help to her mother.

Grace Bond’s youngest daughter Mary Isabella Leach, was only eleven years of age when her mother remarried. John Bond died on 16 July 1824 and Grace Bond died 22 June 1836 aged 89 years.

Mary Isabella Leach married Thomas Hacker on 22 January 1801 at Poundstock (Cornwall) and had a family of seven daughters. She later emigrated with some of her children and their families in 1852, to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where she died in 1858.

Framing History- Elizabeth McArthur, Descendant of Devonshire Landed Gentry-2.

Here we continue the story of Elizabeth McArthur, a descendant of Devonshire landed gentry. She later emigrated to Australia in 1790, with her husband, John McArthur, on the Second Fleet.

After their marriage in 1764, Richard and Grace Veale (nee Hatherly) settled on Lodgeworthy Farm, on the edge of the village of Bridgerule in Devonshire.

Elizabeth, their eldest daughter, named for her Paternal Grandmother, was born there on 14 August and baptized at St Bridget’s on 1 October 1766.

When Elizabeth was two years of age her mother had another daughter, who was named Grace, for her Maternal Grandmother. She was baptized at St Bridget’s on 11 May 1769. Unfortunately, she died as an infant and was buried in St Bridget’s Churchyard on 24 January 1772.

A few months later Elizabeth’s father, Richard Veale, died and was buried on 22 May 1772, in the churchyard beside his infant daughter. A (Welsh) slate headstone was erected over their graves and is still in the churchyard today.

Grace Veale was devastated by losing her youngest daughter, and her husband within a few months. However, she had her parents close by. Her father, John Hatherly helped and supported her in every way he could, and she was able to continue farming the land. All the family hopes for continued prosperity lay with Elizabeth, aged about six years of age, at the time. It was imperative that she be educated, and make a suitable marriage for the support of her mother, and aged grandparents, and to safeguard the family land and social position.

St Bridget’s Bridgerule, Devon

Elizabeth remained an only child under the control of her mother and her Maternal Grandfather, John Hatherly. She was educated at the local school, which was under the tutorage of Rev John Kingdon, the Vicar of Bridgerule. He was a renowned scholar and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

Both boys and girls were educated to read, write, and other useful subjects such as basic mathematics and science.

The boys were expected to carry on farming on the family property or enter the Navy, Marines, or even the Anglican Church. The girls were expected to be able to overseer those properties when their husbands, fathers, or brothers were absent for any reason.

The ‘union’ of families was often arranged by parents and announced to the community by the calling of Banns on three consecutive Sundays before the wedding.

The Hardwick Marriage Act of 1754 was an Act of Parliament, which arose out of concern, of abuse of Marriage Licenses. This had become a major problem, particularly in large cities. Not so much in rural areas, where a Marriage Licence was obtained, in the rare case of a bride marrying outside the parish, or the groom was from a distant parish. The groom was expected to purchase the Licence from the local Bishop along with supplying the necessary fee and bondsman.

The matter of a Marriage Licence was so rare in the parish of Bridgerule that in the period of the fifty years after the Marriage Act came into force (1754-1804), when 132 marriages were entered in the specially printed parish register, there were only twelve marriages by Licence.

The first was in 1759, the second in 1774, and the third in 1778. This was the marriage of  Grace Veale (Elizabeth Veale’s widowed mother), when she consented to marry, Edmund Leach, a widower of Stoke Climsland. This was a parish several miles away on the Cornish-Devon boarder. He also had land and was a successful farmer, especially since England was at war with the American Colonies.

All Saints, Stoke Climsland, Cornwall

The laws at the time stated that when a woman married, all her property became the property of her husband. So in 1778 Grace Leach moved to Stoke Climsland. Her new husband already had a family, and John Hatherly believed it was in Elizabeth’s best interest, that she should remain at Bridgerule, under his supervision.

In my next blog, I continue the story of Elizabeth McArthur (nee Veale).

Framing History- Elizabeth McArthur, Descendant of Devonshire Landed Gentry-1.

Elizabeth Veale, who was to marry John McArthur, of later Australian Wool Industry fame, was born on 14 August 1766. She was the eldest daughter of Richard and Grace Veale (nee Hatherly) of Bridgerule. It is a small rural parish in north-west Devon with mixed farming of sheep, cattle, and cropping. At this time, there were about fifty families in the parish.

The Veale family had resided at Bridgerule, from at least the early 17th Century. One Richard Veale died there in 1636 and left a detailed Will.

St Swithun’s Church, Pyworthy, Devon

By the late 17th Century one William Veale was the owner of the family farm. He married on 10 October 1690, Elizabeth Jewell, at the parish church of St Swithin, Pyworthy, a parish adjacent to Bridgerule. Their eldest daughter, Grace was baptized there on 20 September 1691. She is believed to have died as an infant.

St Bridget’s Bridgerule, Devon

The second daughter, Mary was baptized at St Bridget’s, Bridgerule on 28 February 1692. The following children were all baptized at St Bridget’s.

Grace (2),born 1696, died 1718

Martha, born 1699, died 1703

Richard, born 1702, died 1772

Martha(2), born 1706

William, 1709, died 1757

John, 1712, died 1763

Elizabeth Veale, the wife of William Veale, died and was buried on 16 April 1714 in St Bridget’s churchyard.

In the 1721 Devonshire Freehold Land List, William is listed as ‘William Veale, Gentleman.’

His sons Richard, William, and John are believed to have been assisting him on the family farm.

William Veale died and was buried on 21 December 1744.

His son, William Veale died and was buried on 20 June 1757, and son John, on 9 June 1763. Richard Veale was the sole surviving freeholder of the family farm. He is listed in the 1771 Devonshire Freehold List.

Richard Veale was born in Bridgerule, the son of William and Elizabeth Veale. He was baptized at St Bridget’s on 29 April 1702. He grew up on Lodgeworthy Farm. This farm is on the edge of Bridgerule, and the farmhouse is still there today.

He began his education under the Rev William Bayly, long-term rector of Bridgerule. We do not know whether he was also educated at a nearby Grammar School.

The Veale family were considered Upperclass having been on the land for many generations. To protect their land ownership, these families not only married within their class, but many of these marriages were arranged by parents. ‘Romance and love’ were not the driving force of unions. ‘Social position and land’ were considered a family’s most valued commodity.

Richard Veale lost his father and brothers within a few years. He was no longer a young man and needed an heir to protect the family estate.

He married on 8 August 1764, at St Bridgets, Bridgerule, by Banns, Grace Hatherly. She was the youngest daughter of John and Grace Hatherly, also a landed family of Devon and Cornwall.

Grace was born c 1747 and was baptized on 15 April 1747, at Launcells, Cornwall.

Their daughter, Elizabeth Veale was born at Bridgerule in 1766. Her story is continued in following blogs.

Framing History-Elizabeth McArthur and Harriet Hodgetts

When we are writing our family’s history we need not only the specific facts of their lives but also to put them into the context, of the time and place. That is when, where and how they lived.

However, “All history is conjecture. All of it. It is the height of folly and arrogance for anyone to say that he or she knows definitely what happened in the past. We piece together the story as best we can, with the shreds of evidence that exist. When we are very lucky the pieces come together to form a beautiful and cohesive collage”….[from The Book of Love, Kathleen McGowan]

I am interested specifically in the Second Fleet story, because one of my husband’s ancestors, Harriet Hodgetts, is believed to have arrived in Australia, as a free woman, on the Second Fleet.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Fleet_(Australia)#/media/File:Convict_ship_Neptune00.jpg

When we are writing about specific events, such as the “Second Fleet”,  we need to dig deep into a whole range of records. We have to study them carefully if we are to get the most out of them.

The following blogs are my interpretation of the documents and information I have found, and my version of what happened all those years ago, and why. How close it is to the ‘real thing’ I do not know, but believe it is a possible explanation of the events of that time.

The only surviving personal record of the Second Fleet is part of a Journal written by Elizabeth McArthur, the wife of John McArthur, a Lieutenant in the Marines. They embarked on the ‘Neptune’ in London. It is a personal record of some of her experiences, and what she thought about some of the things, going on about her. It only covers a few weeks of the voyage, on board the Neptune, not the whole seven months at sea. Much has been written and inferred by these few pages. Many historians have studied them, and written whole books on their interpretation of that collection of remarks and musings.

For the First Fleet there are more than twenty accounts of the voyage out, and indeed even the return voyage. It is hard to believe Elizabeth McArthur was the only person recording that voyage. True, a few letters written about the arrival of the Second Fleet in Sydney have survived, but no other records of personal experiences on board the ship itself. It was a popular thing for, particularly educated men to record their experiences, and publish them in book form, usually in their lifetime. There also would have been the Captain’s Log, the Surgeon Superintendent’s and the Naval Agents reports, of the day to day running of each of the ships in the Fleet. However, these have not survived, possibly destroyed to avoid blame and recrimination, after such a disastrous voyage.

I have been studying the Elizabeth McArthur story, so I can better understand our Harriet Hodgetts. She had been born in the same year as Elizabeth, and faced many of the same challenges, as their parallel lives stretched well into the 19th Century. They both died in Australia in the same year. There are very few records that even mention Harriet ‘Hodgetts’ by name, and absolutely none in the way of family stories, letters, diaries, or journals, telling of her thoughts, attitudes, and her victories and sorrows over the 83 years, of her long and eventful life.

As I have studied the life of Elizabeth McArthur and this specific part of our history, I see a different interpretation of what was going on around Elizabeth, then is recorded in her Journal.  Her reaction to things she had no former experience of. The things she was not a witness to, but only heard second or third hand. Finally, of things, that were specifically kept from her, particularly by her husband, John McArthur.

Let me say at the outset I have great admiration for Elizabeth McArthur and Harriet Hodgetts, and as women, how they met the day to day challenges, not only of the voyage but in the infant colony at the edge of the known world.

View of Sydney Cove-1792

To really understand Elizabeth McArthur and Harriet Hodgetts, I believe I needed to go right back to the beginning and study their ancestors and families. I wanted to find not only where and how they lived, but how they may have influenced the women’s outlook on life.  I wanted to find some possible explanations, not only for some of their decisions and indomitable faith but how they managed to live in a male-dominated society and world, so far away from their ‘roots’, with no family support.

Who was the real Elizabeth McArthur? Who was the real Harriet Hodgetts?

Harriet Hodgetts and Elizabeth McArthur -Interesting Coincidences and Parallel Lives.

 

I have said in former blogs I have been researching and writing Harriet Hodgetts story for some time now. In recent times I have been exploring and writing about four sea voyages she made in her lifetime. Her first voyage was in cramped quarters on a convict ship in the Second Fleet.

The only surviving written record of a personal experience of that voyage is a few pages of a journal kept by Elizabeth McArthur, one of the marine’s wives.

To write Harriet’s story, I needed to explore and write Elizabeth’s story too. While doing this, I was completely blown away, with the unbelievable coincidences of the parallel lives, of these two incredible women.

• Both were born and baptized in country parishes in England, within months of each other in 1766. Elizabeth in Devonshire and Harriet in Staffordshire.

• Both were the eldest daughters in their family, who were effectively disinherited by the early deaths of their respective fathers.

• Both came under the guardianship of their grandfathers. Elizabeth, her Maternal Grandfather and Harriet, her Paternal Grandfather.

• Both fell in love, and let their heart rule their head. They ‘choose’ to accompany their ‘husbands’ on the Second Fleet, although by all the ‘rules’ and ‘social norms’ at the time, neither should have been on that voyage.

• Both arrived in Sydney at the same time and lived near each other in the infant colony.

 

View of Sydney Cove-1792

• Both moved to Parramatta and lived there for some time.

Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta

 

• Both settled on the land and became ‘farmer’s wives’.

• Both became widowed, Elizabeth in 1834 and Harriet in 1823.

• Both died in Australia in 1850, within a few months of each other, aged 83 years. Elizabeth in New South Wales, and Harriet in Tasmania.

Regardless of all these coincidences, I believe although they may have set eyes on each other, from time to time, they never met. Elizabeth McArthur, being a Marine Captain’s wife, at the high end of the social scale of the colony, and Harriet Hodgetts being the wife a convict blacksmith, at the other end of the social scale.

 

Josiah Bell, Woodman of Mereworth,Kent

In former blogs, I have written about John Billinghurst alias Bell, born 1800, the illegitimate son of Sarah Billinghurst, of Mereworth, Kent. See ‘The Story of an Alias-John Bell, Mereworth, Kent’ and ‘More on the Alias of John Bell, Mereworth, Kent’.
The following year Sarah Billinghurst married Josiah Bell, in St Lawrence, Mereworth. They had a daughter Elizabeth born 1803, whose story is told in ‘A Life Cut Short-Elizabeth Bell, Mereworth, Kent.’

In this blog, I continue the family story about their son, Josiah Bell who was born in 1806.

Josiah Bell, the second child, and son of Josiah and Sarah Bell (nee Billinghurst) was born in Mereworth in 1806. By his time his father was 52 years of age and his mother 42 years.
Josiah Bell was baptized at St Lawrence, Mereworth on 31 August 1806. He grew up in Mereworth and was only ten years of age when his father died. No doubt Josiah took on the care of his mother and sister from an early age, but by the time he was in his early twenties, he had lost both his sister and mother.
Josiah Bell married at St Mary’s, East Farleigh, on 29 January 1832, a cousin, Ann Bell, the daughter of Robin and Mercy Bell (nee Cox). She had been baptized at East Farleigh on 10 November 1811.

They had a large family all of whom were baptized at St Lawrence,
Mereworth.
⦁ Sarah Bell, b 1832
⦁ Catherine Harriet Bell, b 1835
⦁ Josiah Bell, b 1837
⦁ James Bell, b 1838
⦁ Ann Bell, b 1840
⦁ Mercy, b 1843
⦁ Thomas, b1847
⦁ Robert Bell, b 1849
⦁ Mahalah, b 1851
⦁ George, b 1854
⦁ Frederick, b 1856

Josiah and Ann Bell remained in Mereworth, when Ann Bell’s parents, Robin and Mercy Bell (nee Cox), and most of her siblings emigrated to New South Wales on the Woodbridge, in 1838.

The Baptismal Font, St Lawrence, Mereworth
Copyright-Nola Mackey, 2004

Josiah and Ann Bell and family can be found in the 1841,1851,1861,1871 Census Return for Mereworth, where Josiah is described as a ‘Wood Labourer’. We know his father was also recorded as a ‘Woodsman’ in several parish documents.

Josiah bell died and was buried in the Mereworth churchyard on 24 March 1874. His headstone is inscribed with “He was for 43 years a bellringer at this church”.

The weathered headstone of Josiah Bell, St Lawrence Churchyard.
Copyright- Nola Mackey,2004

After Josiah Bell’s death, his wife Ann, found employment as the Monthly Nurse. In the 1881 Census she was not at home, but in the household of John Humphrey’s, with his wife Mary Ann and their infant daughter, Edith. She is recorded there as 72 years of age but would have been about 70 years.
In the 1891 Census, Ann Bell was living in Kent Street. Her invalid daughter Ann, and her youngest son, Frederick Bell and his family were living with her.
Ann Bell died in 1895 and is buried in the Mereworth Churchyard, possibly beside her husband, but her grave is unmarked.

 

A Life Cut Short- Elizabeth Bell, Mereworth, Kent

 

In a former blog, I wrote about the puzzle of John Billinghurst or Bell, born in 1800 at Mereworth, Kent, England. He was the illegitimate son of Sarah Billinghurst. In this blog I am continuing the story of the family of Josiah Bell and Sarah Billinghurst who married in 1801, in St Lawrence, Church of England, Mereworth after the above mentioned John Billinghurst, alias Bell was born.

Josiah Bell was the third child of Josiah and Mary Bell (nee Carpenter) and was baptized at St Lawrence, Mereworth on 17 March 1754. He married in the same church, on 9 November 1801, Sarah Billinghurst. She was the daughter of John and Sarah Billinghurst and was also baptized at Mereworth on 16 September 1764.

Elizabeth Bell, the eldest child of Josiah and Sarah Bell (nee Billinghurst)
was baptized at Mereworth on 29 May 1803. When Elizabeth was born her mother was 39 years of age.
Elizabeth Bell grew up in Mereworth. She was thirteen years of age when her father, Josiah Bell died in 1816. His death impacted greatly on the family.
Elizabeth remained single and died at 18 years of age. She was buried at Mereworth on 2 December 1822.

We can gauge very little on the life of this young woman with the bare dates of her baptism and burial. However, in the Mereworth Parish Chest, there is a list of medicines and medical expenses the parish overseers paid, for the care of their poorest parishioners.

In the list for 1822, we find many entries for members of our Bell families. In particular, we find numerous mention of medicines for ‘E Bell’. She may have always been in poor health, but we can gather she became very ill several months before her death and that every medical assistance was given her by the parish overseers.

I have extracted the following from the parish accounts.

July 27- E Bell Diuretic mixture 2/6
Aug 4- E Bell Mixture repeated 2/6
Aug 6- E Bell Eight powders 2/6
Aug 14 – E Bell Diuretic mixture 2/6
Aug 19 – E Bell Two blisters to the legs 3/-
Aug 24 – E Bell Large tonic mixture 3/-
Aug 28 – E Bell Large box ointment 9d
Aug 31 – E Bell Two blisters to the feet 2/6
Sep 3 – E Bell Large box ointment 9d
Sep 7 – E Bell A tonic 2/6
Sep 10 – E Bell Box of ointment 9d
Oct 14 – E Bell Box of ointment 9d
Nov 6 – E Bell Box of ointment 1/-

We do not know the cause of death of Elizabeth Bell, but it appears from the above entries it must have been a blessed release.
One can only imagine what her mother, Sarah, must have endured. She survived another six years before her own death in 1828, leaving a sorrowing son of 22 years.

St Lawrence, Mereworth, 2004- Copyright, Nola Mackey