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).

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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.