Emma Jane Weston (1839-1914) - Life on the Gold Fields and more

Emma Lee (nee Weston)

After journeying from London to the penal colony of Sydney, Australia with her sister Mary Ann, Emma traveled to the gold fields near the small rural town of Braidwood where is thought she may have been in domestic service for the Maddrell Family.  At the age of 18 she married Thomas George Lee, who was one of the many hopeful miners looking for his fortune on the goldfields at Majors Creek, near Braidwood. 

 As Emma was under age permission to marry was given by Robert Maddrell Esquire, Legal Guardian and her sister Mary Ann Weston was one of the witnesses.Thomas and Emma's settled into life on the goldfields, their first son George was born on in December 1858.  Unfortunately George did not  live to see his first birthday.  In the next couple of years two more children, George William and Henry Thomas were born.

Majors creek, was originally a shanty town  that grew up on the site of Elrington's village. The site comprised of stores, sly grog shops and miners tents.  Life was tough not the best environment for women.  In 1851 a police outpost was established.  The gold takings at Majors Creek were originally aluvial with reef mining starting in the late 1860-70's.  We cannot be sure of the reason but sometime between 1862 and 1864 Thomas and Emma left Major's Creek, crossing Clyde Mountain and settling in the small settlement of Nelligen on the Clyde River where Thomas became the local store keeper.

In 1854 the first track was opened from Braidwood across the Clyde Mountain to the small settlement of Nelligen. In the same year the town of Nelligen was official gazetted.  During its early history some alluvial gold was discovered, however the town became more significant as a trading post.  Bringing in goods to be taken over the Clyde Mountain to the mining and rural settlements around Braidwood, and in return receiving timber, wool and gold from this area to be shipped up to Sydney.  Large steamers some up to 10,000 tons traveled up to Nelligen to pick up produce and deliver supplies and equipment to be carried over to the Braidwood district.

Perhaps Thomas Lee recognised that Nelligen was a better environment to raise a family, and that setting up a business as the local storekeeper in this thriving community was a much better option than trying his luck on the gold fields. The 1872 Greville's Report for Nelligen lists Thomas Lee as the Nelligen Store Keeper.  Emma would have been kept busy caring for their children as well as assisting in the store.  Their first daughter Emma was born in 1864 and in the coming years seven more children  (Thomas, Ellen, Albert, Susan, Hannah, Maude and Annie) were born bringing the number of children to ten.  The children attended the local school, which had to be rebuilt after the floods of 1867. In 1874 there were 18 children attending the local school, among these students were Nelly (Ellen), Thomas and Emma Lee.*  Their older brothers George and Henry would have been 14 and 13 at that time and were probably working in the family business.

Clark Brothers

These times were fraught with dangers, besides frequent flooding and bush fires, this was also the period when Bushrangers were very active in the district.  Ben Hall's gang were active on the road between Braidwood and Nelligen in 1865.  Two members of this gang were the notorious Clarke brothers, Tom and John.  The Clarke brothers hid out in the Jingera Ranges preying on the coaches travelling from the goldfields through to Nelligen.  In 1866 the brothers were responsible for the ambush  and killing of a special police gang. In 1867 the brothers were finally captured and taken by coach from Braidwood to Nelligen to be taken by steamship to Sydney.  The brothers were shackled to the "prison tree", which is still stands in Nelligen, prior to their shipment to Darlinghurst goal and subsequent hanging in 1867. Emma and Thomas Lee were witnesses to this event, and I remember my father telling me the story of the Clarke Brothers capture as it had been passed down through our family. 
  
The Lee family settled into the Nelligen district, with Emma and Thomas's children, going to school, marrying and having their families.  Even though, there were many difficulties including the isolation, floods and bushfires, I think Emma would have found the scenic rural environment of life on the Clyde River a pleasant place to raise her family.   

A brief description in the Australian Town and Country Journal in 1897 describes the settlement of Nelligen as: 

 NELLIGEN.
Nelligen is a pretty little town, situated on the south bank of the river. It has two sawmills, one public house, a couple of stores, etc. It has a few small farms and orchards along the course of the Nelligen Creek, and is only fourteen miles distant from Brimbrarnalla Gold Field. It has a coach road to Braidwood, Bateman, and Milton. It is at the head of deep water navigation, and should eventually become an important place as the auriferous resources of the district become developed.
 
In the later decade of the nineteenth century Thomas and Emma purchased "Acacia Farm" , a picturesque farm about 6 miles from Nelligen, on the banks of the Clyde River.  This farm stayed in the farm for the next four generations of the Lee family. On the first of November 1906 Thomas passed away at the age of 74.  Emma continued to live on Acacia Farm with her eldest son George and his wife Catherine (nee McGregor) and their children.

Five years later Emma, passed away at the age of seventy five, on the 21 July 1914.  Her death was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald,

death: Lee - July 21, 1914, at Nelligen, Clyde River, Emma J., relict of the late T. G. Lee, Aged 75. 1914 'Family Notices.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 22 July, p. 12, viewed 1 October, 2012, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15524286

 The young housemaid who had arrived from London at the age of 17 with her sister Mary Ann had certainly witnessed and experienced life to the full in the new colony.  
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*Reynolds, G.T. (1985), The History of The Port of Nelligen, Part 1, Batemans Bay Commercial Printers, Bateman's Bay.

Mary Ann and Emma Jane Weston continued

Mary Ann's Story

My last post finished with my great great grandmother Emma Jane Weston and her sister Mary Ann arriving in Sydney Harbour on board the "Kate" at Christmas time in 1856 under the sponsorship of their uncle Alfred Weston.  Before I continue with the story of my great great grandmother Emma Jane Weston, I thought would write a little about her sister Mary Ann.

I presume that the two sisters would have been met by their uncle Alfred Weston who had arrived in Sydney in the previous year, or it is possible that they travelled by stage coach to Wollongong where their Uncle was living at the time. There was a great shortage of labour in the country, especially female servants and as the passenger list for the "Kate" lists Mary Ann and Emma's occupations as housemaids from London, it could be assumed that they sought work as domestic helpers.

The next record that I can trace for the two sisters is Emma's marriage to Thomas George Lee (1832-1906) on the 22 February 1858 at St Andrews Church in Braidwood, New South Wales.* Thomas's occupation was listed as a miner from the gold mining area of Major's Creek which was in the Braidwood district.

WC- William Pronger and Mary Ann Weston

Mary Ann was listed as one of the witnesses to the wedding, and as Emma was still under the age of 21, permission to marry was given by Robert Maddrell Esquire, Legal Guardian.  Robert Maddrell was one of the "landed gentry" in the Braidwood district who lived on "Mona" and "Bedervale".  It is  possible that Mary Ann and Emma had come to the gold mining district of Braidwood/Araluen with their Uncle Alfred Weston and had gained employment with the Maddell family as domestic servants. (Some wonderful pictures of the Maddrell Family and their home can be found on the National Library Website at this link, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3044367

Miners in Gold fields of Araluen, http://www.visitbraidwood.com.au/araluen

Six months later it was Mary Ann's turn to wed.  On the 19th August 1858** Mary Ann married William Pronger (1835-1917) a carpenter from Majors Creek.  Their wedding certificate states they were married in a temporary place of worship at Major's Creek under the rites of the Church of England. Mary Ann's uncle Alfred Weston is one of the witnesses at her wedding. Which leads me to believe the girls traveled with their uncle to the NSW mining district of Braidwood. Alfred Weston is listed in the Greville's Post Office Directory in 1872 as living in the mining town of Araluen and his occupation is listed as a miner

Life in the gold fields would have been a very different experience to that of their earlier life in London.  Majors Creek was one of the largest working mine fields in the 1850-1860's.  This short description from the blog "Major's Creek" gives a wonderful description of what life must have been like on the gold fields for Emma, Mary Ann and their husbands.

 "hundreds of men toiling away in the hot sun; panning, digging, pushing wheelbarrow. You hear the mix of accents: the broad drawl of the Australian born, the plums of English, Scot burrs, Irish lilts, European gutturals, languid American cadences and the staccato of Chinese.  

The hills are spotted with canvas tents and temporary structures of all shapes and sizes.  Clothes, in a rainbow of colours flutter in the breeze drying.

After sunset... the white canvas is replaced by the orange-red of camp fires.  The smell of cooking wafts up the valley.  As the evening deepens the loud voices, sounds of merriment and drunkenness escape from the windows of the lamp-lit hotels.  A male dominant place, stranger thrown together with diverse dreams, enjoying the euphoria of success and drowning the disappointment of failure."***
 

Floods in Main Street of Gympie 1870

Mary Ann and Emma continued living with their homes in the mining community of Majors Creek/Araluen, however, Mary Ann's husband William felt that it was time to move on and to seek his fortune in the newly discovered gold fields in Gympie, Queensland. 

Gold was discovered in Gympie by James Nash in 1867. I am not sure how William and Mary Ann travelled to Gympie, however the trip must have been long and fraught with many difficulties and dangers. I do not have the exact date that William and Mary Ann arrived in Gympie but I do know that in December 1868 William Pronger was appointed  by the Queensland Government to the position of the keeper of the Powder Magazine in Gympie**** .  He held this position until 1871 when he resigned to pursue other interests. *****.  In 1873 an article in The Queenslander advises that Pronger in partnership with Mr Rickett were operating a sugar refining mill and were turning out some good sugar. It seems that William Pronger was quite a pioneer and always looking for further opportunities.

Life would have been quite tough for Mary in this new gold mining town, in 1870 Gympie experiences severe flooding with many homes submerged. William and Mary did not have any children and from details on Mary's death certificate, Mary was in poor heath for some years. On the 7th July 1878, Mary passed away and the cause of death is listed as "ovarian dropsy" (in other words, from "ovarian cancer") which she had suffered from for over three years.  This could explain why she was not able to have any children.

On the 8th July 1878 William Pronger buried his young wife in the Church of England portion of the Gympie cemetery. 

William stayed in the Gympie district, becoming a successful business man.  He remarried in 1880 to Charlotte Elizabeth Drew they had a family of two daughters and three sons. Descendants of William and Charlotte still live in the Gympie district. 

As it is with many of our female ancestors, their story is told by researching their male relations and husbands.  Mary's story is a good example of this.  It is through her uncle Alfred Weston and her husband William Pronger's life stories, I have been able to piece together a little of her life story, from a house maid in London, to the gold fields in the southern highlands of New South Wales and then the journey of over 14,000 kms to the newly discovered mining outpost of Gympie, Queensland. I still have a lot of questions?  I wonder if she was able to see her sister Emma again after she left for Queensland? What kind of conditions did she live in when they first arrived in Gympie?  Was her home/tent flooded in the 1870 floods?  The list goes on and I guess these questions will probably never be answered.



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       * New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1486/1858
     ** New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1499/1858
    *** Majors Creek, http://www.majorscreek.org.au/content/history , viewed 18/1/2013
  **** 1868 'THE GAZETTE.', The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), 7 December, p. 3, viewed 29 January, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1323824
*****1871 'OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS.', The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), 2 October, p. 3, viewed 29 January, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1320642

Christmas 1856 Arrival - Emma Jane Weston 1839-1914

Emma Jane Weston

It was the 23 December 1856 when the the "Kate" arrived into Sydney after the long journey from Plymouth under the command of Captain Davidson.* Emma Jane Weston and her sister Mary Anne Weston had left Plymouth on the Kate on 7 September 1856. They were 18 and 19 years old (respectively) when they arrived as assisted immigrants under the guardianship of their Uncle Alfred Weston.  Alfred had immigrated to Australia as an assisted immigrant with his wife Maria in the previous year (13 January 1855) on the Bangalore.* The immigration record for Emma and Jane state that he was living in Wollongong at the time of their arrival. 

These two young sisters were listed as being house maids from London, who had journeyed to Australia as part of Government assisted immigration program to provide relief to the colonies labour shortage.

An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 27 December 1856, describes this situation.

"SYDNEY LABOUR MARKET

The arrival of the Kate, from Plymouth, with government immigrants, will afford a temporary relief to the late very great scarcity of country labour.  The immigrants are classified as follows: 49 married couples, 109 single men, 62 single women and 17 children. In the early part of the week the rates going were, in some cases, slightly in advance of the previous week.

OLIVER STAINS, British Foreign Labour Agent, December 26th. 73, Corner of King and Castlereagh Streets."

Under this notice a further article goes on to describe the shortages of labour, especially of female servants.

St Marylebone

"Engagements have been limited in consequence of it being a holiday week.  Orders for country servants are plentiful. There has been one arrival (The Kate) with 300 immigrants of a mixed class.  The harvest now drawing to a close will cause reaction in the supply of labour.  The inhabitants of Sydney have seen much inconvenience in regard to female servants. The demand is great and those for hire are few.  Wages remain firm if quoted rite.  

J.C. GLUE, Labour Agent, December 26, 48 Pitt Street North."


These few articles give you an idea of what greeted my Great Great Grandmother Emma Jane Weston and her elder sister Mary Anne when they arrived in Australia to seek their fortune in a new land.

 Emma and Mary Anne were the daughters of William Weston (abt 1816-1867) and Mary Ann Rolf (abt 1816-1896).  Mary and William were married at St Marylebone, an Anglican Church on the Marylebone Rd, London on the 3 October 1835.

Emma was born on the 25 June 1839 at 9.00am in the family home at 21 Edwards Street Regents Park. Her father's occupation was listed as House Painter.

Birth Certificate - Emma Jane Weston 25 June 1839

What was in store for Emma and her sister Mary Anne once they disembarked from the Kate, in Sydney?  Would they find employment or perhaps a husband? You have to reflect on how foreign life in the new colony would have been to the two young sisters who had been brought up in London. Imagine how different it was to celebrate Christmas on the other side of the world!
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* New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896