Out of the Drawer

Every now and then, something unexpected pops up. Tonight I found the following advertisement in the Advocate newspaper.

Two years later we stand next to our
 three roomed  house

SALE OF THREE-ROOMED
DWELLING
at the
BURNIE MART
The FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE AUCTIONEERS LTD. will offer at their Burnie Mart, on FRIDAY, APRIL 20, at 3 o'clock,
A delightfully situated 3-roomed concrete dwelling, situate at No. 14 Mark street, Hillcrest, Burnie.
3-plate electric stove installed.
This dwelling would serve as a temporary abode while larger premises were being installed on the spacious block of land, which overlooks Bass Strait and central Burnie.
For further particulars and to arrange inspection,
The FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE
AUCTIONEERS LTD.,
FRIDAY, APRIL 20.1951

A three roomed house might not sound very exciting to many people but my parents braved Mark Street and purchased this house, moving in about six weeks later. They had been living with my grandparents, where my sister and I each had a drawer as a bed. This was alright for me as I was only a few months old but at nearly two, she would have had to tuck her knees under her chin.
 Within a couple of weeks of the purchase, it was reported that road works had to cease as rain had made the thoroughfare into a quagmire and three cars were bogged so deep there was no hope of towing them out till the road dried out. That would have made Mum really happy.
Our house was made of grey brick and the stove really was its only selling point. Three rooms end to end was all there was - not even a kitchen sink. The four of us slept in one room which also housed a wardrobe and dressing table. A Peter's oven was removed to make way for a fireplace in the lounge which was also the dining room and kitchen. Somehow, this oven was transported to Lower Wilmot where it was welcomed in the Doe household. The final room of our house was the bathroom/laundry/front entrance. Not many houses have only one door which opens straight into the bathroom.
I still remember the green lino on the floor and the red painted rectangle of tin over the fireplace. Lace curtains and holland blinds covered the windows and dampness had caused the formation of huge bubbles in the layers of plywood on the internal walls. We sat at the homemade table on a wooden bench and the parents each had a bent wood chair.
There is a view of Bass Strait, as the advertisement says, but a couple of hills would need to be flattened to really get a view of central Burnie

Feed the Man Meat

Ephraim was fond of meat and he certainly did not think he should pay for it. His escapade in being found with meat on his property for which he could not account received a little space in the press and we would be very ill informed about the incident if another court case had not followed. Yet again, Ephraim went to court as he felt that he had been wronged. From the newspaper reports we learn an incredible amount about their lives.
First, he and Bridget seem to have been running two farms. The Valuation Rolls show two different properties being rented by Ephraim at the time. He must have gained some farming ability if he had 30 acres in grain and was running cattle and pigs as well. He seems to have had only one helper. Farming methods of the time would have been labour intensive. He also dealt in horses and owned farm equipment. It must have been a challenge as his fences were broken and it seems it was not a showcase farm. Ephraim went to Launceston to get 50 pounds to pay the fine imposed by the court. This amounted to more than a year's rent on the farm, a very large sum. Just how much meat had been found? From whom did he think he could borrow such a large sum?
While he was away, Bridget did not cope. She packed up the farm, put the children in the orphanage and ended up drunk, probably more than less in the Halfway House.
Ephraim arrived home, was gaoled as he failed to find money to pay the fine, then discovered that his animals, his main income had been illegally taken and auctioned off.
The Court case showed tha the was not the only shifty character in the colony, by this time renamed Tasmania. Was he satisfied with the outcome?
It was not long before he decided that the Northern end of the island might be a better place to live. He had spent several years around the Liffey area and seems to have headed there early in 1860. - probably on someone else's horse.

Queens Orphanage but no Royal Treatment



Ephraim and MaryAnn Doe admitted to the
Orphan School April 1 1859



By 1859, Bridget and Ephraim had two children, Ephraim the younger and Mary Ann. In fact, at the time, everyone had a Mary Ann. Ephraim snr had decided to go into farming and was having mixed success. I was first alerted to the fact that the children had been put in the orphanage by Joyce Purtscher who was indexing all the Orphan School records. She told me that there would be a letter in the Colonial Secretary's Office records and gave me the index number. With great excitement I set off into the Archives and waited anxiously while the required volume was brought down from upstairs. Carefully I turned the pages until I found it, or didn't find it as the case turned out. The heading at the top of the page gave the correct names and two pin holes were evidence that at one time a note had been attached but the page was now empty. What disappointment. I had some clues however, from the index. The children were in the orphanage on colonial funds which meant that the reason they were there was that something had happened in the colony to cause them to be left there. Neither Ephraim or Bridget's indents gave a clue that there had been a problem in the family.

When released, the children were given out to their mother's care. Did that mean that the problem was with Ephraim? Another oddity was that the childrens' names had been written just as christian names and the surnames Norton or Doe added in a slightly different hand. My next thought was that maybe there had been a tiff and the parents had separated for a time. It took me more than ten years to discover the answer.



Bridget given as name of parent



It was not a good time to be in the Orphan School. The Mercury reported that "these unhappy children are said to be living in a state of squalor, hunger, wretchedness and filth, which almost surpasses human belief ."   Following an inquiry, rations of meat and vegetables were doubled and the milk quota for children under six was quadrupled. Luckily, Ephraim jnr and MaryAnn were back with their parents before the following February when it was discovered that the allowance of bread each day had been lowered to 1/4 pound.  

For more on the Orphan School, follow this link

http://www.orphanschool.org.au/

Royal CLean Out

Yesterday I began a sorting and tidying task and came across this brooch. It is a bit the worse for wear, having lost it's "diamonds" and the silver is looking even more fake than when it was purchased. I used to wear this. As a two year old I was patriotic enough to want to wear the portrait of my king across my breast. I would be fairly certain that no two year olds in Britain, let alone Australia would be proudly wearing their Queen's portrait on a daily basis these days. Later, after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11, I had a "Queen" cup which was very precious and used for drinking Milo on special occasions. I also received a book about the Queen for my 3rd birthday and really treasured it . It had a  royal blue cover of course and I knew every picture intimately. There were pictures of the coronation, Prince Charles and Princess Anne as well as the Duke and Queen. I was taken to see the Queen when she came to Burnie, early in the day in the town and later in Burnie Park. I can't remember anything of it but it made my mother excited. She told me all about it years later. She was sure the Queen looked at me twice as I had the same blond curls as Princess Anne.
Of course, George VI was still gracing us with his portrait on our coins but they gradually disappeared to be replaced by the young and beautiful Elizabeth. As she aged, her portrait on the money lagged behind somewhat and we wondered what beauty treatments she was wearing. Then television told us the truth. She was just like the rest of us.
Royalty has had its highs and lows. Ephraim and Bridget lived through four regencies. Two Georges, a William and a Victoria graced the Royal throne during their lives. Would they have heard and recognised the Royal Anthem or stood to attention when it was played. Even though we no longer feel a great connection to the crown, we are far more aware of it than they ever could have been.

A Happy Homecoming for Bridget Doe

When a drunk comes to the door, most of us wouldn't let him in. The water in Van Diemen's Land was not of such good quality, so beer was a much safer drink. Bridget knew this and so did Edward Hunt. He was a policeman, but not a very good one. He was not too good at following orders and at one stage, robbed the prisoner he was supposed to be searching. Bridget nevertheless let him in and provided him with drink, the result being that she was charged with harbouring a prisoner of the crown for the purpose of tippling.
Tippling seems to be a term where money was exchanged in return for the alcohol. Hunt received ten days solitary but for Bridget, the punishment was much more severe - 6 months at the Female Factory. She had been there before and knew what to expect: uncomfortable clothing, long days at the washtubs, cold stone walls and rules governing everything she did. She cannot have been happy.


Door of the Matron's Cottage



Outer perimeter walls, Female Factory, Cascades



Stone construction of wall, Female Factory, Cascades

 Her behaviour must have been reasonable as she managed to be released into the care of her husband, after only 5 months, What a relief it would have been for both of them. Together again, they enjoyed each other's company and within a couple of weeks, Bridget would have had the first indications that life was to change in a big way. She was pregnant.
Bridget may never have seen Edward Hunt again, but Ephraim almost certainly did.

Missing, one mustard pot

Seems Bridget just couldn't get it right. Trouble seemed to follow her. James Lomas was next to take her to court on a charge of stealing his pewter mustard pot and his satin waistcoat. He seems to have been just an ordinary citizen, living in Jerusalem Street and although Lomas is not a name I have heard in Tasmania today, there were quite a few people of this name in the early days, some convicts and some free. He lived in the town and was obviously missing some goods. Why was Bridget accused? Both she and Ephraim were arrested but it seems she was the main suspect.Was she working at this house, or maybe visiting? Mustard pots and satin waistcoats are not items normally seen together in a pair, like salt and pepper. From where did they disappear and how was it noticed?
The lucky couple were awarded a couple of nights accomodation courtesy of the government at Richmond Gaol before they were presented at court, Bridget quite prepared to stand trial. She must have felt she had a good case, and so it turned out. They were released without charge

Blankets for June



Blanket purchased by Roland Doe

  I was handed the blanket. There it was, wrapped in a plastic bag, with a cake of scented soap to keep the musty odours away. It's yours. "Oh," was all I could say. Old, faded and worn into holes, wrinkled edges fraying into loosened threads, it did not look like something one would value. Then came the words, This is the blanket that Nan sent Pop out to buy ....................to bring the baby home from hospital, in the pony and cart when your mother was born. Suddenly, this worn set of fibres had new meaning. I connected. It did not look at all like a baby blanket, pink, blue and fluffy but it certainly had a purpose.

June in Tasmania is cold and the birth took place at Latrobe. A trip home on the Wilmot road would have been long and wearying. Even in the fifties when I first travelled its surface, it was rough, unsealed and potholed. Uncomfortable in the latest Holden, we looked forward to the end of the trip. In 1923, baby June, named after the month in which she was born, was wrapped cosy and warm in the folds of this blanket as she was carried about 30 miles up through Gentle Annie between the tall gums growing along the edges of the deep gorges of the Wilmot Road.



June Doe and Ivy Doe
at Lower Wilmot

Another photo and another time.
"Why is Mum wearing gumboots?" I asked. Over 20 years later, baby June was grown and had come home for the weekend. The coat was for warmth on the same Wilmot Road. The boots were for riding a horse. Mum was working at Chudleigh and had travelled the last part of the journey, from Forth by horse. It is hard for me to imagine my mother riding a horse but that was the mode of transport at the time. The horse was hired at Forth and upon arriving at the destination 18 miles later, it was turned around to face the direction from which it had come, given a whack on the rump and it took itself back to the stables.

Mum never learned to drive a car. Apart from walking, this was the only time she was in control of her transport. It was so for so many women. They rode horses and drove ponies and carts but with the advent of the motor car, transport became  male dominated and for a generation of women dependancy on menfolk became the norm.

A Contrast in Accomodation

While Bridget was doing hard labour at the Female Factory, Ephraim was at Ross. I have found very few references to the Probation Station there. The gaol was converted into a female factory in 1848 and it seems men were sent to the probation station. These two exerpts from newspapers, both a few years before Ephraim arrived there, tell a little of what was going on. I really think it was kind hearted of them to remove all the invalids to Launceston and allow them to break stones. Maybe the definition of invalid at the time was a little different from that we use today. You can be assured that it would shorten the lines at Centrelink!


Cells at the Female Factory where Bridget was held




Remaining walls at the Cascades
Female Prison



The second article shows the difficulty authorities had in employing all the men under their control and echoes the thoughts of many on how gaols are conducted.

25 March 1848 The Cornwall Chronicle

THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT,

It has been known for some weeks that his Excellency has been in possession of ' Despatches' directing the speedy breaking up of the Convict Establishments, with a view to save the enormous outlay connected with the department in these colonies, and in order that all available funds might be appropriated in giving the ' separate' system at home a fair trial. With this, intention, a large number of tickets-of-leave have been latterly granted and many conditional pardons recommended by his Excellency so as to facilitate the intentions of the Home Government as much as the circumstances of the convicts here will permit The sane object will, we under stand, induce the Comptroller-General to re commend a change in the mode of regulating indulgences, so as to be assimulated to the orders sent out to New South Wales last year, by which the Government was directed to give tickets of leave to all prisoners of the Crown indiscriminately who had been three years in the colony free from offence, and in like manner conditional pardons to those who had held tickets-of-leave for three years. In the course of a few weeks several convict establishments are to be broken up. The hiring depot for females in St. John Square will be discontinued immediately, and the women eligible for service be removed to a wing of the Female House of Correction prepared for the purpose. The children at present in the Female House of Correction with their mothers are to be removed to the Ross station. The Probation stations at Fingal, Rocky Hills, Lymington, and several other places will be broken up, and all available labor placed on the main road. About a hundred invalids will be forwarded to Launceston from different stations, to be employed in breaking stones for repairing the streets, and a suitable shed is to be erected on the Commissariat green to protect them from the inclemency of the weather, so that their operations may not be impeded by rain, & c. We are likewise informed that a new hospital is to be commenced on the Cataract Hill, it having been long felt that the situation of the present Colonial Hospital is unhealthy, contagious, and otherwise inconvenient.

19 May 1847
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LAUNCESTON EXAMINER. THE SYSTEM. Sir,-Allow me to bring under the notice of the public, through the medium of your widely circu lated Journal, the working of the probation sta tion at Ross: the colonists may judge how all the stations are managed. The station at Ross con sists of about 80 men, who being colonially sen tenced, are supposed to be employed on the roads, but few of them are so employed. The party are distributed pretty nearly as follows :
Servants to the officers ..3 Watchmen.., 4 Wardsmen .. 2, Washermen .. 1 Drawing water and harnessed to the hand-cart like beasts of burthen.. 5 Messenger to the gangs..0 , Cook at the station ... 1, Baker at the station .. I ,Assistant cook at the station. 1, Cook to the gangs .. 1, Gatekeeper .. 1, Labourer to the storekeeper .. 1, Clerk to the Storekeeper.. 1, Cook to the Military ... 1, Minding tools.. 1, Watching the government pigs..1,  Burning charcoal ... 1, Blacksmiths ... 2, Employed raising vegetables for the party to compete with the settler.. 6, Total ... 35. Thus sir it will be seen, that out of about eighty men, thirty-five are billited. These men can finish their daily tasks by about eleven o'clock, the remainder of the day is then passed away in sheer idleness. To look after these eighty men, there are no less than eight officers, whose united salaries amount to the enormous sum of eight hundred and four pounds per annum,-a sum sufficient to pay as many useful officers as could make all the roads required in the colony. I could give you an account of the work per formed at this station both on and off the roads, for the last three years; but it would be useless, the public being already aware that probation in this colony is nothing more than teaching the men the most idle habits, as my list will plainly show, and of which I defy refutation.-I am Sir, your obedient servant, A WAY-FARING MAN. Antill Ponds, 13th May, 5th month '47.

Not the castle he was expecting



Three months later and Ephraim and Bridget were really finding it hard to stay home. Their area was now Sorell and Prossins Plains. Maybe there was no work in their area and they had to look further afield. Ephraim was now a boss with an offsider, and along with Bridget, they were out of their area without a pass. The judge was not so lenient this time and all three were off to gaol with hard labour. William Toplis was difficult to track down and finally I discovered that he was also registered as William Topley or Toplay. William had carried a lot of lead in his life, 128 pounds of it to be exact. He managed to procure it from the roofs of buildings at Castle Donington in Nottinghamshire. How he removed it and carried it away I am not certain but it must have happened over time. How much lead can you carry home in one go without being noticed? And where do you put it when you get it there?



A washing tub at Cascades femake factory



It seems that Castle Donington is a place, not a Castle though there probably was one there once. They have motels and hotels, buses and bikes, everything the modern tourist could want. They are waiting and anxious for all of us  to book a holiday there.

William did not win a holiday to Castle Donington, he won a ten year cruise to Van Diemen’s Land, and now,  a side trip to prison and an instruction that he was not to reside in Hobart upon release. Ephraim was off to Ross for three months hard labour out of chains and for Bridget, it was off to trial the stone cells and wash troughs of the female factory at South Hobart.

Archealogical dig reveals remains of cells at Cascades.

Nomads of the Midlands



The sign at Colebrook




The Mill at Campania, now part of the local school
where I taught for two years



Ephraim and Bridget had been residing in an area known as Jerusalem. Some documents state Lower Jerusalem and I believe they were probably working towards the Campania area. Jerusalem is on the Coal River and the area is now known not as Coalbrook but as Colebrook. Guess someone did not pass spelling at school.

This was at one time the granary of Australia and oats and wheat grew prolifically. It is quite warm in summer and for some years the industry flourished. Ephraim had worked on farms in England but had probably not grown grain in such enormous quantities.They were still working on a piecemeal basis for other farmers and looking further afield to find work when only a few months after their problem with the Williams family, Ephraim and Bridget were found out on the township of Sorell at 10 pm without a pass. They must have had a good excuse as they were found guilty and admonished but given no gaol time. Either there was no money to celebrate or they did it in a more controlled manner this time as the next couple of months passed quietly.

Doe versus Williams

Let’s  hope that Ephraim did not have hay fever or a cold in early November of the year 1850. He and Bridget had been married less than three months and they were before the courts again. This time, it was Ephraim preferring the charges. He maintained that Mary Williams had stolen his handkerchief, his cap and his stays. When I first saw this I thought he was in for a bit of cross dressing but I came to the conclusion that the stays must have been braces for holding up his trousers. There he was in court, bare headed, no bulge in the pocket, badly needing a belt and also short of wages. Mary’s husband, Edward also had done him wrong and not paid wages owing. These charges had been laid a month previously and it seems that Ephraim had worked for Edward and Mary for about 4 weeks, prior to that. What they had been living on in the meantime is something to wonder about.

The interesting part of this record is that part of the wages was to be issued as rations as follows: 14 pounds of flour, 7 pounds of pork, 2 pounds of sugar and ¼ pound of tea per week. He had also taken 6 figs of tobacco as part payment. He must have been smoking pretty heavily to have gone through that much in so short a time. He stated that he had a wife to support, so I can understand how they could use most of this but that is a lot of sugar.

Edward and Mary Williams had been convicts too, he had stolen a horse and she had stolen two umbrellas.  Neither had a good reputation. The charges against Mary were dismissed, but Edward had to pay up. A whole 15/- went to Ephraim who promptly went out and started to spend it.. Three days later he was in court, out of a job and fined 5 shillings for drunkenness. I wonder how Bridget took all of this. I am pretty sure she would have been enjoying her tipple too.

Ephraim Doe takes a wife



Reverend Arthur Davenport
who performed the ceremony



Ephraim decided he had had enough of batchelorhood. He had been recommended for pardon on June 25 1850 and now had much more control over his life. He must have thought long and hard about his earlier intention to marry Ann Connors and the demise of the romance. That had been six months previous, and now , with freedom, he had to be responsible for himself. A man needed someone to look after him: cook, wash, and clean house. He no longer had to live in a probation station where these things were organised. After all, a real man could not be seen hanging his own socks on the line. On July 30 he received permission to marry Bridget Norton, a convict laundress from Athlone in Ireland.  

On 19^th August, they met at the church. Traditionally, Monday was washing day but on this particular Monday, Bridget decided to leave the suds and the bluo behind, and meandered down to St Lukes to attach herself to Ephraim Doe. Was this a marriage where two people decided to support each other or was there love involved? Women had a far greater choice than men when finding a husband in Van Diemen’s Land. Many of the male convicts remained unmarried as there were simply not enough women to go around.

Bridget would have had little time to organise her wedding dress and flowers. Did she have something special or was it her everyday wear? Maybe Ephraim made a little more effort to flick his hair over that bald spot which was beginning to appear at the top of his head. The Banns had been read over the previous Sundays and the ceremony went ahead. Mr and Mrs Doe carefully signed the register with crosses next to their names and turned to saunter down the aisle to meet their future.

Possibly, Ephraim had found a hut for them to live in now that he was a family man. He had no steady job and for a time work was on short term contracts, wherever it could be found. Setting up a proper home and gathering belongings would take some time.

Fight the Good Fight

Sometimes, when there seems no other way, we try to do the impossible. That's how it was when I decided to try to find a convict ancestor of mine, named Thomas Smith, by going through all the Thomas Smiths, checking their records and eliminating those which looked unlikely. This was bound to fail. There were 300 odd convicts who shared that impossible name. I rejected the first half dozen and the next one brought me to the end of my search, not because I had found my answer, but that right at the bottom of one the indents I found the words "assaulting and maltreating Ephraim Doe". At that moment, I realised the futility of my search and I had another direction to follow. I eventually found my ancestor Thomas Smith through the "permissions to marry" when I came across his wife's name.
What had caused the incident in 1849 when this other Thomas Smith, convict number 4748 had treated Ephraim so badly and earned himself ten days hard labour? It has taken me several years to frame a theory. Ephraim had, at that time requested permission to marry a convict maid called Ann Connors. She was not the shrinking violet type. Ann was a wily wench, a woman of the town, a prostitute and a drunk. She was certainly not up to scratch for the makings of a good wife. On the very same day of the assault on Ephraim, Ann Connors was charged with making use of indecent language and a fine was levied against her. It seems too much of a coincidence that Ephraim and Ann parted ways at this time, even though they had gained permission to marry. Was there a fight over a woman? In whose direction was Ann's wrath pointed? Ann did not marry anyone and ended her days drunk on the streets of Hobart. Ephraim was back on the market and found himself at the altar at St Lukes, marrying a far different lady the following year.