The WEDEMEYERs of Eastern Australia, Chapter 6
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GHL's wife: Elizabeth DAVIS:
Introduction
Elizabeth DAVIS b.1839 Photo: Courtesy B & Y Kemp
Elizabeth DAVIS is pictured on the left. She was born about 1834 in the Parish of Killare, near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, to John DAVIS, shoe maker and Ellen CREEVY. She immigrated to Australia on 29 Jul 1850 on the ‘Tippoo Saib’ in the Irish "Pauper Immigration Scheme". Elizabeth then arrived in Gayndah Queensland in 1851 to live with her DAVIS relatives.
An Appendix holds her complete obituary… an important source document that provides the implication that Elizabeth was part of the emigration of Irish female orphans to Australia at the time of the Great Famine.
Origins
Elizabeth was recorded with the birth place of "Mullingar", tallying with her probable brother in Gayndah, William DAVIS (d. 1899). "Mullingar" was probably the Mullingar Poor Law Union (PLU), rather than Mullingar town. Irish immigrants to Australia typically gave their origin as their PLU rather than their town or townland. If only they gave their townlands!
The Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 set up the Mullingar PLU in 1839, which included both the Mullingar Town as well as 652 surrounding townlands (392 square miles). A new workhouse was built in Mullingar town and commenced operation at the end of 1842, It was on a 10 acre site and designed for 900 pauper inmates.
Higginbotham, P. Mullingar, Co. Westmeath; Feb 2006. Note: Peter Higginbotham has kindly given permission to use his photo of the Mullingar Workhouse (see below), which is also presented on his website. His definitive site provides more information on the workhouse system, as well as the Mullingar workhouse.
Co. Westmeath was not as badly affected as other counties in the Great Famine, though its population dropped from 141,000 in 1845 to 110,000 in 1851. Large numbers died, emigrated, or were placed as paupers in the workhouses. Our Elizabeth would have been placed in the Mullingar workhouse, to be eligible for pauper emigration.
Mullingar Workhouse site: general view, 2000.Courtesy Peter Higginbotham. More than 4,000 female orphans arrived in Australia from workhouses throughout Ireland, between October 1848 and August 1850, as part of Earl Grey’s Pauper Immigration Scheme. The aims were to reduce the number of paupers in workhouses and to increase the relative numbers of women in the Australian population. Perhaps Elizabeth was transported in this scheme? Her obituary said in part:
When but a mere child she reached Gayndah in 1851, arriving by one of the sailing vessels that took months to cross the ocean, having been booked from Ireland and placed in the care of the ship's officers, and safely reached her relatives, the DAVIS family, well known people throughout the Upper Burnett.
Source: Death of old resident. Bundaberg Mail, Bundaberg. May 2, 1921
Immigration
Perhaps the only way to track Elizabeth DAVIS’ origins is through her immigration records, in spite of the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s date of birth. Elizabeth was not too reliable in recording her age on official documents. Her calculated date of birth varied from 1848 at her second marriage, 1844 when she died, 1840 when her son Harry was born, 1841 when children Maggie and John were born, and the oldest date of 1839 at her first marriage.
Trevor McClaughlin provides a register of about 4,000 of the Irish Famine orphans who came to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart from 1848 to 1850.
There were only two DAVIS names: Charlotte DAVIS arrived on the ‘Inconstant’ in Adelaide, South Australia, on 7 Jun 1849. No further details about Charlotte. Note that there were 40 orphans from the Mullingar PLU on the ‘Inconstant’ and 30 more Mullingar PLU orphans on the other ships. The other DAVIS is probably ours! Margaret DAVIS on the ‘Tippoo Saib’, arriving 29 July 1850 Sydney, NSW, from the Mullingar PLU.
Source: McClaughlin, T. Barefoot and pregnant? - Irish famine orphans In Australia. Melbourne: Genealogical Society of Victoria, 2001; 2: 123, 272 – 275, 399.
The NSW State Archives shipping microfilm listed Margaret DAVIS amongst the orphans on the ‘Tippoo Saib’ 29 July 1850 Sydney arrival, Board of Immigration shipping list:
Number: 167. Name: Davis, Margaret. Age: 16. Calling: Nursemaid. Native Place and County: Killare W. Meath. Parents: John and Ellen. (father living at Killare). Religious Denomination: RC. Read or Write: neither. Relations in the Colony: None. State of bodily health, strength, and probable usefulness: good. Any complaint regarding treatment on board the ship: none.
Source: NSW State Archives. SRNSW No. 4/4919 – Reel 2461.
…… are Margaret & Elizabeth DAVIS the same??
We compare Margaret’s data from the Sydney Immigration Board with Elizabeth’s data in her various Australian vital records.
| # | Category | Margaret | Elizabeth |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | Arrival | Sydney, 29 Jul 1850, ‘Tippoo Saib’. Could reach Gayndah in 1851 | Arrived Gayndah 1851 (Obituary) |
| ii | Parents | John & Ellen DAVIS | John & Ellen DAVIS (recorded in marriages, death) |
| iii | Origin: Mullingar PLU | Parish Killare, Mullingar PLU* | Mullingar (PLU?) (at birth of youngest child) |
| iv | Religion: RC | Yes | Yes (at burial) |
| v | Christian name | Margaret † | Elizabeth (second name??) |
| vi | Date of birth | 1834 | 1839, 1840, 1841, 1844, 1848 ‡ |
Additional notes on table:
iii) * A map and details of the Parish of Killare can be seen on a new page.
v) † Different Christian names: It was common practice to baptise RC girls in a village with a first name of Mary or its derivative Margaret, and the girls were known by their second name… perhaps this occurred in Elizabeth’s case?
vi) ‡ Different dates of birth: Elizabeth provided a large range of DoB’s throughout her life. The inference is Elizabeth chose her DoB to suit the circumstance. Elizabeth’s earliest DoB of 1839 given at her first marriage would mean that she would have been aged 11 at her 1850 migration, which was too young to travel "unattended" as her obituary claimed. The proportions of the ages of the 260 orphans on the ‘Tippoo Saib’ were: Age 13: 2%. 14: 7%. 15: 8%. 16: 28%. 17: 29%. 18: 17%. 19: 8%. 20: 1%. Thus, the typical orphan immigrant was aged 16-17 years, which matches our Margaret (Elizabeth?).
Conclusion: High probability that Margaret and Elizabeth are the same people.
Irish orphan girls scheme in Australia
Irish newspapers watched these events with interest. A County Armagh newspaper wrote on 7 Feb 1850:
By official report, two hundred and nineteen female Irish orphans were sent by the ship Earl Grey to Sydney. Of these girls thirty-seven had been despatched to Moreton Bay, and twelve to Maitland, and one hundred and ten had obtained places in Sydney.
Two hundred and thirty Irish orphan girls, all upwards of fourteen years of age, and eight children, arrived at Port Adelaide in October 1848, after a voyage of ninety-one days, without one death. At the end of fourteen days from the date of arrival, not one orphan fit for service was unemployed; seventy applicants could not be supplied, and two hundred more girls would readily have met with situations.
For respectable domestic servants, dairymaids, and girls accustomed to farm work, the demand in Australia is almost unlimited. Labourers, Mechanics, Shepherds, Hutkeepers, Stockmen, Bullockdrivers, Small Settlers, Small Squatters, Workingmen and Gentlemen, are all in want of wives! But, ladies thinking of Australia, or the Western States of America, and the bounteous crop of husbands there, must understand that the salt of a happy colonial life lies in the mystics of the pie or pudding, the roast and the boiled; in the whole art of washing and ironing, in the secret of training a raw country girl into a light handy servant, of pulling down insolence and encouraging good humour.
Source: Lurgan, Portadown and Banbridge Advertiser and Agricultural Gazette. Lurgan, County Armagh: 7 February 1850. Note: Kindly transcribed by Alison Causton.
Note this report mentions that positions were being found for the orphans in Moreton Bay after they landed in Sydney. The Moreton Bay region was the name given to the present day Queensland before it separated from NSW on 10 Dec 1859. McClaughlin refers to the significant number of orphans in the Moreton Bay region, still under the control of the distant Orphan Guardian Board in Sydney. He quotes the figures:
"…in 1851 the total white female population in Brisbane was 1,053 and the orphans were about 10% of that total".
Source: McClaughlin, T. Barefoot and pregnant? - Irish famine orphans In Australia. Melbourne: Genealogical Society of Victoria, 2001; 2: 123, 272 – 275, 399.
Relatives in Gayndah
It is most likely that Elizabeth was transferred from Sydney to Moreton Bay and then somehow travelled to the Upper Burnett area to live with her DAVIS relations… if her obituary is correct. Note however, that Margaret (Elizabeth)’s statement to the Immigration Board says, in answer to the question… "relatives in the colony?", "None".
Probable brother
We have also found Elizabeth’s probable brother, William DAVIS, bootmaker of Gayndah (d. 4 Nov 1897). Have a look at the following table which summarises the evidence which shows that William DAVIS & Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) are probably siblings. You will see that they were born in the same area, have a father with the same name & occupation, and there is even a bit of oral history to clinch their relationship.
| Person | Source | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) | Obituary. | 1851… from Ireland…reached her relatives, the DAVIS family, well known people throughout the Upper Burnett. |
| William DAVIS | Oral history through his grandson William Otto DAVIS. | "Grandfather DAVIS’s sister married a ‘WHITAMERE’ and they lived at Mount Perry". An apparent reference to the marriage of Elizabeth DAVIS & Louis WEDEMEYER & their move from Gayndah to Mt. Perry. |
| Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) | ‘Tippoo Saib’ shipping list. | Native Place and County: Killare W. Meath (PLU Mullingar). |
| Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) | ‘Tippoo Saib’ shipping list. | Parents named: John DAVIS & Ellen DAVIS |
| Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) | 1862 marriage | Parents named: John DAVIS (a shoe maker) & Ellen DAVIS |
| Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) | Birth of daughter Margaret Henrietta (Maggie). | Birthplace: Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. |
| William DAVIS | Death certificate. | Where born: Mullingar, Ireland. |
| William DAVIS | 1861 Manchester Census. | Where born: Co. Westmeath. |
| William DAVIS | 1856 marriage at Manchester | Father named: John DAVIS, a shoemaker. |
William arrived in the Australian colonies on 8 Apr 1862, on the ship ‘Montmorency’ (12 years after our Elizabeth), and is pictured below with his wife, also named Elizabeth (née POYNER). Elizabeth WEDEMEYER (née DAVIS) maintained contact with the Gayndah DAVIS family. "Mrs DAVIS" of Gayndah helped deliver Elizabeth’s first child, and is possibly Elizabeth (née POYNER)? William DAVIS’ son Jack (b. 14 Jan 1870 Gayndah) married one of Elizabeth WEDEMEYER’s daughters. Details of William, as well as his migration and his descendants, can be found here.
First DAVIS relatives in Gayndah
I am searching for DAVIS’s who would have been in Gayndah when Elizabeth arrived, and before William DAVIS’ arrival in 1862. The earliest reference (1858) found, which relates to DAVIS in Gayndah:
"Abduction- Our little town, on Monday last, was all in commotion occasioned by a father seeking his lost child; it turned out a man named George Davis had bolted with her. She was scarcely sixteen, not very good looking, and very deaf, her name is (Clara) Wilson. A warrant was issued for Davis, and two policemen tracked them some 50 miles, when, according to the police, they seem to have taken the scrub for it, the police, however, returned without them."
Source: Moreton Bay Courier. Jan 16, 1858. More on this story appeared in the Moreton Bay Courier. Jan 27, 1858; 2, and also in the Moreton Bay Courier. Feb 10, 1858; 2.
The next reference found (1867), was after William DAVIS' arrival. The first year in which Gayndah rates were levied was in 1867. In that year, our William DAVIS (occupier — sect. 12 allot 7) and a Richard DAVIS (owner — sect. 12 allot 7) were in Meson Street, almost opposite Louis WEDEMEYER's lodging house and at the intersection of Meson and Warton Streets. William also owned back-to-back properties in Bamboo Street (sect. 32 allot 7) & Montgomerie Street (sect. 32 allot 14). The Bamboo Street property is 2 doors up from the turn-off to Nanango Street.
Sources: Gayndah Municipal Council Rate Book 1867-1874 (Ref QSA A/24904), Gayndah Municipal Council Valuation Register 1867-1873 (Ref. QSA A/24890).
Later, the Electoral Rolls listed the following DAVIS voters in Gayndah:
Elizabeth & William DAVIS. Courtesy: Tom Jones.DAVIS, George, 1874-1878. Was this the George who ran away with Clara Wilson?
DAVIS, William,1870-1871 at Meson St., allot 7 sect 12, then 1874-1884 at an unspecified freehold. Note that William's allot 7 sect 12 is the same property on which Richard paid rates in 1867 (mentioned above), indicating at the least a business relationship, if not a family relationship.
DAVIS, Richard, 1879-1883. Richard was then listed on the Auburn roll in 1884. Auburn Station is 100 km in a WSW direction from Gayndah. What are Richard DAVIS' family relations? There is a DAVIS tradition that William's grandson was named Richard after a great uncle... were the above Richard and William brothers? Similarly there is the suggestion that this Richard set up a butcher's shop in Eidsvold, which is the nearest main settlement to Auburn Station. Perhaps Elizabeth arrived in Gayndah in 1851 to live with Richard's family before William came to Gayndah to join them? Any help with this puzzle would be most welcome.
Source: Queensland Electoral Rolls, 1860-1884.
CD-ROMs,
Toowoomba and Darling Downs Family History Society.
Early married life
On 27 Sep 1862 Elizabeth DAVIS married George Henry Louis WEDEMEYER in the "House of Mr WEDEMEYER", Gayndah. Information on a wife is rare, and Elizabeth was no exception. The only insight on her early married life was in her obituary where it said:
"She was one of the earliest Burnett residents, and had shared in its varied transformations from dense scrub and forest, and almost unforbidding (sic) wilderness, to a land of close settlement and the building of the fine town of Bundaberg."
Source: Death of old resident. Bundaberg Mail, Bundaberg. May 2, 1921
Elizabeth must have had a hard and varied life. She helped her husband with his various occupations in Gayndah, Drummers Creek, Yarrol, and at Walla. All this in the “wild colonial days”, when life was difficult, particularly in lodging houses in pioneering towns, hotels in the new mining areas and farming in virgin forests.
Elizabeth’s later life with her daughters
Life changed at home in 1884 for the WEDEMEYER daughters and their mother! Their father was probably mostly absent from the "Southern Cross" Hotel to work on his Selection. Elizabeth said: "My husband had made application for leave of absence (to the Licensing Board?) from his said house." GHL conceded that: "Trade was very dull", and also said that: "I put the house into the hands of an auctioneer, Mr Stone, to sell it at auction on the twenty-sixth or on the thirtieth day of May (1884) next." Matters resolved themselves on 23 Apr 1885, when the hotel burnt down.
The inquiry on the fire investigated the possibility of the WEDEMEYERs burning down their own hotel, where statements by GHL, Elizabeth and their eldest daughter, Minnie give us insight into what life was like in the hotel, as well as events on the night of the fire. Following the fire, the family moved to GHL’s Walla Selection… shortly after on 5 Oct 1885, GHL died. The separate stories of the three sons show how they subsequently kept the WEDEMEYER Selections and land going with their work as carriers. The nature of the new home for Elizabeth and her daughters was shown in a report by the bailiff on 8 Apr 1888. It said that GHL’s 160 acre selection was occupied by the selector (Elizabeth Wedemeyer, widow of GHL Wedemeyer) and family, used for grazing horses and cattle. It had a garden of 5 acres planted with fruit trees, with a milking yard, stockyard and horse yard. The improvements were: 3 room slab house, kitchen, shingle roof: £60, Railing: £21/3/-, 2 stockyards & piggery: £40, 50a forest land cleared, stumped & ploughed: £20. Total: £111/3/- . Transfers: Transmission by death from GHL to Elizabeth Wedemeyer on 10 Mar 1888.
Following this report, Elizabeth received a "Deed of Grant" of this Selection on 30 Apr 1890, for a payment of £20. (Qld State Archives Reference: LAN/AG195). Note also the present day photos and description of this Selection in Chapter 5.
The Deed of Grant now released the family from having to live on the Selection, particularly with the poor seasons for farmers at that time. It is probable that in 1890 Elizabeth and the girls went to Eidsvold to either work there or live with eldest son Harry. In 1890, Harry’s obituary said he had a Selection near the Stockman Battery, "where he lived happy and comfortable with his wife and little ones, two of his brothers and a sister (Maggie). Two other sisters (Minnie & Elizabeth (Jnr)..have situations in Eidsvold". His sisters with "situations in Eidsvold" were probably in one or other of the many hotels. When Minnie & Elizabeth (Jnr) married, they described themselves as "housemaids".
Following Harry’s accidental death on 27 Dec 1890 at Spring Gully, Elizabeth and her daughters remained in Eidsvold for a short while. Then there is the record of Maggie leaving Eidsvold School at age 13 in December 1891. The four women probably went to Bundaberg at this stage, and the Bundaberg link is shown as follows: Information from the Gin Gin Rate book shows that Mrs E. WEDEMEYER from Bundaberg owned freehold land at Walla in 1893. A Timber Licence for firewood was gazetted on 3 Nov 1894 for E. WEDEMEYER of Bundaberg… perhaps this applied to her land at Walla? Elizabeth (Jnr) WEDEMEYER was recorded living at East Bundaberg in 1894 at the time of her marriage to Jack DAVIS. Perhaps Minnie met her husband David STRONG at Bundaberg before she married him in Sydney in 1896. Maggie may have followed Minnie, and was recorded marrying her first husband in Sydney in 1899.
Elizabeth’s Second Marriage
Elizabeth re-married: this time to 60 year old Charles PAAP on 28 Jul 1898 in the Church of England church at Bundaberg. At that time she said she was only aged 50, when in fact she was probably aged 64, a little older than her new husband. Charles was a shoemaker, as was Elizabeth’s father and first husband. He was born in 1839 at Rostock, Mecklenburg, Germany, and at the time of his marriage he also lived at East Bundaberg. Regrettably, the marriage did not last long. Charles died on 12 Jan 1899, after 168 days of marriage.
Elizabeth’s Death
Elizabeth died of cancer on 1 May 1921 in the General Hospital, Bundaberg, after 12 months illness. She was buried in an un-marked grave in the Catholic cemetery, Bundaberg, next to the Shalom College, in #533C, Section 4. Then, in 2006, her great granddaughter, Alice McArthur, erected a memorial headstone. See the photo below.
Grave of Elizabeth PAAP, Bundaberg Cemetery. Photo: Deborah McArthur, 2006.
The Story Continues
- Chapter 7: This page discusses GHL's children.