Eliza Grace
The following material is extracted from Janet Patterson's book
Eliza Grace arrived at Port Phillip
on 13th January 1842 as a Bounty
Immigrant on board the Samuel Boddington. Bounty Immigrants were
brought to Australia by a sponsor who was paid a bounty for each person
he sponsored. Immigrants had to qualify for sponsorship by being
within a certain age range and willing to take employment in a trade or
profession sought by colonists. Many of the Bounty Immigrants
were labourers or domestic servants.
Eliza was among 199 persons (74 male,
79 female plus children) who were
introduced into the colony of New South Wales by Mr Jonathon B Were of
Melbourne, Port Phillip, (the shipping agent). The ship sailed
from Cork (Ireland) under Captain Noakes, with Dr Belcher, the medical
superintendent. In the passenger list of unmarried females, the
details given for Eliza Grace were:
Age
21
Occupation
House
Maid
Religion
Protestant
Read or
Write Both
Native Place
Kings
County
By Whom Imported
-----
Bounty
£19
Remarks
---
The name,
Elizabeth Grace, was listed on the
Templeharry Baptismal Register on 18th June 1820, her father Richard,
and mother Deborah, of Moneygall. Other members of the family
listed on the Baptismal Register were Anne Grace on 16th September
1821, (although the father was named as Michael), N/R Grace on 2nd
February 1823, and William Grace on 8th February 1829. It would
seem that this Elizabeth Grace is our Eliza Grace, who had a birth date
of 11th June 1820.
The name of Richard Grace of
Moneygall, Civil Parish of Cullenwane,
appeared in the Tithe Applotment (a tax assessment of farmers) 1823 –
1838. Thus it appears that Eliza’s father was a farmer.
In the Topographical Dictionary of
Ireland (1837), by Samuel Lewis, the
following entry was given for Moneygall.
A village and post-town, in the
parish of Cullenwayne, barony of
Clonlisk, KING’S County and province of Leister, 6.75 miles (s.w.) from
Roscrea, and 65.75 miles (s.w. by s) from Dublin, on the mail coach
road from Limerick; containing 379 inhabitants. It comprises 76
houses, and it is situated on the estate of the Rev. W Minchin, near
the confines of the county of Tipperary: it has a patent for three
fairs during the year, and is a constabulary police station. It
is in contemplation to hold petty sessions here shortly.
Adjoining is Greenhills, the residence of the proprietor, a modern and
elegant mansion in a highly ornamented demense. Busherton,
originally called Bouchardstown, is a handsome residence of a branch of
the same family. The church service is performed twice every
Sunday in the school-house, there being no church in parish.
There is a R.C. chapel, and a dispensary was established in 1826.
The dispersal lists for the Samuel
Boddington are not available so it
is difficult to trace the employment or arrival in Tasmania of Eliza
Grace. Her name does not appear on any immigration lists held by
the Tasmanian Archives, however records of arrivals in Launceston for
this period have been destroyed, and if she arrived with a family she
may have been listed as servant and not by individual name. Eliza
Grace may have worked for the Dry family as the name of their
Launceston property Elphin was used for the name of the Patterson
family property in the Cumberoona district in New South Wales.
Acknowlegements:
Thanks to Janet Patterson for her authoritative
account of the early Pattersons, and of the family later in Queensland.
Janet had many helpers, acknowledged in the book
References
Janet Patterson, "The
Pattersons of 'Rangelands' Winton".
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Page last updated - 25 Feb 2006