Harriet Smalley
Harriet is an intriguing character who warrants a page of her
own, even though she is not a direct ancestor of ours
Parents : James
Smalley and Martha Goode (see their page for info about
her family)
Harriet came to Australia on the
Ship Constance, sailing from Plymouth on the 15 July 1851 and
arrived Hobson's Bay 27 October 1851.
The shipping list shows:
Smalley,
James Age 46 Farm Labourer Newton P.
Methodist, could neither read nor write.
Martha (wife) Age 39 Native place
Wisbeach could read
Harriet Age 4
Infant born on board (Thomas Henry)
James McCartney has a separate page.
Link to it
Children
Robert William Smalley
(7/4/1864-1920). B/C 12996. Also called Robert Morton.
Born in Ballarat West.
No father listed on birth certificate, but it is believed to be
Robert Morton (1830-1866).
Robert married Susan Treuenach. He was a commercial traveller,
currier and photographer. Died in Ballarat
Martha McCartney b 1868 Clunes
Euphemia
McCartney. b 1870. Died as Euphemia Greenbank,
aged 76 in Ballarat (r/n 22240)
Charles
McArtney (1874-17/8/1947) Died in Adelaide, aged 73.
Also known as Charles Smalley
William John Maxwell b 1884 in SA
Janet May Maxwell b 1889
in SA
Family oral history has it that Harriet had a descendant Charlie
McCartney, the famous Australian cricketer. He would just about
need to be a grandson, as he was part of the 1921 side that toured
England. Beryl Cox, a descendant of Harriet, emailed as follows
Harriet Smalley (b. 1847) was my
G.G.grandmother, and boy has she caused me some head aches over
the years.
She gave birth to my
G.grandfather Robert William Smalley on 7.4.1864 in Ballarat
with no father mentioned.
Robert married in Ballarat as
Robert Morton on 26.8.1886 to Susan Ann Trewenack and named his
father as being a Robert Morton. I have never been
able to find out anything else about this Robert Morton.
Harriet married James McCartney
in 1867.
Martha McCartney b.1868,
Ballarat.
Euphemia McCartney b. 1870,
Clunes.
Charles McCartney and Charles
Smalley b.1874 Ballarat, with no father named again.
It seems to me that the 2
Charles are one and the same both born 1874, Charles McCartney
cert no. 6854 and Charles Smalley 6854R. seems rather odd.
A note June 2001 from Kathy
Smalley
As an aside I believe I have
tracked down Charles Smalley McCartney to SA. http://family.incoll.org/getperson.php?personID=I2805&tree=LMIncell
Another email in from Roslyn Livingston-Schubert, who writes
I also investigated NSW BDM records
to see what turns up about the famous cricketeer, Charlie
Macartney.
It seems he was not a descendant
of Harriet, unless Charles Smalley MCartney had a brother called
Joseph who is unknown and who married extremely young, and who
was not born in Victoria or NSW. If the family left Vic
after Charles' birth it is possible another baby was born after
1874 in another state. However if another baby was born in, for
eg, 1875 it would be far too young to marry in 1882.
I am a descendant and researcher of the McArtney (McCartney)
family who came to Ballarat from Fife in 1852. James McCartney,
the oldest son of William and Euphemia McCartney, married Harriet
Smalley in 1867.
They had 2 girls, Martha b 1868 in Ballarat and Euphemia b 1870 in
Clunes, where James was a miner. In 1874 Charles Smalley McCartney
was born.
I have no further information about James' further activities,
including his death. Harriet disappeared as did Martha. Euphemia
married Willliam Greenbank in 1895 in Ballarat where she died in
1946 after producing the following children: James, Rose, Mary and
William.
Roslyn points to an
interesting Wikipedia
article on Charlie
Macartney, worth a read in its own right. She also offers new hope
in the quest for a famous sporting ancestor.
Interestingly, some of the AFL
McCartney footballers and trainers are definitely descended from
siblings of James McCartney; I don't follow the sport so can
never remember who and for which team. However, I think the
(previous) trainer for Geelong is one of them
Harriet had been dormant for a
year, when a series of emails came in from two separate sources in
a week
(1) Danielle Waller, a descendant
of Harriet
I believe
after Harriett was married to James McArtney, she was then
married? to my Great Great Great ....Grandfather John Maxwell.
They had two more children William John Franklin Maxwell (born
1884, Port Adelaide) and Janet May Maxwell (b 1889 Port Adelaide).
John and Harriett were tragically drowned on 10 Feb 1894 in
Albany. The orphaned children went to Adelaide to be raised by
Martha McArtney (Half sister who was 26 at the time) They lived
with Martha until they each married.
The
local people of Albany held a Concert 28 Feb 1894 to raise funds
for the orphaned Maxwell children, which was given to Martha with
which she purchased a cottage for them all to live in.
Please refer to
the attached newspaper clipping from The Advertiser (Adelaide),
Monday 10 February 1902, page 4
MAXWELL.-In loving remembrance of
John and Harriet Maxwell, accidentally drowned at Albanv West
Australia, February 10, 1894. Not forgotten!
-Inserted by her loving son,
Charles McArtney,Port Adelaide.
William John Franklin Maxwell
married Hannah Ruth Hales (children Leslie Robert, & ?? still
updating this info) and died 7 Sept 1960, both are buriedin the
Port Pirie Cemetery, South Australia. Janet May married George
Frederick 16 May 1912, Port Adelaide, and had 4 children George,
Walter, Evaand Vern, died 1974, Tailem Bend South Australia.
The email from Roslyn (below) was
wonderful to read! However I have conflicting information on two
counts.
(a) We have found a Death
Certificate for James McCartney in Port Adelaide. A James
McCartney died at the Paris Hotel, Portland Wharf, Port Adelaide
on 2Aug 1888, with chronic bronchitis and morbus cordis listed as
cause ofdeath, aged 55.Though the other concept is interesting
considering if James and Harriet fell out, why would he follow her
to Port Adelaide? We thought he might bethere for his children??
(b) The other conflict was
Martha. Roslyn had Martha living on the Hulk with Harriet and
John, however the death notice in the paper (NLA newspapers)
states children listed as Charles and Martha McArtney of Port
Adelaide. Being 26? It's possible Martha lived in Port Adelaide
and never went to Albany? But if Roslyn has more information I'd
love to know :)
Needs more research? The hunt
never ends....
William John and Janet May being
orphaned young was problematic for tracing family history for us,
all we knew was he was a carpenter and drowned with his wife in
Albany WA. John Maxwell has always been a very elusive mystery to
our family, no one knew where he came from? Who his parents were?
Siblings? But with the information Roslyn found of the SS Emu, I
have located the seamen list for this ship and it clearly states
John Maxwell,Carpenter was from Glasgow! I have now found his
family in the 1861 Scotland census. We are very very excited.
(2) Roslyn
Livingston-Schubert
Quoting from
her email
Recently, Kerry
Burton, another
McArtney
researcher,
worked
with
me on
Harriet Smalley.
Below is what we have found out or surmised.
In 1864 Harriet had Robert
William Smalley, who seems to have later been known as Robert
Morton, according to Beryl Cox, a descendant.
James McArtney, b
1841, and Harriet married in 1867.
Martha was born in 1868
Euphemia was born in 1860
Charles McArtney or Charles
Smalley was born in 1874. NB the spelling McArtney and McCartney
have been interchanged over the years.
After the birth of Charles
McCartney in 1874 Harriet and James McArtney disappeared. I
speculated that they might have gone to New Zealand to hunt
for gold, or the West Oz, or anywhere, in fact.
What seems
to have happened after Euphemia's birth is this:
Harriet and James separated
before the birth of Charles in 1874. Charles' father was known
only to Harriet. She registered the baby's birth as both Smalley
and McArtney and in both cases said that the father was
"Unknown".
When the couple separated,
baby Euphemia was given to her grandmother and namesake,
Euphemia McCartney, who lived near Cardigan, to
be raised and James disappeared in a cloud of dust. I have
no proof of this, but when Harriet's daughter Euphemia married
in 1895, she gave her address as Cardigan. By this
stage Harriet had been out of Victoria for around 20
years and James had also been out of Victoria for many
years. Her witness was her cousin, Euphemia Biddle. Family
lore also has it that Euphemia lived with her grandmother.
Also, both Harriet and James
left Ballarat for interstate.
In 1879 Harriet, named
Harriet McArtney, with age given as 31, turns up working
as a stewardess aboard a ship, the "Emu", working out of
Adelaide. Also on the ship is John Maxwell, aged
28, a carpenter. These two married, however I have found no records anywhere of a marriage (or of
a divorce or annullment to James McCartney).
The Maxwell couple had
2 children, William John MAXWELL b 1884 in SA and Janet May
MAXWELL b 1889 in SA (information supplied by
Kathy Smalley).
The family next turn up
in Albany, where a tragic accident is reported. John,
Harriet, the two young children and Martha live on a hulk, the Herschel,
owned by The Adelaide Steamship Company, which is one of a
number of hulks anchored near Albany. They were there
to allow steamships to quickly refuel and so
shorten the Europe-Australia passage.
In 1894, returning from a
visit in Albany, Harriet and John both drowned when a freak gust
of wind overturned their little sailing boat just as
they were about to tie up to the Herschel. The children saw
the accident happen and watched, horrified and helpless, as
their mother screamed for help and drowned. The
children's screams alerted residents in other hulks who
organised a search party. After some days John's body was
recovered, but Harriet's was never found. Her death registration
cannot be found and this is probably why; no body was found.
(NLA newspapers)
The town of Albany organised
fund-raising for the "Maxwell orphans" and enough money
was raised to buy a cottage for the children in Adelaide. (NLA
newspaper site)
Charles had remained in
Adelaide. He married an Elizabeth Ward in Nov, 1894 and they
had 4 children: Frederick, Ivy, Leslie and Kathleen. He
lived in Paddington and Port Adelaide and worked as a sawyer. (
Incholl family site, SAGS, and census)
Martha ran a little store in
James St, Port Adelaide (census). In 1913, aged 45, she married
Robert Amber, aged 39, a carter of Port Adelaide. She had no
children.
What happened to James
McArtney?
James spent time travelling
between Charters Towers and Sydney. He registered the birth of his son, Reginald
McArtney in 1881 in NSW. The mother was Susanna Edwards, who he
married in 1891, claiming he was a widower.
He never acknowledged
Martha McCartney or Charles as his children. He
acknowledged only Euphemia and Reginald.
James died in Charters Towers.
Another email from Roslyn - 29 Sep
2010 adds to the picture of Harriet's children
According to
newspaper reports Martha was on the hulk with the smaller
children when Harriet and John died. Previous to this she must
have been in Adeladie as that is where Harriet joined the Emu. I
do not know where she and Charles lived in Adelaide, who with or
what from. It is very probably that she would have given her
address or home base as Adelaide, as this is where she had lived
most of her life and this is where her brother, Charles, lived.
I can only surmise that when Harriet arrived in Adelaide she
stayed with relatives, or somehow had a friend who was the woman
from whose house Martha was married. martha was 10 and Cahrles
was 5 when Harriet began to work on the EMU so they must have
had somewhere to stay. Charles married when he was about 20 in
Port Adelaide and lived near her the rest of his life and Martha
later lived in Port Adelaide, so probably it was somewhere in
the vicinity.
Notes from Claire and
Christine's Researches
Clare and Christine have put together a life story
for Harriet based on the above researches. Comment or feedback
is welcome. Enjoy
Harriet has an amazing story. In 1864 Harriet
had Robert William Smalley, who seems to have later been known
as Robert Morton, according to Beryl Cox, a descendant. James
McArtney, b 1841, and Harriet married in 1867. Then had Martha
(born in 1868) and Euphemia (born in 1860)
Charles McArtney or Charles Smalley was born in
1874. NB the spelling McArtney and McCartney have been
interchanged over the years.
After the birth of Charles McCartney in 1874
Harriet and James McArtney disappeared. I speculated that they
might have gone to New Zealand to hunt for gold, or the West Oz,
or anywhere, in fact. What seems to have happened after
Euphemia's birth is this:
Harriet and James separated before the birth of
Charles in 1874. Charles' father was known only to Harriet. She
registered the baby's birth as both Smalley and McArtney and in
both cases said that the father was "Unknown". When the couple
separated, baby Euphemia was given to her grandmother and
namesake, Euphemia McCartney, who lived near Cardigan, to be
raised and James disappeared in a cloud of dust. I have no proof
of this, but when Harriet's daughter Euphemia married in 1895, she
gave her address as Cardigan. By this stage Harriet had been out
of Victoria for around 20 years and James had also been out of
Victoria for many years. Her witness was her cousin, Euphemia
Biddle. Family lore also has it that Euphemia lived with her
grandmother. Also, both Harriet and James left Ballarat for
interstate.
In 1879 Harriet, named Harriet McArtney, with
age given as 31, turns up working as a stewardess aboard a ship,
the "Emu", working out of Adelaide. Also on the ship is John
Maxwell, aged 28, a carpenter. These two married, however I have
found no records anywhere of marriage (or of a divorce or
annullment to James McCartney). The Maxwell couple had 2 children,
William John MAXWELL b 1884 in SA and Janet May MAXWELL b 1889 in
SA (information supplied by Kathy Smalley). The family next turn
up in Albany, where a tragic accident is reported. John, Harriet,
the two young children and Martha live on a hulk, the Herschel,
owned by The Adelaide Steamship Company, which is one of a number
of hulks anchored near Albany. They were there to allow steamships
to quickly refuel and so shorten the Europe-Australia passage.
In 1894, returning from a visit in Albany, Harriet and John both
drowned when a freak gust of wind overturned their little sailing
boat just as they were about to tie up to the Herschel. The
children saw the accident happen and watched, horrified and
helpless, as their mother screamed for help and drowned. The
children's screams alerted residents in other hulks who organised
a search party. After some days John's body was recovered, but
Harriet's was never found. Her death registration cannot be found
and this is probably why; no body was found. (NLA newspapers)
The town of Albany organised fund-raising for
the "Maxwell Orphans" and enough money was raised to buy a cottage
for the child Adelaide. (NLA newspaper site)
Charles had remained in Adelaide. He married an
Elizabeth Ward in Nov, 1894 and they had 4 children: Frederick,
Ivy, Leslie and Kathleen. He lived in Paddington and Port Adelaide
and worked as a sawyer. ( Incholl family site, SAGS, and census)
Martha ran a little store in James St, Port
Adelaide (census). In 1913, aged 45, she married Robert Amber,
aged 39, a carter of Port Adelaide. She had no children.
James McCartney spent time travelling between
Charters Towers and Sydney. He registered the birth of his son,
Reginald McArtney in 1881 in NSW. The mother was Susanna Edwards,
who he married in 1891, claiming he was a widower. He never
acknowledged Martha McCartney or Charles as his children. He
acknowledged only Euphemia and Reginald. James died in Charters
Towers.
Acknowledgements
Kathy Smalley, Beryl Cox, Danielle Waller, Roslyn
Livingston-Schubert and Kerry Burton have given us Harriet
Thanks to Claire and
Christine for their painstaking work reflected above
A last word on Harriet from Roslyn
I think she is
fascinating. Was she liberated ? Was she a strumpet? She
certainly struggled to keep and feed her family; imagine leaving 4
year old Charles in the care of his 6 year older sister, Martha,
while she went and worked on a ship. Perhaps Martha and Charles
had somewhere to stay with relatives.. Or, perhaps she ran away
from them ... one day we might be able to find out.
Did any of her
siblings have such an adventurous life ? Did any of them go to
Adelaide ?
If you have additions or
corrections to this page, please
contact
us Bones in the Belfry
home page
Page last updated - 29 Sep
2010
23
Oct 2012 25 Feb 2014