Click on the images
below to see a
larger version.
Map of Redruth - Camborne Area
An advertisement for a lecture on emigration to South Australia
A South Australian mine in the 1840s
Diggers on the Victorian gold fields 1850s
Poor Polly: From Pillar to Post
This story begins just over two hundred years ago, in 1790, in the parish of Redruth, Cornwall (see maps, left). In or about that year, baby Thomas WILLIAMS was baptised, and so was baby Johanna MICHELL. It is likely that they were both born into tin or copper mining families, of no great fortune. We can only assume that they grew up under the circumstances of a struggle for a better life. Few items of evidence have yet been found to establish the facts of their birth, parentage and upbringing. They married in 1809 at Redruth, and produced a large family of nine sons and three daughters between 1810 and 1836. At least two of these children died in infancy. The baptisms of the children have been found, and the family appears on the 1841 census and includes what appears to be a couple of grandchildren, but beyond that year, Thomas and Johanna disappear again amongst the myriad records of Williams families in this part of Cornwall. Indeed, from this point of the story, we can only follow the lives of two of the sons. The details of the lives of the other children remain undiscovered. (See family tree, left.)
The area around Redruth was one of the richest mining areas in Cornwall, and the landscape was crammed with mines and mullock heaps (see image of Dolcoath, left). Emigration from this area began before 1840, about 25 years before the great copper mining depression in Cornwall. From about 1825, migrants left in large numbers for eastern Canada and southern Australia.
Here, now, we follow the path of those two sons a little. It seems that the oldest son, Thomas WILLIAMS, who was baptised 1810, and the youngest son, Joseph George WILLIAMS, who was born 1836, decided to leave the failing mining districts of their native land, for the promise of a better life in the Australian colonies. A record of their arrival has remained elusive, but the search concentrates on a possible arrival around 1848 at Adelaide. They were probably attracted by the booming copper and tin mining areas in the colony of South Australia. A rich copper lode had been discovered 50 miles north east of Adelaide in 1843, and Cornish miners were directly recruited to migrate. Thomas would have been in his late thirties and Joseph only about twelve years old when they arrived in South Australia. The older brother was probably more like a father figure for the younger.
Anyway, GOLD WAS DISCOVERED!! Hot-foot it to the Victorian goldfields with the rush! Get rich quick!! What have you got to lose! (See images, left.)
How well did they do? We have no evidence to indicate success or failure. However, in April 1854, Thomas, described as a miner, 44 years, and resident in Melbourne, was married to Miss Mary PEARCE, also a native of Redruth, aged 34 years. Perhaps she arrived in Victoria at the beginning of the gold rush. Her parents were William PEARCE and Ann NOBLE who had married at Redruth one year after Thomas and Johanna WILLIAMS, and had eleven children. It seems that the WILLIAMS and PEARCE families had a remarkably similar background.
Thomas and Mary WILLIAMS, the newly-weds, probably with Joseph (now 18 years), moved almost immediately to Avoca in the central Victorian goldfields, where Thomas carried on mining. The Avoca gold field (see map, left) was one of the first opened in north-western Victoria. The first official report of gold discovery was in February 1853 at Four Mile Flat, although it is possible that there was an earlier discovery there late in 1852. Some parties of miners, with their wives, on their way from Adelaide to Bendigo were camped there late in 1853. The Main Lead at Avoca was opened about October 1853 and the population increased from 100 in that month to 2,200 at the beginning of December, and then to 14,000 by June 1854. The rush began at Donkeywoman's Flat, and spread to Spring Gully and Paddy's Gully. The main lead, always circuitous and patchy at Avoca, was lost early in 1855, but was rediscovered by a party of Swedes in August that year. New rushes in the vicinity kept up the frenzy throughout the 1860s and into the early 1870s.
Perhaps Thomas and Joseph had dreams of making their fortunes by finding a rich load or a large nugget, and settling down to a life more comfortable than their parents' lives. Perhaps Mary, the new bride, had dreams of nurturing a healthy and thriving family and providing them with an education and opportunities that had been denied to their parents and grandparents. How good the future might have looked to them after their wedding in 1854! Alas, the struggle continued. Joseph was able to improve his lot from about 1870, but we leave his story here, as opportunities took him to the colony of Queensland, away from his brother's family. We now follow the tragedy that struck Thomas' family time and time again over the ensuing years.
Thomas and Mary's first child, a son was born 2 Aug 1855 at Avoca. He lived for about 48 days. The birth was registered on the same day as the death registration. The cause of death was thrush, suffered for three weeks. The birth and death registrations don't even name the child, but other evidence indicates that he may have been called Thomas or Henry or possibly Thomas Henry. There hadn't been enough time to organise a baptism for him. Thomas, the father, was now 45 years old, and Mary, his wife, 35 years.
In 1856, Thomas was listed on the electoral roll for Avoca, enfranchised by the miner's right that he held. Perhaps some research into miners' rights might yield useful results. In the same year, Thomas and Mary's second child, a daughter, was born. The date was 24 Nov, and the place Avoca. The little girl was baptised Johanna (after her paternal grandmother), before Christmas that year. Thomas was 46, and Mary now 36 years.
All seemed fine for a while. However, aged only five months, little Johanna died at Avoca in April 1857, from dysentery, suffered for one month. Can we possibly imagine what conditions were like on the goldfields for this family? How did they house themselves? Where did the food come from and of what quality? What was the water supply like? How hard did Thomas have to work just to get by? It almost doesn't bear thinking about!
And then, in Aug 1858, comes along the third child, Mary, known as Polly. Remember the title of this paper? This is the poor Polly, the main subject of this story. She was born at Avoca, her father now 48 years, and her mother 38 years. This child survived infancy, but what a survival! Read on!
Six years go by. No other children appear in the indexes of births, or deaths, for Thomas and Mary in this period. Did Mary have a number of pregnancies in this period, but not bring them to term? We can never know.
Then, in June 1864, still at Avoca, another child is born. A son named Thomas. His father now 54 years, and mother 44 years. This child lived only six months. He died two days before Christmas day, after suffering dysentery for four days. Conditions on the goldfields appear not to have improved. This child, and presumably the previous infants, were buried in the cemetery at Avoca. This was the last child.
Just over twelve months later, in January 1866, Thomas WILLIAMS, miner of Avoca, died of "phthisis pulmonates" - consumption of the lungs - the miners' disease - caused by the constant inhalation of rock dust, and suffered for twelve months. He was only 56 years old. No fortune, no good life, no thriving, happy, well-educated family. Just a young widow, Mary, 46 years old, and one surviving child, a daughter, Polly, now eight years old. Both alone now, on the inhospitable Victorian goldfields, with no way of shifting for themselves. Let's hope that Joseph, now 30 years old, was able to help his sister-in-law and niece!
Mary and Polly stuck it out for almost twelve months, and we can hardly begin to imagine how they coped in Avoca for that time. There was really only one thing Mary could do. Marry another miner. He was Edmund VENNING, a Londoner. He was born about 1828, and so, was about eight years younger than Mary, and a bachelor. His father had been a cooper. The marriage was held at St John's Parsonage at Avoca, on 30 December 1867. Polly was now nine years old, and she now had a step-father.
However, only two months after the wedding, the following notice appeared in the Avoca Mail newspaper of 1 February 1868 and in the following two issues:
I give notice that I won't be accountable for any debts contracted by Mary Williams in my name as I don't acknowledge the marriage between us legal. Edmund Venning, Avoca, 31st January 1868.
Irregular marriages were not unknown on the goldfields. We could only guess at the circumstances that prompted this advertisement and what it meant for Mary and Polly. Let's assume that the relationship continued.
Mary and Edmund VENNING were officially married for only two years and four months. No issue sprang from this marriage, and it is probably just as well. Mary died in April 1871 at Avoca. The cause of death was disease of the lungs, suffered for two months. Was Mary involved in mining too!! She was only 51 years old. Edmund was now about 42 years old, and Polly, his step-daughter, was now about thirteen years old. We know that by this time, Joseph WILLIAMS was mining at Sandhurst (now Bendigo), and would soon be off to Queensland with his new bride. Did he know that his niece was now orphaned and in the care of a step-father? There is no evidence of any further contact between Joseph and Polly.
How was Polly treated? Did Edmund continue mining, relying on Polly to act as housekeeper? How did Polly feel? Was Edmund a caring step-father? How different Polly's life must have been from this point on!
About two years later, in 1873, Edmund married again. His new bride was Agnes CAMERON, a native of Stirling, Scotland. Further research on Agnes needs to be conducted. Polly, now fifteen years, of Cornish extraction, now living with a Londoner and a Scottish woman! Her Cornish heritage must have started to recede from memory. Was her role in this household now that of domestic servant?
But how could it last? Edmund died at Avoca in 1874, aged about 46 years! Sixteen-year-old Polly, now left with Agnes, her mother's second husband's second wife!! Poor Polly!
Here we are again, on the Victorian goldfields, a widow and a girl. Remember the solution when this situation arose before in 1867? Yes, Agnes married again, in 1875. Her new husband was William GOUGE, who apparently was born in the colony. There is an entry in the deaths index which could be his, for the same year! Poor Polly is now seventeen years old.
How Polly fared during the next eight years, we don't know. However, in 1883, the bad times ended with her marriage at Fitzroy Baptist Church, to William SWEETLAND. She was twenty-five years old, he was twenty-three. He was the son of English immigrants George SWEETLAND (1826-1904), a baker, fruiterer and greengrocer, and Emily HELYER (1832-1897). William was born in Brunswick in 1860, and, like his father, was a fruiterer and greengrocer. The Sweetland family seemed very steady and well settled. William had ten brothers and sisters, and numerous nieces and nephews. Polly had found a safe harbour at last! William and Polly had seven children, six survived infancy, and five married:
1. Walter (1884-1935), married.
2. Ivy (1885-1943), married.
3. William Pearce (1888-1957), married.
4. May (1890-1890), died aged 10 months.
5. Myrtle (1891-1979), died unmarried.
6. Olive (1894-1970), married
7. Florrie (1898-1983), married.
Polly (Mary Sweetland nee Williams) died at Caulfield in April 1935 aged 76 years, the matriarch of a large and prosperous family, and her steady husband, William Sweetland, followed her in December of that year, aged 75 years.
Poor Polly? Admirable Mary!