Francis
PEARCE [1831-1892] & Margaret WARNE [1830-1899]
*
Francis and Margaret Pearce (nee Warne) are the parents of Elizabeth Pearce.
*
Elizabeth Pearce married Isaac Gray in 1875, and were the parents of Margaret
Gray.
*
Margaret Gray married Herbert Osborn in 1898, and were the parents of Ella
Osborn.
*
Ella Osborn married John Hinton Edmonds in 1934.
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| Francis Foss Pearce |
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| Margaret Warne |
Her father came from Kenwyn (a suburb of
Truro today) and was a miner and eventually an engine driver, which presumably
accounts for her family’s movements over a lot of the mining districts of the
county during their child-bearing years between 1817 and 1841, to finaly settle
in Camborne through to the end of their days.
Margaret would have been about six when
the family settled in Camborne, she grew up there, but had little or no
schooling, and by 1851 she was a twenty-one year old house servant working for
an innkeeper and his wife in Tucking Mill, now a suburb on the north side of
the town.
Francis Pearce’s early life is a lot
hazier than Margaret’s, his parents’ beginnings seeming to be from the south of
the county, with Francis maybe being born in Penzance, and there is a
suggestion he had a much older brother, but none of that is certain other than
Francis’ father was Alexander Pearce, a miner (his mother probably Sarah Foss
from Illogan).
By 1851 Francis was a twenty-one year old
copper miner living in Tucking Mill, where his and Margaret’s lives crossed,
and they were married in the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth on Christmas Eve that
year, Francis signing the register but Margaret only ‘making her mark’, and the
couple remained in the area, where their first child William Warne Pearce was
born in about November the following year.
Later events would suggest that Francis –
who always tended to go by the name ‘Frank’ – had an adventurous streak, and
also seemed to aspire to something that provided a lot more fresh air and wider
horizons than a hole in the ground, and in February of 1854 the couple and
their toddler son set sail from Plymouth on the Taymouth Castle, bound for
South Australia, a three month voyage in the cramped conditions below decks
which was the lot of the assisted emigrant of the day, although the returning
Commisioner noted that … “we have learned with great pleasure that there has
been much harmony during the voyage, and that the emigrants, who appear to be
in high spirits, speak very warmly in praise of the Surgeon Superintendent, as
also of Captain Logan, his officers, and crew. The Weather is said to have been
extremely favourable during the voyage”.
The makeup of the emigrants was 46 married
couples, 10 single men but 116 single women, and 68 children under fourteen,
and while there is no diary surviving from this voyage the rest of the Report
does give some insight as to their conditions –
"The
'Taymouth Castle' arrived from Plymouth on the 3d of May [1854],
after a passage of 86 days, with 295 emigrants; 11 births and two deaths
occurred at sea. The ship was in very good order. The arrangement of the berths
in this vessel was on a different system from any hitherto employed. They were
grouped together in blocks on the telescope principle, so that when not in use
they might be reduced to half their size; and the tables were constructed in
such a manner as to be allowed to occupy the vacant space during the day.
"I am not disposed to look on this system as being a desirable mode of berthing emigrant ships. When it becomes necessary to allow one emigrant to remain in bed during the day, the table in that group of berths cannot be used, and about 11 persons are put to great inconvenience for the sake of one. Where no great amount of sickness prevails, such a system might not seriously interfere with the general comfort of the ship, as arrangements might be made to meet individual cases of temporary sickness; but were any general epedimic [sic] to prevail, the inconvenience produced by the wants of the tables would be excessive.
"The inner half of the bottom boards of the berths, constructed in the manner described, were fixtures; this is decidedly objectionable, as it interferes with the proper cleaning of the ship. The surgeon-superintendent recommends that the different beds should be numbered, as great disturbance was caused amongst the young women every time the beds were taken on deck, by their disputes about ownership. In this ship there was put on board by the Commissioners an oven capable of baking about 160lbs. of bread at a time, in order to afford the emigrants, especially the women and children, an occasional supply of soft bread ; the supply of flour to the emigrants was, by this means, issued to them four times in the week, in the shape of soft bread. This is a great improvement, and, I think, if adopted in all ships would not only add greatly to the comfort but also to the health of the people, if precautions were taken that means are used for properly leavening the bread, so as to make it light and digestible."
"I am not disposed to look on this system as being a desirable mode of berthing emigrant ships. When it becomes necessary to allow one emigrant to remain in bed during the day, the table in that group of berths cannot be used, and about 11 persons are put to great inconvenience for the sake of one. Where no great amount of sickness prevails, such a system might not seriously interfere with the general comfort of the ship, as arrangements might be made to meet individual cases of temporary sickness; but were any general epedimic [sic] to prevail, the inconvenience produced by the wants of the tables would be excessive.
"The inner half of the bottom boards of the berths, constructed in the manner described, were fixtures; this is decidedly objectionable, as it interferes with the proper cleaning of the ship. The surgeon-superintendent recommends that the different beds should be numbered, as great disturbance was caused amongst the young women every time the beds were taken on deck, by their disputes about ownership. In this ship there was put on board by the Commissioners an oven capable of baking about 160lbs. of bread at a time, in order to afford the emigrants, especially the women and children, an occasional supply of soft bread ; the supply of flour to the emigrants was, by this means, issued to them four times in the week, in the shape of soft bread. This is a great improvement, and, I think, if adopted in all ships would not only add greatly to the comfort but also to the health of the people, if precautions were taken that means are used for properly leavening the bread, so as to make it light and digestible."
Francis and Margaret possibly stayed in
the Adelaide district for about a year, where their second child (Sarah) was
born in mid 1855, although they seemed to have moved down into the southern
districts soon after this, as by Sept 1856 a third child, their daughter
Elizabeth Margaret, was born in ‘Langhorne Creek’ (Francis described only as a
‘Labourer’ and signed a little labouriously ‘Francis Pearse’). At that time
Langhorne Creek (today a small town surrounded mostly by vineyards watered from
the Bremer and what’s left of Lake Alexandrina) was barely more than a survey
plan and the embryo of Potts’ Bleasdale (later winery) farm, but it was also on
the busy droving route from the Wellington crossing of the Murray and on
through the Strathalbyn district, which was about to figure strongly in their
lives.
There is no evidence as to why they were
in the Langhorne Creek area – could have been on a farm, could have been just
passing through – but by 1858, four years after arrival in the colony, Francis
was working as a labourer on “Blackwood Farm”, a significant property about
halfway between Strathalbyn and Macclesfield, and it was here that the next
five of their children were born, between 1858 and 1864, although the first of
these, Louisa Jane (always called ‘Lucy’) was apparently never registered.
It was here, in mid 1859, that the Pearces
had a son, who his father named ‘Mahershalabhashbaz’, and signed the form with
a fairly wobbly signature (but at least spelt his own name right this time).
The Registrar and Francis between them – hardly surprisingly – had to have two
goes at this name on the original certificate, but were presumably trying to
write ‘Mahershalalhashbaz’, who was the (2nd?) son of Isaiah the prophet
(mentioned twice in the Bible - Isaiah 8:1 and 8:3 - and is famous among
trivialists for being the longest word in any version).
But
WHY in the name of everything holy did Francis come up with this one?! And did
Margaret know about it? There’s no particular evidence that Francis was either
especially religious or had a drinking problem, and all their other kids have
quite normal names. All that is known is that it then seems to disappear from
all subsequent records, and the boy is always referred to as Samuel. And fair
enough!
A daughter Margaret was then born in 1861,
Thomas in 1862 (by which time Francis has raised himself a rung and is
described as a ‘Gardener’), and Francis jr (always called ‘Fred’) in 1864,
although this son wasn’t registered by his father, but by a Carl Gustav
Schedlich of Macclesfield. No idea why, or even who Carl might be.
It was around this time – about 1864/5 –
that the family moved back to Adelaide, renting a cottage in the Thebarton
area, where Francis seemed to hook up with one EM (Edward Meade) Bagot, who had
grazing properties and interests in SA, NSW, and Qld, and “…had established at
Thebarton a boiling-down works which in one year handled over 70,000 sheep
…also manufactured a popular extract of meat known as 'Bagots'…”
Here at Thebarton their last three
children were born – Albert in 1865, Theresa in 1867 (who seems to have died as
an infant), and Tamson Mary in 1867, during which time Francis is back to being
described as a ‘Labourer’.
Francis
and Margaret were by now about 37-38 years old, and Francis was about to go
through a mid-life change of some magnitude.
It may only be a coincidence, but in 1870
his boss EM Bagot was awarded the contract to construct one of the sections of
the Overland Telegraph, the 800 km part from Pt Augusta to the Macumba River
(north of Lake Eyre near Oodnadatta). It could also be that Bagot was already
using Francis in the movement of his stock down from his northern properties to
Thebarton, but either way it was about at this time that Francis took up the
outback gypsy life of the station worker.
It was also in the early 1870s that the
first wave pastoralists from the Flinders Ranges were being pushed out of their
leases by the (to be shortlived) farming development above Goyder’s famous
rainfall Line, under the sanction (and in the face of all contrary logic) of
the Government, who had been convinced that ‘the rain will follow the plough’.
(Which it didn’t). But this did cause these graziers to move out further west
and northwest, opening up leases (among others) at Coondambo 320 kms out from
Pt Augusta (now on the EastWest line just above Lake Gairdner), and Mt Eba 430
kms out (and even further north).
In late 1873 the Pearce’s eldest daughter
Sarah (apparently still living at home in Thebarton) married a sailor from Pt
Adelaide, about two years later their next daughter Elizabeth (she was working
out at Kent Town) married a builder from Payneham, and less than two weeks
later their eldest son William married a girl from Brompton. At the time of his
wedding William was described as a ‘Drover’ of Thebarton, suggesting that he
was employed with his father in the sheep business, although William doesn’t
appear to have ever ‘gone bush’, sticking farly close to Thebarton all his
days.
Tragedy struck the family in 1876, when
their son ‘Samuel’, by then aged 17 and also in the sheep-handling business,
died at Thebarton from peritonitis as a result of being kicked in the stomach
by a sheep, which apparently ruptured the boy’s bowel, simply an unlucky
accident. (Two adjoining plots were apparently taken out at West Tce Cemetery
at the time of Samuel’s burial, suggesting that it was intended to be used as a
long-term family plot and that Margaret and Francis would end their days
together).
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| Coondambo Station country today |
About April 1877 Francis, along with his
14 year old son Tom and a few other men, set out (possibly from Kapunda) for
Coondambo Stn, and as Tom would recount in later life ‘…overlanding cattle …
travelling via Pt Augusta before the road went through’, with Francis probably
then taking up the role of overseer for the owner Robert Bruce. This was wild
and unyielding country, with no amenities, the men lived in their clothes,
slept on the ground, ate rough, had to keep a constant vigil against attack
from ‘the blacks’, and one of his men was dead within a few weeks of arriving.
Bruce
himself (something of a bush poet) gives an insight into “...the sickening
monotony of a shepherd’s diet” –
All
his meals were just the same
And
varied merely in the name
A
course of mutton, damper, tea
Recurring
everlastingly.
Four family letters survive from these
times, written to (and coming down to us through) their daughter Lucy, the
earliest being from Francis soon after arriving at Coondambo, dated 1/8/1877,
handwriting clear but laboured, and it’s included here in full and as written
(although with a few best guesses inserted) as it gives not only such a
valuable insight into the ‘life and times’, but read out loud, the phonetics
allow Francis’s rich West Country accent to come tumbling out!
Coondambo Aug 1
1877
My
Dear Lusay
I
was glad to racive your letter to know that you know you have got a fathear I
think that weas the seackent (second) letter that I ever haid from anany of you
befor. you cant think how proid (proud) I was wen I racive it I could read your
letter very well but if you tack little tim wen you heur (are) righting I could
read it much better but. I think that wes the bes letter that I hever reaceve
from my feamlay (family) sence I haid one My Dear Lusay the reaporte is that I
have nothing to do up hear but I a shour (assure) you that I hearn all the
monay that I git I have not takin of(f) my close (clothes) sence I left port
augesta that is over three month so you can guge (gauge?) for your selef wot I
have got to put up with wen you git this letter I a shaur (assure) you that if
I haden been blest weth good health I should been dead long ago I haid a sad
misforthing (misfortune?) the other day one of my men dide We haid to dig a ole
in the sand an binde him up in is blanckint an beary him like a black fellea
thear wes not a bord to make a box for him you can right wen you git this
letter again my adrais (address) is all the saim I harlay (hardly) expect your
letter veary quick for it is 300 miles to the poseffes (post office) thear an back
that is a long ride for mee know (now) I ham gitten rotter (rather?) hould
(old) for long jornes (journeys) on horses back an laing in the open hear (air)
an on the groun(d) after riden 40 or 50 miles in one day then tack a chop out
of my blanckit an roseat on the fieur (fire) an a then turn in my blancets on
the grain nex morining I fell veary steff I a shoure you a fou (few) years ago
I think knotting (nothing) of it but now I fils (feel) it veary much I rought
(wrote) mother a latter an sent hear twentay pound I raceve a latter from
mother saying that the balays (balance) is weating (waiting?) for mee wen I com
down but I say d.. the balayes an al that I how (owe) monay to an as for mother
going to bagot wot wages I ham getten wot the de… he know a bout my bisens
(business) wen thear is a fou (few) more yearns (yarns) go a bout mee a bout
the weay I bean caring (carrying) on I shall never be able to haul (hold) my
head up wen I com in town if I never have the pleger (pleasure) to com down I
racive a latter from Searay (Sarah) but I think that shee wes in such a hueary
(hurry) wen she rought it for I ham blass if I can mack out one halef of it but
I ham going to right to hear (her) So I hope this letter will fine you in good
heales (health) as it leve mee at present thenk god for it my Love to you
from
your Father
F
Pearce
This letter seems to have been for general
circulation (Margaret and the younger children were still living at Thebarton),
as he encloses a more personal note for Lucy alone – glad Lucy is not keeping
company with ‘Charley’ any more, suggests that she is better off keeping away
from all men for a while, and she has a good position and doesn’t need people
talking about her. (Oral history has it that Lucy, then 19, lived and worked
for a rich lady in North Adelaide, who she visited until late in life, and that
the lady had no children of her own and wanted to adopt Lucy. Whether this gave
Lucy notions ‘above her station’ or not, oral history also has it that in later
life Lucy became ‘snooty’ and ‘stuffy’ and wore fashionable high lace collars
and ‘wouldn’t allow children into her house’).
Somewhere between 1877 and 1879 Francis –
now nearly 50 – moved to Mt Eba Station as manager, and their son ‘Fred’, by then
15, joined his dad and brother Tom there, but it was probably just as wild and
isolated as Coondambo, maybe even more so, although possibly with a little
better pay and prospects. Mt Eba was at that time owned by the already
successful pastoralist Price Maurice, who “…even as late as 1874 was purchasing
more property and in that year bought up a huge block of country 270 miles
north-west of Port Augusta, an area called Mount Eba. The property carried as
much as 56,000 sheep, but it was marginal country and was eventually
abandoned…”
The next letter was from Fred (a little
scrawly but the spelling way better than his father’s), written to Lucy from Mt
Eba in May 1879 a few weeks after her (prudently hasty-ish!?) marriage to a
William Harvey at her parent’s home in Thebarton, which her father apparently
attended. It also looks as though Francis took this opportunity to talk his
wife into joining him up at Mt Eba, possibly only on a trial basis (as their
youngest Tamson was to remain in Adelaide in Lucy’s care) and also on the
understanding that a half civilised dwelling of some sort be part of the deal,
as Fred says that his father was ‘about to build a stone house’, also that the
two boys would be bringing a mob of sheep down to Pt Augusta in June and hoped
to be able to go on down to Adelaide to see them all.
In mid-late 1879 Margaret, now about 50,
and their youngest son Albert, about 14, joined Francis and the other two boys
at Mt Eba, possibly returning with Tom and Fred after they had delivered their
stock to Pt Augusta, but the challenge of setting up a permanent home in this
kind of wilderness seems to – but let Margaret tell it…
Mt
Eba Nov 9 1879
My
Dear Children,
I
received your letter last mail, and I am very thankful to hear, that the Lord
has brought you safely threw with your first trouble. I suppose Willie dosn't
think no little bit of himself by this time. I hope he is satisfied. I suppose
you was serprised when you received my last letter and found that I new all
about you going to Wites Rooms, I hope you are still a good girl take care of
your cloose and do has your told. I hope you have not lost your locket. We do
not want lockets nor flash dresses. It is now Sunday morning and it is quiet
and lonly. Father and Fred went away yesterday to one of the wells about 34
miles their and back, and weare expecting tham back come time to day. We often
talked when were at home of the children learning bad language up hear we are
not near enough by anyone to learn good or bad our house is a good bit from the
station; has it is acastom to build goverment houses by themselves never mind
it is very ccmfortable now it is finished.
We have plenty of evering for our comfortable. The flies have found out
father and mothers eyes for they both goth bung eyes has for fleas I have never
seen one. We have some native peaches
and they make good pies but t nothing to be compared with the froot of
Adelaide. Now I am going to tell you a
little about that box oranges. When our
ludge (luggage) arived we were very ancious to get the case opened hoping to
have some of this beautiful fruit that we put in, there was not one left not as
much has a bit of peal, there was a find mess.
They got into the cloose and there were compleatly rotton. The looking glas is all to pieces and Freds
case is nearly in harves. Before I left
home they drove 6 large nails through the big picture, Ah there was a find
smash between glasses and vawes (vases).
I had a letter from William last mail he says no one ever gous to see
him. He wrote and asked father for a
few pounds has his in det and his child not expeting to live. I doent no whether he will get it or not.
How did you get on with your 10s a week a fair. Tom is a way for a mounth or six weeks he was quiet well when he
left home he has a dray and five horses
to take of, we are all quite well Thank
the Lord and send our kindest to you all love one a nother kiss the babies for me
good
by
Margaret’s handwriting (considering her
rather uncertain ‘X’ on her marriage certificate) is fairly good and the
spelling not bad, but this doesn’t sound like a woman happy with their
prospects as a pastoralist family, as she seems to write often, concerned for
all of them and trying as best she could to influence things long distance…
Mt
Eba Nov 1879
My
Dear Children
We
receive your letter and was glad to hear that you are all well. I suppose your
baby is getting on all right and I suppose William is not proud a little bit
but wait untill he gets 12 or 14 arround him he woent be so proud over
them. I will send you a pound this mail
10s for Tam’s expences in Christmas holiday's with the remainder I want you to
buy 1 box of White hoocks, 1 Gentleman 1 vale (veil?) and besure and look that
the holes in it is not to big a 1 shirt fit a boy a bout 15 years old and be
sure and have it big enough and a card of shirt buttons. We have plenty of milk from 2 cows we milk
every morning I make plenty of butter
with the cream and we have hot scons and butter for tea. Father is going to kill one of the carves
and mother is going to make cheese and then we will have a nother tuck in at
that. Tom is gettin a big man now and
he has been away for a mounth with a team 5 horses and Albert is getting quite
fat and he can ride horses. I often wish that you was a little nearer so that I
could give you a bason of cream but 1 doent wish you hear for it is very durty
and lonely. The boys
all
sends their love to you all except the same from me
I
remain your loving mother
Mrs
F Pearce
I
want you to send me 2 or 3 yards of Elastic for the vales. Last Saturday we had such rough wether up
hear. It blew the top of our blaksmith shop. But Albert did see it because he
was at one of the wells to take some orders out. I have bung eyes regular.
Give
my love to all enquire in friendes
And
be sure and be kind to Tammie.
The flies were obviously terrible, and
presumably the materials for the ‘vales’ she wanted sent up were to this end,
but Margaret seemd to have managed to stick it out for a year or two …
Mt
Eba March 6 1880
My
Dear Children
I
received your letter by the last mail that you was all well. I was very very uneasy about Tamanie's
Harrissipless because I was afraid it would get in her head has for her her
(hair) you can do has you like it will onley grow all the thiker by having it
cut off, now you are living at Parkside I hope you do not think of putting
tammie to the model school If where she
is, is the best I would pay her fare in the tram care (car). When you write leave me no what it is a
quarter. My Dear Lucy I am verry sorroy
that you thought your mother so unkind is to have any dislike to your child because
I did not say any thing about her, I think if you look at the old letters I
have sent I think you will wee there kiss the Children for me I think hat
conclude all I was never uncind to you nor you to me nore I do not think for a
moment that you are to my little one then how could (I) be so to yours. I have many times wonderd how it was that
you never said any thing about the child.
We received every thing that you sent except the yeast. Mr Sabine is hear he is well pleased with
the place their gone exploring on the further part of the run there are going
to stay a fortnight ore three weeks then Tom is going to D. them to port
Agusta. I do not no whether Albert is
comming down or not, I have sent to William for a barral of fruit. I do not no whether he will be able to get
them or not. I often wish that we was
not so far a part that I could send you a dish of butter though it is verry
little I make because feed hear not like to food down Adelaide. Your Father and brothers are all well and
sends the kind love. X the youngsters
for me. Tell Willie Dear to X you for
me. I will give you big one
Our
love to you all & except the same your self
I
want you to to take care of the bible untill I [ramy? vasy?] [list? with?], it
is mine because I have no place hear for it
In the SA Directory for 1882 Francis’
address is listed as ‘Mt Eba via Pt Augusta’, but in 1883 he was ‘succeeded by
another manager’, and this is the last scrap of solid information we have on
the life of Francis Pearce, who seems to just simply drop out of the family’s
life, although there is a Directory entry for 1886 showing a ‘Francis Pearce,
Wood Dealer, of Thebarton’, and while the ‘Thebarton’ is relevant, and it’s a
possibility this is him, it also could’ve been one of several other Francis
Pearces who were around at that time.
But Margaret and family life went on –
Tamson married in 1888, then Albert (a ‘Storeman, of Yatala’ [now Rosewater
near Pt Adelaide] ) in 1889, while their sons Tom and Fred were working in the
Northern Territory, suggesting that everyone had gone their own way by that
time. Then in May of 1891, the tragic news from Tom that Fred, aged just 27 and
yet unmarried, had been killed on the Katherine to Pine Creek track when a
wagon overturned and crushed him, and it was Tom who had to wind up his
brother’s affairs.
By 1895 Margaret – she was about 66 and
with only four years left of her life – was living on her own in East St
Thebarton (the house at her address today looks like the original, one of a set
of modest cheek-by-jowl two-bedroom row cottages just off Henley Beach Rd),
with eldest son William and his family nearby, Tom still up in Katherine and
running the pub (went on to gain his own small dash of immortality as ‘Mine
Host’ in Gunn’s ‘We Of The Never Never’), and the rest of the family, now
including many grandchildren, scattered about Adelaide, although some time
later she went to live in the Rosewater area, near or possibly moving in with
her son Albert and his family.
 |
| Margaret Gray (nee Warne), headstone in West Tce Cemetery Adelaide |
I have no idea what happened to Francis,
who seemed to just fade away after Mt Eba. An old family bible entry – probably
their son Albert’s – has the deaths of many of the family recorded in detail,
but Francis is only shown as ‘Died in NSW’. Many years ago I received a letter
that suggested he died in SA, but I’ve since lost this contact. But neither the
NSW nor the SA registers show a Francis or a Frank Pearce dying between 1882/3
when he was clearly at Mt Eba, and 1895 when his wife was on her own, or even
through to 1899 when she is clearly said to be a widow. What became of the man
who began as a Cornish copper miner, who laboured long and hard all his life,
who named one of his sons ‘Mahershalalhashbaz’, a man who took off in his
middle years for the wide open spaces, is a mystery that’s yet to be solved.
< >
POST SCRIPT -
The following appeared under DEATHS in the "Sydney Mail" of Sept 10th 1892...
"PEARCE - On the 1st of September, at the residence of Mr W Forst of Dora Creek, Newcastle, Francis Foss Pearce, late of Thebarton, in his 63rd year, leaving a wife and eight children to mourn their loss. Jesus only. Inserted by his loving daughter Sarah."
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