1792 - The Ponds and settled at last
Elizabeth, Anthony, Robert and Mary were definitely on their grant at the Ponds by December 1791. So by the new year they were settled into their environment and preparing the farm.
Captain Watkins Tench listed the Ropes among the settlers at the Ponds during his last visit to the area on 6th December, 1791. Bonwick’s Return of Land in Cultivation...as of 16th October, 1792, dates Anthony as being settled at the Ponds on 10 January, 1792. In the Colonial Secretary's correspondence Governor Phillip has signed the official granting of the lease on 22 February 1792. If Anthony’s sentence had expired during those months he could have been farming full-time with the family and only needing to visit Parramatta/Burramatta for their weekly ration, as well as for replacement tools, seeds, clothing, medical assistance, and divine services. [1]
The Ponds, named because of the large ponds of good water in the area, was located in the gently rolling hills and creeks around the area now called Dundas Valley. Elizabeth would have noticed the quiet and the sense of isolation in contrast to the bustle of Parramatta, especially if Anthony continued to work in town.
Because of their two children they had the largest allotment: seventy acres reaching over the hill between two creeks or ponds. The other 14 or so allotments were settled by couples, or, as in the case of Anthony’s friend John Summers, were share-farmed by two men.[3] In the centre of the small community was a military detachment of one officer and three privates, who were to protect the new settlers until the clearing of the land was complete.
Map: A. Maie[4]
Upon settlement the family probably received the same provisions and equipment, and were under the same conditions, as the other ex-convict settlers. If this is so, the family was given enough grain for the first year and tools. Tools were given to both men and women; each receiving a hatchet, a tomahawk, two hoes, a spade, and a shovel. A number of cross-cut saws were shared among the community and muskets were given to each family for their protection ‘against the natives’[5]. At some settlements a convict was also given to a family as an assistant.
As well as tending to the vegetable garden and assisting Anthony with the bulk crops, Elizabeth was probably making clothes, cooking, and caring for the needs of their children: Robert, now almost three and a half years old, and Mary, just over six months. At the time home gardens included vegetables, such as cabbages, greens, peas, kidney-beans, turnips, carrots. leeks, parsley, all of which seemed to do well in the Australian climate. The larger crops were wheat and other grain, such as maize.
They had obviously immediately set to work clearing the land and planting. Records show that by February 1792 the Ropes had 8 1/2 acres cleared from trees, and another 8 1/2 acres under wheat and maize; a major improvement since the previous December. They would have built their own hut, to which a brick chimney would have been added mid-year.[6] By February they had acquired one horse and eight hogs. So they were doing well. Elizabeth and Anthony were lucky to get the animals, for although two sow pigs had been promised to each ex-convict settler, they were not always received.
When newly arrived magistrate Richard Atkins visited the Ponds in March he was generally impressed, remarking that the settlers ‘are for the most part...very comfortably lodged... In short they are in every particular much better situated than they could possibly be in England.’
It would have been a fulltime job as there were inevitable problems with scavenging hawks, crows and bugs, which meant replanting, as well as marauding absconders and the local Aboriginal families who had been removed from their food and water sources and were after anything edible or barterable.
In spite of their progress, however, it appears it was too soon for the family to self-support. In February three of them were listed as still being on government stores. Elizabeth was probably breastfeeding Mary as Mary was not listed. The stores were essential for the new settlers’ survival, as it was becoming obvious that it would be some time before they would be self-sufficient. The government had given them eighteen months to establish themselves after which they were to be taken off stores, and any farmers who had convict labour at that time were to pay for their hire themselves.[7] After five years of continuous farming the land would then be theirs at one shilling per annum rent.
the colony expands
The previous year had seen some major changes in the settlement of New
South Wales. The focus of cultivation of
crops and animal husbandry, which had moved from Sydney Cove/Warrane to Parramatta/Burramatta and Norfolk Island, was now
extending further north, east, and west of Parramatta/Burramatta. Sydney Cove/Warrane was now an administrative centre
and a depot for stores, with the Governor’s main residence there. Parramatta/Burramatta became the agricultural centre, where the Governor had a
second residence. Commuting was the norm and a pathway now connected the two towns.
increasing numbers and trade
As well, Sydney Cove/Warrane was
turning into a busy port. One month
after the last of the Third Fleet departed in January, 1792, the first ship of
the Fourth Fleet pulled into the harbour.[8] The bi-annual arrival of Fleets had
begun. By the end of 1792 this traffic was
augmented by trading and Whaling ships whose captains had heard about the new
colony in other ports, and were hoping to trade goods as well as carry out
repairs and replenish supplies of wood and water.
The movement of ships and people between the Cove/Warrane and Norfolk Island increased in frequency as convicts, supervisors, soldiers and provisions were ferried back and forth. Often ships from newly-arrived Fleets were commissioned in this way before returning to Britain. Governor Phillip also regularly diverted the returning ships to Batavia or Calcutta to purchase extra provisions, clothing, and stores.
The colony was still much in need and the fear of storeships from England being delayed or shipwrecked was constant. So the weeks between one ship departing and another arriving were spent in anxious anticipation. In addition, the stores, clothing and provisions, when they were landed and checked, were often damaged, underweight, or unsuitable for the climate and harsh conditions of the country. In the end extra provisions had to be purchased from the trading ships to make up for any losses or omissions.
The Fleets themselves were now commissioned from private firms by the English Government. So the ships masters viewed the exercise as a trading opportunity and not just the transport of personnel and government goods. Shops began appearing in huts on shore and people would flock to purchase the wares. Some newly settled convicts took the short-term option of selling their stock and leaving their land so that they could purchase the alluring ‘unnecessaries’ or a return passage home.[9] Disputes regarding money exchange and the price of goods began to fill part of the Court’s agenda. And, of course, convicts regularly stowed away and sailors absconded.
Parramatta/Burramatta is not exempt
At the other end of the river Parramatta/Burramatta also continued to expand. Many of the convicts and soldiers were now
based in the area: the convict men in
agriculture or other trades, and the women making clothes from material they
collected from the stores, or acting as ‘minders’ for the men’s huts while the
men were at work, or themselves working in the fields and, of course, getting
married and having children.[10] Reverend Johnson calculated that by October
1792 he had performed 220 marriages and 226 baptisms since arrival.
Increasing numbers of First Fleet ex-convicts and ex-marines, who had decided to settle were, like Elizabeth and Anthony, on their way to becoming self-supporting. New settlers were given land around Parramatta/Burramatta, in areas called Prospect Hill/Murrong (west), the Ponds (northeast), the Field of Mars (along the creek) the Eastern Farms, the Northern Farms, and south of the creek. As crops from these outlying farms were harvested the excess was brought into town for barter or sale.
The area northwest of Parramatta/Burramatta, initially called ‘new farms’ and later named Toongabbie, was selected as the site for the new public farm. In January 1792 clearing began. By June the convicts employed there were planting seed, and in September they harvested the first crop of wheat and Indian corn. The produce, if not stolen, was taken to the government stores where it was augmented by imported provisions, or stored as seed for the following season’s planting.[11]
Expectations for the future were high and in April the foundations for a town hall, to include a market place for grain, fish, poultry, livestock and clothes, and a hospital were laid at Parramatta/Burramatta. A ‘clerk of the market’ was appointed to register sales and barters in an attempt to deter the sale and exchange of stolen goods. Goods on sale at Parramatta market during May included: hens, cocks, chickens, eggs, fresh pork, vegetables, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, soap and cheese. New arrivals commented on how well the colony seems to be doing and how much the convicts had compared to labouring people in England. However, the reality was that the colony is still struggling to feed itself.
the toll on convicts[12]
Everyone was still on reduced ration, a situation that had continued
almost unchanged since November 1789.
Many of the newly arrived convicts were starving and a number of newcomers
commented on their appearance. Atkins
described them as ‘mere walking shadows’.
By March 1792 work was restricted to the hours between 5 and 9 in the
morning, and 4 and 5.30 in the afternoon, as the convicts were too weak to do
more. Then in April, as in the previous
year, rations were reduced further.
The rationing took its toll. During the first half of the year at Parramatta/Burramatta, there were daily burials of convicts. Small children were also vulnerable.[13] Quite a number of the convicts had never recovered fully from the lack of care during their voyage out the previous year and were weak and malnourished.[14] In addition the hand-mills, which England had sent out, were not strong enough grind the Indian corn and the grain was being eaten raw. In an attempt to bring relief the Governor established a fishery on South Head and sent gamesmen to Parramatta/Burramatta to procure fresh meat for the hospital. The fresh protein, added to the large numbers of vegetables the gardens produced, and a little rum, gradually slowed the death-rate during the rest of the year.
Governor Phillip had been concerned and in June, a few weeks after the King’s Birthday, he visited the new settlement (Toongabbie) where most of the newly arrived convicts were labouring. He apologised to them for the small ration and asked them to be patient, orderly and to do their duty. He promised that storeships were expected and that when the ships arrived the convicts rations would be increased if they behaved well. He then released all those in irons, a gesture which usually coincided with the King’s Birthday. Yet it was some months before rationing approached an adequate quantity.
British-First Peoples relations
By this time relations between the British and the local Aboriginal inhabitants
around Parramatta/Burramatta seemed
to have settled down once more. Reverend
Johnson mentions their daily presence in camp.
Also, five Aboriginal people seem to have been living permanently in the
towns and were listed as being on government stores. These were probably working for, or living
with, some of the English.[15]
However the colony’s continuing expansion, especially around the rivers and creeks, which were also important food sources for local Aboriginal peoples, continued to cause conflict. The ripening maize on properties was viewed as a substitute and by May 1792 regular autumn maize raids by Aboriginal groups began, especially at Prospect/Murrong and Toongabbie, and continued at Toongabbie until 1794.[16]
The muskets and ammunition that had been handed out to the ex-convicts were used in retaliation and, it was suspected, also used for hunting and ‘committing depredations’. The result was Aboriginal ‘payback’ on anyone travelling alone, particularly on the roads to Prospect/Murrong and Toongabbie, which those who had been living in the colony for a while would have grown to expect. In May a convict was found dead having been speared and cut as payback for firing on and, it was assumed, killing, one of a group of Aboriginal people caught stealing goods from a hut.
How much Elizabeth and Anthony would have experienced of the raids or reprisals is impossible to say. Generally speaking the conflict seemed to concentrate on the edges of the settlement and the more remote farms. Once farming had expanded beyond The Ponds to Prospect/Murrong and Toongabbie they may no longer have been so targetable. Whatever the case news of the conflicts would have travelled, been part of everyday conversation and, from their point of view, of concern.
new convicts continue to behave as ‘newly-arrived convicts’
Each new boatload of convicts continued to cause as much trouble as
possible.[17] Whereas many of the convicts who came out in
1788 were now settling down and becoming ‘model’ citizens, the new arrivals went
through the whole rebellious cycle of absconding, stealing, running scams[18]
and mutiny, including attacking people for their provisions on the roads from
Parramatta to Toongabbie or to Sydney.[19]
The court record for Parramatta on 9th January, 1792 is an example of the types of crimes committed by the convicts at the time. The court heard seventeen charges of stealing chickens, corn, greens, vegetables, including from the Governor’s garden, clothing, money, of disorderly behaviour, and of going to Sydney without permission. The severity of punishment, such as stocks, iron collars, lashes, executions, or transportation to Norfolk Island for life, did not seem to deter them.
no longer just a ‘penal colony’
As well as the community’s growth in size a much more complex society was
emerging. The new colony was no longer
just an extended ‘low security’ prison, but an agricultural and trading centre
with two major towns and a number of satellite communities. Both Reverend Johnson and Judge-Advocate
Collins write of their increased workload.
The Reverend was now conducting divine services in three places: Sydney/Warrane, Parramatta/Burramatta, and ‘a new settlement 3 miles west of Parramatta’ (Toongabbie). Attendance, however, was still irregular and although four hundred acres of land had been given over for church use, no building to house the congregations had yet been erected.[20] As well Rev. Johnson now had competition. A number of the more recent convict arrivals were Irish and Catholic. In November four males and one female signed a letter at Parramatta/Burramatta alerting the Governor to the inconvenience in not having ‘a pastor of our religion’, that is, a Catholic priest.
The need for administrators, supervisors and skilled workers was also increasing, a point that Governor Phillip continued to make in his letters to England. He was also alerting England of the need to pay skilled workers, as the ships masters were offering passage home in return for work and draining the colony of experienced tradesmen.[21] The skill pool was further reduced by accidents, sickness and by some who had been here long term requesting retirement.[22]
Some of Governor Phillip’s needs were addressed during the year. Magistrate Richard Atkins arrived in February and was posted to Parramatta/Burramatta to deal with criminal matters there, as well as assist Judge-Advocate Collins in Sydney/Warrane.[23] In October a replacement surgeon, a master carpenter, a master miller and a settler experienced in cultivation arrived. The gaps were also filled by ex-convicts who had proved themselves trustworthy and were granted remission and jobs.[24]
transition to civil society
Money was now a commodity, partly due to the trade instigated by the
arriving ships, but also due to skilled workers needing to be paid and the
increasing numbers of ex-convicts having to support themselves. By October shops for private trade had opened
in Sydney/Warrane and Parramatta/Burramatta.[25] In response to Governor Phillip’s requests
‘three thousand-eight hundred and seventy ounces of silver in dollars’ arrived
in November on the transport Kitty. One thousand was immediately dispatched to
Norfolk Island, the rest was held in Sydney as ‘public money’.
Education appeared on the agenda. By March 1792 three schools were established for the children of civil and military families, and some convict children: one at Parramatta/Burramatta, another in Sydney/Warrane, and a third at Norfolk Island. Those on the mainland were run by schoolmistresses; the one at Norfolk by a convict ex-teacher.[26] Reverend Johnson wrote to England for financial support and resources, such as books, stressing the need for educating convict and Aboriginal adults and children. He also canvassed for additional teachers, ‘as I fear that a school mistress wd not do so well neither be proper to instruct the men Convicts’, and missionaries for ‘the ignorant and benighted heathens’.
beginnings of civil unrest.
The arrival of Major Grose in February as Lieutenant Governor in charge
of the NSW corps began well. He was
agreeably surprised by the colony. But
this was not to last. He was soon
unwilling to abide by Governor Phillip’s more democratic philosophy. By October he was complaining to Phillip and
England that he and his soldiers had been placed on the same ‘unwholesome’
ration as everyone else and of the limits placed on the availability of liquor.[27] In spite of Governor Phillip’s opposition, he
and his Officers privately hired the Britannia
to go to the Cape of Good Hope and bring back provisions they considered
essential for men of their rank. It
seemed as though the battles that Governor Phillip had fought with some of the
First Fleet officers were about to recur.
Governor Phillip departs Sydney Cove/Warrane
However by this time Governor Phillip had had enough. His decision to resign, publicly announced at
the end of October, caused a flurry of activity as long-termers like
Judge-Advocate Collins and Surgeon-General White also submitted requests for
leave in the hope of accompanying him home.
Phillip had slowly been working towards consolidating his administration
throughout the year and October and November were spent finalising all
accounts, writing detailed reports to England, restating his mandate for the
colony, updating records of provisions, stores and personnel, and granting
absolute and provisional pardons to those he considered deserving.
On Friday 7th December Phillip conducted his last item of business and officially closed his government. Then on Monday 10th at 6pm, he ‘quit his charge’ and embarked on the Atlantic. He was received near the wharf on the east-side, where his boat was lying, by Major Grose at the head of the NSW corps. There the NSW corps ‘paid him all the marks of honour’. The officers of the civil department and the three marine officers who were to accompany him to England were in attendance.
On board were the last of the marines, two convicts whose period of transportations had expired, and two Aboriginal men who had been friends of Phillip - Bennillong and Yem-mer-ra-wan-nie, both Wangal people of the Eora nation[28]. They had decided to travel with him much to the distress of their wives and friends. The following day those officers who were to remain behind sailed with him down the harbour. At 9am they disembarked and gave three cheers as the ship prepared to move between the heads and depart the colony.
It was not without regret on both sides. In Phillip’s view the colony was now approaching ‘that state in which I have so long and anxiously wished to see’. From the standpoint of those who had worked alongside him since the beginning, it was a great loss and ‘no small degree of concern in the settlement’.
military rule
Major Grose was sworn in by Judge-Advocate Collins and immediately began
to institute military, rather than civil rule.
Nothing in future was to be done, including court proceedings and
punishment, without Grose’s and his officers’ approval and direction. A few days later a distinction in rations was
ordered with all civil and military personnel placed on full ration while the
convicts’ allowance remained restricted.[29] Some of the convict-settlers responded by
selling off their stock in order to buy spirits. As Atkins commented, ‘times are changed’.
and Elizabeth and Anthony?
It is difficult to imagine how Elizabeth and Anthony felt during this
time. Change is always unsettling and
they, like everyone else, were probably biding their time to see how
advantageous or not the new government would be. The inequalities in rationing would probably not
have affected them as much as others as their allowance was supplemented by the
produce of their farm, and their community was well enough away to function on
its own. As I have not yet found any
mention of them before 1794, they obviously were not causing any trouble worth
noting.
During the year they would have received the extra ration of spirits for the King’s birthday celebration in June. They may also have benefited from the clothes which arrived and were handed out to convicts at the end of October. They probably did receive one of the ewes for the purpose of breeding which Governor Phillip gave to each married settler just before he left the colony.
But over the long-term it seems that the changes brought in by military rule had an effect on Elizabeth and Anthony as well. Not only were government provisions now unequally rationed, the military began to monopolise both the marketplace and the giving of land grants. Military insistence on easy access to liquor meant that spirits became the preferred currency, the illegal distillation of liquor a preferred source of income, and farming being a lot of hard work for virtually nothing.
In addition Elizabeth and Anthony had lost their third child, Elizabeth, who died in 1794, probably soon after birth, and could even be buried at The Ponds.[30] Although they appear to still be in the area during 1795 and 1796 for the birth and baptism of John[31], by the end of 1796 the family is recorded as having settled at Mulgrave Place, near Windsor.
Perhaps they had had enough of the monopolisation of the military and changes that were being made and walked off their farm to squat around the Hawkesbury/Dyarubbin like so many other people at the time, or perhaps they had received a settler’s permit there.[32] Whatever the case their land at The Ponds was left unresolved for a number of years while the family focussed their efforts around Dyarubbin, bounded by the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers, South Creek, and Rope’s Creek.
 cropped.jpg)
This completes the story I began writing for my family in 1999, The Story of Elizabeth Pulley and her first five years in Australia and retitled to serialise as blogs. The next part of their journey has been included by Robert Murray and Kate White in Dharug & Dungaree: The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860. Although the publication does contain a number of inaccuracies, Elizabeth, Anthony and their family play a major role. In addition, a more detailed examination of the life of the first settlers around Dyarubbin/Hawkesbury-Nepean river as well as the history and life of the original Dharug and Gundungurra people, whose presence in the area dates from c. 50,000 years ago, is documented in People of the River by Grace Karskens, Emeritus Professor of History at UNSW. However I have also collected information from a variety of other sources which follows the family to the end of Elizabeth and Anthony’s life so I am tempted to continue to write them into this larger story of Australia.
[1] Captain Tench describes Anthony as bricklayer and ‘a convict who means to settle here, and is permitted to work in his leisure hours’. My notes from the Colonial Secretary's correspondence -
“In
pursuant of the Power….
GIVE
A GRANT unto Anthony Rope, His Heirs and Assigns to have & to hold for ever
SEVENTY ACRES of Land to be known by the of Ropes Farm laying at the Ponds….free
from all rents and taxes for the space of ten years…
this
Twenty second day of February in the year of our lord One thousand seven hundred
& ninety two…
signed
A. Phillip”
[2] It is still a beautiful area in the
middle of suburbia. The day I visited
the birds and insects were singing and a kookaburra welcomed me in. I can just imagine Elizabeth and the two
children escaping to the creek to play in the cool during the hotter days. Dundas Valley currently offers walks around the Ponds. The Rope's grant is number 160.
[3] I have found little mention of other
friends of theirs. Betty Mason, who
lived with Elizabeth and Anthony for a while, and married Richard Hawkes in
1790, is mentioned giving evidence at a trial in April 1792 It looks as if she and Richard separated
around this time. By May Richard Hawkes was
established on a farm by himself, and at the end of the month Betty gave birth
to a daughter under her maiden name. At
the daughter’s christening later that year, Phillip Morris is named as
the father. Isabella Richardson (Rawson/Rosson) whose marriage to William Richardson in 1789 was witnesses by Anthony, became a
schoolmistress at Rev. Richard Johnson's school. I wonder if Elizabeth & Anthony
remained in contact or if they went separate ways?
[4] This is my copy of the map of the
Pond’s grants in the Royal Australian
Historical Journal, Vol. XI, part II, 1925
[5] Judge
Advocate Collins quoted in Karskens,
The Colony, p. 456
[6] In
July Gov. Phillip organised builders to add the chimneys to the huts ‘at the
Ponds’, and to carry out other repairs.
[7] By December Gov. Phillip was writing
that more time would be needed.
[8] The Fourth Fleet carried Lt. Governor
Francis Grose, who was in charge of the NSW corps, soldiers, more convicts and,
as usual, limited provisions of salted beef and pork.
[9]
Not all convict-settlers worked the land they were given. Some just worked for their neighbours and
forfeited their grant. The result was
they ended up back where they started:
homeless, off stores, and causing mischief. Part of the reason was that many ex-convicts
still wanted to return home to England and saw no purpose in making their home
here.
[10]
Rather than supplying convicts with ready-made clothes Governor Phillip decided
to keep everyone busy by the women having to return the clothes they made to
the stores once completed. He had found
that the convicts, generally, became more ‘socialised’ when they worked in some
sort of trade, gradually leaving their convict language and behaviour behind.
[11]
In October Gov. Phillip was writing of the 1,500 bushels stolen from the
grounds, in spite of precautions taken to protect it.
[12] The records of rationing and deaths
during this period seem only to have focussed on the newly arrived convicts not
those who were farming their own farms like Elizabeth and Anthony.
[13]
The death tally for the year included 418 male convicts, 18 female convicts and
29 children.
[14]
In England the trial against the master of the Neptune for ill treatment of convicts was underway. Later transports carried a naval agent to
supervise convict’s treatment and a ‘medical gentleman’ to treat them if they
fell ill.
[15]
Rev. Johnston still had two Aboriginal girls living with his family.
[16] The local Aboriginal groups would
have considered the land to be theirs and that food grown on it should be
shared, as was their custom. By 1794 the
maize raids were increasing in frequency and in April led to a significant reprisal expedition by
the watchmen, known as the ‘battle of Toongabbie’, during which the severed
head of an Aboriginal person was taken as a trophy. (Karskens, The Colony, pp. 456 ff)
[17]
Upon disembarkation in Sydney a number immediately absconded into huts and
would have to be found, detained, and transferred to Parramatta by force. By October Gov. Phillip had decided to curb
this practice, sending them directly to Parramatta and Toongabbie instead.
[18]
One of the scams was that convicts were selling their supplied clothes to
soldiers. Phillip writes of the need to
distinguish the clothes and all other convict items in some way, like with a
special strip, so that they could not be sold or bartered.
[19]
The path turned out to be a problem as thieves used it to move their stolen
goods between Parramatta/Burramatta
and Sydney/Warrane, or abscond,
without anyone noticing. Gov. Phillip
responded by blocking its use.
[20]
The previous year the foundations of a church building had been laid at
Parramatta/Burramatta, but the
building was quickly converted into a prison and by 1792 it had become a
granary.
[21]
Phillip, whose health was deteriorating, also continued to ask for leave: ‘the
complaint seldom leaves me lately for more than a few days’. His ailing condition was also remarked upon
by a number of new arrivals.
[22]
In April Burton, a Botanist and Supervisor who had examined and reported on the
soil in the settlements and cultivation areas around Parramatta/Burramatta, died from a shooting
accident. Phillip wrote: ‘I lost one
whom I cannot replace and whom I could ill spare’. In July, Arndell, the assistant surgeon based
at Parramatta/Burramatta retired due
to age and settled on his farm at East Creek.
In October, Phillip commented that of the four superintendents sent out
from England only one was left who was effective.
[23]
An interesting man and history - “Soon
after he (Richard Atkins) arrived, Phillip made him a magistrate at Parramatta
and in March 1792 appointed him registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court; this
enabled him to enhance the aura of influential prestige behind which he
sheltered from existing creditors while engaging fresh credit locally on the
security of his family name. It was soon commonplace knowledge that his bills
were not met: Rev. Samuel Marsden considered
them so doubtful that they might never be honoured”. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/atkins-richard-1723
[24]
Such as Stephenson, who began work at the provisions store in October, Kelly,
who was employed as assistant surgeon at Toongabbie, Barrington, who was
appointed head constable of the Night Watch at Parramatta/Burramatta, and Robinson, who was employed at the Public Barn and
Granaries at Parramatta/Burramatta.
[25]
These shops had a licence to sell porter, but also traded other spirits which
lead to some ex-convict-settlers setting up drinking houses on their farms and
selling to others at inflated prices.
The result was ‘much intoxication.’
[26]
One of the schoolmistresses was Isabella Richardson (nee Rawson) whose marriage
to William in 1789 was witnessed by Anthony Rope.
[27] Even
Governor Phillip placed himself on the same rations as everyone else although I
suspect it may have been supplemented with game and wine.
[28] Woollarawarre
Bennelong returned to Australia 7
September 1795. Yemmerrawanne (or Imeerawanyee)
died in England on 18 May 1794 of a lung infection and was buried there. Later his body was removed from his grave to
make way for someone else. The headstone
has since been restored.
[29]
Everyone’s rations increased in June with the arrival of rice, dahl and soujee
from Calcutta. But as not many knew how
to cook these foods it was of little help.
In July salted beef and pork finally arrived and brought some relief.
[30]
The record we have is of Elizabeth’s
‘confirmation’, not ‘baptism’, on 10th February, 1794.
It is held at St. Johns’ Parramattaa/Burramatta. I wonder if she was ‘confirmed’ because she
was sickly and not expected to live long?
[31] John was born on 22nd December, 1795 and the record of
John’s baptism almost one year later on 2nd
January, 1796 is held at St. John’s Parramatta/Burramatta.
My mother, Madge Rups (Rope) discovered
that John was the first child in the
‘Christenings Book’ by Rev. Samuel Marsden. Rev. Marsden arrived in Sydney in 1794. It is probable that the church was a temporary hut at the time of John's baptism as, according to Judge-Advocate David Collins, the materials of two huts were used to erect the first church in 1798. This was later replaced with a permanent dwelling dedicated in 1802, although in the years between it seems to have undergone a few incarnations in different locations.
[32]
As later there were problems with the sale of The Ponds grant and arrears in
rent, this may well have been the case.
It is really unclear what occurred. The fact that rent was due probably
means that they were still living at The Ponds after mid-1793 when the 18
months of free use of the land would have ended.
Ryan in his memoirs places
the family at Toongabbie and does not mention The Ponds.
‘After
the birth of their son Robert, they went to live at Toongabbie…It was here that
Governor Phillip gave grants of land” (p.1)
In my opinion this is
factually incorrect. It is the Ponds,
not Toongabbie, where land grants were made and the Rope’s received theirs. As
far as the information I’ve sourced Toongabbie was a government farm worked by
newly arrived convicts. Maybe Ryan has
the two settlements mixed up (they are only 12 kms distance from each other),
or because of the rent arears on The Ponds the family was not upfront about the
location of their grant, or…? With the
monopolising of everything by the military it must have been an insecure time
for anyone trying to survive and anything could have happened.
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