William Trevarthen, my Gr Gr Gr Grandfather on my mothers side, was born in Crowan, Cornwall, England in 1799. In 1840, the village had a population of 3,000. He married Elizabeth Blackwell in 1828, who was born in 1806 in Penzance, Cornwall. William was an argicultural worker. They had three children in England, Thomas (b1828), Elizabeth (b1834) and Mary (b1836), before making the decision to emigrate to New Zealand. Another son William, was born in Auckland in 1850. William Jr was 10 years old when his Dad died, after being kicked in the stomach by his horse, on his farm at Devonport, in 1860. In 1871, Elizabeth had a heart attack, in Mr Waddell's bakers shop on Karangahape Road, where she died. She had been "conversing with Mrs Waddell and speaking of the long journey she had just made to Papakura, when she suddenly fell back against the counter of the shop and expired". What an end to two amazing and adventurous lives.
Mary Trevarthen, my Gr Gr Grandmother was 4 years old when she boarded the "Bolton" with her family on the 19th November 1839 in Gravesend, Kent. They finally arrived in Port Nicholson, Wellington on the 20th April 1840, a five month trip and only two months after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
An interesting little aside to the departure date is that Mary's Gr Gr Gr Grandson, Michael, was born in Southampton, Hampshire on the 19th November 1979, exactly 140 years to the day from their leaving England to go to New Zealand!!
But I am getting ahead of myself here. What was it that may have motivated this young couple with three small children from rural England, to leave all that they knew and venture to the other side of the world? What was happening in England at the time that provided the sort of motivation, energy and passion to give up all that they knew and risk the unknown?
England in the early 1800's
Well you don't have to delve very deep into events in Britian, and the wider Europe, during the early part of the 1800's to get some sort of understanding. It was a time of major upheavel and social unrest.
Britian was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution that changed the face of the country from a manual labour and draft-animal–based economy towards Machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechinisation of the textile industries, the development of iron making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Transportation methods fundamentally changed with the invention of the steam engine and establishment of the railway system.
Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901), acended the throne in 1837 at the age of 18, when the country was lead by Lord Melbourne. Melbourne was her chief advisor but would not stay in power for long. He was growing unpopular and faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies, especially during the Canadian Rebellions of 1837. Victoria's reign marked the gradual establishment of a modern constitutional monarchy. As the industrial age roared children were pressed into the labor force to work in sickening conditions. Hospitals teemed with rats, and prisons were cesspools. Labor unions arose with revolution coursing through their veins, and they began to rumble the populace toward the same murderous direction that their French forbears had trod. Poor children wandered the streets unschooled, and orphans fended for themselves.
It was the time of Charles Dickens, who attempted in his novels to depict the hardships of the working classes. For the crime of stealing a sheep or loaf of bread you could be transported to Australia. During the 80 years of "transportation" between 1788 and 1868, 164,000 of William and Elizabeth's countryman had been sent to Australia in 806 ships. The country was ruled by the land owning Arostocarcy and the general population was getting fed up.
The Swing Riots were a widespread uprising by the rural workers of the arable south and east of England in 1830. The rioters, largely impoverished and landless agricultural labourers, sought to halt reductions in their wages and to put a stop to the introduction of the new Threshing Machines that threatened their livelihoods. Many arrests followed the riots. Across the country, nine of the rioters were hanged and a further 450 were sentenced to "transportion" to Australia.
The Days of May, were also a period of social unrest and political tension that took place in May 1832. Pro-reform organisations such as the Birmingham Political Union played a major part in the protests; their membership swelled, causing politicians to fear an armed riot. In other parts of the country, armed mobs attacked the homes of prominent members of the peerage who were opposing reform. Petitons were also presented from around the country.
Some comentators believe that Britian avoided the revolutions that were happening in Europe in the 1840's and 50's, because of the work of the reformers, the Reform Act of 1832 and the work of groups like the Clapham Sect, the Quakers and others.
A few compelling reasons!!
A few compelling reasons!!
So there you go then, a few compelling little reasons to get your tail out of there!! William and Elizabeths' families would have probably lived in the same village for generations. There was no possibility of owning their own land and little likelihood of being able to change their circumstances.
The world that they had known was being turned on it's head, why not take the chance of a better future for themselves, their children, and their childrens' children.
And on top of that, if you were hungry and got caught stealing a loaf of bread, or joined a riot to protest the conditions of the day, you could either be sent to the gallows, or end up in Australia, perish the thought!!
Taking destiny into your own hands, heading to "little England", buying a piece of land (for a musket and a couple of blankets) and starting a new life, would have appeared a very attractive option.
So Along comes Mr Wakefield to be continued...........
Note: A lot of the information above, but not all, has been sourced from reading articles and history on numerous websites. Below are some of those links, providing additional nightime reading, for those so inclined :-)
I would want to join the Clapham Sect.
ReplyDeleteYes (or should it be AMEN :-). They were AMASING. Have a more detailed read of the Clapham Sect, what they did and who was involved, on the "William Willberforce" link above. They were ALL incredible!!
ReplyDeleteI really mean AMAZING!! :-)
ReplyDeleteJust read through that link.
ReplyDeleteThis line about Wilberforce as a young man cracked me up: "his letters to his mother reflected the gradual spiritual change that was beginning to captivate his heart. Alarmed that her son might give way to religious “enthusiasm” she promptly brought him back to Hull where he enjoyed all the excesses of wealth and society." I can just see it-classic!
Those guys were awesome, though! Love Granville Sharp: "Sharp ... rose at dawn to sing Psalms in Hebrew, and was keenly interested in prophecy. He was also a self-instructed genius. He had taught himself Hebrew to witness to a Jew, and Greek to witness to a skeptic. When he applied the same scholarly diligence to the study of law, he effectively won some key legal precedents in the cause of abolition while most members of the Clapham Sect were still children." Amazing guy!
And Thomas Clarkson: "He once searched systematically through every ship in England, port after port, in order to find a sailor whom he thought could provide evidence against slavery. Clarkson found him in the 57th ship.” Go Clarkson.
and ..... Macaulay became a one-man research department for all Clapham causes, and especially for the cause of abolition. With an almost photographic memory, he tirelessly gathered facts, sifted evidence, digested parliamentary papers, and submitted all to powerful analysis. It became a dictum that Macaulay could be quoted verbatim on the floor of the House of Commons without fear of contradiction… If any of the Clapham Sect were in doubt about a fact or figure, they used to say, “Look it up in Macaulay.” Such was his reputation for doing research. What an incredible group of people
ReplyDeleteOne more :-) ....... Their meetings were often impromptu and informal, and Wilberforce, as the leader of this grand collaboration loved the children who would congregate with them. It was not uncommon for him to be engaged in deep discussion about some important issue at one moment, and the next be on hands and knees to help a child locate a marble or chase a ball out the door. They were “an extraordinary collection of talented people who not only shared a common faith and a commitment to unselfish service, but who were great personal and family friends. It was, in fact, the embodiment of the Christian idea of fellowship.”
ReplyDeleteSo cool. That dude was clearly a genius.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a book for one line of the descendants of Francis Rowe and Mary Trevarthen. If you haven't see it before, you might be interested in looking at the Auckland Star 1 December 1898 -'Exhibition Number' which shows the photos of 72 men and 44 women in a section called 'Some Old Auckland residents'. Mary and Francis are included in the photos - he's #67 of the men and she is #18 of the women. Cheers Peter Michel
ReplyDelete