The Tailor and the Shipwright

by Robert Westphal

  Macquarie continued: ‘I am also given to understand the reason for your application is that, having resided at your shop in Upper Pitt Street for the last six years, you are now desiring to live in a rural environment outside of Sydney. Is that correct?’

  ‘Honourable sir, that is correct.’

  ‘Where are you proposing to build your farm?’

  Tommy could not shy away from the question and had to answer it directly: ‘Middle Harbour, sir.’

  ‘Therefore, Thomas O’Neil here is your order: let me see you get rich. I authorise you to select a small farm wherever you might choose in New South Wales. I wish you well.’

  ‘Honourable sir. Thank you and I bid you good day.’

  Tommy rushed back to the shop to let Anne know that they could now go and select an area of 40 acres of land in Middle Harbour. Anne brought a quick halt to Tommy’s euphoria.

  ‘Tommy, our little girl is only twelve months old. I do not want to take her out in an open boat and into the bush until you have set up a place where we can all live in relative safety. Why don’t you go with a few indentured men, look the place over and work out what is possible? Leave Hannah and me here until you have built somewhere for us all to live.’

  Having secured the land, Tommy and Anne sold the shop. Included in the sale were the fixtures and fittings. However they decided to retain fabrics and tools of trade in case Middle Harbour did not work out. With the proceeds of the sale, Tommy needed to buy the necessary tools to build his farm, such as saws, axes, adzes, nails and sawn timber to erect a hut. They would no longer have any income and therefore he needed to register the family with the government stores for food and clothing assistance.

  Tommy went about securing the services of an indentured convict. A man by the name of John Kelly fitted the situation. Kelly, who also had Irish heritage, had come from a farming background. He was the type of man Tommy liked: personable, reliable and dependable. He thought they would get on well and he had the background and skills the O’Neils would need.

  At Sydney Cove, Tommy acquired a rowboat and asked a man for a rowing lesson for himself and Kelly. He had observed Sam when he and Anne had visited Middle Harbour almost two years before, but Kelly had never seen such a craft up close. With that quick lesson, they headed off to Middle Harbour with all the basic equipment on board they would need to make a farm.

  The beach at Middle Harbour was as Tommy had remembered it. He could picture his little girl playing on the sand and jumping in and out of the shore break.

  The big trees that dominated the scene seemed much larger now that they had to be removed. Many of them had a girth of five yards or more. The undergrowth was almost impenetrable with its thick scrub and fallen branches.

  Kelly was taken aback by the immensity of the task that now lay before them. He looked at Tommy.

  ‘John,’ said Tommy, ‘it mightn’t look it now but it will be a meadow by the time we finish. It just needs a large dose of imagination and a lot of hard work. One thing, we will never be short of firewood, that’s for sure!’

  Tommy continued. ‘This area is like a small valley open at one side to the sea. The back of the valley is about a quarter of a mile from where we are standing. You can see an outlet stream on your left. I think that may give us the best way to get to the rear of the land before it heads steeply uphill.’

  The two men worked their way along the stream. Tommy had been right: the stream headed inland and then swung to the right along the base of the rocky slope that seemed to be the edge of the flattish area. After navigating the meadow they retrieved the measuring chain from the boat.

  ‘Let’s see, John. The Governor gave us forty acres. If we step out to the rear of the meadow we will get the depth of the property then it is just a matter of dividing that measurement into forty and then we will know how many chains we have along the beachfront from the rocks here.’

  ‘Sounds good. We can work out roughly how deep the land is. We cannot measure it exactly. The depth can only be a rough estimate.’

  They stepped it out along the creek and arrived at approximately 250 yards.

  ‘That means we get about seven hundred and seventy yards or thirty-five chains along the beach, to say halfway to the island,’ advised Tommy. ‘So forty acres or thereabouts.’

  After having a meal of fresh fish on the beach they had time to think about what to do next.

  Kelly and Tommy spent the next month working to clear the undergrowth. Clearing each patch was difficult. But with persistence, headway was made. As Tommy worked he could feel all his sixty odd years of age. However the work toughened up his muscles and he gained strength that he no longer thought he had. He was very pleased to have the younger Kelly working with him. In addition to the land clearing they had managed to fashion a hut that could serve as temporary accommodation.

  Then it was time to have a break from the hard work at Middle Harbour and return to Sydney Cove, to see how Anne and Anastasia were progressing. Tommy and Kelly rowed back to town. They erected a small sail to lighten the rowing effort and also to speed up the journey.

  As Tommy was walking up the street to see Anne and the baby he ran into Meehan, the surveyor. Meehan pulled him aside.

  ‘Mr O’Neil,’ he said. ‘I have a written order from the Governor to measure your new farm at Middle Harbour.’

  ‘Mr Meehan, I have just come back from Middle Harbour. Mr Kelly and I spent an afternoon stepping out the forty acres approved by His Excellency, Governor Macquarie. I think it is a pretty accurate measurement. When you are free and ready I will take you out there to conduct a formal survey.’

  ‘Mr O’Neil, that’s all very good but it is a long way to go for just one property. It will take two to three days by the time I get out there and get back. It will make better use of my time if there is more than one property to survey, so for the time being we will leave it. I will monitor the Governor’s approvals and when another one or two grants are approved around Middle Harbour, I will come out and survey your property.’

  ‘Mr Meehan, I thank you very much.’

  O’Neil and Kelly arrived back and checked on Anne and the baby. In the month they had been away Anastasia had become a toddler. They were both well.

  ‘Well, Tommy, how was the land at Middle Harbour?’ Anne asked over dinner.

  ‘Anne, you were right. It is indeed a virtual jungle. It most certainly would not have been a good place to take Anastasia.’

  ‘Of course I am right, Tommy.’

  ‘There is an awful lot of work to do. John and I have made much progress over the past four weeks. We built a small hut that will do for a temporary home.’

  ‘Well that is good to hear.’

  ‘Anne it is such a beautiful place. It will be fantastic for Anastasia with its beach. The land is covered in large trees that are going to have to be cut down. There is also a lot of scrub.’

  ‘Let’s go there then,’ replied Anne. ‘It would be much better if we are all together. Besides I will provide another pair of hands.’

  ‘On the way here I met Mr Meehan, the surveyor. He does not want to conduct a survey at the moment but he will do so when more grants have been given at Middle Harbour.’

  16.

  William and Maria Foster

  SYDNEY TOWN, 1810

  It was 23 December 1810, some ten weeks since departure that Aurora returned to Sydney with Nicholas Thompson on board. Maria Thompson and William Foster had been keeping a close and anxious watch for the safe arrival of Maria’s brother. They also had some news for him!

  During the few days of their journey from the Derwent, William and Maria had become well known to each other. So much so that Maria had accepted William’s invitation to move in with him in Sydney Town.

  Maria’s presence represented a massive change to William’s lifestyle. He curtailed his long hours of work with the occasional drink with his mates. However, he was very pleased to have someone to share his life with.

/>   Maria, who was just sixteen years old, also enjoyed letting her hair down and was excited about the freedom that living in Sydney Town would bring. She had led a sheltered life on Norfolk Island, growing up with the same few people around her and never able to socialise in a broader sense.

  The friends from Norfolk Island she had believed were living in Sydney proved illusory, having moved on. Apart from her brother, the people living at The Rocks were all new to her. Other than William, she knew not a soul, and she barely knew him. So in reality she found it more difficult than she had expected to fit in. The social side was further complicated by the fact that she fell pregnant soon after arriving in Sydney. The pregnancy prompted Maria and William to marry, at St Philip’s Church, a short distance from their home.

  Within the colony, marriage had been strongly encouraged from the start. Governor Phillip had believed it would create a more ordered and responsible society and therefore a ‘moral’ society. Wives would obey their husbands and husbands would provide for their wives and children. Marriage was one of the factors taken into account in the assessment of whether a convict would receive a ticket of leave or a pardon. William wanted to maximise his chances of being granted such. He was well aware that he would soon be eligible to petition for a pardon. While there was no set time, it was generally regarded that for those such as William with life sentences, ten years had to expire after sentencing to receive a pardon.

  Maria and William stood at the wharf waiting for Aurora to dock. They had smelt the ship, with its cargo of dead seals, before it arrived. Once the ship docked, Nicholas came ashore carrying the same aroma. No discussion could be had until he had taken a hot soapfilled cleansing bath. Their recent news, the pregnancy and marriage, would be shared at lunch Christmas Day.

  March 1811 represented the ten-year anniversary of William’s conviction at the Crown Court House in Warwick. It was now William’s time to seek his conditional pardon. He approached a clerk to prepare a petition for him and had to give the clerk the background to his sentencing and the events that had since transpired.

  In the period since his sentencing, he had stayed out of trouble. There was no record against his name in the colony. Regulations required that convicts had to be sober, honest, and industrious. William qualified on all accounts. The marriage to Maria would improve his chances to receive a pardon.

  It took two weeks for the petition to be prepared. William revisited the clerk, who read it out to him. William was satisfied and affixed an embarrassing ‘X’ as his mark. As he took the completed petition to Government House and left it with the officer, he made up his mind to seek help to improve his literacy.

  At the same time William was preparing his petition to the Governor, the colonists were advised, by proclamation, a General Muster was to occur between the dates of 5 February and 5 March 1811. The muster required all those present in the colony, whether civil, military staff, free people, convicts or children and whether in New South Wales, the Derwent, Norfolk Island and Port Dalrymple, to attend to have their names recorded. All women were to provide the names and ages of their children. Free men who were settlers or landowners or military were to provide an account of their land under cultivation together with the stock or grain in their possession.

  For William, the muster coincided with a journey he needed to make for Robert Campbell. He sought and was granted leave from the muster. However Maria Foster had no such excuse. She was recorded under ‘Free Women’ and noted as being born in Norfolk Island.

  The muster was collated and the final report filed by Governor Macquarie indicated the colony had grown to 10,025 individuals.

  Maria struggled through her pregnancy. She felt isolated and did not have the support of a mother or another woman to advise and assist her. She was badly afflicted by morning sickness. William was up early in the morning and down to his place of work. He could not help her. Nicholas, even when in town, was no use either. When William introduced her to wives of his friends who had been through motherhood, this helped her out of her isolation.

  Maria’s pregnancy caused in her a strange craving to eat cabbage. While she had eaten cabbage growing up on Norfolk Island it had not been her favourite food. It was easy to grow so cabbage was always available at the markets. When Maria became uncomfortable with the baby and she could not easily make her way to the market, she sourced her cabbage from the local market gardens around her home.

  Tuesday 5 June 1811 was the day of the birth, the arrival somewhat earlier than expected. The midwife banished William from his home and in due course they had a son. In accordance with the protocols of the times, the little boy was named William after his dad and grandfather.

  William junior’s birth caused William to reflect on his family back in Nuneaton. He wondered how his mother was, whether she was well. He sort of understood now how she must have felt at his sentencing – losing her firstborn son to a place where she would never go. He thought she would be pleased if she could see his life: a wife, a house, a trade occupation and now a son.

  His brothers and sisters, he presumed, had learned from their older brother’s mistakes. As far as William was aware, none of them had so far followed him to New South Wales. They were well behaved or keeping out of reach of the law.

  He had sent a letter to his parents on first reaching the colony and not heard anything back. They would have needed someone to read the letter for them. They had enough on their plate, and so did he. He didn’t trouble them again but in the excitement of the birth, he was inspired to tell them about their grandson.

  He again visited the clerk who had drafted the petition and asked him to write a letter to his family. William dictated the contents.

  Dear Mother and Father,

  I have not written to you for a long while. Since I last wrote a lot of things have changed.

  Last year I married a girl by the name of Maria who hails from Hobart in Van Diemen’s Land and we just had our first child. We named him William. My wife and baby are well as am I.

  I have a house, which I own with views over the harbour called Port Jackson. I am busily employed and using my skills as a shipwright to make ends meet.

  I am nearing the end of many of the restrictions around my life sentence and have applied to the Governor for a conditional pardon. I expect to hear shortly. However there is no set term so it will be when the Governor pleases. A pardon will mean that I have no further obligation towards the Colony and I will be a free man able to move around the Colony. I will not be permitted to return to England due to my original life sentence.

  I hope you are all well and my brothers and sisters so.

  Your loving son, William

  William did not expect a reply in the near term, if any. The turnaround from sending the letter to receiving a reply would take the best part of a year.

  With a breastfeeding wife, William wanted better food for the family. This necessitated a daily trek to the markets. Having been in the colony as long as he had, he knew who to avoid, the dodgy operators, the vendor’s selling yesterday’s food at today’s prices. Good and bad news spread rapidly in The Rocks.

  William was still waiting for the Governor to sign his pardon but on the wharves things were going well for him. The colony had stabilised under Governor Macquarie. Robert Campbell, who had been seen as too close to the former Governor Bligh by the usurpers, had re-established his mercantile operations. This continued the flow of work into William’s very capable hands.

  William junior was fast turning into a toddler. Maria still felt lonely. She had not adjusted to life without her former Norfolk Islanders.

  The original hut William had built shortly after he arrived now needed constant repair. It leaked during the heavy rainstorms, with water sometimes entering under the floorboards he had installed. The wattle and daub had deteriorated. It was time to rebuild. His home needed to be improved to provide a better environment for his family.

  William decided he would build a more su
bstantial home using timber: a one-storey house of five rooms. He decided he would build the new house around the existing structure, eventually enclosing it. This would enable him to move his family into rooms of the new construction on a gradual basis and knock down the old building from within. Maria was in favour of the plan.

  The foundations of the house were constructed from local sandstone. There was plenty of it around William’s existing home. It was just a matter of breaking the rock free from the sandstone shelves then cutting and shaping it into oblong blocks of a consistent height and thickness. Fortunately one of William’s mates was a mason and he was happy to help out for a couple of beers. The people who lived at The Rocks were just like the Norfolk Islanders. Most of the population was ex-convict. The past was the past. Many had taken to drink and were forever discussing the crime they had been convicted for in the ‘old country’ and what had happened to them since, but for William and his companions time was for moving on. If they could help each other out they would. They were mates.

  William excavated the sandstone in manageable blocks. His friend shaped them and laid them with cement in the position William desired. They laid two courses of sandstone blocks over the relatively flat land, raising the floor level about two feet above the rocky sandstone shelf.

  William erected the timber framework. The house gradually took form. With the longer days of summer he had ample time to work on the house after finishing his day down at the wharves. He was anxious to get the building watertight before winter. Through asking around, he rustled up a supply of roofing iron that had recently been sent to the colony. He had never worked with iron before so there was a lot of trial and error before he found the best way to lay it.

  One autumn day, William deemed it time to remove his original home and move Maria and William junior into their new surroundings. Apart from the wood, which he set aside for burning in the fireplace, he left the old materials out the front of the new home. Someone would take them away to make use of them. That was the way it was for the less fortunate and the new arrivals.