Our story starts…
Samuel Bennett is born in Camborne, Cornwall in 1815.
Camborne is located in Cornwall in the south west corner of England, about 14 miles (22 km) to the west of Truro. In the middle of the 18th century, Camborne was a small mediaeval church town with a population of about 2,500 for the whole parish, by 1841 this had risen to over 10,000 on the back of the expansion of tin and copper mining and it became one of the chief industrial towns of Cornwall and the West of England. Like the rest of Cornwall’s mining towns, it rode the financial roller-coaster of the copper and tin mining industries.
Samuel’s parents were Christopher Bennetts and Anne (nee Carthew).
Samuel had served an apprenticeship as a printer. While trained in both branches of the printing trade, on completing their apprenticeship the journeyman printer tended to specialise as either pressman or compositor and Samuel appears to have been a compositor. Compositors were the elite of the profession, they required a high level of literacy and the skill to lay out type to present a pleasing final product. It was in this capacity that he was recruited for a job in Sydney, on the other side of the world in the remote colony of New South Wales, just 50 years young.
Introducing Eliza
Samuel’s wife Eliza (nee Sellars” was from Bristol, born in 1816, the daughter of Samuel Sellars, a Bristol cordwainer (shoemaker) and his wife Elizabeth (nee Gillet or Galliot) a nurse or midwife, and we know from the records of their arrival in Australia that Eliza was a milliner.
Now fast forward to 1840, when, in August of that year Samuel and Eliza were 
married. After Samuel had finished his 7 year apprenticeship as a printer, he had apparently gone to Bristol to further his career and was working in Bristol as a printer. Both came from non-conformist families and it is likely that they met through their church.
Photo by NotFromUtrecht
Downloaded from Wikipedia
The wedding took place at St Peter’s Church in Bristol. Unfortunately, the church was bombed during the blitz of 1940. However, archival photos show that it was an impressive building.
They were both in their mid-twenties. We don’t know how long they knew each other before they married, but it is likely that their decision to marry when they did was prompted by plans they had made to emigrate to Australia, because just over two weeks after they were married, they boarded the barque Alfred, bound for Sydney.
Why did Samuel and Eliza decide to voyage to Australia?
The economic situation in England was depressed at the time. A letter from London to the Sydney Herald in January 1840 reports that the printing trade in particular was in “a most dreadful state” with many “deserving and starving” compositors available for emigration. In London, of the 2,500 compositors available, 1000 were out of work and some of those working were earning as little as 10 shillings a week.
In Australia there were shortages in most trades and both wages and the standard of living were high relative to England. Wages for printers and compositors were particularly good; pressmen and compositors were earning 8 shillings a day, with 1 shilling an hour overtime and printers in some firms were taking advantage of the shortages and agitating for even higher wages. To ease the shortage printing firms and newspaper proprietors advertised overseas, particularly in the UK and in India and the Immigration agents in the UK advertised extensively to attract migrants.
No doubt all this played a major part in the couple’s decision to emigrate. Five other printers voyaged to Australia on the Alfred with Samuel and Eliza.
The Voyage
We don’t know whether Samuel and Eliza boarded the ship in Plymouth, which would have meant a short boat journey to the departure point, or whether they travelled to London to take a last opportunity to see the capital. The ship left London on Ist September 1840 and finally sailed from Plymouth on 7th.
It’s hard to imagine exactly what the voyage was like for a newly married couple, but they were lucky in the Alfred, which was a fast sailer and had already made the voyage to Australia 3 times, bringing immigrants and goods for the Sydney merchants on her outward voyage, and carrying wool on the return voyage. Since 1837, depending on the length of the voyage, she had arrived in Sydney in December or January and regularly departed with her cargo of wool the following March. When the winds were fair, she took about 3 months for the outward voyage. Even 30 years later, in the days of the clipper ships 100 days was still a fast passage.
But, a sailing ship was always at the mercy of the winds, and on the previous voyage, she had sat off the Sydney heads for 2 weeks waiting for favourable winds to enter the harbour. On the 1840-41 voyage, the delay was on the first leg and the Alfred was forced to make an unscheduled stop at the Cape of Good Hope for supplies, adding nearly a month to the voyage. She left the Cape on the first of December and finally entered Sydney Harbour on 19 January 1841, in all, a voyage of 134 days. While the stop-over at the Cape significantly extended the voyage, if passengers were permitted to leave the ship it must have been a delight for them to break their voyage, with the opportunity to stand on dry land and to see at least the tip of the Dark Continent.
They were also lucky in having as the ship’s surgeon Dr Robert Cartwright, the son of an Anglican clergyman who had been recruited by Samuel Marsden for the ministry in Australia, arriving in 1810. Born in Windsor in 1815, Robert had gone to England for his medical training and was working his passage to return to his native land with his new wife. He appears to have had a very successful voyage and a lucrative one; his salary was paid by the Colonial Government and to encourage ‘the health, comfort and improvement of emigrants’ was supplemented with a gratuity of 10s. 6d. for each emigrant landed. There was little sickness and only 4 deaths on the voyage, all relating to abdominal diseases; and 2 births. The vessel was classed as “Sanatory” on arrival and quarantine was not required. In his report, he outlined the health regimen as being –
The apartments daily cleaned out – Free ventilation as often as possible and Chloride of Lime fumigation”. No school was established on board “for want of Books”, but the Bible was read daily as a substitute. “To prevent idleness and preserve contentment” music and dancing were encouraged and the male passengers occasionally assisted the crew.
They were not so lucky with their Captain. The ship’s owner, John Flint, was Captain on the previous voyages to Australia and was very popular with the passengers, but on this occasion he was on another of his ships and, Captain Curtis Eastmure was appointed as Master. He was an experienced mariner, having been a Master with the Honourable East India Company and, following the loss of the Company’s monopoly on shipping to India in 1831 had purchased his own ship, the Patriot 195 tons, which he operated on the Australian run; he was not so good in dealing with people. The
Patriot was a much smaller ship, less than a third the size of the Alfred, carrying mainly cargo, and he had not had to deal with a large number of passengers and their children. He upset the Surgeon, who reported receiving “very uncourteous treatment” from him, and a number of passengers complained about him using “improper language” in front of the female passengers and referring to them as “whores and thieves”. There were also, as could be expected, some complaints about the food. In general though, it appears to have been a safe passage without serious incident.
Arrival in Sydney
So, on the 19 January 1841 Samuel and Eliza arrived in Port Jackson. It had been raining for the preceding days, but Tuesday was fine and thankfully there was a sou-easter blowing and, unlike the voyage of the previous year, there were no problems reported sailing straight through the Heads and up Sydney Harbour. We assume that after their long voyage, all on board were on deck. Apart from the imposing sandstone cliffs of the Heads, the headlands and bays of the harbour and the unfamiliar vegetation, they may have witnessed Aboriginals fishing in canoes as they made their way down the harbour.
What would have been Samuel’s and Eliza’s thoughts sailing down the harbour past Sydney Cove to their berth at Walker’s Wharf on Millers Point, roughly on the site of today’s Pier 1? There were over 100 ships in the Harbour at the time, one of which was HMS Beagle, on her 3rd voyage, and the hustle and bustle in the harbour may have surprised them.
The Colonial Government appointed “Immigration Agent“ met ships carrying Bounty Immigrants on arrival and conducted a “muster” on board ship before employers were allowed access to the passengers. In this case, the muster took place the day after the Alfred arrived, and “to allow the Immigration Board to muster the without interruption” employers were not allowed to board the Alfred until 2pm on the 20th.
Follow this link for the Muster of the Alfred for the 1841 voyage
After arrival Bounty ships were required to provide accommodation on board for up to 10 days, during which time employers could select immigrants for employment. If, as it is commonly accepted, Samuel had a prior arrangement with the Sydney Herald, it is likely that they were met by a representative of the paper, as employers were required to confirm employment arrangements and wages with the Immigration Agent before the newly arrived immigrants left the ship; but this was a busy time for the paper, with a change in ownership under way; the last edition with Stokes as sole proprietor was printed on Saturday 6 Feb 1841 and the first by Kemp & Fairfax on Monday 8 February, so we have no idea who might have been in the reception party.
It is also likely that the paper had arranged lodgings. Sydney at this stage was still a pedestrian city; there was no public transport and you needed to live close enough to be able to walk to work. The Herald at this time was printed in George St, North, between what is now Grosvenor St and Essex St. so we assume their accommodation would have been close by. We know that Samuel and Eliza later lived for a time in Phillip Street and also in Domain Terrace, a street at the eastern end of Hunter Street overlooking the Domain where the State Library now stands, but where they might have spent their first weeks in their new land we just don’t know.
Related snippets
Christopher’s family had been in Camborne since at least the early 16th century and Christopher had inherited a small tenement of 17 acres at Camborne Vean where the family resided. He was a blacksmith by trade, probably working at, either the nearby Camborne Vean mine (or a neighbouring mine), or perhaps for one of the foundries or engineering works making steam engines, boilers and mining machinery. This was “the age of steam”.
Christopher apparently sub-leased the tenement and the other houses on the land, but holding the tenement was sufficient for Samuel on arrival in Australia to list Christopher’s “rank or profession” as “farmer” and on his Marriage Certificate as “Yeoman”. Styling his father as a yeoman or farmer, may have been an attempt by Samuel to elevate his father’s social status above that of tradesman. Strictly applying only to those farmers holding freehold title to their land, a looser application of the term “yeoman farmer“ came to include all those who held land as tenants.
Christopher was also a Wesleyan lay preacher, who travelled the countryside on the Sabbath to preach. Christopher and Anne had 9 children and the earlier children were all baptised in the Camborne Parish Church but later, when the opportunity was available for the younger children, they had them baptised by visiting Ministers on the Camborne Wesleyan Circuit.
The Bounty Scheme was introduced in Australia in the 1830s to boost the population for the colonisation of Australia. The voyage to the New South Wales colony was not cheap, especially to those in England already impoverished, costing between £20-30. Two schemes were in operation, a Government scheme funded by the sale of land in the colony and a private scheme whereby employers in Australia, looking for employees, were permitted to recruit labour, usually via an agent. The employer would pay for the voyage, and then seek reimbursement from the government once the bounty immigrant arrived. The records indicate that the passage for our newly-wed couple cost £19 each. Samuel was recruited under the private scheme to work for Messrs Kemp & Fairfax (proprietors of the Sydney Herald).
A 716 ton wooden vessel, built in Chittagong and launched in 1818, the Alfred was originally ship rigged. When purchased by Captain John Flint in 1828 she was converted to barque rigging to improve her manoeuvrability and reduce the number of crew necessary to sail her. She initially continued to trade around India and between India and the UK, but in 1837 she switched to the Australian run to take advantage of the steady and lucrative trade which had developed under the Bounty Scheme.
The Alfred boasted a number of cabins for its first class and intermediate passengers, averaging 9 feet by 8 feet, each with a “water closet” (i.e. toilet), and with a wine locker in the main gangway. There was also less salubrious accommodation for nearly 300 steerage passengers and on the Australian run these were almost exclusively Bounty Immigrants, recruited by a UK Government appointed agent to fulfil skills shortages in Australia. On Samuel’s and Eliza’s voyage there were 28 cabin and intermediate passengers aboard plus 263 bounty immigrants, and it was in this latter group that Samuel and Eliza fell. It is interesting to note that 1841 saw the largest inflow of immigrants prior to the gold rushes, with just over 20,000 arrivals, prompted by the economic situation in the UK and the cessation of convict transportation.
Unfortunately we have not been able to access a diary or other detailed record of the voyage. The University of New England and Regional Archives, Heritage Centre holds some extracts from the shipboard diary of Rawdon McDouall, who made the voyage and perhaps this will provide a more detailed picture. But, the First Officer on this voyage, William Brett, had been First Officer, under Captain Flint, on the earlier voyages and it is likely that the pattern established under Captain Flint was maintained on this voyage, so reports from the previous voyages probably paint a reasonably accurate picture of the 1840-41 voyage.
Below is an account of the voyage to Australia on the Alfred in 1838
Strict rules were observed on board; each person had to be out of bed at 7 am and all the beds rolled and taken on deck for airing. Breakfast was at 8 and cleaning commenced shortly after. Four men were appointed cleaners for each apartment and for efficiently carrying out their work they could earn £3 to be paid on arrival at Sydney.
Dinner was at 1 o’clock and tea, coffee or Cocoa at 6. Each week the surgeon would select two men, either husbands or fathers, to see the provisions weighed, and there were daily schools for children and adults. Spirits were forbidden and smoking on board only allowed on the upper deck at the direction of the surgeon. Passengers were required to attend service on Sunday morning at 10 and the morals of the company were looked after by two men and two women elected from among the passengers and approved by the surgeon; it was laid down that opposite sexes were not to visit each others sleeping apartments unless allowed to do so by the surgeon (who seems to have had more power than the captain!). The penalty for contravening these very sensible regulations on a long voyage was to have one’s wine stopped for the rest of the journey.
A report submitted by the Immigration Agent on arrival of the Alfred in 1838 stated:
The ship arrived in a very healthy state and her passengers appeared a very respectable class of people. She was admirably ventilated, her provisions and water were unexceptionable [ie entirely satisfactory] and the passengers perfectly satisfied with their treatment and indeed every exertion appears to have been adopted by the Master, Surgeon and Officers of the ship to secure a favourable termination of the voyage. It also appears from the statement of the Surgeon that Divine Service was performed every Sunday by himself or the Captain and in fine weather the attendance was numerous. The small number of Roman Catholics on board performed their devotions separately. The ship was kept healthy by constantly cleaning the steerage and by fumigation. No school was attempted to be performed on board.
On Wednesday 20 January, the Sydney Herald reported on the arrival as follows:
The Alfred arrived yesterday, with 263 emigrants, and several very respectable passengers, all of whom have arrived in good health, and from her general cleanly appearance the ship reflects great credit on Captain Eastmure. The cause of her making so long a passage was the necessity of putting in at the Cape for fresh provisions, otherwise, there is little doubt but that she would have been here by Christmas, as she always made the passage under one hundred days. She spake no vessels during the voyage. …….
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London -PAD8969
Following an Order in Council in England, transportation of convicts to Sydney had ceased in August 1840, but the last ship bringing convicts to Sydney, the Eden which had left on 11 July just before the Order took effect, had arrived only 2 months before the Alfred. New South Wales was still very much a convict colony and on their arrival, Samuel and Eliza would have seen evidence of this.
The sight of the First Australians would also have been a new experience. They had adapted to the presence of the invaders and from camps close to the city and along the foreshores, visited the town to offer their labour and to sell fish and handmade artefacts, which they advertised with demonstrations of spear and boomerang throwing.