List of Norfolk Islanders who sailed from Norfolk Island to VDL 1807-1813
The list of passengers who arrived on the seven
ships from Norfolk Island to VDL between 1807 and 1813 came to my attention
when I began researching for the story of James Jordan and his family. Finding these records in a deploring
condition I decided to transcribe them and place them in alphabetical order
under the names of each ship.[1]
Only the head of the family was named, the
wives and children were only recorded with a tick for the wives and the amount
of children. Some women were named as they had come on their own. This bothered
me as I knew there were many who were first, second and third fleeters amongst
the women and needed to be recorded. This was when I began recording the
profiles of those who came on the Lady Nelson and the Porpoise
with the help of my co-worker Thelma McKay.[2]
Because of the time these two ships took we knew we were never going to have
the time to research them all. Since then there has been a long list of books
written by the descendants of these forgotten people and their families.
Reg Wright in his book The Forgotten
Generation of Norfolk Island and Van Diemen’s Land, published in
1986, record a similar list from the NSW records[3]
The NSW list differs slightly from the VDL ones with a few extra names found on
the victualling list. The Forgotten
Generation opened up a wealth of previously not recorded material, allowing
researches and family historians to access their ancestors. This period had
until then been neglected by historians and writers alike. Why this was so is
difficult to know. It could have been because most of them were ex-convicts and
not perceived as being worthy of recording, if so they misses a wealth of
interesting history of these early pioneers.
Most of the Norfolk Islands who were to find
themselves once again being uprooted from their homes, had been on the island
for nearly 26 years. They had gained their freedom, tilled the soil, built
their houses, married and had families. A few military men had done the same.
At first they did not wish to go to this new place called Van Diemen’s Land,
all they knew about it was it was an island for convicts and that the virgin soil would have to be tilled, to
enable them to plant their crops.
Many of the men were past their prime and farm
labour was something they were not wish to have to do again at this time of
their life. Historians when they did refer to this group of people brushed them
off as being a drunken lot of lazy men who sold their land for a bottle of rum.
I have not found this to be true in my studies, a few of cause fell by the
wayside and disappeared from the scene, but most of those who settled both the
south and north of VDL were to become well respected in their new land.
I believe that their arrival could not have
come at a better time. The settlement at Hobart Town was in a sad state, food
and clothing were short and the first couple of years crops had failed.
The families that had arrived with Lt. Col.
Collins in 1804 continued to grow but at a very slow rate and free arrival had not yet began to arrive in
any number. Without the new blood from the Norfolk Islanders the small
settlement of Hobart Town would have taken many years to populate and make a
difference to the island population.
By the records is seems that the settlement was going backwards, births
and marriages were declining not increasing as the following will show.
Certainly deaths far outnumbered the births well up to 1811.
Tasmanian
Baptisms and Marriages on the Pioneer Index 1804 – 1815 (approx)
1804 Baptisms
4 Marriages
5 Burials 31
1805 Baptisms
3 Marriages 3 Burials 6
1806 Baptisms 4 Marriages 1 Burials 3
1807 Baptisms 2 Marriages
4 Burials 5
1808 Baptisms 1 Marriages 19 Burials
13
1809 Baptisms 4 Marriages
11 Burials 13
1810 Baptisms 5 Marriages 17 Burials 11
1811 Baptisms 6 Marriages 31 Burials 15
1812 Baptisms 12 Marriages 27
1813 Baptisms 12 Marriages 13
1814 Baptisms 142 Marriages 33
1815 Baptisms 149 Marriages 30
Not all of these can be credited to the Norfolk
Islanders but a large majority were from the Norfolk Islander’s intermarrying
as well as marrying those who had arrived with Lt. Col Collins in 1804, mingled
with a few from England and Sydney during those years between 1808 and 1815
Before 1807 when the Norfolk Islanders began to
arrive the birth and marriage rate was declining and I believe would have
continued to do so if it was not for their arrival.
Books that changed the outlook of the Norfolk
Islanders:
Reg Wright Forgotten
Generations 0f NI & VDL. 1986
Irene Schaffer Embarkations
of Norfolk Islanders to VDL. 1986
Schaffer & McKay Profiles of Norfolk Islanders to VDL, Lady Nelson. 1987
Raymond Nobbs NI
and Its First Settlement 1788-1814. 1988
Carol Baxter Musters
of NSW & NI 1804 - 1811. 1988
Mollie Gillen Founders
of Australia. 1989
Schaffer & McKay Profiles of Norfolk Islanders to VDL, Porpoise
I&II. 1991
Schaffer & McKay Exiled Three Times Over. 1992
Irene Schaffer Land
Musters and Stock Lists 1803-1822. 1992
Michael Flynn The
Second Fleet. 1993
© Irene Schaffer
|
ABLE |
William |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
ATKINS |
William |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
BABY |
Samuel |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
BAKER |
Samuel |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
BANE |
Ben |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
BARNES |
John |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
BARRY |
John |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
BASTIAN |
|
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
BATELY |
John |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BEDELL |
Joseph |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
BELBIN |
James |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BELLETT |
Jacob |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BENTLEY |
John |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
BERRISFORD |
John |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BERRISFORD |
Jos |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BERRISFORD |
Mary |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BLACKHALL |
William |
Lady
Nelson |
1813 |
|
BLONDELL |
John |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
BLOW |
James |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
BOSWELL |
James |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
BOYLE |
John |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
BRADSHAW |
Elizabeth |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
BRENAM |
Thomas |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
BRIGS |
Ben |
Lady Nelson |
1807 |
|
BROUGHTON |
William |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BROUGHTON |
John |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
BROWN |
George |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BROWNE |
Richard |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
BUCKALL |
Anthonio |
Lady Nelson |
1807 |
|
BURN |
Mary |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BURN |
Susan |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
BURROWS |
Richard |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BUZEAU |
Abraham |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
BYRON |
Henry |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CARTER |
Mark |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CARTER |
Samuel |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
CASSAWAYS |
|
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CHAFFEY |
Thomas |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CHAM |
James |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CHAMBERS |
Robert |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CHANDLER |
Anthony |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CHIPMAN |
Jos |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CHIPMAN |
Jos |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CLAPSON |
John |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CLARK |
Thomas |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
CLARK |
Charles |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CLARK |
William |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CLAYTON |
William |
Lady
Nelson |
1813 |
|
CLAYTON |
Sarah |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
CLAYTON |
Henry |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
COCKRAN |
Samuel |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
COLLINS |
William |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
COLLY |
John |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CONE |
Henry |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
CONN |
Ram John |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CONOLLY |
Mary |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
COOPER |
John |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
COOPER |
Robert |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
COVENTRY |
William |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
COX |
Francis |
City of
Edinburgh |
1808 |
|
COX |
Massey |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
COX |
John |
Lady
Nelson |
1813 |
|
COX |
Robert |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CRAHAN |
Thomas |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CRIPS |
John |
Lady Nelson |
1807 |
|
CROPPER |
John |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CROSS |
William |
Lady
Nelson |
1808 |
|
CROWER |
Thomas |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
CULLEN |
Bryan |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
DAVIE |
James |
Lady
Nelson |
1813 |
|
DAVIES |
John |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
DAVIS |
Deborah |
Estramina |
1808 |
|
DAVIS |
James |
Porpoise |
1808 |
|
DAWSON |
James |
Minstrel |
1813 |
|
DAY |
Samuel |
Lady
Nelson |
1813 |
|
DELANY |
John |
Minstrel |
1813 |