WALMER CASTLE Walmer Castle departed
from Plymouth on 12 September 1848 and arrived
at Sydney on 30 December 1848, under the command of Joseph Thorne, Master,
and with Dr John Neill Waugh as Surgeon-Superintendent. Dr Waugh was born in
London in 1818, graduated with a M.R.C.S. from St Andrews, London in 1840
and later became a well-respected homeopathic physician in Brisbane.
The
Walmer Castle was a ship of London, 656 tons burthen, and sailed from
the English port of Plymouth carrying a crew of 50, 10 passengers in Cabin
accommodation and 301 “Government Emigrants” in Steerage. These included 57
married couples, 53 single men, 43 single men, 49 boys and 28 girls from
1-14 years of age, 11 male and 3 female infants. Three female infants died
as a consequence of non-contagious infant diseases and one crewman, a John
Simpson, died on 15 September 1848. A Cabin passenger on this vessel (Sir
Arthur Hodgson) wrote
a journal on the return voyage of the Walmer Castle to London on 18 March
1848. Hodgson emigrated to Australia in 1840, married a daughter of the
Chief Justice of New South Wales and became a very influential and early
settler on land at what was then Moreton Bay (refer National Library of
Australia, Call Number mfm M675).
Emigrant passengers aboard the Walmer Castle included William
Rogers, aged 33, a lacemaker from Nottingham. He listed his parents as
William and Mary, also from Nottingham. Accompanying William was his new
wife, Harriett, nee Hazledine, aged 32, a dressmaker from Nottingham whom
William had married at Radford just two weeks prior to emigrating. She
showed her parents as John and Mary Hazledine. Both William and Harriett
could read and write. William's first wife, Mary Haslam, had died during
birth of her fifth child (who also died) in Calais. The Rogers children
aboard the Walmer Castle were William, 12, born at Sneinton in
Nottingham; George, aged 10, also born at Sneinton; Edmund, aged seven, born
Lille in France; and Eliza, aged five who was born at Calais.
Also on board was Edmund Rogers, 22, single, a tailor, a Nottingham
Baptist. The only other Nottingham resident listed was John Pepper, 24, a
butcher. These two single men married sisters from a family on the same
ship. John Pepper married Rachel Aldous in 1849 whereas Edmund Rogers
married Amelia Aldous the following year. Some believe that Edmund was a
younger brother of William, who was a witness at Edmund’s marriage in
Australia.
From Tulle, November 2003: The following letter was printed in
the Nottingham Review on 28 August 1851. It illustrates the
excitement felt about the discovery of gold and offers some insights into
Australia at that time. It reads:-
The letter from which the following is extracted, and which was written
by Mr William Rogers, who some time since emigrated with his family from the
neighbourhood to Australia, was received a few days since by the father of
his wife who resides at Old Radford:-
I have got something flourishing to tell you about our adopted country;
something new which has lately come to light; but I dare say you will have
heard a little about it before now.
I thought I would not send you word respecting it until I knew it was
correct, and now I can tell you that we have an immense gold field, which
extends for more than 150 miles; in fact the people that have left here and
other places to go to the mines will already amount to some thousands. The
weather, however, is rather against them at present, it being winter time
here now, and the abundance of rain that has fallen has almost washed the
diggers and their huts away, but not withstanding all that, there has been a
great quantity of gold found.
I will not venture to say they have all been successful who went, but a
great many of them have made fortunes, and some of them not more than a
fortnight from home. Dr Kerr has been the most fortunate man in the colony,
that is, respecting the gold affair. He had three or four black men employed
to dig and wash the dirt from the gold; they were fortunate and one of them
actually struck his pick into a lump of gold of the weight of 106 pounds. it
was sold for 4160 pounds sterling, and if it had been sent to England in the
lump, as it was found, I have no doubt it would have been worth 10,000
pounds. Such a piece never was found in the world before.
He is certainly the only one who has found such a great lump, but there
are a great many who have found lumps varying from one lbs to ten lbs and a
great quantity of (gold) dust has been found also.
The distance to the mines from Sydney is about 180 miles, over a very
mountainous country. A great many who went up to the mines with drays and
pack horses have been obliged to abandon their whole concern. I have not had
a touch at the mines yet, but think I shall do so a few days from this, as I
shall not feel contented until I have had a try at it. “Nothing ventured,
nothing have.”
There are certainly many privations to put up with in going to the
mines, but not quite so bad as California; we have no water to cross, and,
another thing, no different country to go to.
But our government is very overbearing; they are charging gold diggers
30/- a month each man for a licence, which is most extortionate; but we do
not think it will last long, although they have sent for more soldiers to
come to the colony.
The people have been flocking in from all quarters to go to the gold
field, and I can assure you it has quite upset the country both in trade and
everything else; in fact nothing is talked about but the gold mines.
I expect we shall be having them come from Europe, in a few months, to
share in our riches, for they seem to say there is gold all over the colony,
and, if that be the case, I am afraid gold will become of little value.
Every one seems to be giving up his situation to go to the gold diggings,
and business is completely at a stand still in Sydney. Sydney is greatly
improved since came to the colony, in the buildings and almost everything
else.
We have had Dr Lang imprisoned for the last four months, for a libel on
one of the members of the Legislative Council.
We are just about having another great election, and I think it creates
as much sense as the elections at home. We have got the 10 pound franchise
here now which causes a bit of a stir among the electors.
We begin to like the colony rather better than we did on the first
onset, but there is a great deal in getting used to a place, and to the
people also.
At the first start of emigration, a great many people who had been here
some years had a great dislike to the ‘new chums’ as they called them on
their first arrival; but that difficulty is got over now, by the emigrants
getting too numerous for them.
I assure you we enjoy ourselves as well as we possibly can. We
often talk about you all, and about old Nottingham. We would like to be
there at times, but Nottingham is like all other places, it is very well
when you are doing well, and I think it is about the same with every other
place we go too.
William Rogers
William Rogers died in Dungog in 1857 aged 42, from "overflow of blood
in the brain”.
