MARY ANN SMITH
Daughter of John and Elizabeth Smith
Born: 1818
Married: John Sutton DELAMERE in the U.K. He was born about 1811 and died in Toodyay, W.A. 11.4.1887 as John Sutton Delmore (244/87). (The IGI has a record of a "George Sutton Delamere" marrying in Liverpool in the 1860's.)
CHILDREN
Elizabeth
Jeremiah
Isaac
Marianne
The only connection found to link ANY child named Mary to our Smith family is a note in the Dictionary of Western Australian Biography. There are no references to link Mary with the Smiths in any funeral notices, newspaper articles or official records. It could be that she had been disowned by her family or simply had no contact with them. OR it could be that she has no connection at all with the family. Further research may one day shed more light on this matter. What follows assumes that Mary was the daughter of Color Serjeant John Smith.
When her parents left England with the 21st. Fusiliers, Mary appears to have stayed behind. It is possible that she had gone into service and being about fifteen years old when the Regiment moved to Australia she decided to continue her own life. She married John Sutton Delamare, a sawyer, and had her first child, Elizabeth, around 1838.
Emigrating to Australia on the "Ganges" the family arrived in Fremantle on 15.10.1841. Rica Erickson, in "Old Toodyay and Newcastle" writes of the arrival of the "Ganges":-
.......John Schoales had recruited 110 emigrant labourers in Great Britain and chartered the ship "Ganges" to sail from Liverpool in June 1841. When they arrived at Fremantle in October, the reception of these emigrants was badly organised. Arrangements were thrown into confusion because many settlers who had engaged to take workmen were unable to fulfil their contract, on account of the changed economic conditions.
Among those who came to the Toodyay-Northam district were the Minson family, John Delamore, Pat Norris, who was engaged as a shepherd by Scully, and Ewen Mackintosh, a cousin to the Macpherson brothers, and who became a shepherd for the Drummonds.
The emigrants signed I.O.U.s for approximately £18 each, the cost of their passage out, in favour of John Schoales. Payment was to be made at the end of their first year's employment. A great many failed to honour their debt.
Mary died in childbirth in December of 1848 and presumably the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, aged about ten, took over the running of the household. Mary's history now appears totally lost as there seems to be no record of her life other than the dry facts of location and childbirth. However her family continued to live on.
A census of the Toodyay district was taken on 31.11.1849 and J. Delmere appears as the head of a household with no stock or land under cultivation.
The chief recreation in the district appears to have been alcohol consumption and this was compounded by the fact that the two inns had no accommodation for wayfarers. Rica Erickson wrote:-
.......There were frequent disturbances, which were especially disgraceful on the Sabbath.
At the licensing Court held on 30th December 1850, Harris [Resident Magistrate] refused to grant licenses to the townsite inns because of their 'lack of accommodation suitable for travellers in the shape of one bedroom in each house'.
On the next day, New Years Eve, men were gathered in greater numbers than usual at the townsite, to celebrate the closing of the old year. It was a time when many finalised business and arranged for hire of labour for the new year. They were dismayed to learn of the delicensing. After an impromptu meeting of protest, Michael Clarkson was persuaded to draw up a memorial which concluded with these words, "we beg leave totally to differ with our Resident, being perfectly satisfied with the accommodation that these houses afford. "Over fifty signatures were quickly secured.
The third signature was that of John Delamore!
The year of 1852 seems to have been a busy one for John Delamere as his expertise as the local carpenter was in demand when the construction of the new lock-up ran into difficulties. He had also taken up a small allotment and caused problems with fencing. Rica Erickson writes:-
The small farmer kept a few head of cattle and possibly a few sheep but these were grazed in the open bush and frequently trespassed on a neighbouring pastoralist's grant.
Some of these farmlets were located across a track and when boundary fenced they created a nuisance for the travelling public by closing small sections of the road. This was no inconvenience in summer, while the ground was hard and dry. But most fencing was done in winter, while the ground was soft and the new sections of road around the farms were treacherously boggy. Although possibly only a few chains long they could close miles of otherwise negotiable track.
The first trouble with fencing arose in 1852, on the old road from Toodyay over Mt. Anderson to "Nardie". It crossed a field of twenty acres adjacent to the Avon, which James Drummond Jr. sold to J. Delamore, on condition that the road remained open. Nevertheless Delamore fenced all round and closed the road.
Surveyor Austin who was working at Toodyay at the time, surveyed a road around Delamore's land, but it involved two crossings of the river without fordings or approaches. When the settlers protested, Delamore bargained with Harris, offering to leave the road open if he were granted a wayside inn license for a two story house which he proposed building. He was unsuccessful.
The family seems to have moved to Salt Valley Farm in the 1880's and then to John's Well. Later in the 1880's John Delmore may have been was admitted to the Mt. Eliza Invalid Depot (although that is more likely to have been his son, Jeramiah.) and he died on 11.4.1887. He was buried in the Toodyay Cemetery.
PREFACE
1st GENERATION
2nd GENERATION
3rd GENERATION
4th GENERATION
Died: ??.12.1848 in childbirth at Newcastle, W.A. (Toodyay 360/48).
Born: 1838? in the U.K.
Born: 1845, Newcastle, WA (635/45).
Born: 1847, Newcastle, WA (937/47).
Born: 1848, Newcastle, WA (1249/48).
