An Early Arrival - John Myers

When I began my family history journey, over forty years ago, my main aim was to trace my family back to the first arrivals in Australia. Over the ensuing years, I have been able to do that with all lines of my family, but, unfortunately, not how they all arrived! I always hoped to find an ancestor who arrived in Port Phillip before the Colony of Victoria was proclaimed (1 Jul 1851). Finally, this year I found a 4th great uncle, John Myers, who arrived in 1841 and this is his story. He was the pioneer for the family, as several siblings and their families followed in the 1850's. The breakthrough came when I purchased his death certificate, that stated at his death, 7 March 1884, he was aged 64 and had been in Victoria 40 years. The details had been supplied by his brother, Thomas, my 3 x great grandfather. This gave me a time frame to look for his arrival and that it was in the early 1840's.

Duchess of Northumberland
Built 1834, 541 tons

I was able to find John arriving in the Colony of Port Phillip on 3 Jun 1841, as a bounty immigrant, aboard the Duchess of Northumberland , after a 107 day voyage from London via Plymouth. The Ship made history, as it carried the first mail and news from England to arrive direct to Port Phillip. Bounty Immigrants had their passage paid for them and a bounty was paid to the agent who had bought them out, but only after the immigrant had been interviewed by the Immigration Board on arrival, and deemed a suitable immigrant. A bounty, in John's case 19 pound, was paid to the agent, John Marshall. On the passenger list for the Duchess of Northumberland, John Myers(Mayers) was described as a 21 year old, Catholic, agricultural labourer from County Clare, who could both read and write. Of the 80 single males on board, 18 were from County Clare and only one of these was not a labourer, he was a carpenter. Four of the men were also accompanied by sisters. Although the steerage on the Duchess of Northumberland was described as lofty and roomy, with more than the 6 foot headroom required, it still lacked ventilation and became very stuffy on hot nights, with passengers often resorting to sleeping on deck. What tempted John to leave Clare and make this long perilous journey? 

Limerick Chronicle, 25 Jan 1840

Advertisements, like the one above from the Limerick Chronicle, 25 Jan 1840, appeared regularly in the newspapers and painted a glowing picture of Australia, at a time when the lower classes in County Clare were suffering. John was born about 1820. I have been unable to find a baptism, but, several siblings were baptised at St. Munchin's, Limerick City, a parish that straddled the Clare/Limerick border. He grew up in a time when land, food and employment were scarce for the landless labourers of Clare. In the fifty years prior to the Great Famine (1845-9), the population had doubled. The demand for Irish food had declined with the end of the Napoleonic War in 1815, so landlords began grazing cattle rather than growing crops, but continued to rent out land at the same high level the war had allowed. Landlords owned half the land in Clare, so with less cultivation, fewer labourers were needed, work became scarce and less demand for crops caused prices to fall and high rents couldn't be paid.  Potatoes, the staple food, were an unreliable crop, with partial failures in several years in the 1820's, that added to labourers' demise. This led to many violent uprisings against the landlords in the 1830's, the future looked bleak. Against this background is it any wonder that John thought he had a better future in Australia.

Melbourne c. 1840 from Surveyor-General's Yard by Robert Hoddle
State Library Victoria's Picture Collection

John arrived in Melbourne in 1841, only six years after it had been founded, the picture above gives an idea of what it was like then. I have found four mentions of a John Myers in early newspapers, but as another John Myers and family arrived in Melbourne in 1849, it is impossible to know who they refer to. However, they do give some insight into the colony at the time. A John Myers was fined on two occasions in 1849, firstly for cutting wood on crown land that wasn't included in his licence and the other for allowing five cattle to stray in the public thoroughfares of the city. The Sands & MacDougall Directory for 1860 lists a John Myers at 22 Little Lonsdale St West. There is a family story that a member of the family ran a hardware type business from a "tin shed" somewhere near where the Windsor Hotel is today. Could this have been it?

According to John's death certificate, he married in Melbourne to a Catherine Lahey(?) in 1857, but I have been unable to confirm this and there were no children. When he died in 1884, he left a will with his brother, Thomas, the sole beneficiary and executor. Thomas inherited 3 lots of land, the most substantial, 38 acres at Lakes Entrance, where John had resided until he came to Shepparton prior to his death. Perhaps the inheritance of this land at Lakes Entrance is the basis of another family story,  that Thomas wanted to move there, but his wife, Catherine considered it far to remote to do so and they remained in Shepparton. Despite John being quite specific about his land ownership at Lakes Entrance, Burn Brook and Wyndham and that the titles were with his solicitor in Melbourne, Thomas swore an affidavit for probate that only the title for the land at Lakes Entrance could be located, details of which were given in the Inventory for Probate and can be seen below. (Blocks 30A, 30D & 30E)

Department of Lands & Survey 1959, Parish of Colquhoun, County of Tambo
State Library Victoria

By coming to Port Phillip, John achieved land ownership, an impossibility for him in County Clare. He lived on a block of land at Lakes Entrance, perhaps drawn there by memories of home close to Limerick City, where the Shannon River meets the seawater of the Shannon Estuary. Finally a connection to a pioneer of Port Phillip.